travel – Erica On Earth

I love flying and I don’t care how passé that makes me

I love it. I love all of it. There’s always some small part of me that’s watching from the shadows saying, “holy shit, this is cool. We’re doing it.” When I was walking a mile down a road in a Chinese city in manifestly inappropriate shoes to get to an international terminal with the baking heat reducing me to a puddle, there was still that part of me, that little girl from Nowhere, Georgia who was elated to be there.

for the barefoot dreamer-

As years pass by and I grow older, I look back at my upbringing with less and less of the anger and shame that I carried with me throughout my adolescence. I am grateful to come from a class of people who work hard and who have clear convictions about right and wrong (we will…

Why China?: The Inappropriate Response I Never Give at Parties.

People often ask me, why Beijing? I never have a good answer that fits well into that particular politely interested slot of the conversation. Here is the impolite, outsized answer.

Home is Where the Cats Are: Cats in Rome

Rome is a fascinating city full of thousands of years’ worth of history but, the hours and days you spend walking among those ghosts can leave you feeling a bit cold. The cure is to be found at Torre Argentina. Here among the ruins where Julius Caesar met his end, Rome’s feral cat population is protected and adored by all. Walk in and snuggle with any of the cats completely disinterested in you.

From Zero to Roman Food Snob in Hours

I came to Rome full of the best intentions. I had itineraries and back up itineraries. I memorized the train system and my requisite five words of Italian to communicate to locals that I did not speak Italian but grazie, grazie, grazie. And, of course, when you come to Rome you must see the big…

On love, aimlessness, and people-watching in Paris

The joie de vivre soaks into you the more you let it. I found myself today, for perhaps the first time in my life, wandering with no real idea of where my feet were taking me. I have lived for so long with the words, “move with a purpose” essentially tattooed across the backs of my eyelids that this careless degree of meandering was as foreign to me as the pursed-lipped French being euh’d all around me.

The Controversy of the Au Pair

The term ‘au pair’ translates to ‘at par.’ Less opaquely, it means ‘as equal to.’ This indicates the unique place the au pair is expected to play in the family. Unlike the traditional domestic help, the au pair is meant to be considered a member of the family.

In Defense of Loneliness

We’re currently living through the #solotraveller trend. People today, especially millennials, are choosing more and more frequently to make travel a priority no matter what. The issues and benefits of this phenomena are often spoken about on a socio-economic level but rarely do we speak about one personal consequence of this priority-making. People who make…

Sipping Time: Tea in Sichuan Province

The steeping of the tea and watching the tea settle in the glass are a vital part of enjoying it here on this mountain in Sichuan province, thousands of miles away from my world of to-go cups.