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Browsing All Posts filed under »urban living«
Reykjavik: Water Polo
by jared bibler
Iceland has one of everything, and that includes a water polo club. Invited by a couple of friends, I went on Wednesday night to my first practice. It's held at the indoor pool at Laugardalslaug three times a week.
Normally, I'm told, the practice opens with swimming warmups and then a water polo game at the end.
Paris: Mind your Manners
September 21, 2006
Bonjour Messieurs Dames!
It’s not hard to say. Sometime I say it to myself just for the heck of it. But it was so hard to get into the habit, when I first moved here, of singing it out every time I entered a bakery or a fruit shop. Chris at ParisLogue explains how crucial it is to utter the french version of “‘Sup?”:
Talk to a Parisian over dinner and in one breath he will adamantly oppose Le Pen and the anti-immigration policies of the National Front and in the second breath he will complain about the Asian and Arab immigrants failure to s’integrer into French life.
Reykjavik: Stress-Free Autumn
September 20, 2006
by jared bibler
The fall is definitely here, with clear sunny skies and a bit of a chill in the air. The clouds are high and have a certain sidelit pink-yellow light in the evenings. And last night the first windstorm came pounding on my windows, slamming the bedroom window shut with some authority as I was drifting off to sleep. The whistling wind continued all through the night and this morning there were whitecaps on the bay and the water was greenish and churned.
Copenhagen: Of Locks and Lice
September 19, 2006
by sabine behrmann
Having lice is an experience that you will not find in any guide about the 115 things you are supposed to have done before you die.
But if you have children in Denmark you may not be able to avoid it, either. Last year 46 % of all kids between the age of 3 and 13 had contracted lice. In 1997 there were "only" about 33 %.
This is not due to lack of hygiene. Rather on the contrary. Lice love a clean and fragrant environment - but the idea that they are a sign of poverty and poor standards is deeply rooted in many of us.
Berlin: Germans Have No Sense of Personal Space
September 19, 2006
Is this true? Or is it just Berliners? Since I moved here I've noticed that German strangers, as a rule, don't try to maintain the regulation* 18 inches off my person when I walk down the street or try to shop in a crammed grocery store. What they do, instead, is lurch in front of me if I happen to be in the way while I scan the cheese.
Amsterdam: Dutch Wine Gods
September 18, 2006
by katie lips The Dutch are not known for their wines, either as producers or as drinkers. Let’s face it, the fact that you can get a bottle of plonk from Albert Heijn for EUR 1.89 and that you’d be hard pushed to find a bottle over EUR 5.00 (it’s true) doesn’t really instill a […]
Naples: Living on the Edge
September 1, 2006
tracie b. currently reports from Ischia
See, there was a taxi today. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe, just maybe, he didn't realize that the nerve he was dancing on was my last one. It had been worn bare in the past few days by other Italians and was connecting my tact and patience to my mental health by just one skimpy thread.
October 11, 2006
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