Whether or not you actually publish a book, identifying yourself as a writer allows you to buy snazzy journals as a professional right. Everyone else has to mumble something about recording memories or personal thoughts; a writer can simply say, ‘I’m a writer,’ and proceed to purchase all the journals she wants.
1. A tiny journal
- so you can finish your chef d’oeuvre sooner!
Moving or traveling overseas has moments where nearly everything seems unrecognizable, as if you were dreaming or temporarily suffering from amnesia. You tell yourself it’s a phase, that if you just wait a few minutes or hours, you’ll remember everything again and be able to read the road signs or know which ingredients you can and cannot find at the grocery store.
During these disconcerting bouts of ‘where-am-I?’, sometimes it’s helpful to focus on familiar ideas or objects found just about everywhere: laughter, the sky, and street lamps, for example. It’s not a permanent remedy and it won’t help you find your hotel, but perhaps the relation will help you feel more at ‘home’. Try it out with these international set of lampposts:
1. Hong Kong
Traveling is unfortunately not an ideal way to keep plants alive. Unless you’re fond of cacti, you need to either find a reliable house-sitter or budget for new plants every few months.
Or, you can order Tillandsias, also known as ‘air plants’. These plants don’t require much water or any soil. Instead, they gather nutrients from the air, making them more indestructible than your average house plant.
Since they don’t need soil, they’re also perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to mess with dirt or pots. They can fit nearly anywhere.
For example:
1. In crab shells.
Actually, the flavors themselves don’t really boggle the mind; it’s just the idea that marshmallows can be flavored besides the usual ‘marshmallow flavor’ sold by supermarkets.
That marshmallows can have flavors shouldn’t be surprising given that their basic ingredients are sugar and gelatin. Nearly any food that has sugar as a main ingredient has or will be flavored eventually.
Perhaps you’ve already had this epiphany and are not surprised.
In any case, using flavored marshmallows is a clever way to give marshmallow desserts a culinary edge, as well as develop tastes beyond your supermarket.
For a brief list of possible flavors, check out these awesome homemade marshmallows on Etsy:
Paris is a difficult city for tourists to conquer; the famous sights, museums, shops, restaurants and gardens are seemingly endless. Even if you had enough time to do everything mentioned in a traveler’s guide, you still wouldn’t see everything.
You can’t capture Paris in one visit or summarize its mystique in a few pictures. But, for what its worth, here are fourteen ways to remember this fantastic city.
1. The memorable skyline
- celebrated by vintage postcards everywhere.
Like needlework graffiti, the vandal art of ‘yarn bombing’ has altruistic origins. Knitting or crocheting artwork onto public property is a non-aggressive way to send a message, beautify a city, or simply create a bit of urban entertainment.
For examples, check out these five excellent yarn bombing targets:
1. Statues
Making the transition from rural to urban is fantastic in certain ways. Cities have creativity, intelligence, style, entertainment, and most of all, humanity. However, despite the thrills of people-watching, midnight cafes, and Broadway shows, rural-to-urban moves may still cause slight depression as nature-oriented memories are replaced by concrete and traffic.
Of course, cities also have parks and occasional forests, but not all urban dwellers have this luxury. For those who don’t, recovering from urban depression may require the creation and fostering of ‘imaginary forests’ at home. These representations of nature renew the rural memories, giving a mental ‘breath of fresh air’ to adjusting urban dwellers.
These imaginary forests are easy to make. For examples, check out these twelve simple ideas:
1. Gather fallen twigs and leaves from a few neighborhood trees and make a miniature forest.
Then, walk through it vicariously with small toys.
March and April are the months to begin hiking the Appalachian Trail if you’re looking to conquer the behemoth south-to-north this year.
All 2,181 miles of it.
Backpacking in the deep south of America for half a year is certainly a brave decision. As Bill Bryson wrote during his time in the Appalachians, “I think I have a right to be a trifle alarmed, pardon me. I’m in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark…” [A Walk in the Woods]
It’d be nonsensical if it weren’t so beautiful. As it is, looking at these amazing photos of the Appalachian Trail can make you feel jealous.
Tulips, windmills, and wooden shoes are typical tourism symbols for Holland, but what about Dutch food? If you asked a group of Dutch expatriates for a list of foods they missed most, what would they say?
Some possibilities: Gouda cheese, thick Dutch bread, drop (salty licorice candies), hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles on bread), and above all: stroopwafels.
The name ‘stroopwafels’ means something like ‘syrup wafers’ in English, although they’re known as ‘caramel waffles’ in Starbucks.
Certain Dutch markets make them fresh—warm and gooey–but if it’s not market day, you can always buy them at the grocery store and place them over your coffee. They’ll melt, crumble, and make you wish you were Dutch.
If you buy groceries in Europe and forget to bring your own reusable bags, the cashier may charge you extra. Ideally, this fine will help you remember to bring your bags next time, but after months of experience and observation, I’ve found that the best reminder is not necessarily financial punishment. All you really need are fantastically awesome grocery bags—a level of coolness you wouldn’t dare to forget.
Über-cool reusable bags are the key to grocery shopping success. If you don’t have any yet, check out these fifteen unforgettable candidates:
1. A single sheep
- a personal favorite.
