A Pinked Mountain View

Guys!  Canadaland is SO MUCH BIGGER than this little tiny thumbprint  section I claim as my own.    Yeah, yeah, yeah.  No duh.  But for all my criss-cross-apple-sauce of the continent, I’ve only ever been in one Canadian airport: Vancouver. I’ve driven into Alberta, yes, and poked my head into Ontario 15 years ago, but all…

One of the things I’m learning to love about living in the Pacific North West: road-trip-ability. By crossing into the USA (patriotism win!) and sailing down the I-5 past Seattle (in between traffic jams) and detouring onto the famed US-101 (canopied in green),  we found ourselves in Cannon Beach, Oregon. At first, I wasn’t overly…

I filled my Civic to overflowing, squeezed my family, and started off on The Great Adventure of a roadtrip honeymoon.  I was relying on technology to keep my friendships alive across the continent. I was massively homesick.  I was culturally mugged. I was ridiculously lonely. Two years have passed now.  I begin my third year…

Arizona has been long cherished in my heart of hearts:  the huge sky gives my soul room to breathe, the morning birds sing a familiar only-in-African tune, the year-round wall of warm air outside every door is delightful.   My college roommate lives in Phoenix.  My brother lives in Tucson. My cheerleader-adopted-mom lives in Yuma….

John arrived home promptly at 530pm, as promised. Dark had already fallen over the city and the neon lights had begun twinkling on. I say twinkling. I mean booming. With the flip of the clock from “daylight” to “nighttime”, Nantong transforms from a respectably gray-and-brown-built city to its truly inspiring red-and-orange-and-purple-and-yellow technicolor glow. With that…