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 […]
Welcome to the first blog post on The Next Dinner Party. You’re at the same old blog, more or less, on which I have been posting since 2012. Back then I called my blog Yemen Em. Then it was The Dame in Spain. Most recently it was Em in Jerusalem. If I were to continue […]
After spending a week at the artists’ retreat in France, my writing buddy Chris and I drove to the Mediterranean Spanish town of Cadaqués to meet Mr. Em in Jerusalem for a few days. Cadaqués is in the Catalonia region of Spain, on the Costa Brava. And oh my goodness, if you’re a Spain-lover like […]
Every grocery store here seems to have “Super” in its name, like Super Deal or Super Sol. I don’t read Hebrew, so I’ll just go ahead and assume the grocery store closest to my apartment is called Super Sad because everyone in it wears a frown and if it was sunny when I entered the store, nine times […]
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) […]
This summer is off to a busy start. With house guests, trips, and another residency for NYU’s Paris Writer’s Program, I’ve been neglecting this blog, and I’m sorry. I’m currently in Paris, hearing from famous authors such as Zadie Smith and Lydia Davis and generally pinching myself each day. While I’m trying to be present […]
…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 not easy being a vegetarian foodie in Spain. Or at least, it’s not all that fun. In terms of veg options, most restaurants feature the same players: Tortilla, pimientos padrones, salmorejo (minus the ham), salad with goat cheese, a grilled veggie plate. These dishes are all perfectly yummy, but after the twentieth time eating […]
1. Have a big accomplishment right before your birthday Load your schedule in such a way that you’ll be done with a big project right before your big day. I turned in this semester’s last packet of writing for my creative writing graduate program and I had an article published on Slate about my great-grandmother’s […]
I’ve said previously that I am no fan of running. But if I really remind myself of it, it’s true that I’ve been a reluctant runner at various points in my life. There was that time in college when I had a dog and ran up stairs to the mostly abandoned East Campus at Western […]
The Next Dinner Party 