Posts in Travel
an ode to Mexico and my husband

I can’t stop dreaming of Mexico.

It comes in waves, this reminder of the first sweet escape with my husband. Especially on these short, cold days, all I want is to be back on the warm sand. In the moment I didn’t see how wonderful it was because of small obstructions in my line of vision. Our room was annoyingly hot. There was a strange incense smell wafting throughout the whole resort. We didn’t know how to vacation all-inclusively. I had set too many expectations. But as I think back on those days, the most prominent memories are of good things. And the not-so-good things? We laugh at them now. What a glorious thing that is.

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Wine Tasting and Glory Glimpsing

I want to sit at a table on a cool summer evening with people I love and people I barely know. I want to pass around plain white dishes, each brimming with something fresh, flavorful, and hearty. I want ice cold pitchers of lemony water to drip condensation as rings across the table cloth, and to pour countless cucumber-y Pimm's Cups for people, to sip and be merry. I want to tear crusty bread and dip it in fresh olive oil. For dessert it will be bowls of warm ricotta drizzled with honey, dotted with sweetened balsamic reduction, and decorated with plump blackberries. Thick, fruity red wine that hits the tip of your tongue like syrup. 

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Italia

Buongiorno! 

I realize it has been a while since we last met. You’ve heard my rantings of this crazy and hectic life, which I’m sure you just as well relate to at times… Thanks for sticking through.

However, this time, I’ve a different story to tell you. One week ago today, I arrived in Rome for the first time! These previous seven days have been the start of probably the grandest adventure in my life thus far: a semester spent in Italia. I am here, in a small town north of Rome, for the next four months. To experience culture. Learn Italian. Eat the most comforting food in the world. Peer into the depths art and antiquity. Take a step toward learning more about myself and about others. And countless other reasons I have yet to discover. 

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Philly Dreaming

My best friend Krysia and I have a dream.

It's a beautiful dream that has existed since our youngest years. Back in the day, we used to talk about how one day we would own a bed and breakfast, in which Krysia would run the front of the house, I would cook all the food, and our third friend would serve meals to guests on her roller-skates. Very sensible, really. 

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Traveling Eats

The past been month can be characterized by abnormality and franticness.

Finish the semester. Pack up and move out of house at school. Go straight to grandparents' house. Pack up and move that place. Immediately go home. Pack up that house. Get it on the market. Meanwhile, take trips up north to find a job in the city we're moving to. Back and forth. Up and down. Sore muscles. Allergies. Never enough sleep.

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