I'm leaving for the airport in eight minutes and I figured I'd take the chance to update my blog before I left. I'm leaving for the Peace Corps in South Africa. I'll be spending the next few days in staging in Philadelphia and then getting on the plane to Johannesburg. I'll keep this blog updated as often as I can; however, I may not have access to the internet until mid-October.

There were times I hated dragging my camera around Europe, getting it out to take pictures, adjusting the settings, and putting it away. But I was going through my photos today and I realized how much they convey. You can do a Google search on any of the places I visited and find photos of the same subjects I took (most of them probably much better), but by showing them to people, I can convey

[Photos from Cambridge] I spent my last day in England in Cambridge. It's essentially a university town, but it was far more touristy than I had expected. For every distinguished medieval college, there were four blocks of souvenir shops and restaurants. I toured Trinity College, where, as you are subtley reminded by the apple tree and prominent statue in the church, Isaac Newton lived and

[Photos from Stratford-upon-Avon] Unfortunately England's rail system doesn't quite have the organization or obsessive proliferation of, for example, Germany's. Thus, the trip from Bath to Stratford-upon-Avon took considerably more time than one would have guessed by looking at a map. However, I did make it there for the matinee showing of Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It was a

[Photos from Bath] I'm sitting on the grassy banks of the River Avon in the Bath Gardens Park for which, after flashing my student ID card, I had to pay only some sixty pence to get in. I can't imagine what educational value it's meant to have, unless it is the lesson that this side of the river, with its deck chairs and shady trees, is much more comfortable than the free side of the river where

[Photos from London] The pace of the city was both exuberant and exhausting. Or maybe it just felt that way because I tried to cram absolutely everything into the four days I spent there. I visited the Tower of London, went on a bankside Shakespeare walk and saw The Winter's Tale at the Globe; I did the "Darkest Victorian" walk in Southwark; I saw the British Library, the British Museum, the

[Photos from Bruxelles] After Amsterdam, I spent an afternoon wandering around Bruxelles, waiting for my Eurostar (chunnel) train to London that evening. I'm glad I took the time to see it because the square in the city center was the most beautiful I've seen: tall narrow buildings, side by side, with dark baroque facades and golden decorations. Though the architecture was similar to Amsterdam's

[Photos from Amsterdam] I both love and loathe Amsterdam with about equal fervor. Amsterdam is a beautiful, liberal, open-minded, historically rich city. Unfortunately, it also seems to set a new standard for sheer seediness. I like history. Not the dates, theories and memorisation endemic to history classes, but the stories and people and contexts. And for that I really enjoyed Amsterdam. It

[Photos from Rothenburg] I only stayed in Munich one night; I took a train to Rothenburg the next morning. Rothenburg is a 15th century walled German town and one of the principal stops on the Romantic Road leading from Fussen (near Munich) to Frankfurt. It was once a major East-West North-South trading intersection and was home to 6,000, apparently making it the second-largest city in the

[Photos from Dachau] I boarded a night train in Prague headed to Munich. Or so I thought. Apparently, I'd gotten on the wrong car because when I woke up the next morning, the train was pulling into Frankfurt Hbf. I wasn't too surprised. I figured that I'd have to make a mistake on the trains at least once on this trip and this was easy to fix. I just boarded the next train to Munich and was

[Photos from Prague] Everyone kept saying, "Go to Prague. Go to Prague." I would ask, "What's exactly in Prague?" They'd shrug and say, "Just go there." So I did. I'd expected it to be somewhat like Kiev. Both are old medieval cities struggling to overcome their years under communism. But Prague was nothing like Kiev -- not on the surface at least. Prague was exuberant, bursting with energy and

[Photos from Vienna] I've met a number of travellers who seem to only find the negative everywhere they go. Naturally, I resolved not to be like them. It's not always easy. Sometimes the cultural differences are vast enough that you really can't understand or appreciate a city in 2 or 3 days. Vienna was one of those cities for me. Vienna doesn't have the obvious attractions of a city like Rome,

