Did you know that you can't make a snowman with just any old snow? Some of you will laugh out loud at this question, but there will be some, like me a few years ago, who will say: Really? I grew up in Western Australia; we don't do snow, ever, and I didn't see it fall until the age of 25. I …
Slovakia
When racists get the wrong man (or woman)
Recently, I was chatting over lunch with a bunch of my social media students and they teased me for starting a story with "When I lived in Bratislava ..." (Apparently that's not something you hear every day down here in Perth! Cheeky people!). Anyway, after they settled down and I explained that the …
Getting a haircut to make friends in foreign places
During my travels I have made friends with lots of different people in many fairly predictable ways. When I was teaching English, I made friends amongst my fellow teachers; a number of my students became lifelong friends too (and of course, one of them became my husband!). I've also got to know …