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Have You Ever Bletted a Medlar? Me Neither.
Never forego the opportunity to add new words to your vocabulary. Doing so is especially gratifying if they refer to something so foreign to your experience as to seem otherworldly. If you can throw in a little bit of potty humor for good measure, then so much the better, as far as I’m concerned. I…
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A Superior American’s Inferiority Complex
You have to live with this dichotomy in America.
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Not Cut Out for Grit Labor
When I was 19 years old, my eldest sister was in the Air Force, stationed in Holland. Between my freshman and sophomore years in college, she invited me to go there for the summer. What, are you kidding? Of course I said yes, with visions of jet setting around Europe dancing in my head. Upon…
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Rick Steves Makes an Impact
It was years of watching Rick Steves’ Europe on PBS that gave me the courage to go to some of my most exciting travel destinations. Turkey. Hungary. Croatia. Slovenia. I doubt I’d have ever gone to those countries were it not for his suggestions. I also rely heavily on his guidebooks whenever I travel. Suffice…
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My Magical European Summer
Recently, I came across a diary that I wrote when I was 19, and I read it for the first time since I wrote it. That summer was the high point of my life. (So far, at least. Who knows what the future holds.) I was traveling through Europe, and I was falling in love.…
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Too Much of a Good Thing
When I was young and thin and had the metabolism of a hummingbird, I worked for a few months in a place that sold, among other things, ice cream. I was in heaven. All the ice cream I could eat! Well, that lasted, at most, a couple weeks. I took such advantage of that perk…
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Pillar to Post Vacations
I have a European friend who absolutely hates the way I plan my vacations. I tend to cram as much into a holiday as I possibly can. I view them as a smorgasbord, where you only take little tastes of a wide variety of delicacies. I spend a lot of time rushing about, seeing as…
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Countries are Artificial Constructs
One of my friends applied for a high level federal job many years ago and put me down as a personal reference. Some guy in a suit showed up at my door to interview me about her, and one of his questions was, “Is she a good American?” That made me blink. Uh, what does…
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Obsolete Plot Twists
I was watching an old suspense movie the other day for lack of anything more appealing to do, and I had to laugh because this story would never work in the modern era. This woman was trapped inside her house and a creepy stalker guy was trying to break in. She rushes to the phone…
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Split, Croatia: The Coolest City You’ve Never Heard Of
people have built their homes within the abandoned Palace walls.