I LOVE hiking. But something about hiking a VOLCANO just makes it that much more badass. I knew I wanted to get some solid hiking in during my three-month stay in Mexico City, and after hiking not one, but TWO volcanoes, [...]

It is so, so frustrating, especially as a “writer” to not be able to say what you want, or to have to speak so poorly. To be getting words or grammar wrong all the time. It’s exhausting having to use my brain so much to say something so simple. I found myself worrying that the foundation I have (the words and phrases and structures I’ve learned) is not strong enough to be building new grammatical structures and words and verbs on top of it. I wondered for a second: “Am I in over my head?”

I love quarantine.
No, I’m not kidding.
I’ve been enjoying my time off in quarantine so much that I requested to take another month of voluntary leave for August. I figured I may as well “round out the Summer,” enjoy the best of New England, keep carving out headway in the various projects I’m working on.
But the universe had other plans for me. Schedules were published for August and, as it turns out, I’m going back to work.

The first thing I noticed about Medellin, before I even arrived in the city, on the descent in el avion was how green it is. Mountains surround the city and the jagged lines of the lush, green peaks made me giddy with excitement. I thanked my lucky stars for my last minute decision to pack hiking shoes and vowed that I would spend some time in these vast acres of trees in my free time.
The morning of the hike I had to get up at the crackle of dawn. I was to meet the group at el Terminal de Transportes del Norte. North Station.

The force of the hangover I woke up with slapped me in the face. It was my fifth day in Munich, which by my calculations is exactly two nights too many to be spent at Oktoberfest.

Everything would have been fine, all my belongings still with me, this pit in my stomach nonexistent. Had I not taken that one wrong step.

I’m a flight attendant and writer. I write travel stories. I write funny posts about flight attendant pet peeves and (hopefully) useful travel tips.

So stepping into the arena to talk about racial justice may seem out of the blue and on-trend at best, and convenient at worst.

But it isn’t.

In light of the recent public incidents of the killing of black people, at the hands of both police and vigilantes, and in light of the protests sweeping the nation, I feel compelled to speak up loudly and from the heart. I stand with Black Lives Matter. I believe in equality in actions and not just in words.

I’ve officially been in Mexico for two weeks now. Living between Mexico City and the trunk of my car in Boston. The city is enormous. I’ve only seen a very little bit of it, but what I’ve seen I like very much. There is green space, good food for days, and I have felt completely safe thus far. But as with all changes, this one has not gone off without a hitch. Whatever my insta account may look like, it’s not all fun and games and gallivanting about. Things have been…interesting. For

6 ways to beat the social distancing blues that don’t involve getting drunk or binge-watching Netflix.

I’ve been reminiscing about travel a lot lately. It’s been such a huge part of my life in recent years and the absence of it now, in the times of Coronavirus, is certainly felt. I keep thinking of starting to plan a new trip, for when this is all over. Or to make some nostalgic blog post, sorting through adventures of the past for my Top Ten Trips. But rather than simply highlighting some awesome times, I figured better to provide something more useful. The lessons learned through these trips and adventures. Some tips and tricks for when we can get back out there. We may be sheltering in place now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we will be traveling again in the future.

My friend Michaella is a huge traveler, but somehow in all the years we’ve been friends, we had never taken a trip together. So we determined 2018 was the year, and President’s Day weekend was the perfect excuse for a long weekend girls’ getaway. We decided to head west to hike in the desert sun and escape Boston’s bitter cold and snowy winter. Here’s how our Arizona girls’ weekend went.