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Go to Palm Springs, they said. It will be 75 and sunny, they said. Steps off plane into 98 degree sun and melts Don’t complain, I tell myself. It freezing at home, this feels so great * Skin searing; eyes burning* Okay, maybe a bit dramatic, but to say the least I was not prepared for a week of hot-hot after months of bitter cold…a girl needs time to acclimate!  My aunt and uncle picked my cousin and I up from the airport, which I thought looked like a movie set. It’s mostly

The cuisine in Puglia is called peasant cooking (cucina povera). The staples are olive oil, grapes, tomatoes, eggplants, artichokes, peppers, salami, mushrooms, olives and fresh seafood. We have had some amazing food and wine, not having eaten out, but from meals cooked using the ingredients from the markets. Some may find it inconvenient that if a vegetable, herb, or fruit isn’t in season or cannot grow in the region, that you just won’t be able to get it. I think it should

Our flight from Amsterdam to Rome was delayed two hours and while we were waiting in line to board, a couple behind us saw the SOU Alumni sticker on my water bottle and asked if we were from Oregon. We discovered they were from Eugene and both University of Oregon graduates. They were traveling through France and Italy, and we spent the rest of the wait in line talking to them about their travels. They were the first people we have met from Oregon since we have left, and it w

Arriving in Barcelona was like entering new world. It was so different from where we were coming from, but only just a few hours away. We took a high speed train from Malaga, it was such a comfortable ride and a lot less of a hassle than a flight. I’m becoming very anti-plane if we can help it. Not only the comfort but since we have to pay for baggage with every single flight, the cost is usually the same or a little bit more. If the flight is 35 euro and baggage is 20 and th

It feels as though I have been put through the spin cycle…twice, but we made it to Colmenar in one piece. The flights here were pretty horrific, I grossly underestimated the amount of food we would need/want and overestimated the amount of hours of sleep I thought we would get. Also, it didn’t help that our long flight from PDX to JFK was not-so–conveniently broken up into two flights on the same plane…a.k.a no in flight meal (not even pretzels!!). Needless to say I was quite