An Opportune Moment

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

    October 20, 2019

    Mundane Cultural Differences – Berlin vs. Boston (Part 1)

    July 24, 2018

    Let’s talk about depression and bicycles

    September 1, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs,  Close to Home

    Visiting Home in New England and Returning Home to Berlin

    October 23, 2018

    Two weeks ago we were in the United States. It was our first trip home since moving to Berlin 6 months ago. And, surprising no one, I fretted over it quite a bit. My concerns included but were not limited to the following questions: Would it feel weird to be home? Would New England even still feel like home? Would I be sad to come back to Berlin? So as not to bury the lead, the answers to those questions are: A little Yes and no Nah Oh, you’re still reading? I suppose I can go into more detail. JK, you knew I was going to write about my feelings…

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    Emma 1 Comment

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    One Year in Berlin

    March 28, 2019

    Righteous Fury: Thoughts on Politics and Religion

    October 30, 2018

    A Whirlwind Summer in Berlin

    September 25, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs,  Feeeeelings,  Meta-Blogging

    Everything is Different Now

    April 22, 2018

    There are no screens in our windows now, so in the mornings we lean out and people watch while we drink our coffee. E imagines what it would be like to be a field mouse living on the supermarket’s green roof – he wants to make a video game about it. I mostly ogle other people’s dogs as they walk down the street. We watch the trains going in and out of Ostkreuz station. And if we look left we can see the TV Tower, but only when we’re leaning out the window. Hi. Hello. Welcome back. Everything is different now. E got a job as an educational video game…

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    Emma 7 Comments

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    Visiting Home in New England and Returning Home to Berlin

    October 23, 2018

    Wrocław, or Emma Tries to Convince You to Visit Poland

    July 2, 2019

    Keine Familie ist illegal

    July 3, 2018
  • Close to Home

    I’m From Boston

    November 8, 2016

    I remember the first time someone introduced me as “from Boston.” It was the summer before E and I started our senior year at Tufts. We took a road trip down to Asheville, North Carolina to visit his sister, Far, and while hiking we struck up a conversation with some people on the trail. They asked where we were from and Far ended up answering, “they’re from Boston.” I made a note of it because it was also the first time we were introduced as a unit. I’m from Rhode Island and E is from New Hampshire, but we are from Boston. Our relationship is from Tufts University on the…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Tea Tuesday: Tealuxe

    January 15, 2013

    What makes a new city feel like home?

    August 1, 2018

    Tea Tuesday: Home From Hawai’i

    March 26, 2013
  • Close to Home,  Tea Tuesday,  Wandering India

    India, Incoherently

    November 2, 2016

    I’ve been thinking about India lately. Disparate thoughts. Not terribly coherent. It’s hard to be coherent about a subcontinent; I worry about simplifying or fetishizing. My partner, E, and I moved last month, and since then I’ve eaten dinner at Momo N Curry, a Nepali and Indian restaurant a few blocks away, about once a week. I ate momos (Nepali steamed dumplings) for the first time in McLeod Ganj, a community in the foothills of the Himalayas, and I’m always excited to see them on menus in the US. But what really sold me on this restaurant was the carafe of free chai by the front door because it tastes…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    I’m a New Englander, btdubs

    May 24, 2012

    Tea Tuesday: Home From Hawai’i

    March 26, 2013

    Righteous Fury: Thoughts on Politics and Religion

    October 30, 2018
  • Close to Home,  Meta-Blogging

    I’m So Glad 2014 is Over

    January 5, 2015

    Hello friends, It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on the ‘ole blog in part because 2014 was kind of terrible. At the very least, there was a lot of upheaval in my life last year. Anyway, I got an email from wordpress a week ago inviting me to look back on my year in blogging, and it was pretty pathetic — I posted seven times in 2014. Seven. I’m hopeful An Opportune Moment will rise from the ashes of 2014 (see what I did there? You know, because my apartment burned down… was that joke too dark?) and become a fun outlet for my writing again. To help…

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    Emma 11 Comments

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    What makes a new city feel like home?

    August 1, 2018

    I’m From Boston

    November 8, 2016

    Wild Raspberry

    November 23, 2016
  • Link Round-Ups,  Travel Inspiration

    Travel Linkspiration July 2013

    August 2, 2013

    I spent July settling into my new apartment in Revere, MA, watching Orange is the New Black, and attempting to take my writing career seriously. The rumors are true: freelancing isn’t easy. The one trip I took in July was to a lakeside cabin in New Hampshire where I spent a few days with some of my oldest friends. What were you up to last month? Did you happen to read any of these awesome travel articles? Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads wrote a piece for Medium about how travel gives us perspective, and it’s an insightful, complex read. Shannon O’Donnell of A Little Adrift shares with Vagabondish readers: 5…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Travel Linkspiration: September 2013

    September 30, 2013

    Travel Linkspiration: August 2013

    September 2, 2013

    Travel Linkspiration: May 2013

    June 5, 2013
  • Close to Home,  Meta-Blogging

    Welcome to The Beach House

    July 12, 2013

    Blogposts have been sporadic for the last few weeks because I’ve been moving. After a year of traveling – 3 months in Washington, DC for an internship, 3 and a half months backpacking Europe, 2 months working on an organic farm in Hawai’i – interspersed with living at my mother’s house in Rhode Island, and overstaying my welcome at my boyfriend’s parents house in New Hampshire, I’m settled. Well, as settled as a travel blogger ever is. I have a home base now. I’m writing this post from my 4th floor apartment in Revere, MA – just a quick T-ride away from downtown Boston (the T is Boston’s subway system).…

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    Emma 12 Comments

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    I’m a New Englander, btdubs

    May 24, 2012

    Tea Tuesday: Home From Hawai’i

    March 26, 2013

    What makes a new city feel like home?

    August 1, 2018
  • Link Round-Ups,  Travel Inspiration

    Weekly Travel Linkspiration

    March 31, 2013

    Maybe I should stop trying to fit words into other words…. While I ponder my syntactical choices, you should check out these awesome links from around the travel blogosphere: Spain, How do I say goodbye? from The Big Travel Theory: Jessica waxes poetic on what sounds like an amazing 6 weeks living in Vilanova i la Geltrú, a small town outside of Barcelona, which I have had the privilege of visiting. Why I Decided to Travel Solo for a While from Keep Calm and Travel: Sometimes travel bloggers gloss over how big a decision it is to travel solo and jump straight to advising their readers to do it, but Klelia…

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    Emma 5 Comments

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    Weekly Travel Linkspiration: language learning tips, “off the beaten path” travel, and small backpacks

    April 29, 2013

    Linkspiration: April 2020

    May 7, 2020

    Travel Linkspiration: August 2013

    September 2, 2013
  • Travel Inspiration

    Weekly Travel Inspiration: Grand Central Station

    February 2, 2013

    I finally changed my homepage away from my alma mater’s student life page, which I think is a positive step towards adulthood. NPR is my new homepage, which is great, except that every time I open up Firefox I am bombarded with interesting-sounding news stories, and I have to spend time learning before I can settle into blogging or checking my facebook. That’s why today, your weekly travel inspiration is an article from NPR celebrating Grand Central Station’s 100th anniversary. It’s called The Ways We Wait, and focuses on the time we spend in train stations just biding our time. It includes a slideshow of photos of people hanging out…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Travel Linkspiration July 2013

    August 2, 2013

    Weekly Travel Inspiration: Skinny Dipping

    August 31, 2012

    Weekly Travel Inspiration: Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

    April 12, 2013
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