Travels

Arizona

  • Baja Arizona/Tucson: ASARCO Mine, Bisbee, Kartchner Caverns State Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, San Xavier del Bac, Titan Missile Museum, Tombstone, Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, Tucson, Tumacácori National Historic Park
  • Central Arizona/Phoenix: Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Gila Bend, Lost Dutchman State Park, McFarland State Historic Park, Mesa, Phoenix, Taliesen West, Tempe, Wickenburg
  • Colorado Plateau: Flagstaff, Glen Canyon Dam, Grand Canyon National Park, Homolovi State Park, Lees Ferry, Meteor Crater, Navajo National Monument, Petrified Forest National Park, Sunset Crater National Monument, Walnut Canyon National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
  • Rim Country: Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Fort Verde State Historic Park, Jerome, Montezuma Castle National Monument, Prescott, Red Rock State Park, Sedona, Tonto National Monument, Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, Tuzigoot National Monument, Verde Canyon Railroad
  • West Coast: Castle Dome, Dateland, Poston, Quartzsite, Yuma
  • Hikes: Keet Seel, Onyx Bridge, the Wave

International


Spain


United States

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5 Cuisines to Taste in Houston, Texas

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The city of Houston on the Gulf Coast of Texas is tightly intertwined with the three years I was able to spend living and working in Spain. As a resident of Texas, I was required to make the journey to the Spanish consulate in Houston to formally submit my application for a visa that would let me live in the country during the upcoming school year. But because I wasn’t able to renew my legal status during the summers I spent back home in Dallas, I had to return to Houston not once, but twice, to do the same thing, all over again. Safe to say, I got to know the Megabus route and the Hostelling International hostel fairly well.

These brief, bureaucratic business trips left much to be desired, apart from a visit to see a Saturn V rocket out on the bay. Yet this vast city (the fourth biggest in the U.S.) has one of the best restaurant scenes in the country, with multiple culinary influences all contributing flavors, ingredients, methods, and more. In fact, the greater Houston metropolitan…
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5 Ways to Speak Spanish Like a Spaniard

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If you’re like me, you’ve probably learned Spanish as it’s spoken throughout Latin America. Now, I know there is no one single standard Latin American accent, but there are a few things I’ve noticed when listening to Spaniards speak that distinguish them from Spanish speakers in, for example, Nicaragua or Argentina. Since living here for the greater part of a year, I’ve both consciously resisted and unconsciously picked up on many features of the typical Spanish accent. After thinking about it for a while, I’ve decided there are around five characteristics that most distinguish the Spanish of Spain from the Spanish of the Americas. These five sounds, when spoken in the Castilian way, will bring you much closer to sounding native.


1) Pronounce C before E & I and Z like TH In the Americas you’ll hear the words ciudad (“city”), cereza (“cherry”), and zorro (“fox”) pronounced as “see-oo-DAHD” [sjuˈðað], “say-RAY-sah” [seˈɾe.sa], and “SOE-rroe” [ˈso.ro]. However, in Spain, you’ll pick …
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22 Fun Facts About the Galician Language

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Read my Galician crash course here to get up to speed in the language.
Galician is a Romance language (i.e., from Latin) spoken by about 3 million people in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia. Although it’s most closely related to Portuguese—which is spoken south of the border—it shares many similarities with Castilian Spanish, including sounds and spelling.


If you’re planning on spending any time traveling or living in this unique corner of Spain, or walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that ends here, even a tiny knowledge of Galician will help you get around and navigate menus, maps, etc. If you happen to speak Spanish, you’re already 80% of the way to understanding Galician, and I’m serious! Getting a grasp on the grammatical and phonological differences will turbo boost you up to 90%.

To whet your appetite (both literally and linguistically), here’s a little selection from the Galician Wikipedia’s article on empanada, or meat pie:
Unha empanada é unha preparación cu…
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