[Photos from Venice] Venice is a fairy-tale city, too impractical and paradoxical to exist in this world. And yet the power of our belief in it (in the form of our tourist dollars) anchors it to this plane. As I walked through the quaint alleys and sculpted bridges, I couldn't help but think: This isn't real. People don't live like this. The real Venetians live on the mestre, leading typical

[Photos from Florence] It was my second night in Florence and the sun was starting to set as I walked back from the Uffizi to my hostel near the train station. The clouds were outlined in thick silver; the reflected light danced shimmering and white over the cobblestone streets. Florence is beautiful by day with its medieval buildings, marble and stone churches and statues practically littering

[Photos from Vatican City] After being so astounded by the ruins of ancient Rome (the second day I went to the ruins of Ostia and visited the National Museum), the Vatican really couldn't have been anything but a let-down. I think I was also harboring some resentment toward the early Christians. Rome had its share of problems and cruelties and would have fallen with or without their help.

[Photos from Rome] [Photos from Ostia Antica] I don't think I really believed in the ancient Romans until I saw the Forum. They were relegated solely to history textooks and Hollywood movies. But then I was walking down into the ruins, taking some pictures of the freestanding columns and crumbling walls as I read along in my guidebook and then the guidebook suddenly said: Oh, by the way, the

[Photos from Barcelona] I took the 5 hour train ride from Madrid to Barcelona last Friday. By then I had the rather angry sunburn from Toledo and a cold. Everyone gets sick when they first travel, so I wasn't surprised and the timing could have been worse. I didn't have much planned for Barcelona anyways; I was just determined to be back to normal before Rome. I got into Barcelona that

[Pictures from Toledo] I got 15 minutes of free internet with the 10 euros I paid to do my laundry (Rome is so expensive!), so lets see how much I can type. (Already I cant find the apostrophe key on the keyboard -- but theres no time for that, moving on...). Here is my journal entry from Toledo... Advice when going to Toledo: either (1) buy a good map--one that labels all the streets and

[Pictures from Madrid] First of all, the keys are in all the wrong places on this keyboard. Every time I try to do something fancy like hit the shift key, crazy things happen. Be warned. Anyways, Madrid. It´s hard to encapsulate a city into one neat description, so I´m not even going to try. Here´s what I can tell you: hot, not humid or dry, just hot; interesting architecture, very old,

Answers from the long-anticipated season finale: Will I actually finish my project at work or will I pass it on in a confused, unfinished state to next year’s AmeriCorps Youth Program Coordinator? Well… I did finish it. Mostly. The process of trying to document how you do your job so that someone else can come in and pick it up is difficult. Especially when your daily routine hinges on whether

Some people say their lives are like movies. I’ve always found mine to be more like a TV show: separate events linked together by longer plot arcs, all coming to a head in sweeps month. My season finale will be this Friday, which is my last day at the Red Cross. I’m finishing projects I’ve been working on all year, I’m packing up both at work and at home, and I’m saying good-bye to new and old

After getting back from Vancouver, it hit me that I had less than a month before I left for Europe and I hadn’t bought any rail passes or reserved anyplace to sleep. So, I spent the entirety of last weekend sitting at the dining room table with a laptop, guidebooks spread out everywhere. It ended up taking a lot longer than I expected, partly due to the fact that I’m going to be spending most of

My mom and I flew up to Vancouver last weekend to visit her family. Well, my family, too – though once they remembered that I was American (I think my flat Californian accent gave me away), they were naturally much less eager to claim me. I was born in Maryland. When I was one, and colicky, as my parents keep reminding me, we moved to Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. We moved back to California

Choosing a title is hard. You want something catchy and original that encompasses everything you’re trying to say, but doesn’t have any unwanted connotations. The more I dwell on How Shall I Live, the more it sounds like a pretentious histrionic (How ever shall I live?) or a reality TV show (How shall I live? Call 1-800-xxx-xxxx and press 1 for…). I really meant it to be as much of a

My friend Matt, known in some circles as Mr. geography.about.com, just posted this week's quiz and--guess what?--it's all about South Africa. Be warned, though! His quizzes are notoriously difficult and guaranteed to challenge even the best geographical minds. I for one am just hoping the Peace Corps doesn't find out that I only scored 20%... they might revoke my invitation.