I drove to the garden store in Algiers the other day, and it was the first time in months I’ve driven more than a few kilometers. (Seriously, I last filled the tank in our car about 60 days ago and it’s still at least half full!) On the drive back, I was trying to figure […]
Category: Foreign Service
The Refreshingly Low-Tech Content Brought to Us by Quarantine
Quarantine Log: Day 38. I say 38 because it was that many days ago when Adam and I turned around en route to the Algiers airport and ditched our trip to Valencia. Cancelling a trip made shit real, but we still went in to the office for a few more days after that. But we’ve […]
Coral and Navy Guest Bedroom
There’s something about being at home all day every day that really makes one consider all the nooks and crannies of one’s home. So what better time than to style, photograph, and share some of the completed rooms in our Algiers house, amiright? When we moved in to our Algiers house in the heat of […]
We Had the Choice to Leave, but We’re Staying in Algiers
So things have changed a bit since my last post on the Coronavirus situation in Algeria. The number of detected Coronavirus in the country cases keeps rising – it’s currently at about 700 — and the mood feels different. Way fewer people on the streets, and about one-third of those I see are wearing face […]
An Algerian Kitchen Makeover
As someone who has lived in rentals or government-provided housing for the past 16 years, I know there’s only so much one can do about drab or ugly kitchen tile. And if you’re like me, a person who is in the kitchen a lot and also very into interior design, then bad tile really bums […]
Why Learning French is So Fun (For Me)
Have I mentioned how much I love French? I have never before had this much fun learning a language. Not in high school when I was the most consistently tardy, unmotivated, yet energetic student in Mrs. Belanger’s Spanish class; not when I did a seven-week Spanish immersion course at the Foreign Service Institute, or when […]
Best of 2019
My husband, inspired by Benjamin Franklin, tracks metrics about his life performance. Everyday, he records whether or not he accomplished certain goals, like drinking fewer than x number of alcoholic drinks, exercising, meditating, and much, much more. He’s been tracking all this DAILY for more than a decade. I’m much less of a tracker. Mostly […]
A Desert Party from a Magazine Spread
It’s officially the holiday season here in Algiers. Our Christmas tree is up, our house is aglow in twinkle lights, we are going to lots of parties and eating our weights in decadent foods. We are preparing to host our Fourth Annual Holiday Spirit Cocktail Contest Party in just a few short days and I’m […]
The Vulgarity of Learning a Language
It was near the end of our time in Rabat when I decided I’d make pillows out of the cool African mud cloth I’d bought in Marrakesh. I had a new sewing machine and I had the fabric. I just needed zippers and so I went in searching in the Rabat medina, a place that […]
Settling in to Life in Algiers
Hello readers! August was a slow blogging month but a fairly busy IRL month. I went home to the States for a nine-day visit with the family in Michigan, and then to Washington DC for a few days for good friend’s wedding. Adam stayed in Algiers for most of that, although he did fly to […]
