An Opportune Moment

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Life in Berlin
Life in Berlin
WWOOFing in Hawai'i
WWOOFing in Hawai'i
Backpacking Europe
Backpacking Europe

  • Berlins and Outs

    My Biggest Travel Mistake

    June 26, 2019

    E and I forgot something really important when we went on vacation recently. It was worse than the time I arrived at London Heathrow Airport without a return flight booked. The UK doesn’t like to let people in without knowing when you’re leaving and the only thing that kept me from being detained was white privilege. Our recent mistake was even worse than the time I ate questionable samosas in India and got violently ill on an overnight train. Okay… that one was pretty bad. I should have known better and I suffered the consequences. But the most recent mistake E and I made was practically unforgivable for a couple…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    The Egg Cups of Berlin

    June 19, 2018

    You Moved to Berlin for a Job, Right? How’s it Going?

    October 20, 2019

    100 Days of Learning German!

    July 17, 2018
  • Feeeeelings

    We owe one another our attention

    June 14, 2019

    Today is the eight year anniversary of my dad’s death. I’m happy(?) to report: it doesn’t hurt the way it used to. The last couple years, I’ve been struck less by how much I miss him and more by how much he has missed. I notice big things he missed, like my wedding, and smaller things, like books he would have enjoyed. Since his death, I’ve traveled on five continents, my brother and I both moved abroad (in opposite directions), and my mother retired. I also spent several years in Boston working at the Museum of Science, and my dad would have thought that was the absolute coolest job. I…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    He’s Dead So I Can Say Whatever I Want About Him

    November 13, 2017

    Let’s talk about my dead dad

    June 13, 2013

    Let’s talk about depression and bicycles

    September 1, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs

    Getting to Know Schöneberg

    June 4, 2019

    The temperature reached 94 degrees (Fahrenheit, obvi) yesterday, so it seems safe to say summer has arrived in Berlin. Temperatures that high are actually kind of an unpleasant anomaly, but, in general, it’s warm and sunny here, and we’ve been spending more time outside as a result. We’ve started jogging in the evenings after work. There’s a bike path that runs alongside the train tracks, and we can follow it to a nearby grocery store. On Friday night, it was warm and humid and just starting to rain when we finished our run and went into the grocery store. The air had that amazing wet asphalt/ozone scent. We picked up…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    Righteous Fury: Thoughts on Politics and Religion

    October 30, 2018

    Let’s talk about depression and bicycles

    September 1, 2018

    Spring in Berlin: A Video and A Love Letter

    June 12, 2018
  • Feeeeelings

    This is a post about Paris and the things fire takes from us

    April 25, 2019

    I wrote most of this post last week, and our news cycle moves so fast that it almost doesn’t feel relevant to post it this week. It feels wrong to keep talking about Notre-Dame when more than 320 people were killed on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. Tragedies, great and small ones, happen every day. Miracles, great and small ones, do too. I’m sharing this not because I think it’s the most important topic to talk about at the moment. But because I want it to be okay for us to pause and acknowledge the things we’re thinking about even if they aren’t the day’s most pressing issues. Paris was…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    And then I got published in a newspaper

    August 9, 2013

    Keine Familie ist illegal

    July 3, 2018

    You Moved to Berlin for a Job, Right? How’s it Going?

    October 20, 2019
  • Berlins and Outs

    One Year in Berlin

    March 28, 2019

    One year ago today, we landed in Berlin with 4 suitcases, 2 backpacks, 1 visa, and nowhere to live. Our first night in the city, we got dinner at a beer hall down the street from our hotel. We ordered half liters of beer, pretzels, a cheese plate, and Weißwurst (white sausage). I later learned that Weißwurst is a typical Bavarian breakfast food — no wonder the server gave me a weird look for ordering it at 8pm. What’s changed in the last year? Well, we don’t make as many faux pas when eating German food. As our friend, Ramona, puts it: going to a Bavarian restaurant on your first…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Getting to Know Schöneberg

    June 4, 2019

    Thoughts on One Month of Living Abroad

    May 1, 2018

    100 Days of Learning German!

    July 17, 2018
  • Travel Inspiration,  Uncategorized

    We Went to Kenya! Kenya in Africa!

