Friday Round-Up

Thanks to beautiful Neha, I discovered @RealityAbroad's weekly travel abroad chat last week. I had missed their talk about "home" and so I did my own post with my answers this past Tuesday. But this past Wednesday, I got to join in on their chat on "note to self": what you would tell your younger self before going abroad. I heard about some great experiences and interacted with interesting people! They have a chat every Wednesday at 12pm Eastern, so feel free to join in! Next week's chat is about "cultural baggage." (The questions are posted in advance on their facebook page each week if you want to prep in advance, but they are otherwise posted during the chat.) You can use this convenient setup to keep up with the chat.

This week on Andrea's blog, I talked about how I mentally prepared to move abroad a year and a half ago, and things I do even now to keep moving forward.

I'm in love with this arrangement. It's almost right outside my front door!

The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.
William Wordsworth

I feel like I've been extra moody lately, so then I see in contrast how important it is to be kind to others, even if there's not a reason to. I still hear "pay it forward" stories and am constantly inspired.

Inferno- I'm about halfway through this one. It goes back and forth between interesting recounts of certain parts of the war and really mundane information. All the personal stories are good to hear, but I admit I don't have a strong stomach for the gruesome stuff. It's hard to think about the necessary truths of war. I'm definitely learning things I never learned in school from this book, but we'll see if I'll end up remembering it later:)