Living a life without borders.
Train Street I took a Grab taxi (the online app common throughout Asia for transportation) to Train Street which is near the Old Quarter in Hanoi. I’ve seen pictures on the internet depicting a vibrant communal area filled with vendors, restaurants, and tourists living and interacting in the midst of an active train track running …
Continue reading "Hitting the pavement in Hanoi (Train Street-Old Quarter…)"June 15, 2022 (Wednesday) To my surprise, I had no issues when I arrived in Hanoi International Airport. It might have been because it was 12:30 AM and/or we were the last plane arriving, but I was grateful for the smooth transition. Moving through the Visa processing line was simple and unobtrusive. I even received …
Continue reading "Hello Hanoi!"The year 2022 continues that gnawing feeling of uncertainty born in the pandemic nightmare of 2020 and 2021. My planned Sri Lanka six week trip with Plan My Gap Year (PMGY) for the purposes of volunteering to teach English crumbled under global pressures; particularly the escalating Russian-Ukrainian war. For months, I watched Sri Lanka devolve …
Continue reading "Sri Lanka Crumbles-Vietnam’s Door Swings Open"For the past two years, I have been searching for my next “Thailand teaching adventure”. We are all well aware, the COVID pandemic pushed the pause button on mine and everyone else’s travel plans. Instead of feeling depressed or sorry for myself, this global catastrophe made me even more focused and goal orientated on finding …
Continue reading "Plan My Gap Year (PMGY)"Critical Teaching Question: What do you do if you see one (or more) of your 10th grade students inside of Victoria’s Secret while shopping for your wife’s birthday present? Response: I never thought I would have to answer the above listed critical teaching question until it happened to me. Student-teaching, discussions with peers, the induction process, …
Continue reading "A life lesson learned through a trip to Victoria’s Secret"Teaching can be a soul wrenching existence. Not the most positive way to start a blog post, but this 2021-2022 school year has been like a school yard see-saw. On one side sits the plethora of blissful moments and on the other, the dark abyss of negative interactions. The negative parent and student interactions seem …
Continue reading "A Teacher’s socio-emotional journey"Meydan Besiktas is the coolest hippest vibrant fun neighborhood we found while in Istanbul. It is located on the Asian side of the city and magically balances the traditional ancient architecture I came to expect in Istanbul with modern night life. Unlike Taksim Square, the throngs of mostly 20-30 year old hipsters crowded the narrow …
Continue reading "Meydan Beşiktaş–Istanbul’s nightlife mecca"Istanbul contains within its borders sights and sounds that are frozen in time. The people have managed to capture the grandeur of their rich history. My time in Istanbul was short lived, but I managed to visit places like Topkapi Palace, the Column of Constantine, the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sophia …
Continue reading "Top Destinations in Istanbul (Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar and more…)"Hopefully, after reading my past posts you now have a small clue that I love tattoo’s. About three weeks prior to leaving for Istanbul, I researched tattoo shops in and around the ancient city. Eventually, I came across Fine Line Tattoo. With the power of the internet at my fingertips, I perused the artist portfolio’s, …
Continue reading "Fine Line Tattoo (Istanbul, Turkey)"The first night in Istanbul, I decided to walk the neighborhood and being searching for night life opportunities within a two-mile radius of the Double Tree Hotel Topkapi. You are probably thinking to yourself, “Why don’t you just look on the internet for suggestions?” Trust me, I did, and quickly learned COVID had decimated the …
Continue reading "Grand Makel Hotel Roof Top Bar"