“Always remember that you are a Quaker”, was the last piece of advice my Grandpa gave me before he passed away. In his young adulthood my grandfather changed his religion and joined The Society of Friends (Quakers), of which he was an active member for the rest of his life. As I travel the world, […]
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“All right everyone. Shhhh!”, the man’s voice pierced the air, heavy with anticipation. This was followed by light laughter from some fellow opera-goers and then clapping by all those who approved. I was one of them. “Here we go”, I thought sitting comfortably in the second seat from the aisle in row F of the […]
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Dear Baba, Today is your birthday and although we have never met, I am thinking of you. You may not know this but every time I dust the dining room table and chairs, which you had protected with plastic for so many years and that now stands in our dining room, I say hello to […]
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My Grammie was from Bingham, Maine, a small rural town with a current population of well under 1000 people, that prides itself on being the midway point between the North Pole and the Equator. Like many parts of Maine in the “olden days”, Bingham was a logging town and most of my male relatives worked […]
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My dearest Mindy, How can I begin to sum up the past ten years? Perhaps I should go back to our wedding day, which feels both far away and just like it was yesterday. Watching you sleep the next morning, I felt so incredibly lucky and grateful that you chose to share your life with me. […]
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As I took the exit to I-4, I began reflecting on why I was going to Orlando in the first place. When the news of the Pulse nightclub shooting broke, I was in a wifi-less cottage in the woods next to a lake in Ontario, Canada. When I eventually got online the internet lit up […]
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As I dipped my fingers into a shell filled with holy water, I stood for a moment at the doorway making the sign of the cross and taking in the church interior which was simply decorated with Rapa Nui art. I knew then that what I was about to experience was miles away from the Catholic […]
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“You must go to Valle de la Luna”, the Chilean woman at the Cejar Laguna told me, “It’s like a different world”. And so Valle de la Luna was solidified on my bucket list! Out of all the daily adventures my mother and I took in the Atacama Desert, considered the driest place on earth, […]
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I should have known that my evening in the Dublin airport would be eventful when the excelerator in the bus that had picked me up in Sligo suddenly stopped working about a mile away from the airport. We began inching our way every so slowly as we drifted in neutral as far as we could […]
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In order to educate myself on the meat and dairy industries, I decided to visit a stockyard, where animals are routinely auctioned off to the highest bidder. I wanted to see what kind of animals come through the auction, what kind of treatment they receive and what type(s) of people attend such auctions. I chose […]
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I’ve slept in all sorts of accommodations all around the world from 5-star hotels in Morocco and Peru to a home stay with a Mayan family in Guatemala and a Gwi family in Thailand to ocean front bungalows in Belize and the Philippines. As wonderful as these experiences were, they simply can not compare with my most […]
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We drove through beautiful wheat fields set to the backdrop of deciduous trees showing off their flashy fall foliage. It would have been simply a lovely ride in the country if we didn’t know where we were going. I had never been to a slaughterhouse before and was a little nervous but felt that our anxiety […]
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I had been fighting for many years to be able to live in my own country with my Canadian wife, but the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was blocking me from my right to pursue happiness in this way. Even after writing letters to every senator and every presidential candidate two times around and famous […]
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“This is where he stood,” Frau B told me as she stood tall with a male stance. “There was a huge crowd,” she continued pointing to where she had stood. “We shouted ‘Ken-ne-dy, Ken-ne-dy.’” Frau B couldn’t understand his entire speech because she did not speak English, but she remembers the most famous part very […]
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Wanting to include a hot springs experience in my day trip to Taipei’s Beitou district, I looked up places online and found an vast array of choices. Long Nai Tang Hot Springs seemed the most appealing as it was the oldest, dating back to 1896, and it had no website of its own. I only found […]
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A great way to spend a day in Taipei is by exploring the Beitou district. From a geothermal valley and hot springs to a Buddhist temple and several museums, activities in Taipei’s northwest district are quite varied. Here’s how I spent the day: Beitou Park Just across the street from the Xinbeitou metro station Beitou […]
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So I was walking back to my hostel in the underground shopping mall at Taipei’s Main Station and just when I was about to climb the stairs at Exit Y13 something curious caught my eye. Were those people really being hit with butcher knives? Seeing my surprise, and perhaps a look of utter horror, a […]
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Teaching English as a Second Language lends itself to a nomadic lifestyle, allowing me to combine my love of teaching with my love of traveling. I have taught in four countries including my own, spanning three continents. While usually my classrooms have been the standard desk, chair and white board scenario, my travels have opened […]
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