A Thing For Wor(l)ds

I’m not exaggerating when I say that every Spaniard I met during my year abroad complimented my Spanish. Wait, don’t roll your eyes and stop reading! Hear me out! At first I was elated. I thought, after two weeks of being in that country, ...Read More

My friend Cati had this drawing posted on her fridge. She said she got it from a Mexican restaurant that was handing out these pictures for kids to color. What?!? When I was a kid we never got anything so inappropriately amazing (or amazingly ...Read More

Many times in Granada I would sit by myself and read or people-watch in my favorite plaza. It was always full of Granadino families, the kids racing around while their parents shared a beer. Most times I sat close enough to the bar tables ...Read More

I was cleaning out my room the other day, as my mom jumps on me to do every few summers or so, and found one of my favorite cards that I had long forgotten about. I used to work at the Fairfax Movie Theater ...Read More

Speaking of language, sometimes words are used in some pretty appalling ways. Normally by politicians, to nobody’s surprise. By now you might be familiar with Missouri Congressman Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape.” This is one of those instances when you shouldn’t use a ...Read More

When I first got to Granada I noticed a startling phenomenon. People were saying “tío” and “tía” in almost every sentence, which I learned in school to mean “uncle” and “aunt.” I thought to myself, what is wrong with this country? Why is everyone ...Read More

I would really like to be a writer, maybe for magazines or newspapers or press releases or even books, but I often get discouraged by my relatively small vocabulary. Maybe it’s because I re-read Harry Potter too many times instead of moving on to ...Read More