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Blogging, Travel

Home for the Holidays (For The Last Time)

As a prone wander, it was still bittersweet to spend my last Christmas ever in the house that I grew up in. It’s true that I haven’t lived in the house since leaving for college, but it was still the house that my parents have called home for thirty four years and the only one that lives in my childhood memories. Alas, the time has come for them to move onto brighter…

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Latin America, Travel

Getting to Know My Host Family – Semester in Ecuador Part 5

This was the toughest installation of this series to recall yet as it brought up many food memories and emotions from Ecuador.  I will always remember the family that I was placed with in Ecuador quite fondly.  It was a blessing to be dropped into the midst of the love they all shared for each other and extended to me.  The Valverde-Orellana family is the reason that I had such a positive…

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Latin America, Travel

Travelers Dysentery – Semester in Ecuador Part 4

It was bound to happen – the dreaded traveler’s dysentery.  We had been warned.  It wasn’t if, but when.  Somewhere on our journey, something would infect us.  It could be an innocent glass of water that was not purified, an unsuspecting ice cube, a freshly squeezed juice, expired mayonnaise (they serve it with French fries), spoiled seafood.  Whatever the cause, we wouldn’t be able to prevent the days of stomach cramps, diarrhea,…

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Latin America, Travel

Experiencing Real Relaxation at Tabacon Springs in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

I was wrapped in a towel damp from my wet swimsuit.  It was raining, but I didn’t care.  The canopy above our outside bed kept us dry enough.  The rain actually accentuated the tropical environment that surrounded us – the lush green foliage, the rambling creeks, the birds cawing, the occasional volcanic rumble, the steam from the hot springs.  At Tabacon Springs, for the first time in a long time, I felt…

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Latin America, Travel

Daily Annoyances – Semester in Ecuador Part 3

Living in a foreign country is filled with daily annoyances until you learn to adapt.  Even some of the most mundane and basic of tasks are done completely different causing you to pause and think through a process that was second nature in your home country.  Sometimes, you never adapt and that one action will always make you think of home.  The bathrooms were a daily annoyance to me in Ecuador and…

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Latin America, Travel

Settling Into Class – Semester in Ecuador Part 2

I was infected by the travel bug as a junior in college on a study abroad program to Ecuador.  The adventure pushed me completely out of my comfort zone and caused me to challenge how and what I thought about the world.  I grew up somewhat spoiled as an only child enjoying comforts that most twenty-ones year olds didn’t.  Below are excerpts from the journal I kept as my conventions were challenged…

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Latin America, Travel

I Felt Like Indiana Jones – Semester in Ecuador Part 1

I was infected by the travel bug as a junior in college on a study abroad program to Ecuador.  The adventure pushed me completely out of my comfort zone and caused me to challenge how and what I thought about the world.  I grew up somewhat spoiled as an only child enjoying comforts that most twenty-ones year olds didn’t know.  Below are exerts from the journal I kept as my conventions were…

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Travel, Travel Tips

Bumps in the Road – What Have You Forgotten to Pack?

It’s embarrassing to admit.  I know.  But at the age of 35 I had never wet shaved.  I learned to shave with a hand-me-down electric razor from my father.  When it and subsequent razors wore out from my freakishly think stubble (my five o’clock shadow starts around noon), I just bought a replacement electric razor. The situation had only occurred once when the electric razor wouldn’t work due to the lack of…

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Europe, Travel

Favorite Moments – Rialto Bridge

I’ve written about travel moments in the past.  Very rarely did they have to do with the actual place that I was in, but more with a culmination circumstances.  The Duff Brothers could have been performing in any city.  It was the bar, the people, and the music that captured the travel moment.  The same with the pop band in Chiang Mai.  That band could have been playing in any international city. …

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Europe, Travel

The Truth About Venice

My wife and I sat in our room at the Westin Europa and Regina trying to plot out dinner plans over a bottle of Prosecco.  She manned the TripAdvisor app on our tablet, and I managed a few blogs on my phone and a myriad of tour books.  We wanted to find the perfect restaurant for that authentic Venetian meal.  The kind of place where we were the only tourists in a…

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