Lovely day for a bike ride— warm, sunny, but not too hot— through woodsy paths and little winding roads in the Czech Republic. Our destination: the castle Kunětická horawhich was near-ish to Hradec Králové. We did make a pitstop at the recently opened lookout tower Rozhledna Milíř, which had a great view of the... Continue Reading →
From the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases."For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question “How can we eat?” the second by the... Continue Reading →
Sometimes, a holiday needs to be just that— a holiday— and so I spent my five days off around Easter back in Poland, re-visiting my favorite vegetarian restaurants, photographing the city’s dwarfs, and getting some writing and reflection done in coffee shops. Ok, I’ll admit: sometimes I feel like exploring a whole new city. Others,... Continue Reading →
Loan words and brand names are like tiny, one shot Rosetta stones— the keys to puzzling out a restaurant menu in a foreign language, or getting a cup of coffee when you’re tired. (The two I’m thinking of are tofu and Maggi.) And the first of this memory part starts in a classroom in Michigan,... Continue Reading →
After feeling like an alien last week, I discovered one thing that Americans and Europeans have in common: when confronted with vegetarians, their reaction is OMG QUICK GET THEM HEALTHY THINGS. I’ve sat through piles of steamed zucchini at weddings, iceberg lettuce salads at work functions and well-intentioned but slightly bland lentil concoctions. Let me... Continue Reading →
Vienna was like a breath of fresh air: the vacation I needed after feeling culture shocked, a taste of Mozart, Klimt and the Danube. And like any good holiday, it was simple and wonderful, along with me realizing a thing or two about myself. It’s a beautiful city, more formal than Prague or Wrocław. Vienna... Continue Reading →
This last week, I felt very... foreign. Just a little bit lost. I had passed the happy stage of moving, where everything’s new and fun to explore, to where it was irritating that things weren’t as easy as they were in the last place I lived. For example, making peanut butter sandwiches had become difficult,... Continue Reading →
Detroiter in Poland 