Mar 24
The Foreign Service lifestyle lends itself to eclectic acquisition. A couple of years in one country, several more in another – if one is really into original artwork, it’s easy to get carried away. We are not avid collectors by any measure, but we do try to acquire something meaningful everywhere we’ve lived – one or two pieces to subsequently stir our memories and help evoke all the good times we had in a foreign country that for a few years came to feel like home.
Mar 3
“Papa has a nice body. And mama – mama has a big belly,” Munchkin declared thoughtfully after waking up in our bed the first morning of our Namibia trip.
Given the planned festivities, D wasn’t sure he would get a chance to see much of the city. But with the guys spending countless hours at the clothier getting fitted for their suits, D didn’t feel bad striking out on his own to explore a bit of Bangkok.
“We need to buy more carrots at the Embassy,” Munchkin exclaimed after fishing the last of the thinly shredded orange vegetables out of S’s salad bowl, tilting his head back, and swallowing them with relish. Wrong venue, but how many two-and-a-half-year-olds have the word “embassy” in their vocabulary?
Jun 18
A couple of years ago, one of our photographs nearly wound up hanging in Chicago’s Field Museum. Another photograph was included in a Polish publication aimed at educating children about various indigenous dwellings around the world. This year, another artist reached out to us to ask for permission to use one of our photographs for a project that represents the coolest use of our work to date.
May 31
After a busy week together, our immersion group scattered to the four winds on Saturday. One colleague went to Normandy, another to Marseilles, and a third to Belgium. We also left Paris, taking a day trip with our host family to Giverny, before spending the rest of the weekend with our friends in the countryside.
Paris’s numerous charms notwithstanding, two weeks seemed like a long time to stay in one place. So when our instructor proposed an excursion, we jumped at her suggestion. She floated a weekend group trip to Normandy as a possibility, but we all had our own agendas for the one free weekend we’d have in France. Instead, we settled on an outing to Versailles.
May 21
According to a recent study, “traveling will help you lose weight, feel younger, and have more sex.” Now, the word ‘study’ here has to be taken with a large grain of salt — the survey in question was carried out by Expedia, which has a pretty direct interest in getting people to travel more. Given how much delicious food we ate in Paris, we’re not sure that the first claim stands up to scrutiny, but our recent trip did make us feel younger — not so much because we were traveling, but more so because we were traveling without our son.
May 13
In a city as busy and bustling as Paris — with its rich artistic and architectural heritage — it is easy to lose oneself in a mad dash between various cultural sites. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you might wind up missing some great contemporary art.
Vegas, baby! VEGAS!! The Holy Grail for gamblers and 90’s cult movie fans, and the final destination of our Southwest road trip. En route to Sin City, we stopped by the Valley of Fire, a small Nevada state park that packs a lot of punch. In fact, we had to strike a balance between seeing all of its highlights and reaching Vegas at a reasonable time.
