Loading ...My on-the-road anxieties have been eased by this one important mantra. Call it zen, call it what you will, but there is something utterly freeing about the reality that life is sometimes beyond your control and that you just have to let things go.
An illustration: Back in December, I was on a plane from […]
Author Archives: Bren - Colby College
Travel Lesson #7: Go with the Flow
May 27, 2008 - 4:30 pm
Posted in reality
Comments (0) David Cook is ABSOLUTELY Deserving as the American Idol!
May 22, 2008 - 11:30 am
Let’s face it, American Idol might have had a few suspect contestants (Sanjaya) and a few unsuccessful winners (Taylor) but, this seventh season, the show absolutely got it RIGHT. I have been following the season from remote Colombia and even from South America I know real talent when I see it. David Cook […]
Posted in reality, buzz
Comments (2) $17,000 for Bed Rest? No Way!
May 12, 2008 - 4:30 pm
In order to understand the effects of anti-gravity on astronauts, NASA is willing to pay $17,000 to participants in a 120-day bed rest study. As a study subject, you are to be confined to a downward tilted bed for 90 days of this time. That would be quite a rush of blood to […]
Posted in buzz, news
Comments (0) The Crisis in Myanmar
May 8, 2008 - 1:30 pm
I landed in Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar, a very ignorant young woman. I knew nothing about the country, so you can imagine my surprise to learn that the men wore skirts, the women have yellow powdered circles on their cheeks, and that the country has NO ATM’s at all — and that […]
Posted in reality, news
Comments (0) Travel Lesson#6: Travel Light
April 28, 2008 - 9:30 am
Before I leave the house and head to the airport, I say goodbye to my one true companion: my seven-year-old pug Iris. I give her a big kiss on the cheek and squeeze her until she makes a huffy sound. “I love you, Iris,” I say to her. “You be a good […]
Posted in reality
Comments (1) Things Aren’t Like They Used to Be
April 27, 2008 - 10:00 am
It’s as vivid today as it was when it happened five years ago: Chris and I bodysurfing on an abandoned beach just outside of Acapulco and Stephanie looking at us with wonder from the shore. He and I would get slammed, and slammed again, then come up smiling from sand-filled ear to water-logged ear. […]
Posted in reality
Comments (3) Spam Musubi: A True Hawaiian Delicacy
April 26, 2008 - 4:30 pm
I once wrote an acrostic poem about my love of spam that went something like this:
Salty slab of not quite bacon —
Pig flesh so curiously pink,
Are you ever not on my mind,
Mocking my every taste bud?
I take comfort in the fact that I can buy a spam musubi from any 7-Eleven in Honolulu. If […]
Posted in body
Comments (0) There’s No Easy Way to Travel Writing Heaven
April 17, 2008 - 11:30 am
I’ve been on the road in Colombia for a month now and, believe me, the thought has crossed my mind to “cheat” a bit and just finish the job in the quickest way possible. I’m getting paid only $25 a day to research and write about hotels, restaurants, and activities for what? […]
Posted in reality
Comments (2) Travel Lesson #5: Beasts of Burden
April 14, 2008 - 9:30 am
There are some things you can live with and others you can live without. Seasoned travelers learn to live without, and when they do they often find hospitable people that let them live with. Travelers have the burden of deciding what to take with them and what to leave behind. They carry […]
Posted in reality
Comments (1) Travel Lesson #4: Budget Your Money
April 11, 2008 - 9:30 am
Four months ago, I traveled to Colombia with an expired ATM card. Although I had planned my trip, considering where I would go, for how long, and how much I would spend, I just didn’t bother to look at my card’s expiration date.
With just a hundred bucks on me, I managed to get money […]
Posted in reality
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