Tag: Featured
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Germany & Me: Getting Back with Your Ex
When I moved to Germany a year ago, I was equal parts nervous and excited. Nervous because I was leaving the friends and community that I’d made in Portugal, starting a new job, and, for the first time, moving with a partner rather than moving alone. (Although that last part doesn’t seem like something to…
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Writing, Wrap Ups, and The Thing
It’s been almost six months since I posted on this blog. And it’s been even longer than that since I tried to write something. When I say “write,” I mean really write. My own writing, not just the writing I get paid to do. In February of last year, my writing motivation took a huge…
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COVID Life in Portugal
Last night I got to do what so many of my American friends cannot, and it’s unclear when they will be able to again: I sat in a large theater and listened to an orchestra. The theatre reminded me of a sparse lecture hall because people were so spread out. Everyone wore masks, including those…
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Health and Language Barriers during COVID
On a gloomy August morning, I walked to a public Portuguese clinic armed with my EU residency card, a screenshot of Portuguese Immigration saying my expired card had been temporarily extended, and a letter from Finanças (the Portuguese IRS) confirming my third address change in one year. My purse held prescriptions for several different antibiotics. I…
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Shakespeare Wrote King Lear During the Plague: Quarantined in Portugal
When the Western world started to slowly work its way into mandatory quarantine, I saw this meme posted on Facebook: “Shakespeare wrote King Lear while he was quarantined for the plague.” My email inbox filled with essays about how to channel your quarantine boredom into a creative output. The BBC published an article about how…
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Dating in Bangkok and Portugal: From Salsa to Guacamole
When friends back in Asia ask me what the dating scene is like in Portugal, I don’t know what to say. Fine? Active? Normal? It’s not that I don’t see a difference between dates in Bangkok and dates in Porto–I definitely do. It’s more that I didn’t know how to describe it. Then a friend posted…
The Wandering Writer 