On Jordanian Hospitality

It’s not every day someone offers to find me a husband. But after two hours of conversation and a spectacular feast with a Jordanian host family, the mother assured me that if I ever came back to Jordan, I simply had to tell her my preferences she’d have a line of potential suitors waiting for me. Apparently being a “pretty American girl” with “great hair” makes me a hot commodity around these parts. So, I’ll be keeping that in my back pocket for the time being. (She was definitely mostly serious.)

On My First 26 Hours in the Middle East

I got into Jordan around 9:00 pm last night (Saturday) after leaving my house around 3:00 pm Friday. Since then, I’ve been going through cycles of exhaustion and inexplicable alertness, and I think it’s safe to say my circadian rhythm is as rhythmic as my regular rhythm (i.e. not at all). But I’m hopeful things will get on track tonight.

On the Importance of Good Weather

A Professor Abroad

Until the past couple of days, I hadn’t truly realized how much of this trip was contingent on nature cooperating. Overall, we’ve had outstanding luck. Admittedly, our photo tour of the northern lights was a blizzardy bust. But we got to see them the next night (if not take great photos), and for our trip to Lillehammer today, we couldn’t have asked for nicer weather.

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On Experiencing a Two-Hour Sunrise

A Professor Abroad

Light is a pretty big deal in Scandinavia. With its scarcity in winter and abundance in summer, the light here is much more a part of the culture and daily living than in any of the places I’ve lived.

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On Herding Cats

Maybe the title isn’t totally fair, but being responsible for the general well-being of 20 18-22 year-olds is definitely a new way for me to travel. And I think it’s at least partly contributing to my on-going sleep deprivation.

On Fika, or, Why I Wouldn’t Mind Being Swedish

A Professor Abroad

Fika: the Swedish (and Finnish) concept of having coffee (or tea, or hot chocolate, or lemonade) and probably a pastry or two. To be completed any time of day. Possibly more than once. Can be used as a noun or a verb. As in, “would you like to go out for fika?” Or just, “let’s go fika!”

This has been on my list of things-to-look-forward-to pretty much since I started planning the trip and learned this was a thing. It started with a post about Swedish cinnamon buns (Kanelbullar), then the ordering of a cookbook devoted exclusively to fika, and it pretty much snowballed from there.

I resisted the fika temptation after dinner last night – but only because I’d been up for roughly 36 hours and needed to get some glorious, glorious sleep. We left Spartanburg at 2:30 pm on Thursday, arrived in Stockholm at 2:10 pm on…

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On Preparing for Two Weeks Below Freezing

A Professor Abroad

At 4:30 this morning, my eyes opened of their own accord – for the second time in three days. But the crazy thing is, I’m not even mad about it. Because in about 12 hours, I’ll be departing with a group of 20 intrepid students on a trip I’ve been scheming up for more than a year. And I’m beyond stoked about it.

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