Author Archives: Theresa
My Own Special Hell: Movies on Buses
The day slipped away from the Valley of the Kings, the last rays of sun passing over the tombs of ancient kings. We rushed down the street to the two restaurants that fought for our business, trying to out wager each other with offers of free fruit juice, appetizers, desserts. We picked the one with the better kebabs, tender and juicy. Earlier in the day we had taken a feluca ride on the Nile; then spent the hottest hours of …
Language as Hope: Teaching English to Refugees
They straggle into the classroom, some early, some right on time, some a few minutes late. I don’t hold it against them. This is not the willful laziness of college. My students haven’t opted to sleep late or chosen to stand outside the door talking with a friend. If they are late it is because of their work or because one of the three buses they take to make it to the school was delayed. I offer bright smiles as …
11 responses to “Language as Hope: Teaching English to Refugees”
Traveling Africa: Private Car vs. Public Transportation
When we talk about our next trip—not the upcoming birthday trip to Hawaii or the beach vacation with my family, but our next big trip—we talk about Africa. We talk about Ethiopa, about the Masai Mara, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, about Rwanda, and about Zambia beyond Victoria Falls. We talk about exploring the parts of East Africa that we were unable to squeeze into our three months in Africa. And we imagine ourselves doing it in a 4WD, the …
4 responses to “Traveling Africa: Private Car vs. Public Transportation”
Photo Friday: Cusco, Peru
As I was surfing through the archives, reminiscing, I came to December 2008/January 2009 and did a double take. No Cusco pictures? None? Zero? Zip? How could that be? Cusco was beautiful. It was interesting. It was definitely photogenic. I looked again. And then I remembered. Oh yeah, Ispent the first part of our time in Cusco with my head over the toilet, held hostage by a stomach virus. And then there was the fact that my brother Gregory was …
Ruminations from the Acropolis
(Taken from the Spargel archives: September 12, 2003) Last night I saw The Shakespeare Theatre from Washington D.C. perform the Oedipus Cycle at Herodes Atticus Odeon, the theatre on the Acropolis. To see an ancient Greek tragedy performed by a modern American company in an ancient Greek theatre was an amazing experience. Almost 34 rows of stone seats remain, rising seemingly straight up from the ground. Behind the stage, there is a row of arched windows, above which is a …
Budgeting for Your Round-the-World Trip: Coming Home
On December 15, 2009, just a little over two months after landing back in the United States after our year-long trip, Jeff and I closed on a house, putting a solid 20% down. No, we aren’t rich. We didn’t discover that we were the long lost relative of a member of the royal family. We didn’t win the lottery, embezzle funds, or steal and pawn a gold Buddha. No, the money we used to purchase our house didn’t come to …
9 responses to “Budgeting for Your Round-the-World Trip: Coming Home”
What Skiing Taught Me About Travel
I was a few months shy of 21 the first time I donned a pair of skis, and I think I fell down about five times before I even made it to the lift. I was in the German Alps, near the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, host to the 1936 Winter Olympics. Jeff had come to visit me in Germany over his winter break, and we’d decided that a ski trip was just the thing to do. The Alps are not …
Five Ways to Keep Traveling at Home
As I reflected on in “You Can Go Home Again,” not all travelers choose to stay on the road indefinitely. In the end, most of us come home again. Almost always the choice to go home again isn’t about a dying interest in experiencing places around the globe but is instead about the happiness we also find at being home. In the end, being a traveler has very little to do with how many stamps are in your passport and …
You Can Go Home Again
As we sat in the transit lounge of the Seoul airport in October 2009, existing for a few hours in the in-between, in the interim between our round-the-world trip and the life that awaited us at home, my thoughts went only in one direction: home. I thought of catching up with my family and friends. I thought of the jeans that I hadn’t wiggled into in a year. I thought of homecooked meals and good Tex Mex and a refrigerator …
Antarctica. Dream Destination? Yes. Mine? No.
When Audrey and Daniel from Uncornered Market pulled the trigger and hopped 0n board a boat to Antarctica last year, I eagerly followed along. The penguin photos! The incredibly blue icebergs! The stomach-churning trip through the Drake Passage! Every morning I pulled up their page with high hopes for a new post. They brought Antarctica to North Carolina for me. Now I’m eagerly awaiting posts from Pam at Nerd’s Eye View from her upcoming Antarctic adventure. In fact, when I’m …
13 responses to “Antarctica. Dream Destination? Yes. Mine? No.”
