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Cat taking a vacation. Well, at least that was what was supposed to run on the 26th, but due to my trip to a retirement village, the wilderness of the Grand Canyon and too much booze and gambling in Vegas, it never got published. Sorry. Hope you didn’t get too concerned for me (let’s be [...]

Between preparing for the DELE (more on that later) and enjoying a visit from my dear friend Lisa (my fifth visitor from America this year!), I never got around to writing about another big milestone: My four-year relationship with the Novio. Thankfully, Karen at Glottogon, a foreign language bookshop for kids, has impeccable timing. For [...]

When I made my little trip to Spain four years ago, I was determined to do what any expat does – immerse myself in the culture. Eat, breath and sleep flamenco, siestas and tapas. Then I realized I am just too American for that. Who says you can’t live in Spain and have your hot [...]

Life is all about winning and learning to lose, they say. How often did your mom tell you, “You win some, you lose some?” as you were growing up and learning how to cope with an oft scary, sometimes fair world. Life hands you lemons, or bureaucracy issues, or disappointments, or traffic jams, and you [...]

Dragging my gently worn suitcases outside, I hoisted 100 pounds of my life into to car. Four hours from that moment, after a quick lunch at Portillo’s and a long goodbye, I’d be on a plane bound for Madrid-Barajas with my grandmother, ready to reimmerse myself in Spanish life for two weeks before making a [...]

Leading with the biggest cliché of them all, it’s time I made you aware of the changes a-brewin’ in my life (that hasn’t already been spoiled by twitter). Stuff is going dooooooooooown, but it’s good stuff. This time, the sunshine is shining and my siestas are merited. After all, it’s back to school just as [...]

Way back four years ago, I made a list in a freshly-opened journal with an Old World Map on it. Underlining in black ink, the list read: Places to Go This Year. Ireland. Portugal. Morocco. the Netherlands. Germany. For someone hellbent on traveling to 25 countries before a birthday of the same age, I had [...]

Once upon a time, the object of my utmost affection was Spain. I loved her landscapes, her cuisine and the way she makes me feel me. You could say she wooed me six years ago, and that’s why I had to go back two years later. She’s been fairly good to me, too. But after [...]