There is a trend among Foreign Service bloggers right now to write about the pros and cons of their posts. It’s summer bidding season, which means this is the time when Foreign Service Officers and their families pore over lists of open jobs in countries far and wide. We “bid” on a different cycle so […]
Category: Cultural Differences
What I’ll Miss Most About Madrid
Our Spanish tour is on its last legs. Soon, it’ll be hummus and ancient history in Jerusalem in lieu of siestas and tapas. I’ve got two months left here, and you can bet I’ll be savoring my favorite Spanish things during that time. Here’s what I’ll miss most when I leave: 1. Cheap (and Good) […]
The Supermarket Rescue
One of the more interesting parts of this moving around all the time thing (or, really, one of the more interesting parts of travel) is the markets and grocery stores. Everywhere I go, the grocery stores are so different – different products, different ways of paying, different people – and yet, in many ways, they […]
And Our Next Post Is…
…Jerusalem! Surprised? Remember back when I painstakingly outlined all the pros and cons of moving to seven different cities and asked ya’ll to vote? Well, the winner, Lima, Peru, and all the rest of the places for that matter — London and Papau New Guinea among them — didn’t pan out. We were without […]
‘It’s Like They Don’t Want Our Money’
Three friends and I walked into a clothing boutique a few minutes before two on a Saturday afternoon. We oohed over the cute dresses in the shop, and grabbed a bunch to try on, just as the shop girl told us “Ladies, we close in three minutes.” We continued to take clothes off the rack […]
Dinner with Strangers
Recently I’ve become taken with the idea of hosting dinner parties for a bunch of strangers. There’s a new movement in “social dining.” Think AirBnB, but for dinner parties. For instance, if you’re traveling to say, Rome, instead of eating at a restaurant one night, you’d pay to go to a Roman’s apartment, eat a […]
Something’s Afoot in Spain
I first noticed it at the gym. When women get changed in the locker room, they never let their bare feet touch the ground. They’ll peel off shoes and socks, stand on a towel on the ground, and then slip their feet into flip-flops and walk to the shower, One time, back when I went […]
Vote on Our Next Post!
It’s Bidding Season! In Foreign Service land, this is the time of year when a list comes out with all the places Mr. Dame in Spain, and myself by association, could be posted to next. Imagine seeing a list of cities, some of which you’ve never even heard, and knowing “One of these will be […]
How a Spanish Onion Pulled Me Out of My Restaurant Funk
I’ve been a little down on restaurants in Spain lately. Maybe it was spending two weeks in Paris, where you’d have to try really, really hard to eat something that isn’t delicious. Or maybe it was the two-night trip north through Bilbao and Pamplona where the omnipresence of pinxtos (thought by many Spaniards to be […]
Shamed on the French Metro
I was on the Metro today with several classmates, talking about writing and a lecture we were coming from when a Parisian woman turned to us and said “Do you know that 20 people died?” Our conversation stopped abruptly. I felt too embarrassed to even exhale. I fiddled with my leopard gloves, passing them back […]
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