Category: Uncategorized

  • 2022 Year in Review: Favorite Books

    2022 Year in Review: Favorite Books

    My reading wrap up for 2022! Similar to last year’s post, I’m listing my favorites as inspired by The Stacks podcast hosted by Traci Thomas. I read from February 1 – Jan 31 so this post is late, but not as delayed as you might think (I say as I justify finalizing a 2022 post…

  • 2022 Year in Review: Favorite TV Shows

    2022 Year in Review: Favorite TV Shows

    Another year of great tv to peer pressure people into watching! So lets goooooooo (in no real particular order) — Favorite TV Shows of 2022: Better Call Saul Season 6 (AMC / Netflix): Reservation Dogs Season 2 (Hulu): Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max): Severance (Apple TV+): Peaky Blinders Season 6 (Netflix): Abbott Elementary (Hulu):…

  • “Behind These Gates Moans the Earth”: The Salaspils Memorial Ensemble, Latvia

    “Behind These Gates Moans the Earth”: The Salaspils Memorial Ensemble, Latvia

    TW: This post describes the former Nazi Labor and Internment Camp outside of Riga where thousands were held prisoner and murdered during the occupation of Latvia from 1941 – 1944.  While visiting the Baltic countries last fall, my friend Bri (of the lovely Home Base Belgium) and I planned a number of stops at a…

  • 2021 Year in Review: Favorite TV Shows

    Another year of mostly staying at home=another year of consuming a ton of television! Inspired by Emily VanDerWerff over at Vox, I wanted to compile a list of my favorite tv shows of 2021, although focusing more on why I loved them rather than the intense (self-imposed) pressure to put them in rank order. “So…

  • 2021 Year in Review: Favorite Books

    My favorite hobby–and thankfully one of my responsibilities as a librarian technician–is researching and reading allthebooks. This year I wanted to share a few different reflections of my overall favorite books of 2021, although you can skip to the bottom of the post for my list of top reads. Last year I started using StoryGraph…

  • 2021 Year in Review: AllThe[Travel]Things

    Oh 2021. A year filled with uncertainty and also–almost bewilderingly at times–hope. After moving from Hungary to Germany in late 2020, we spent the majority of the new year in lockdown (or some version of it) until the summer. Thankful for these protective measures even if it meant being a little bored at times–both things…

  • Celebrate the Legacy of Dr. King

  • Wandering an Abandoned Soviet City: Szentkirályszabadja, Hungary

    Located near Veszprém and close to Lake Balaton is the abandoned city of Szentkirályszabadja (pronunciation here). About a 45 minute drive from our house, my friends and I visited “Hungary’s Chornobyl” on a sunny afternoon in 2020. One of many abandoned Soviet sites in the country, the largest ghost town in Hungary was a once-bustling…

  • “War Never Again”: Westerplatte, Poland

    During our days at nearby Gdańsk, Poland, we visited Westerplatte [pronunciation in German and Polish here –phonetically sounds like “Ves-ter-plat-a” with a hard t and soft a vowels in Polish], a short drive from the city. The Battle for Westerplatte took place here on September 1st, 1939 — one of many during the Battle of…

  • “The World is my Imagination”: Gdańsk, Poland

    I absolutely can not believe it has been TWO years since we visited Poland’s northern city of Gdańsk. Two. Years. How is time so slow yet going by so quickly? A post for another day. I’ve mentioned in previous posts of my struggle to publish anything travel related last year and now in 2021; thank…