Originally posted Monday, November 21, 2011 Home. It’s a word with which I have struggled with unlike any other. Whenever people ask me where “home” is, I hesitate before answering. In the days before I left for Europe, while I was at our new “home,” I listened to Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me”… Read More Home – for a nomad on the loose
Originally posted Tuesday, January 28, 2014. It’s funny, isn’t it, how the way we view people and things change so much between the time we’re kids and when we’re adults? Or even year to year? How the way we remember people and events change along the way? Well, at least most people and things in… Read More Mr. Helmly, Revisited
Originally posted Monday, August 13, 2012 I didn’t need to open the letter. I could recognize that messy yet particular scribble as easily as I could the handwriting of my parents. I knew I had found Mr. Helmly. Nearly a year and a half ago, while I was still living in Montana, I posted about the… Read More Mr. Helmly Found
Originally posted on Thursday, April 21, 2011 When I first came to this country, I was a shy little kid who only spoke as many as 20 words in English and had the hardest time saying “Tuesday” and “cinnamon.” It’s very possible that if I hadn’t had Mr. Helmly as my teacher I would be… Read More The Search for Mr. Helmly
Originally posted Monday, March 26, 2012 Paris had always been that dream destination ever since I began taking French years ago, yet when I finally began planning to study abroad, I instantly rejected the idea of going to Paris. It was too cosmopolitan to really learn the language and too touristy to get a feel… Read More Paris: A Photo Journey in Autumn and at Christmastime
Originally posted on Friday, October 25, 2013 I call them kids, but they’re not really kids. A lot of them are my age or older. And I call them lost, except many of them are perfectly content as they are. I live in the Haight, a neighborhood in San Francisco that is somewhat known for… Read More The Lost Kids
I have arrived in Manchuria! Before I start snapping away, I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from past trips to China. I’m super excited to explore other parts of the extremely large country on this trip, including some areas that aren’t as frequently visited, especially by those in the West. Please bear… Read More My Favorite Snaps from China Trips Past
Originally posted Monday, April 9, 2012 China, communism, church and capitalism. Quick, which one doesn’t belong? A couple of decades ago, there would have been two answers, but since the seeds of capitalism began to sprout in the past decade, the only misfit that remains is the church. China is officially an atheist state, and… Read More A Church in China
Originally posted Monday, Nov. 12, 2012 Despite growing up only in large cities, I’ve always been fascinated with small towns. Small town America, in particular, is a very interesting concept to me. Although the majority of our country’s population lives in urban areas, the expansive rural areas dominate in land ownership. They are: quaint little… Read More Small Town America
Originally posted Wed. Oct. 17, 2012 I’m not a fan of driving, but I do a lot of it on my way to and from stories. Over the past month I’ve oft seen beautiful fall landscapes, but I couldn’t just stop and start snapping away while on deadline. Sometimes I certainly wish I did though;… Read More Autumn in Nebraska