America

The Scott With the Glock

When my parents arrived at our Peace Corps apartment in Bulgaria last spring, I warned them about the door. Covered in a somewhat convincing wood-grain peel with a massive gold knob, it had no less than six bolts–four in the middle, one in the ceiling and one which shot into the floor. Seeing this door [...]

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Sophia

Since we’ve let the United States, two years and six months ago to this very day, I realize that there’s three of us on this trip. Me, Michael and Sophia. Sophia, as many know thanks to popular culture, stems from the Greek word for wisdom. Its root rests between suffixes and prefixes throughout the English [...]

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A Former Planner Faced With Her Former Self

We rode down to Tyre a few weeks ago along the Mediterranean to South Lebanon, the hotbed of Israeli conflict. Rob, Inma’s Director, was driving. The landrover was full of an unofficial religious delegation. One of these, an American–let’s call him Ray–rode in the passenger seat. He was speaking to Samir Inma’s founder, who sat [...]

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Beef is NOT What’s for Dinner

Beirut, upon first glance, is a Disneyland of dreaminess. There’s Chili’s, Hard Rock Cafe Starbucks, Subway, and this bizarre obsession with retro-style American diners, such as the one you see behind my unhappy husband. Because we want it so badly to be true, we are instant victims–convinced of this burger-oasis between the chicken, hummus and fatoush [...]

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The Strangest Sunday

On our second day in Beirut, a bright Sunday morning, long before we knew how long we’d stay, Michael and I wandered on foot into the downtown area. After twenty minutes, we’d been stopped three times by security officers–told to stop taking pictures and asked about where we were headed. All of this happened along landscaped [...]

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What Made Me Cry Last Week

At the Al Gawaher Hotel in Aleppo, Syria, we spent nine days (and Christmas) recovering from the past three couchsurfing episodes. In this city, when not gazing at its black-wafer-cookie-architecture, authentic bazaar, frequent stares and intimidating citadel-with-moat, we sat in our 50 degree room and enjoyed an Arabian network of satelite television, including four English-speaking [...]

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Something to Believe In

Black-hooded women, not a speck of face-skin to be seen, scurried toward home, in groups of three along the littered streets. On the main avenue, smoke rose from a schwarma stand, hovering above the gingham, picnic-table-patterned heads of moustached, Muslim men. While CNN had always painted those Arab-symbolizing scarves flowing freely in the sun, tonight [...]

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Those People You Complain About

“We have fish. Very nice fish. I can cook for you with corn, wheat corn.” Fish sounds dreamy but is usually way beyond our budget. We exchange concerned glances. “How much?” “I make whole meal for $12 together. We have very nice wine here in Anamure.” “How much? “Ten lira for you” (Alcohol is a big splurge [...]

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Just a guy in the galaxy. . .

Last night, a guy named Ota couchsurfed his way into our world. A Czech hitchhiker who lives on the sale of domain names, English-teaching, an organization called TongueSwap (which you should totally check out) and his unfloundering optimism and flexibility. What an education Ota was. We learned how light colored clothing (makin g you appear [...]

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Look Left (Pretend You’re in London!)

Okay, so my sidebar is sort of spilling over this week. . .but not quite. . .you know, at the edge. . . lingering at the round, smooth rim like the beer foam on a bottle. . . . of Corona at breakfast. . . on a fall patio with arms covered in fleece. . [...]

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