My closet Julia Child comes alive during the holiday season. I have never been so excited to wrap an apron around my waist and spend whole afternoons watching homemade foods pile up in my kitchen in advance of Thanksgiving or Christmas. I love producing the whole spread, inviting beloved guests, delegating certain aspects of the meal, and thinking of ways to be creative with the cuisine (i.e. love me a kale caesar salad to go Read more…
I was viewing a kaleidoscope over the last four days in Telluride, Colorado. There were solo hikes, lunches and dinners with new friends, films, a long nighttime drive from Cortez, lemongrass limeade at the local Steaming Bean, a rediscovery of Bridal Veil Falls, charming signage on the main boulevard. And so many stories to receive. On Friday evening, Telluride gathered me into an evening fundraiser to support one local community member named Jenn, who has Read more…
Brooklyn took a long time to open her arms to me, but she finally came around. Or maybe I came around once I started discovering the murals scattered throughout the alleyways circling South 11th Street and Bedford Avenue. I read Bedford Avenue was one of these brightening corners of the New York City boroughs, so I decided to book a temporary flat there during my next work visit and start building home there. My nook Read more…
I went to the same hardware store three times in one day in preparation for Burning Man. I was already a regular at Brownie’s Hardware on Polk Street because I insist on being a patron of local businesses whenever possible. But that day was a marathon of purchasing items like “rebar”- an essential tool to keep my tent from blowing away in wind and dust storms. Whoa. What? When it was suggested more than once Read more…
A new home introduces itself slowly to you. When you roll out of a cab following a red eye flight from the west coast, you become acutely aware of the nearest coffee shop, the proximity of the subway entrance and which subway lines go by “your place.” With that kind of fatigue, you can’t help but let the mind race through the logistics of this new life that you’re about to create in this quaint Read more…
Our team leads a warm-up to a series of games at a Palestinian school. While it’s been a few days since I have returned from the Middle East, it wouldn’t sit right without writing a final impression of this dazzling adventure. We spent our final days visiting our programs in the West Bank and once our business was done, we raced through Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron with too many questions and too little time. The Bedouin nomadic Read more…
I have always heard GREAT things about Beirut – cosmopolitan population, amazing nightlife, overall sophisticated look and feel in the Middle East. This was our next destination after Amman and our group was jazzed. We had a packed schedule and limited time to discover the city, though hung out with some of our Lebanese based colleagues along Hamra street, one of the main commercials drags of the city. Our Lebanon schedule listed several more visits Read more…
Girls participating in RTP games in Jerash, Jordan. Jordan is home to three million Palestinians, of which at least 400,000 are considered refugees and living in semi-permanent “camps”. We visited what would be the first of many camp visits over the next few days in Jerash. Jerash, famous for ancient Roman ruins that ring the city, is also home to a Palestinian refugee camp and one of Right To Play’s project sites focused on empowering Read more…
Horse-drawn carriage meanders through the Sik. I didn’t know what a Siq was until my Right To Play colleagues and I discovered Petra: the sandstone, ancient city that was once a main trade thoroughfare between Damascus and Arabia, and is now Jordan’s greatest tourism attraction. The Siq is a 1.2 kilometer walkway between continuous rock walls that are meters and meters above (sorry, I’m terrible at estimating length or height by sight). The Siq Read more…
Me on a camel in Aqaba, Jordan – country’s only sea port town. You know you’re traveling with seasoned adventurers when a camel shows up outside your restaurant in Aqaba and you’re the only one remotely interested or grabbing for her camera. Thus starts day one of my adventure in Jordan with Right To Play (http://www.righttoplay.com/). Having arrived one night ago in Amman, I have had the fortune of traveling with colleagues local to Amman Read more…