No hand can deter me from my battle for the truth.

On Friday, December 20, 2013, I embarked on an eighteen day adventure and traveled to more countries in a few weeks than I have in the past ten years. I'm excited to share my experiences with you, and I want to start by clarifying one thing. I know what some of you might be thinking: "Whoa, that's cool, but I couldn't do that. I don't have the time/money/energy." I used to be one of those people! 

When I'd read a friend's blog about traveling, look at pictures, or hear the highlights from their trip when they returned, I'd always think to myself, that's awesome but I don't have the time or money to do something like that. End of story. But here's the truth. If you really want to travel, whether it's to see something you've always been curious about (for me the Northern Lights!) or just because you've never been there (um, Washington D.C.?!), the only thing really keeping you from going is yourself. I've never fancied myself as a vagabond or full of wanderlust, even though my mom calls me her little moonbeam. So as a recently converted travel junkie (it's really quite addictive), here are a few reasons why you should make the time, save the money, and go. 

First, you can better understand who you are and where you come from by visiting new places. I've always had the misconception that the United States is a conservative country compared to Europe. That was foolish to lump together all countries in Europe and believe that the entire continent is more progressive socially and politically than where I'm from. The first place I visited was Dublin, Ireland. I took a walking tour with the hostel I stayed at and learned a lot about the history of Ireland. I was particularly interested in the feminist movement in Ireland. It's only been in the past twenty-five years that women were given the right to divorce, contraceptives, and equality in the work place. Here are a few pictures I took on the tour, including the skyscraper of Dublin, the River Liffey, the Royal Palace,  and Temple Bar, a popular neighborhood in the city.

This is Veronica Guerin, a journalist who was murdered in 1996 for exposing crime and the drug trade of Dublin at the time.  “I vow that the eyes of justice, the eyes of this journalist will not be shut again,” Guerin said. “No hand can deter me from my battle for the truth.”

Of course it started raining during the walking tour, and I left my umbrella at the hostel. So with soggy feet and wet hair, I took cover at the Guinness Storehouse with some friends I met on the walking tour. Here I am with Madeline who's from Australia.

Afterwards we headed back toward Temple Bar to find somewhere to eat. I met a girl at the Guinness Storehouse rooftop bar who is a pastry chef and was on Top Chef Masters. She gave us a list of her favorite restaurants in Dublin.

And that's another reason why you should travel. You can make friends everywhere you go. One of my biggest fears when planning my trip was that I would feel lonely. But the fear of being alone shouldn't keep you from traveling alone. Luckily it was pretty effortless to make friends while in Dublin.  We all related to each other in that we were away from home for the holidays, whether because of school or work, and were excited to be traveling but also missed being with our family. Here I am with Anul, Madeline, Javi, Kevin, Santi, and Olaf.

We ended up at Pit Bros for dinner and I was the happiest girl in the world to be having slow cooked BBQ brisket. The owner of the restaurant told me to give him an honest opinion of how the BBQ was since I told him I grew up in the south. It was good, but obviously not better than Whole Hog Cafe or Matt Miller's.

I also happened to be in Dublin the weekend before Christmas which is when everyone dresses up in crazy Christmas sweaters and outfits for the 12 Pubs of Christmas. And when I say crazy Christmas sweaters, I don't mean just a tacky sweater with a reindeer on it. People went all out, dressed from head to toe with twinkle lights and tinsel. 

The next day I took a bus to the west coast of Ireland to see the Cliffs of Mohar in County Clare. It was incredibly windy that day and I was left speechless by the coastline and luscious landscape.

Before heading back to Dublin, we stopped at this abandoned church and cemetery. I didn't want to leave. The bus almost left without me.

I'll continue in my next post with Christmas in Edinburgh, Scotland!

What I've been listening to lately:

No Swords or Masks by Ninjasonik 

Self-titled album by Bettye Swann

Self-titled album by Wet

Moon Tide by Pure Bathing Culture

When here and now cease to matter

Thanksgiving seems like so long ago now since I've traveled so much since then, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The last weekend in November, a group of us expatriate English teachers went to Malaga, Spain to celebrate. It's about a two and a half hour train ride away from Madrid. There are 4 or 5 teachers from my program that live and teach there. 

We obviously didn't have Thanksgiving day off work, so we got together Friday afternoon and prepared quite a feast. Although we weren't able to scrounge up a turkey, I hardly missed it. 

Speaking of missing, before I moved to Spain I was primarily worried about two things. 1) Learning the language. Obviously, this is a valid thing to worry about since many foreigners move to another country for a year without ever learning the language. And it's easy for this to happen because there are many people who speak English or want to practice with you. 2) Missing my friends and family back home. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate missing out. I have major FOMO (Mom, that means fear of missing out) and I typically end up spending an evening trying to do what all my friends are doing, or saying something like, "I just really want all of us to be together all the time." 

I do miss my family in Arkansas and friends in New York, but what I didn't account for was making new friends here in Spain. Good friends who I will also miss dearly when summer comes and school ends. It's true, there will always be someone to miss, and as I get older, there are continually more people to miss.

Back to Thanksgiving. I made this sweet potato appetizer, a favorite Smitten Kitchen recipe that I've made for past three years. It's always been a crowd pleaser, but this Thanksgiving, my friends chanted my name they loved it so much! Needless to say, I was thankful to have friends who truly appreciated my contribution to the meal.

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring Malaga. We went to the Picasso Foundation, which is the house where Picasso was born and grew up. There are photographs of his family, paintings by his father, as well as early works and sketches by Picasso. I didn't make it to the Picasso Museum (I'm still kicking myself), so I'll have to go back. We had dinner at Bodega El Pimpi and then went to the AC Hotel Malaga Palacio rooftop bar and had a lovely view of the Cathedral. 

