Category Archives: Travel Musings

Liebster Awards!

06 Tuesday May 2014

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Hello, hello!

I would apologize for my long absence away from these bumblings. But the truth is that I have been spending so much time working on my graduate studies, exploring and settling into a new city and trying to figure out what I want to do with this site that I have neglected it.

But hello, anyway! And with this hello to break the radio/blogosphere/whatever silence, I am happy to say that I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by not one but two different lovely ladies!

Liebster-Award

The fantastic Angelica over at Brooklyn Chick Travels (and a co-worker for Go! Girl Guides) nominated me, and before I got my shiz together to write up a post for it, my phenomenal friend Tarreyn at Tarreynland did, too! Thanks so much to both of these women, whose blogs are very fun!

What is the Liebster Award?

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to other bloggers with a certain number of followers (depending on when this happens and who you ask, it ranges from 200-3,000 but it’s not a science; I chose bloggers who had fewer than 1,000 Facebook likes) in order to promote new or up-and-coming blogs.

As a nominee, I answer a series of questions from those who nominated me, and then elect a few other bloggers I admire to keep the blog lovin’ going around. They answer the questions I pose for them. Pretty great, huh?

Since I’ve been a lazy blogger, I have not one but two sets of questions to answer!

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2013: In Retrospect

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

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I know, I know. I’m behind the times. Shouldn’t this have been written and posted on January 1st? Or even December 31st, to truly finish 2013?

Probably. Oh, well.

Snapped from my window seat (best in the house!) flying into Pennsylvania early January 2014. Beautiful sunset over freshly fallen snow. Not a bad way to start the year.

Snapped from my window seat (best in the house!) flying into Pennsylvania early January 2014. Beautiful sunset over freshly fallen snow. Not a bad way to start the year.

Originally I was going to do some sort of “This is where I was last year and oh, how time flies” post at the end of December. Because, really, a lot has happened: I started 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey, had the best hot chocolate in Croatia, went to Carnival in Slovenia, trekked through a snowy, picturesque Dresden, attended an opera in Prague, and explored Berlin, one of my new favorite cities. I was going to link to all those things, then I realized–I still haven’t written about a bunch of them (although I definitely did a LOT of Instagramming)!

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Miss Button’s Packing List: Costa Rica

23 Monday Sep 2013

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I apologize for the sparse updates. Balancing graduate school, 2 jobs and settling in to a brand new city has been thrilling but exhausting, and my focus has been on those things. I have not forgotten about you, though, dear readers!

As you know, I went to Costa Rica! I rocked out on a surfboard, climbed some volcanoes, got myself some sloth besties, swung like Tarzan, and a whole lot more that I haven’t told you about yet.

A beautiful day to inhale noxious fumes! Just kidding. Mostly.

A beautiful day to inhale noxious fumes! Just kidding. Mostly.

The end product of this–other than the frickin’ awesome time I had–will be a guidebook for solo female travelers to Costa Rica with Go! Girl Guides! If you’re as excited about this as I am, let us know!

Anyway, as a packing aficionado, I was puzzled as to how to start packing for a 7-week trip to the tropics.

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My First Interview

24 Saturday Aug 2013

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Gooooood morning!

I just wanted to share with you all a fun interview that I was asked to do for Sparkles & Crumbs–a delightful blog run by charming fellow Italophile, Caroline!

As someone who usually writes the interview questions, it was an interesting and pleasant experience being on the other side of the inquiries. One lesson I learned, though, is that it’s really hard, too! Especially doing written interviews, because you have the time to craft a response but then second guess everything you’ve written, leading to a lot of doubt and agonizing over word placement and tone. Such is the writing life, I suppose.

Anyway, a big thank you to Caroline for featuring me on her wonderful Champagne Tea series–my first interview representing Bumblings of Miss Button as an interviewee on the interwebs!

 

In the ‘Burgh

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

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Hello,  Dear Readers!

Some of you know that I’ve recently made a big move!

Tucson will always be my home, but on Sunday I hopped on a flight to my new one: PITTSBURGH, PA!

What’s that, you say? Pittsburgh? Isn’t it, like…really cold there?

Ah, reader, how astute you are.

Yes. It does get really cold here. BUT it is also home to a marvelous university (a number of them, actually) called the University of Pittsburgh.

My new school! Which is actually one of the nation's oldest.

My new school! Which is actually one of the nation’s oldest.

