June 2011

Postcard from Sydney Tower

Sydney is a gorgeous city, thanks to its idyllic harbor location and year-round sunny skies. However, you tend to soak it up at ground level: terraced houses in Glebe, the iconic Bondi Beach, in the streets of downtown Sydney. It wasn’t until I zipped up to the top of Sydney Tower until I realized just [...]

June 29, 2011 Continue reading…

Generation Y: travelers of taste?

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it, Rudyard Kipling once said. But perhaps we should add that the next condition is to taste it, to drink it. Food and travel are inextricably linked. You might be able to skip museums or avoid much interaction with locals, but at some point, [...]

June 28, 2011 Continue reading…

I believe in

I believe in libraries and secondhand book stores. I believe that travelling with someone can make or break a relationship. I believe in compromise. I believe that every person should have a passport, and that they should use it. I believe in taking risks. I believe in waking up with natural light, not an alarm [...]

June 25, 2011 Continue reading…

Postcard from Greece

In what seems like ages and ages ago, I made my first real-life friend via Twitter: you know, those people whose blog you fall in love with and with whom you engage in witty banter on Twitter, and then make that awkward-seeming online to offline transition. I discovered Where My Heart Resides via the Sacramento PR [...]

June 22, 2011 Continue reading…

Living abroad: it’s a hard-knock expat life

Some see the glass as half full, others see it as half empty…you see it and think, “let’s pour out the water and fill it with beer!” That was what the birthday card my grandma sent me said–and as I waver between my general optimism and a biting dose of realism, I’m tempted to just [...]

June 21, 2011 Continue reading…

My list of little expat joys

It may have been my dirty little travel secret, but now it’s out in the open that I prefer being an expat to being a traveler. I like being a regular. I like sleeping in my own bed. I like having a steady paycheck. It’s not exactly glamorous–when people ask me what I’m doing, I usually [...]

June 18, 2011 Continue reading…

Postcard of St Kilda Skies

With my birthday trip to Cairns quashed as a result of a Tiger Airways flight cancellation, I was forced to spend the long weekend ruminating the value of travel insurance at home in St Kilda. Despite the cold, the sun came out and gorgeous cloud cover dotted the brilliant blue sky: perfect for a bundled-up [...]