The city was decked out in Christmas lights, which honestly I liked more than the Christmas lights in Madrid! Madrid is lovely at Christmas, but the lights seem too small to fill the space of the street and end up looking like that one house on the block that half-assed putting up the light on their roof. Some are blinking, some are white, some are multi-colored, and you end up just criticizing their work ethic rather than enjoying the view. Maybe I over analyzed my appreciation of the Christmas lights in Malaga (surprise, surprise), but it's worth noting that you don't always find the best and brightest things in the biggest city in a country. 

Here is our first attempt at making a family Christmas card picture,

and the second which was a success.

We had brunch together before we went our separate ways. The weather was the warmest, first day of December I've had in a long time. And the next day at work, my coworkers asked if I went sunbathing in Malaga. 

I'm going to let T. S. Eliot have the last word. If I were a good, dedicated blogger, I would find an inspirational poem by an author from Malaga. But, I was reading my friend's blog which she named from this poem and I find it quite appropriate.

Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty

desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast 

waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end 

is my beginning.
- T. S. Eliot


Lately, I've been listening to:

Cupid Deluxe by Blood Orange

  

Jetlag by Milosh

True by Solange 

I hear where you're coming from

I skyped with my parents yesterday and we talked about what we did for Thanksgiving. Since I moved to New York eight years ago, I haven't had Thanksgiving with my family. I've had Friendsgiving in New York. Although this post is not about what I did for Thanksgiving, the story is relevant to what this post is about. My mom asked me if I remembered my first Thanksgiving in New York. I was 19 years old. My brother and a few friends were in town visiting me. We had dinner with Katie and Elliott Walker in Herald Towers on 34th Street. My mom said I called her asking how to make Mama's chicken and dressing a few hours before we were supposed to eat. I don't remember much about how the food turned out, but I do remember feeling so thankful to have good friends while adjusting to living in New York. And I find myself feeling that way now as I continue adapting to life in Madrid. 

Two weeks ago my friend Evan stopped in Madrid while traveling around Europe. He was in Barcelona before he flew to Madrid. He talked about staying in a hostel and all the cool people he met. We talked about how surprisingly easy it is to meet people while traveling. When Evan and I were at Mercado de San Miguel to get something to eat, we ran into Joanne, a girl he met in Barcelona who was also traveling around Europe! 

We spent the rest of the day together, seeing the Royal Palace,

the Cathedral

Sharing a mojito and tapas at El Tigre, having Tupperware to ourselves because it was Sunday night,

 eating chocolate con churros at San Gines Chocolateria

wandering around Retiro Park,

and seeing an exhibit at Reina Sofia.

And to top it all off, my friends Jarod and Liz from Norman, OK were on vacation in Madrid the same weekend! We had dinner at Public and drinks at their hotel bar. 

I remember feeling so torn when I first moved to New York. I felt like my heart was in two places at once. And now that I'm in Madrid I feel that my heart is in three places at once. It's easy to feel anonymous when in a new city. That's exciting and lonely all at the same time. It's exciting because you're outside your comfort zone and eager to have new experiences. And it's lonely because all the people who know you the most are always a phone call or text away, but making real time to talk can be tricky with the time difference and busy schedules. Don't get me wrong, I've made good friends here and found people that I feel superconnected to, but there will always be someone to miss. I'm also thankful for the small things, like Evan and I seeing Joanne at San Miguel. I mean, what are the odds that in a city of four million we happen to be at the same place at the same time! It's a reminder that "these eskimos might be much more than they seem" (This is Water by David Foster Wallace).

I started reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, per my friend Caroline's suggestion after seeing Hunger Games and discussing dystopian literature. I'm only a few pages in, but I can't put it down. 

"I know what you mean, we'd say. Or, a quaint expression you sometimes hear, still, from older people: I hear where you're coming from, as if the voice itself were a traveler, arriving from a distant place. Which it would be, which it is."

There's a certain slant of light

So November flew by. I'm struggling to keep my blog updated, but here are some highlights from the first few weeks of November. We had a harvest festival at school. All the students and teachers ate roasted chestnuts. I'm still not exactly sure what we were celebrating, but I can now say that I like roasted chestnuts. Here I am with Justin and Yolanda (and Joiner on the left, one of my favorite 3rd grade students.)

Carlos kindly played the bagpipes for us. And yes, he does play bagpipes in a band. We had a blast dancing around with the students.

 Right now my favorite way to study spanish is reading Harry Potter. My friend James let me borrow his copy of Sorcerer's Stone. I am learning some interesting vocabulary. 

Two weeks ago, I went to Toledo. It's an easy 22 minute train ride away from Madrid. Although the weather wasn't ideal, cold and rainy, I enjoyed my visit and hope to go back again when it's warmer. As soon as I started walking from the train station to the city, I met a Spanish couple who come to Toledo often. They were super helpful and told me where I should go and how to get there.

 I went to the Cathedral of Toledo and spent an hour or more there. Going to cathedrals can become common place when in Europe. I try not to force myself to feel anything special. In Toledo I was overwhelmed by the beauty and grace of the cathedral. I was reminded of Emily Dickinson's poem "There's a Certain Slant of Light"

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the Seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –

 Toledo is the land of Cervantes, El Greco, 

 and marzipan. Although it's not my favorite dessert, the marzipan of Toledo is pretty good, especially when made by nuns. This picture is for my dad, since Forrest Gump is one of his favorite movies.

 Since Toledo is up on a hill, there are a lot of places to look out over the city. I still somehow managed not to take any very good pictures of the entire city.

All right, y'all. That's it for now. Soon I'll write about friends visiting Madrid and Thanksgiving in Malaga!