In front of the Chinggis Khan statue, Mongolia This is my 100th post to this blog. Two Vegetarians in Mongolia turns two today, as well. I'd like to thank everyone for following our lives these past two years. I was hoping to be writing this post in Mongolia, but of course we are still stuck … Continue reading Traveling while female
Return to Asahikawa, Part 2
After two days touring around Asahikawa and seeing some of its most famous spots with my friend Yumiko, we were dropped off at the Asahikawa Art Hotel for two more days of independent tourism. I chose the Art Hotel because I remembered it vaguely, though I think it had gone by the name Palace Hotel … Continue reading Return to Asahikawa, Part 2
Return to Asahikawa, part 1
View from the Art Hotel When I was 29, I went to Japan to teach English, as people do. I hadn’t really taught before, just informally tutored people who were trying to learn English, through a community program in Boston. But I got hired by an English language school called Nova, and they were sending … Continue reading Return to Asahikawa, part 1
Grief redux
Photo by Iewek Gnos on Unsplash Trigger warning: This post discusses the death of a child. As I sit here, I’m heartbroken. Torn apart. It’s been a rough week, what with Beirut blowing up and all. And the mess we’re in. But today I read something a friend of mine had written, and I am devastated. My heart … Continue reading Grief redux
Into the light of day
Photo by Bima Rahmanda on Unsplash One of the things I’ve been wanting to write about is why the work I’ve been doing at Mongolia International University has so meaningful to me. People have told me, “You can do better.” But it depends on what you mean by better. What I really want at this point in my … Continue reading Into the light of day
Realizing what we’ve lost
Really, she's photo bombing. Start of school, 2018 It’s August now, and usually I/we start to think of the coming school year. I took July “off.” I wrapped up the sale of our house, did some administrative stuff (you never realize how many people and organizations have your address until you move, especially when you … Continue reading Realizing what we’ve lost
An origin story
The only photo of the four of us (my brother had not yet arrived), Thanksgiving 2006 I realized the other day that traveling runs in my family. I took my first international trip before I was three years old, to visit family in Switzerland. But my mother, the reason for that trip, had also traveled … Continue reading An origin story
The bureaucracy post
Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash There are other things I wanted to write about more than this, but bureaucracy blew up in my life yesterday. I hope it’s nothing I can’t fix, and it’s nowhere near as serious as bureaucratic problems other people have, but it’s become a definite theme in our lives right now. There are … Continue reading The bureaucracy post
Saying goodbye to our house
We said goodbye to our house on Friday, July 10. It wasn’t going to be ours anymore, so we wanted to see it one more time when it still was. We had been saying goodbye in one way or another since we’d gotten back from Mongolia last July. We knew we only had one more … Continue reading Saying goodbye to our house
Pandemic Summer
Our patio We are now four months into our pandemic lives, counting from the time that California pretty much shut down in mid-March. It has “opened up” again, at least in some ways, and some people have gone back to life as close to usual as they can make it. Emma and I have continued … Continue reading Pandemic Summer
