Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for a lot this year, but the core remains the same: my loving family, good health, friends who make me laugh, a good job, the opportunity to travel. And good food and books! I hope you all enjoy the day with your families.

In the meantime, here are recent photos from my trip to New Orleans. Even though it was for work ( Read more... )

Before the craziness of Hurricane Sandy (and before my family and I realized how serious of a storm it would be), we spent the weekend in mid-coast Maine. From its ocean breezes to isolated lighthouses to its affordable lobster dinners, I can keep going back there--I really can.


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I traveled to Norway earlier this month, and I'd happily go back.

Why Norway, you may ask? It was reunion road trip of sorts with a Norwegian friend I had met while studying abroad in New Zealand in 2006. She visited me in New York two years ago, and I decided to visit her back. Focusing on the famous west coast, we spent a week driving (stick! I ( Read more... )

 
Earlier in March, my family and I were fortunate to travel to a city I've heard about ever since I was young: Rome!


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A-Z Travel Meme Filched from kiwiria

A: Age you went on your first trip.

Does moving to America count? I was five when my parents decided to move the family from Manila to New York.

B: Best (foreign) beer you've had and where.

Well, I learned to like it while studying abroad in New Zealand, so I suppose there! (Or maybe it was the fact that it was the ( Read more... )

March already? Wow.

It's going to be a tough and grueling month for me, with not as much time for reading as I would like.  Well, there's never enough time for a bookworm, but this month especially.  I have two big books coming out in early and late April, respectively, and it's crunch time.  Finished books are coming in, they immediately have to go ( Read more... )

 
Spent the sunny afternoon out on the Great Lawn in Central Park.  Although I knew only a handful of people at first, it was nice to hang out on picnic blankets, throw around a frisbee, snack on junk food.  Thank God, though, for friends you haven't seen in a long time--try a couple of years, in my case--and yet when you're together again, it's ( Read more... )

Danny: Thank you so much for your letter from Senegal!! It made my day, as well as the Senegalese coin you put in. How much is this worth in dollars? Well, I hope it didn't make too big of a "dent" in your Peace Corps salary! :P ( Read more... )

It's the season premiere of The Amazing Race tonight!!  Phil Keoghan, how I've missed you.  I've also missed saying "You've been Philiminated!" which should be rectified very soon, I think.

I'm looking through this season's contestants, and why is there always a bubbly pink pair of Blondes?  It's like they're a breed determined to prove their worth ( Read more... )

I decided to go for it today and bought a backpacker's backpack.  I feel slightly ridiculous carrying it for a week-long trip, but with my previous trips in Spain and New Zealand I've decided it's the next logical step in terms of luggage.  For my New Zealand trips I carried a duffle, but it was rather flimsy and I didn't like how all the weight ( Read more... )