Red Frisbee

I gave my frisbee away today. It was the yellow one Case Boot gave me at his garage sale just before we moved to Madrid, the one with the hand-painted Garfield’s head on the back.My friend Kelly didn’t ask me for the frisbee or anything. I just gave it to her like a kid giving […]

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May 5th, 2005 | No Comments

Tsunami: How to Help

Many of us have been following the news about the tsunami disaster in Asia. If you’ve been wondering how you can help, here’s an article from the BBC with all the information you need, including an informative list of organizations who are already at work giving relief to the victims in Asia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4131881.stm

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January 3rd, 2005 | No Comments

M*A*S*H

Heather, age 6, is on the floor scooting plastic horses around the living room.
“Do do-do do do do doo” she sings, then tilts her purple horse back onto its hind legs and whinnies in her well-practiced horse voice.
She sings again, the same thing, “Do do-do do do do doo,” and this time the tune is […]

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October 26th, 2004 | No Comments

Road Trip Foods

My family had road trip foods.
These were the foods that sugared my brain between Saturday morning cartoons–a rainbow-colored parrot fluttering the screen, screeching, “Follow your nose, it always knows,” boys surfing delicious waves of sticky red juice, and giggling adolescents tumbling through forests of candy trees and eatable giraffes.
These were the foods I cried for […]

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October 10th, 2004 | No Comments

One of the Reasons I Moved to Europe Was Because I Knew I Wouldn’t Need a Car

I come from the land of cars, the Midwestern United States, where you’ll find a junkyard full of car culture oddities. On my grandfather’s farm, for example, I grew up believing it was not possible to check the mail at the end of his driveway without driving to get it in the car. Here’s another […]

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September 30th, 2004 | No Comments

Absentee Ballot for U.S. 2004 Elections

To any Americans living in Madrid like myself who have no idea what to do in order to request an absentee ballot for the upcoming elections, here’s an easy solution.
www.overseasvote2004.com
All you have to do is fill in a few forms on the site, and in about 5 minutes you’ll have a copy of the Absentee […]

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September 15th, 2004 | No Comments

The Way of the Chameleon

I recently worked in Amsterdam for a week. At the end of my second day at the office, I decided to go on Instant Messenger and see if any of my friends were online and in the mood to chat. I found one. Kelly, a friend of mine from Madrid.
We chatted for […]

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August 26th, 2004 | 1 Comment

De Nada

I got off the bus today with a few people, and one of the girls on the sidewalk in front of me dropped a white shirt from one of the bags she was carrying.
I grabbed the shirt from the sidewalk and caught up to her. In Spanish, I asked the girl if the shirt […]

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July 17th, 2004 | No Comments

Augustín and Paloma

Late Monday night I met a guy named Augustín. He was on our street asking for money.
It was coincidental because April and I and some of our friends had been talking that night about the people we all recognize on the street who ask for money.
Living in the city center, it’s an almost daily […]

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July 10th, 2004 | No Comments

Julie Stevens, Gelado Poster Child

Any traveler who has been to Italy will tell you the number-one attraction is not actually the Pantheon or Vatican City or the statue of David or the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Colosseum.
No. Actually, it’s not even old. It’s made every day. It’s not expensive. It only costs about […]

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July 1st, 2004 | No Comments