March 15, 2020

Coronavirus in Madrid: Updates and Advice

empty steet

Coronavirus has officially arrived in Madrid. As recently as last week, I watched news of the unfolding pandemic with shockingly limited perception. I listened when friends explained the long-lasting effects on the economy and the importance of social distancing. But the phenomenon still felt far away. I scheduled yoga classes. I visited museums, worried about my book edits and generally went on about my life. That’s crazy about everything happening in Italy, I would think when I browsed through Instagram. I agreed that the phenomenon certainly seemed serious. But, even as the streets in Madrid grew quieter, it seemed serious somewhere else. Somehow, the idea that the same measures would…

January 27, 2020

Aconcagua: Interesting Facts

To celebrate the New Year (and my second year on sabbatical, but who’s counting), I climbed Mount Aconcagua in Argentina last week. Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet/6,962 m, has several rather impressive statistics about it’s height: Facts about Aconcagua: Height It’s the tallest mountain in South America. This makes it an uncontested member of the seven summits club. (Not all mountains are so lucky as there is some controversy regarding the European and Oceaniac peaks ) It is the tallest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayan range. The current height was caused by the subduction of the Nazca Plate under the South American plate. This process started 8-10 million…

December 12, 2019

Malaga, Spain: Five Fabulous Things

view from Malaga Castle

The coastal city of Malaga, Spain provides a multitude of things to do all year long. Tourists flock to Malaga, the capital city of the Costa Del Sol, for sunshine, visits to the variety of light, airy palacios reformed as art museums and food, food, food. What’s not to love?! Read on for the best five things to do in Malaga, Spain. Things to do in Malaga Malaga is well-connected to the larger Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona by train. If you are traveling internationally, you can arrive at the Malaga-Costa Del Sol airport for easy transport into the city. You can easily appreciate the city sites in a…

November 17, 2019

The Thyssen Museum, Madrid: Five Fabulous Things

View of Madrid

The Thyssen Museum in Madrid provides one of three vertex points in the city’s ‘Golden Triangle of Art‘. This significant collection of art was acquired by Spain in 1992. The Thyssen family collection had previously been one of the largest private collections in the world. Baron Thyssen decided to house the museum in Madrid after finalizing his fifth marriage to Carmen Cervera, a former Miss Spain from Barcelona. (He also, by some accounts, decided to charge Spain $350 million dollars for the collection only after the government appropriated a building and paid to move the collection to Madrid, but that’s a story for a different day.) The current collection provides…

September 11, 2019

Tier 3 Activities: Test Yourself

get outside your comfort zone

A few weeks ago during a trip to Maine, I was sitting outside a backcountry hut in Baxter State Park, talking to some hikers. I was there to attempt to climb Mt. Katahdin (spoiler alert-I made it. See photo.) and we were comparing route tips and other adventure stories. Somehow we got on the topic of fly boarding, one of my very favorite outdoor adventure activities. (For those of you that are not familiar, fly boarding consists of hooking a platform with a water spout on its underside up to a jet ski, then using the spout to push the platform up into the air above the water so you…

August 1, 2019

St. John, USVI: Five Fabulous Things

Looking over USVI National Park

Something that I don’t talk about a lot on here: As my New York friends like to put it, ‘I’m sort of outdoorsy’. (see related post here) I like to go on long hikes, solo camping adventures and I’ve spent more than one day of my life in a 16-foot rubber raft, wedged next to a bucket of poop, floating around in some ridiculously beautiful places. One of my “outdoorsy” pursuits in life is to visit all the national parks in the US system. After the inauguration of Indiana Dunes National Park this summer , there are 59. In July, I visited my 45th. This meant two things: 1 I’m…

July 16, 2019

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Five Fabulous Things

busy city street

One of the perks of teaching at an international school is that you make friends that go teach at other international schools and you get to go visit them. This is how my boyfriend and I found ourselves in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for the end of June and beginning of July. So without further ado, here are five fabulous things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (aka Saigon) 1 Food (and coffee!!) Since Vietnamese food is a whole thing right now, I figured we should just start here. The food in Ho Chi Minh is amazing. The things you have to try are Vietnamese coffee (it…

May 20, 2019

Madagascar: Smile and Wave

smiling children gathering taken during daytime

I just returned from a two-week trip to Madagascar with my mother. It’s hard to quantify the important lessons I learned. I think on a very successful trip, you learn in two ways. First, there are facts about the country or area you’re visiting. Then, there are also feelings or cultural norms you understand better as a result of your journey. Madagascar: Facts I learned 1,213 interesting facts about lemurs, chameleons and the splitting apart of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. We drove for 743 hours on roads that could also qualify as Class Five hiking trails (well, it felt like 743 hours, see note above about the difficulties of quantification)….

April 25, 2019

Asturias, Spain: Five Fabulous Things

coast at sunset

There is one certainty to keep in mind above all else while planning a vacation to Asturias, Spain: You can’t control the weather. That’s not to say I didn’t try. But as my boyfriend and I planned our Easter vacation to this a small region of northern Spain that clings to the Atlantic Coast, I realized that it rains 150+ days a year. Instead of stressing about the weather, we planned a blend of activities that allowed for some indoor days. It was probably healthy for me to give an obsessive-compulsive side a break, anyway. Below are five fabulous things to do in Asturias, Spain: 1 Hiking One of the…

March 17, 2019

Horizon Lines

A yoga instructor said something interesting about horizon lines when I was in Puerto Rico. To defend the importance of outdoor yoga (as if we needed convincing), she said the reason the beach is relaxing for people is because our brains calm down when we are able to see a horizon line. It doesn’t have to be the beach, but it has to be somewhere that we can see the land meet the sky. (see confirming post from unverified but reputable-looking source here). Now that I’m traveling in Nebraska (long story for another time) where horizon lines also abound, the sentiment has been on my mind. Fact: we are often…