Oversized felines must be the name of my game, because I’m going from Wildcat territory to Panther country!

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

So far, I’ve found Pittsburghians (?? Burghers, better yet) to be very friendly and helpful. Especially cashiers.

  • Example: Had a whole conversation the other day with a Target employee about his son’s cell phone plan. It was also during this interaction that I began hypothesizing that Burghers tell Sara Button stories.* Perhaps I’m secretly a Yinzer after all.

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Crying in Public and Conquering Fears in Costa Rica, the Tarzan Way*

04 Sunday Aug 2013

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When I was nine, I was tall. These days, I’m a whopping 5’4, but back then, I exceeded the national average and was taller than the 50 inches required to ride this:

That’s the Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, one of the oldest wooden rollercoasters in the country.

My nine-year-old self and adult-self agree that the trauma resulting from this ride explains my subsequent and persistent distaste for free falls. Turbulence on airplanes, rollercoasters, even watching people jump off high rocks into water make me queasy.

Anyway.

Free falls and a plethora of other things grace my list of fears, but one of them is actually not heights. So I was excited to participate in one of the most popular and exciting tourist activities in Costa Rica: ziplining.

See how excited I am? And how small my head looks in that darn helmet? Curse you, tiny head!

See how excited I am? And how small my head looks in that darn helmet? Curse you, tiny head!

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Missing Italy: Good Reads to Get You Through

01 Thursday Aug 2013

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Boys running through plowed fields in Umbria, August 2012.

Boys running through plowed fields in Umbria, August 2012.

I’ve been pining for Italy a lot this week. 10 months have passed since my feet last touched terra italiana, and while my friends are preparing for the Notte Bianca at Campo della Fiera tomorrow night, I am nursing my worsening Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with a new wrist brace and wishing I were dusty and hot under the Umbrian sun wielding a trowel or pick. 

I'm hard at work in the saggio at CdF. Photo by Marijn Stolk

I’m hard at work in the saggio at CdF. Photo by Marijn Stolk

To reign in my desire for cold Orvieto Classico and late-night guitar strumming, I decided to share some of my favorite reads based in or about Italy.

A Room With A View: E.M. Forster

 Perhaps my all-time favorite book, full of fantastically wise characters, rich scenery and perfect prose. It’s  certainly one of the best novels about Italy and its life-changing effects on those who it sweeps up into its pasta-laden arms.

Rather than spoil it with plot summaries, I’ll share some of my favorite quotes and hope it piques your interest enough to read it!

“One doesn’t come to Italy for niceness,” was the retort; “one comes for life.”

“Let us rather love one another, and work and rejoice. I don’t believe in this world sorrow.”

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Dear America: A Birthday Letter

04 Thursday Jul 2013

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Dear America,

Happy Birthday!

I’ve missed you. I really have.

Wide open spaces. US of A.

Wide open spaces.
US of A.

I’m sorry I’ve skipped so many of your recent birthdays. There was the time I was digging in Italy in 2008. And that other time I was digging in Italy in 2009. 2010 I made it to New York! In 2011, I almost forgot it was your birthday at all and spent it in Rome with friends, trying to find a good burger (for the record, that was not my idea that time). We had figured Hard Rock Café was our best bet; when we arrived, we realized it was more crowded than usual because it was July 4th.  The wait was 90 minutes. We ended up eating at a bar near Piazza Bologna.

And last year. Well, last year I didn’t technically miss it. I saw your fireworks from the plane as we departed the capital; on the tail of the fireworks was a storm, I think. Booms filled the air, in any case. Your favorite colors did, too.

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8 Things To Do When It’s So Hot You Want to Punch Yourself in the Face Just So You Have Something Else To Think About

01 Monday Jul 2013

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I am a desert rat.

There’s nothing like the sun setting over the saguaros, or the smell of rain when the monsoons downpour onto our dehydrated gravel landscaping. We regularly eat Thanksgiving outside and I’ve never in my life had a Halloween when I had to consider weather when planning a costume. I’ve heard some poor saps who live in colder climes have to wear winter jackets over theirs. To a Tucson child, that sounded like an urban legend, and proof only existed in television and cinema.

This is an unedited photo of a sunset in Tucson.

This is an unedited photo of a sunset in Tucson.

Admittedly, there are a few downsides to living in Arizona other than our state legislature, the primary of which is the absurd, ridiculous summer heat.

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