Last time I was in London, back in 2001, the one big tourist attraction I paid for was Westminster Abbey. This was on December 31, just after I’d met up with a friend of mine from study abroad: after the semester ended, we agreed to meet up at noon in front of Buckingham Palace onContinue reading “Evensong at Westminster Abbey”
Category Archives: Travel
Sunny side up in Moab, Utah
As it turns out, everyone goes to Moab for recreation, especially on the weekends. Especially on a long weekend. To be honest, after a week and a half of driving, climbing rocks in the Flatirons, staying out late with friends and family, and eating a lot of Whole Foods deli meat and $7 chocolate bars,Continue reading “Sunny side up in Moab, Utah”
Up the Arkansas river and down again
We’re at a dog sled camp two miles above sea level, in Leadville, Colorado, the highest city in the United States, not far from the headwaters of the Arkansas river. We passed over the river’s massive width in Little Rock, and stopped to snap a photo of its refurbished Riverfront Park where Collin used toContinue reading “Up the Arkansas river and down again”
Arkansas to Oklahoma
As a child, Collin spent his summers in Arkansas, on his grandparents’ 300 acres outside Little Rock. It’s surprisingly pleasant; nothing like I remember of my own childhood in neighboring Oklahoma. It’s hot and humid, but the breeze coming off the lake is delicious and there is shade everywhere. It’s green and the roads windContinue reading “Arkansas to Oklahoma”
Solo female travel as therapy
Sometimes, particularly when I’m hot and bone-weary and I’ve just done something like lose a passport, it occurs to me that I might have a slightly perverse desire to get the best of weird situations. Because when I travel, when I overcome the barriers of my own shortcomings and whatever happenstance is flung at meContinue reading “Solo female travel as therapy”
What to do when you lose a US passport in Singapore
The US Embassy website for Singapore is incomplete in that it doesn’t actually tell you everything you need to do in order to get out of the country legally. Also, the only information it provides about timeframe is that it will “take one to two weeks for passport renewal.” Note: that’s for regular passport renewal.Continue reading “What to do when you lose a US passport in Singapore”
Orange Grove road to Silat avenue
I walk down Orange Grove road, past the lush gardens of opulent hotels, which are much the same in every country in the world, to Orchard road, which is lined with high-end shops and high-end shoppers who teeter along on their unusually frilly designer heels and look impossibly sleek in the humidity. I am wearingContinue reading “Orange Grove road to Silat avenue”
Religious tour of Chinatown
My sightseeing here in Singapore has been somewhat curtailed by my efforts to get my passport paperwork in order, but I did make it down to Chinatown, which is both a huge free tourist destination and an interesting cultural commentary on Singapore. There is no majority religion in Singapore due to the diverse ethnic mixContinue reading “Religious tour of Chinatown”
Singapore, jet lag and a lost passport
I arrived at 1 a.m. local time in Singapore. Everyone lined up neatly, politely, for the taxis outside the airport, and I stuck my passport in my back pocket after having cleared customs. I was just telling my co-workers that I felt pretty good, considering, and then I think I stuck my passport in myContinue reading “Singapore, jet lag and a lost passport”
The Quaker and the homeschooler
In 2001, at the age of 20, I went to live in France for four months. I had taken one semester of French, and I opted to live with a French woman who spoke no English in the effort to force myself to become proficient. My program was part of the University Study Abroad Consortium,Continue reading “The Quaker and the homeschooler”
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