We began looking for the metro station entrance to take us to the airport when a young man approached us.
“Where are you going?”
His arms were shaking with visible agitation.
“To the airport.”
“Oh, that’s what I thought. Well, you can’t go to the airport here.”…
The airport doors slid open, and the heat hit me.
It was after midnight in October.
My brother had warned me the worst of Delhi’s summer had already passed, but the air still felt heavy enough to wear.
I looked around and took a deep breath.…
The gate at the top looked locked.
I turned to go, when a man appeared above me and swung the gate up. He was in his sixties—thin but strong, with a wispy hair and piercing blue eyes.
“My name’s Keith. I’ve been the fire watchman here since 1984.”…
I awoke with the sun, but I didn’t hurry to start my day.
The train felt calm and quiet under me.
Our car didn’t rock or sway against the tracks.
Shadows didn’t pass the windows.
I lay in wait, praying for our arrival in Varanasi, but feeling more and more doubtful with every passing second.…
“Veg or non-veg?”
Obee stood on the edge of Nahargarh Fort, watching the sun drop behind Jaipur.
Dani shrugged.
“Both”
Obee hesitated, took a drag from his cigarette, and glanced at his friend, Salil, in the fading light. The tip flared red then faded.…
I found my host mom waiting for me when I exited the airport terminal that first, sunny afternoon in San José. She had dark wavy hair and wore a busy floral blouse.
She held a sheet of paper with my name printed on it.…
Below Rheinfels Castle ran a series of narrow, mine shafts built as a network of secret access-and-escape tunnels. Despite bloody battles and the castle’s eventual destruction, those tunnels survived: somewhat intact. They measured four feet tall, and half as wide, and ran like a maze extending past the castle’s original footprint.…
I raised my camera and tried to frame Cologne Cathedral.
It shadowed the plaza with Gothic columns of ashen stone and the blackened backsides of its stained-glass windows, the plaza floors casting dancing reflections of the gargoyle and buttresses.
Rain pelted me and began soaking through my shirt
In the distance, Avery began crying.…
I found a seat at the Hemingway Bar and ordered a glass of absinthe.
The bartender set a glass bulb filled with cloudy green liquor in front of me. It dripped out slowly, dissolving sugar cubes in a heavy glass next to it on the table.…
Fireworks! They lurched me awake.
Then church bells. All of them, each with their own timber and rhythms—all different except for their urgency.
It sounded like the entire city.
I sat up and looked around.
The Granada sky was dark through my dorm window.…
We took our time walking to the Veletrzni Palace, the temporary home of the Slav Epic, hand in hand, taking it all in, while talking about nothing and everything.
I’d first seen the paintings years prior, and I loved it then.…
Three times last night, we’d found ourselves at the same intersection.
A jam of standing people and police officers, so dense that the bicycles that dared drive through the alleys elsewhere in Varanasi couldn’t make progress.
Police whistled for people to clear the road.…
Around five, I slipped across to 7-Eleven for dinner.
I couldn’t believe the choices.
Far from the gas-station convenience stores I expected, refrigerators held rows of neatly prepared meals.
I chose noodles for the kids—thick noodles in a salty broth.
For myself, rice topped with sliced beef, sprouted barley, and a soft-boiled egg.…
Sonu wore a striped tank top and khaki shorts. He also sported a red mark on his forehead.
“Welcome. You must be Dani. I remember your emails.”
“Sorry, we came so late. Our train from Agra, it should have come yesterday morning, but—”
Sonu stopped her before she finished.…
Once the kids were down, the wrappers from their convenience store noodles scattered across the table, Dani and I agreed I’d go fetch us dinner.
She’d found a nearby sushi place with options she could eat and sent me out with a small smile that says this will be nice for both of us.…
It was “Favorites Day” at school— wear your favorite clothes, bring your favorite snack, share your favorite toy for show-and-tell.
That morning, Avery picked out his favorite Mickey Mouse sweater with matching Mickey Mouse pants, and red shoes that complimented his hair and cheeks.…
A priest met us at the entrance and motioned toward a wooden cart.
We slipped off our shoes and socks, then stepped closer.
The stone beneath our bare feet felt warm where the sun reached it and cool beneath the temple’s shade.…
We’d escaped the Ueno Natural History Museum with four stuffed animals, two for each kid, clutched with reverence as we squeezed onto the crowded bus at Ueno Park.
Onboard, the four of us became separated by the shuffle of bodies.
Dani found a seat on one side, Avery curling into her lap.…
I’d started dating a girl while attending college back home the semester before.
She was my first girlfriend—college or otherwise.
I should have broken up with her before leaving.
Then she bought a plane ticket.
~
“Hey, did you get my care package yet?”…
Dani vomited again on our way back—noodles and water. Then more water.
“I can’t even keep water down.”
The words hit me harder than she intended. She was pregnant, sick, and we were in a foreign country halfway around the world.…
The Temple of Isis and Mater Magna—of all the places in Mainz, I’d most wanted to visit this.
~
The entrance sat in the first floor of a shopping mall.
A clothing store on one side.
A bakery on the other.…
“No strollers allowed.”
The attendant said pointed to a giant escalator.
I couldn’t see the top.
Next to it sat a model of the aquarium, a single passage completing a corkscrew through seven floors of exhibits.
It was our second day in Osaka, and we’d arrived when the aquarium opened.…
In Costa Rica, I’d registered to complete four years of high school-level Spanish in sixteen weeks. Each year, compressed into less than a month—quizzes, homework, midterms, finals—repeating on a loop for four months.
That first day, I learned to say my name and age.…
The line of elephants stretched from the lake to the palace gates.
Their hides carried white, blue, and yellow patterns across wrinkled skin. One by one they climbed the switchbacks to Amer Palace—each carrying a silent tourist beneath a bright canopy.…
One weekend early in the semester, my class went on a boat tour through the Pacific mangroves. This was my first weekend trip with classmates I still barely knew.
Whispers floated through the group.
“Crocodiles.”
I smiled and lifted my camera.…
