My host mother met me at Nanzan’s CJS Office and drove me home in her car. She asked me a lot about myself, and was especially detailed in asking me about what I could and could not eat. I was a vegetarian in the US, and coming to Japan I have decided to be more flexible with my diet, but also to stick to vegetarian food as much as I can.
18 January 2014
And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Even though this line marked the end of The Great Gatsby, I find myself thinking of its relevance on the eve of my departure to Paris. And then by some strange process of osmosis, the characters of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in the film Midnight in Paris (2011) come to mind. It’s funny how our brains work.
“No one runs in Barcelona,” someone told me upon my arrival.
I hadn’t seen many runners in my first week in the city, but I’d signed up for a group run with other IES students, so I laced up my running shoes and tied my hair back, ready to test this theory.
Our run was led by Giuseppe, a staff member from Barcelona. He pointed to a map and showed the three of us the route, a seven-mile loop around the city.
¡Hola a todos!
Ayer fuimos a…I mean…yesterday we went to visit the marvelous city of Segovia. Once again, (and you’ll see this as a pattern), I do not want to say too much with words in regards to what I present to you, but rather, I want to show you what I saw. I’d like to highlight one thing that struck me the most, however: the mystery.
I arrived in Istanbul about a week ago, and wow. Nothing could have prepared me for all this, it’s amazing!
It’s a point that’s been done to death, but for the sake of this post, I’ll repeat it here: Americans are spoiled. We are spoiled by our government. We are spoiled by our Constitution. We are spoiled by public transportation, by our education system, even by the weather. (I’m going on 22 years of being an American and I have never once encountered a killer monsoon.) On some level, most Americans are aware that their quality of life is the planet’s best, but this fact isn’t at the forefront of our minds until it’s made to be.
Hey guys!
Before I begin talking about how excited I am to be heading off to Siena, Italy (which, by the way, is really excited..), there are a few things I feel like I should address.
Every now and then I have to remind myself that I’m really in Roma, Italy. This place is quite magical, so much so that it often seems that my experiences are rather surreal. I constantly find myself surrounded by layers of history and monuments that are architecturally astounding and aesthetically pleasing. In the past two weeks that I’ve been here I have seen the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps.