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Luke Waterson “I could never live abroad,” friends often tell me — and then go on to cite all sorts of reasons ranging from cost (although other countries are often far, far less expensive) to the fact they might not be able to buy their favorite brand of shampoo or peanut butter there (true). But…

​“Bleaughhh,” exclaimed Rich, spitting out the offending liquid. “That’s disgusting !” We were in Vichy, France, sampling the famous healing waters, and Rich was finding this one — from a sulfur-rich hot spring said to keep the digestive system in superlative shape — too vile to swallow. “My stomach is fine as it is,” he…

​An old Buddhist joke says, “Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another matter.” Most Buddhists I’ve met, especially the holy men known as Rinpoches and Lamas, have an impish sense of humor. A Rinpoche I visited in Nepal asked one of my companions, “Who are you?” My friend gave his name, home…

When I was a child, the Wizard of Oz played on TV every Easter, and I’d gather with my whole family to watch it. The opening scenes, set in Kansas, are filmed in black and white. Then a tornado sends Dorothy’s house flying, and after it lands there’s this spectacular moment when she opens the…

საქართველოს რესპუბლიკის (Republic of Georgia) “დილა და როგორ გრძნობ თავს?” inquired our host, when Rich and I stumbled out of bed and down the stairs. We were in a farmhouse in the Republic of Georgia on the morning after a very long night involving wine, food, wine, dancing, wine, and more wine. Even if our…

“You can’t really understand foreigners until you are one,” Rich remarked to me today. Instantly my mind was flooded with memories from more than a dozen years ago when we were new residents of Spain. Like most transplants, we worked like dogs (or perros as I had to remember to call them) to come to…

Let’s face it, we all do incredibly foolish things on occasion. Back in the 1960s many of us spent years experimenting with dubious substances that makes me wonder, in retrospect, how any of us made it into the 1970s alive and with more than six functioning brain cells. And think about all the ludicrous risks…

​As you’ve no doubt noticed, things have gotten messy lately. And I don’t mean you-need-to-clean-your-room messy, I’m talking about full-scale, five-alarm pandemonium, as if we’d all just learned that the Earth’s been dislodged from its orbit and is falling into the sun. Not pleasant, obviously. But extremely energizing . And no one is more energized…

​We Americans are famous for finding geographic solutions to all sorts of problems. Trouble at home or college? Road trip! Can’t find a job? Move across the country! Want to add a bit of zing to your retirement? Go abroad! As a travel writer, I love covering (and living) these stories. ​ ​I was raised…

The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania ​Watching resistance movements growing around the globe, I’ve started thinking of places I’ve visited where oppressed people have won their freedom against seemingly impossible odds. Last year Rich and I traveled through the Baltic States, where much of the last century involved occupation by the Russian Empire, the…