After three years living in Algeria, I will miss a lot.
Category: Foreign Service
Tanzanian Safari, Part I
We like to go on a big trip around New Years, and as I’ve previously mentioned, I’d be happy with a chilly European trip each and every year. But flights from Algiers to Europe are at an all-time high right now. So, we had landed on South Africa – some place brand new for both […]
Best of 2021
Happy another year in the early 2020s! I think it’s becoming increasingly clear as the COVID pandemic turns endemic that we’ll all look back on this time as one four or five year chunk rather than as individual, distinct years. I am typing this post poolside, under a breadfruit tree, 50 yards from the Indian […]
Christmas in Algiers
One thing I’ve learned about living in non-Christian countries is that if you want Christmas, you have to create it for yourself. In Algiers, come December, there’s no “All I Want for Christmas” blasting from grocery store speakers, no twinkling lights on street poles, and certainly no falling snow. But all those cozy and fun […]
Cold November Rain/Warm Diplomatic Parties
It was a cold and rainy November in Algiers, but the dreariness was lifted with some cozy diplomatic parties, including the annual Marine Ball.
Algiers Living Room Reveal
Hello from Algiers! After three trips to Michigan in the past four months, my cancer scare ordeal is over and behind me. The biopsy from the last surgery on my cervix revealed no cancer and do disease of any kind. I arrived back to Algeria a week ago, and have been getting re-acclimated (melatonin has […]
Weekend Trip to Tipaza
Adam and I talked this week about how every Foreign Service Officer posted abroad is having a not normal tour and will forever look back at this time as say “Oh, that was my corona tour” as an excuse for why she didn’t see much of France/Kazakhstan/Nicaragua/Senegal, or wherever the posting is. No exception here […]
From Snow to Sun, Another Return to Algeria
Happy Valentines Day from Algiers! Yes, I’m back home in Algeria and it feels good. We have nothing specifically romantic planned for the day. But it does feel holiday-ish because while Sunday is normally the start of the work week, we have today off for President’s Day. I’m spending the day getting dosed with sunshine […]
A Cancer Scare
A few weeks after we arrived back in Algiers, we had settled back into our routine: Working from home Sunday-Thursday, an hour of early evening exercise, shaking up an ice cold gin martini at 7, making dinner, kitty cuddles and TV before bed, socializing with a few friends on the weekends. In the midst of […]
Best of 2020
2021 was supposed to be the new year/fresh start we all hoped for, but so far it’s pretty shit. Here we are with the coronavirus still lingering (but a vaccine, yay!); still working from home; I just received pretty bad personal news (more on that when I’m ready to share it); and then what happened […]