Author: Mike

The city of Siena is surrounded by ancient walls dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries.  There are even older walls located in the inner (older) layers of the city.  Back in the day, walls were important for preventing your neighbor from entering your city with an army, lighting it on fire, and taking…

And just like that, the first chapter of life in Amsterdam has come to an end. We’re back to being a family that lives together in the same house, but I’ll admit that there is a bittersweetness to our regression to normal. Being together is decidedly better than not being together, but he experience of…

December 2016 and January 2017 have truly been all over the place. We completed The Italy-Netherlands-Colorado triangle forwards and backwards once again. It is admittedly exhausting, yet rewarding enough to make me want more. I love to see friends and family and how they (we) have all grown. It’s always great to breathe the air…

I am asked a lot of questions and my job requires me to respond to those questions.  I am supposedly knowledgeable about Italy and theoretically I have a pretty good idea on what it’s like to be an American in Italy. Students might give me and some of my colleagues a little too much credit.…

This is a deviation from the theme, yet obviously relevant.  Future posts will go back to the suggested theme. I often find myself, at times reluctantly, in the surreal position of unofficial American ambassador. My job requires me to construct metaphorical bridges between cultures everyday. I’m also just naturally interested in this kind of thing,…

We all get sick. It comes with the contract for being a human on the planet earth. You would think that our approach to illness would be a constant that doesn’t vary too much from one culture to another. To some extent, that is indeed the case as viruses and bacteria don’t really care what…

Here’s a familiar scene to anyone who has a child (and plenty of others who have ever spent time with a child). We’re at a park. A child, who we’ll call child A, is playing in the vicinity of other children. Among those other children is child B. Child A is a happy little two-year-old…

The American part of me always feels like I’m getting away with something when it’s time for vacation.  I can’t decide whether that’s a healthy feeling or not.  It’s no secret that Europeans allow themselves more vacation than Americans. In Italy especially, vacation time is just as important as any other basic human right. In…

If you haven’t noticed, 2016 is the year of the underdog. Those accustomed to losing are winners this year. In the US, the city of Cleveland won it’s first title (basketball) in almost 50 years. In the Premier League (British Soccer) the team from the less-than-powerful city of Leicester won the championship beating 5000 to…

No insights on Italy, The Netherlands, or our lives all over the place for this post, though there will be plenty more of those to come. Just a quick thought and a video of Sean’s second year.  I guess it’s all over the place from Sean’s perspective this time Quick thought: When you look forward…