-
The Hump
In month 5 of our 7 month round-the-world trip, I hit the hump. We had just arrived in Auckland. It was the start of a 5 week stay in New Zealand. The day we landed, the sky lit up with particulate matter drifting over from the bush fires in Australia. My husband and I had…
-
Ōsaka Blues
Ōsaka (大阪) was the 20th stop on our round-the-world adventure. By the time we reached it, I hit a wall. Was it Ōsaka that I disliked? Had I been on the road for too long? Perhaps I was suffering from a severe case of FOMA: the fear that there was a better, more exciting place…
-
Quiet
The dust falls from our travel boots. Laundry slouches in uncertain heaps. After 7 months on the road, the curious monkey returns to Amsterdam. Everything is the same. Nothing is the same. We’ve come home in a time of coronavirus. It’s so quiet here. The freeway doesn’t hum. The birds no longer compete with the…
-
The Curious Monkey
Meet the Curious Monkey. He’s going to be my avatar for the next 7 months as my husband and I travel the world. If you live in Amsterdam, you might recognize this little guy as Artis de Partis, the mascot of the local zoo. Artis de Partis is a strange sort of monkey. According to…
-
My Favorite Things
I’ve never felt homesick before. Not when I went to China for the first time. Not when I moved to the Netherlands. Sure, there were people and places I missed but I never felt sick to my stomach or anxious or unable to repress a desire to return. These are, apparently, all common ways of…
-
How to Get Lost
I have done a fair amount of traveling in my time. Most of Europe, parts of Asia, the United States, of course. But a round-the-world trip is a whole other thing. Our plan is simple. To start from home and keep on going until we make it back. Easy, right? Yes, if you’re a free…
-
House of Books
My husband and I live in a library. We have books on all four floors, in the hallways and along the stairs, in every room of the house. Since my husband and I are both writers, we have plenty of piles, too. Books to read, to sell, to use in the writing of yet more…