    February 19, 2019

    Our landlord texted us earlier this month. She wanted to see how we were doing and ask us to look into something at the apartment. E messaged back that we would do that when we got home and added, “Just returning on the S-Bahn from the airport, back from a trip to Kenya.” Her response was quick: Kenya?? Kenya in Africa? We told her yes, and sent a couple photos. We like our landlord a lot. Her reaction was amusing, but, when I think about, not so surprising. It’s kind of a big trip to drop casually into conversation. We travel pretty often, and we really only keep our immediate…

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    Emma 6 Comments

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    Weekly Travel Inspiration: Shanghai Calling

    May 25, 2013

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    May 10, 2013

    Travel Linkspiration: January 2014

    February 2, 2014
  • Berlins and Outs

    “Maybe We’ll Spend Christmas in Berlin”

    January 9, 2019

    Before E was even offered the job that brought us to Berlin, my mom and I started daydreaming about it. 2018 had just begun and I was experiencing some new year’s melancholy, and my mom commented, “maybe next year we’ll spend Christmas in Berlin!” It was a nice daydream, and I told her not to jinx it. She didn’t. Obviously. But it still felt kind of amazing when the holidays rolled around and we were actually here in Berlin. My mom came to visit for three weeks — starting in mid-December and staying through the New Year. And my brother and his partner arrived two days after Christmas and stayed…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Berlin, Revisited

    September 18, 2018

    Wrocław, or Emma Tries to Convince You to Visit Poland

    July 2, 2019

    Keine Familie ist illegal

    July 3, 2018
  • Travel Tips

    Podcast Recommendations for the Holidays and Beyond

    December 12, 2018

    If you’re doing any traveling this holiday season and looking for something to listen to on planes, trains, and automobiles, boy, have I got some podcast recommendations for you. As you probably know, E and I have dabbled in making our own podcast. So, it should come as no surprise that we also listen to quite a few podcasts. I give podcast recommendations to my friends and family pretty regularly, and I decided it was time to collect them all in one place. The Best and Only Holiday Podcast You Need: Hark! I can’t make a podcast list without a little nepotism. Especially this time of year. Hark! is the…

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    Emma No Comments

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    The Pros and Cons of WWOOFing on Maui

    June 30, 2013

    Why Prague is a Best Bet for Your First Solo Trip to Europe

    April 7, 2013

    How to Travel With Your Friends and Stay Friends

    October 8, 2013
  • Berlins and Outs

    An Ode to Peanut Butter

    December 4, 2018

    At first I thought it was just one badly-branded jar of peanut butter. It was rife with US stereotypes. The Statue of Liberty, an anthropomorphized peanut wearing a cowboy hat, and a color scheme reminiscent of the American flag covered all but a few inches of space. Most damningly, the brand name was “McEnnedy.” I thought it was such a bizarre mash-up of American-sounding name conventions. It reminded me of “Häagen Dazs,” the ice cream brand whose nonsense name is meant to sound Danish, but is a decidedly American invention. Of course, E and I bought a jar of McEnnedy brand peanut butter and ate it all. It tasted… fine.…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Spring in Berlin: A Video and A Love Letter

    June 12, 2018

    “Maybe We’ll Spend Christmas in Berlin”

    January 9, 2019

    What makes a new city feel like home?

    August 1, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs

    To Make “Local” Friends or “Expat” Friends, That is the Question

    November 13, 2018

    People tend to want to make local friends when they live abroad. Spending time only with people you could have met at home creates this bizarre sense of failure. I remember it from when I studied abroad in Barcelona – I hung out mostly with the other Americans in my program, but it was a point of pride for me when I spent Halloween teaching a couple of Catalan women how to play Kings. That was my go-to I-hung-out-with-the-locals anecdote. It was a fun evening and it makes a pretty good soundbite. But “I want to hang out with locals” is kind of an odd, potentially tokenizing way to look…

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    Emma 4 Comments

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    Let’s talk about depression and bicycles

    September 1, 2018

    100 Days of Learning German!

    July 17, 2018

    You Moved to Berlin for a Job, Right? How’s it Going?

    October 20, 2019
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