Hello! I’m here! It’s been a busy couple weeks. My friend, Jill, visited from Seattle, and we spent 12 days soaking up sun, going on long walks, eating our way though some of Barcelona’s best restaurants and being generally goofy and thankful for time together. We also went to Tenerife on the Canary Islands, which [...]
I recently wrote about 50 awesome things to do in Barcelona, and I’m following it up with 50 things I’m super pumped to do in Portland when I return (see more on my decision to go home here). Lately I’ve been so restless to get back to Portland. As much as I like Barcelona, I’m [...]
In the article I wrote for The Hairpin, I mentioned that my Spanish level is still rubbish, which garnered a few less than congratulatory comments about how I shouldn’t be like the tourists that come here and hang out with English speakers and don’t make an effort to speak the language. Well, I never said [...]
Fuck bombs. Fuck violence. Fuck hate. Sometimes it feels like we’re careening between good and bad, not understanding the crazy evil that exists, forgetting that love is more powerful than hate. We can’t tamp out the darkness, but, fuck, we can try. Grieve and bellow and feel everything that you need to feel, and then [...]
You know I love Barcelona; why not count the ways? BCN by the numbers (thanks, Wikipedia): It’s the 2nd largest city in Spain 62% of its residents were born in Catalonia, and 75% can speak Catalan The population is greater than 1.6 million within the city and 5 million in the metro area Barcelona is [...]
[image by jonathanpberger on Flickr] Last year, I tried to read a book a week and didn’t reach that goal, but I did read some great books. Favorites among them: Epilogue by Anne Roiphe Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, both by Cheryl Strayed It Chooses You by Miranda July As long as I can remember, [...]
I left off part one by sharing that I’m going home to Portland this summer, exactly 9 months to the day that I arrived in Barcelona. I sort of expected that I’d feel a measure of defeat in making this decision. Even though I planned to come to Barcelona for just 6 or 9 months, [...]
Some thoughts on my adventures abroad & how I decided to head home … Last summer, I needed a big change. I loved Portland and I’d found a solid group of friends there, after a couple years of feeling that I couldn’t quite find “my people,” but I knew that staying put wasn’t right for [...]
I am a self-professed app addict. My biggest temptations? Productivity apps and photo apps. I also have a million ideas in my head at once, ranging from personal & professional projects (mostly writing-related) to wishlists and to-do lists and reading lists. I use a lot of apps – sometimes too many – but I also [...]
[top image by filmin.es/fib; all other images mine] I’m hesitant to write about O’Barquiño (as my title says, Shhh … don’t tell anyone about O’Barquiño) because it’s just so amazing and under the radar, and I’d like it to stay that way. (Read: It’s devoid of tourists, and that’s awesome.) But, at the same time, [...]