Ughhh. I’m embarrassed to write because it’s been sooooo long. Was my last post really in October?!!? All I can say is that COVID fatigue has hit hard and writing feels like way too much...
Foreign Service Life
I was so delighted with how many of you took the time to read my post yesterday and comment. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside….which makes me want to do it again! I guess that’s...
Howdy blog readers! Happy Tuesday to you all. Please note that I am writing my third blog post in two weeks (woot woot). Really trying hard to write consistently and get back in the habit of blogging...
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Have you noticed how during the pandemic there don’t seem to be any “good” options anymore? I definitely have. So much so, in fact, that I even coined...
Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash As my fellow parents can attest to, this last year has given us the “opportunity” to revisit prior grades alongside our children. I have had the...
HELLO READERS! I’m back. Yeah, I know. I’ve been gone awhile. I swear, I wanted to write, I really did. I knew I SHOULD write, that you’d be wondering what I was up to. But I just...
Remember when I said in my last post that Nia and I were most excited about seeing Puffins and Icelandic horses on this trip? Well, not so for Nick. Ever the adventurer, he decided his “must...
Yes, Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes but I think Iceland should get it’s own distinction: “Land of 10,000 Waterfalls”. I kid you not, there are waterfalls EVERYWHERE here...
In the second week of our trip we made a last-minute decision to extend our trip by one day (leaving Sunday July 11th instead of Saturday July 10th) so that we could try and see the active volcano...
Things that Make Iceland a Great Travel Destination The sheer amount of things to do and see (it was very hard to narrow and we had two weeks!) The natural beauty (Iceland is GORGEOUS, right up there...
Image by Nick Fewings on Unsplash Hello dear ones – It’s 2:33 AM in Mumbai and while I’d love to be sleeping, my body has other plans for me. So I thought, “Why not write to...
Hope and I have had a rocky last year and a half. You see, I placed all my trust in her, counting on the fact that she’d come through for me like she had in the past. In August 2020 I was sure...
Since my last post was all dramatic and depressing, my goal for this one is to keep it a bit lighter. No promises though because my general mood lately has been very “angsty teenager...
For those of you getting your Novakistan posts via email, I wanted to let you know that I recently changed email subscription providers because Feedburner was no longer offering the service. I...
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash It’s that dreaded time of year folks . . . bidding is upon us. Instead of just complaining about how stressful it is, I thought it’d be fun to give you a...
I thought parenting would make me a better play-er. When I give my daughter the option to choose an activity for Mommy/Daughter time, she inevitably chooses imaginative play with some combination of...
Hey folks – Been feeling very reminiscent lately. I recently came across one of those “Children of the 80’s” posts on Facebook that showed all the popular items from our youth...
I have long been fascinated by generational differences, especially in terms of how they show up in the workplace. I was born in 1980, which means I straddle two generations (Gen X and Millennials)...
Nick is away for several weeks on a TDY (temporary duty assignment) in Abu Dhabi. In order to break up what would be a very long stretch of solo parenting, I decided that Nia and I would need to go...
Hello again! This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, so if you haven’t read that yet, do so first to give you some context! We spread our sightseeing out over three days in four hour...
Pic by Kristen Our auto-rickshaw sped through the streets of Jodhpur, careening this way and that, locked in a tight race for God-knows-what with the motorcycle next to us. I close my eyes as...
Hey All — It’s good to be back with you again. I’m thrilled to report that Nick is home after 22 days in Abu Dhabi. We missed him immensely but were so proud of the amazing work he...
Photo by Aung Soe Min on Unsplash Greetings dear ones — Happy Monday. I am here with exciting news. Not the news you were likely expecting about the location of our next tour, but a different...
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash The idea of writing and publishing a book is such a daunting task for most people that they immediately dismiss it outright (which is what I did for a long...
Almaty, Kazakhstan! “Almaty North view” by blavandmaster is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably heard of Kazakhstan but would have...
Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash With our next assignment now confirmed, we’ve entered what I like to refer to as the “Senior Slide” portion of the tour. This is the beginning of...
We arrived in India 38 months ago. It was August 2018 and our first time having a three-year tour (which we later extended for a fourth year). It felt like I had all the time in the world as I busily...
Hi Everyone – We spent the morning hiking amongst the beautiful ruins of Hampi, an ancient civilization from the 14th century. I am trying out a more detail-oriented style writing for my book...
Photo by Jeremy Dorrough on Unsplash Hello dear readers — Thank you for stopping by. No, I really mean that–THANK YOU! I know that there are a bazillion and one things demanding your time...
It started out as a nice, normal Friday afternoon. Nick and I were preparing drinks for Happy Hour, debating what to do for dinner. We’d been told the “sprinkler guys” would be...
Last Thursday marked the end of our first “adults-only” trip in four years, to none other than romantic, stunning Udaipur–the Venice of India–complete with tours of the...
Day 2 in Udaipur The plan for our second day in Udaipur was a daytrip to two sites that I’d heard were worth the effort–the great Mewar Fortress of Kumbhalgarh and the splendid Jain...
As the morning progressed, I couldn’t help but compare this safari experience to the ones we’d experienced in Africa. The first big difference was that there were far more cars around...
I am delinquent in my blog writing, I know. Let’s get caught up, shall we? The weeks between our trips to Udaipur (right before Christmas) and Pench (mid-January) were rough ones. If...
Hey All – Sarah here for our semi-regular touch-base! Has it really been three weeks since we last talked?? Ughhh. I blame February. It just seemed to evaporate! It’s crunch time here...
I reached down to grab my first handful of gulal but stopped short as a blast of yellow hit me square in the chest, the excess disappearing between my cleavage, tickling my torso as it tumbled its...
Mention the word “Pakistan” and danger and/or violence are pretty much the only things that come up for me. I couldn’t tell you any good things about Pakistan, likely because...
Hi Everyone – If you haven’t read PART 1, you should definitely start there, as it provides some great historical context for this post about our time in Amritsar...
Our time in India is winding down (less than four months to go, can you believe it??) and one of the few remaining places on our “must see” bucket list for India was the city of Amritsar...
May 2nd marked Nick’s and my 13th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we planned a five-night, adults-only trip. But where to go? A tropical getaway to the Maldives? A hidden spot in the...
Hey Y’all — It’s June! Crazy, huh? I’m still trying to figure out what happened to May! Definitely bittersweet, although I am VERY over the 90 to 100 degree Fahrenheit temps...
Well, it happened. Monsoon is officially upon us, which means Mumbai will now be getting rain every day until the end of October. I was really hoping it’d hold out until after our packout, but...
The relative normalcy of the last few months deluded me into believing I had control of my life again, that I could make intricate plans requiring everything to go ‘just so’ with no...
Happy Fall y’all! Sincere apologies for my neglect of Novakistan these last three months . . . guess I needed a little break from blogging. The good news is I’m back, (mostly) refreshed...
Well, look at that. I’m back already. How’s that for keeping my word?! In Tuesday’s post I filled you in about how we spent our summer, so today I’ll tell you what brought us...
Nick was originally scheduled to start language classes on Tuesday, September 6th–the day after labor day. That would have been fine and dandy if we didn’t have the kid with us, but we...
Good day all – Several of you noticed that my recent blogs have primarily been about Nick & Nia and asked that I give an update on what’s been happening with me. I’m touched to...
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash I was incredibly touched by how many of you read (and commented on) yesterday’s post. I did feel your love and support, so first and foremost, thank you...
It’s fall, my absolute favorite time of the year. You may assume it’s my favorite season because of the beautiful colors or the cooling temps or the delicious crispness of the air (cross...
Some of you will be pleased to know that today’s update has no heavy emotional stuff in it (or at least I’m not planning on it but I guess one never knows where writing will take...