At the end of my street there is a corner that is unoccupied by any street vendors. We call it the “pee wall”. Gross? Yes. It is the local urinal. I realise that foul odours are not unique to this city – they are a big part of any city. But I feel like I
I’m thankful for friends who plan trips and then invite me along. With the school year winding down I gave little thought to what I might do over our last long weekend before school lets out for the summer. This particular long weekend was to mark the end of the month of fasting, Ramadan. On
I think I always know when I feel settled in a place when I start venturing out of my familiar neighborhoods. One of the perks of working at an American institution in a North African country is that you get to celebrate all the holidays. We had two days off for American Thanksgiving…. and then the
It’s Autumn break for me. Strangely enough, this break falls exactly 2 weeks prior to Winter Break. I decided to head to Cappadocia. One of the things that excites me about Turkey is the variety of domestic travel opportunities. I had read and watched videos about Cappadocia in the past. It is a region in
It’s that time of month again; the time of month when all the bills are due. This means that all the relevant offices need to be located ….because for now my bills must be paid in person and in cash (a story for another day). This Saturday I determined to be Internet Bill Day and
So this happened 2 weeks ago. I was taking a taxi to meet a friend for a late breakfast. The driver was going much too fast. I’m wondering what his problem could possibly be to explain why he was driving so fast. Although I find the people of Istanbul to be fairly friendly, I
Our lives are punctuated by storms. The sudden and the difficult. The merely inconvenient and the Maria’s. And while I do think we learn a great deal about ourselves while the storm rages, there’s actually something to be said for how we behave when the tempest approaches.
I’d been in Casablanca for about a week when I was informed that my shipment had arrived at the airport and I was to go and retrieve it. My school kindly supplied a driver and a car for me for the day and off I went. My companion for the day, lets call him Mr.
Cause you crazy. Cause you don’t love your momma. Cause you don’t love nobody.
There are stages of adjustment that one encounters when moving abroad. The first stage following the move is called the honeymoon phase. It’s when everything is new and lovely. And don’t get me wrong; I’ve been honeymooning with Istanbul. Here are some of the sights that have made me swoon: The city really does have
We don’t have to love the nature of all things, but we must know that all things have a nature. Selah.
And Ya’ll. That really got me to thinking about how we make all of these excuses not to listen to other people, even the people we say we love. I started considering all the misunderstandings we have with those around us who speak the same language. And I started wondering, are we truly listening? Are we trying to hear?
