Living a Dream

I'm talking about little things, and you've all heard this before. Not just the little things spoken of by the greatest assortment of musical talent ever , nor the little things spoken of by the most accessibly human gangsters you've ever seen, or even the little things from the song by Bush. I'm talking about actual little things to do for people that make a difference to them. See, it's very easy to make a comment to someone or to give a little something that reminded you of someone, and it's even easier to receive such things. About a week ago, Jenna and I were out for a walk in the evening, conversing (as we do) in English. We passed an older man by himself who suddenly burst out in struggled-English with "Have a good....! Uhh! Aaahh! Happy Holidays!" We laughed and thanked him and returned the well-wishes. Our best guess is that this guy heard us speaking English and got excited because he knew a few things and how to say them, and amid h...

Things *are* different here. I give up. I won't go on pretending that everything is the same (I will, however, go on pretending that my last post wasn't about how things are different here). I do want to focus on one particularly curious area though, and that is the lovable supermarket. For you older stateside readers, you've been hearing about European-style supermarkets for years and years. There might have been one or two in your entire metropolitan area as of 15-20 years ago, but they're growing in number in the US of A. Aldi is the most notable one, and they're doing booming business (there are probably statistics to back this up, but I'll pass on them) in lots of big cities where people want cheap food options. Yes, you have to pay for bags. No, carts aren't an option. Yes, you bag your own groceries. These are some of the smallish quirks of the European grocery store. It's really very simple and they're almost indistinguishable from their ...

People have asked several times what it's currently like to live in Milan, and there are several answers I can give. Instead of answering them like a normal person (i.e. when people ask), I've been ignoring most of you for three solid months and will now unleash a brief and incomplete list of things that "define" what it's like to currently live in Milan. 1) Remember that scene in Beverly Hills Cop when Axel starts laughing at the two guys who walk past in their Michael Jackson jackets? It's like that. People all hear that Milan is a bigtime fashion city, and in a lot of cases it really doesn't matter. But nearly every day I will see someone who looks so ridiculous that I stifle laughter. There are lots of outfits that scream "prostitute" in America that apparently scream "I fit in" in Milan. It takes some getting used to. Also, saggy-butt parachute-style pants are honestly a thing over here. Young males wear them and don't see...

If you know anything about me, you know I love lots of really stupid things. Good Christmas music is on the list. But since I have some sort of self-respect (none), I've decided to make a list of the best Christmas songs that exist with brief explanations as to what makes them so great. These aren't all the standards, but you may recognize a few names. The Backstreet Boys - It's Christmas Time Again. A little-known ditty by a lotta-known band. I didn't know this jam until my much-much-better half took me to a BSB concert in December 2013. They were chatty, fun, energetic, and proud of their newest holiday jam. Take a look at the video and tell me they don't look as fresh as ever! Kanye West (et al) - Christmas in Harlem Another subtle, understated, insanely popular artist with a song that somehow kinda flies under the radar. Rappers have a tougher time getting into this habit lately, even though the namesake for this article exists and is seen below. Newis...

Roughly 100% of what I've seen from the internet this week has been bad news. I don't want to contribute to that flux. Chin up, world, we can't all be that bad. The fact that a lot of people are angry and protesting and showing that they actually give a shit shows that, well, people are angry and protesting and showing that they actually give a shit. Giving a shit is a great thing. Continue. Fight the fights that deserve to be fought. Being 4000 miles away from the US is weird, especially when I'm reading about the states all the time and what's going on there. I don't really want to write about the things I'm reading because everyone has, so I'll trust you (people who are so obscenely smart as to read things that *I* write) to make informed opinions about life and try not to generalize everyone and everything. Three things have happened to me that were really note-worthy this week and I'm gonna tell you about them now. Number 1: Someone asked ...

As it's a week later, I thought I'd update everyone on what it was like to spend Thanksgiving, a purely American (and American in its celebration tactics, especially) holiday, in Italy. First, we'd heard about the handful of restaurants in Milan that would be offering Thanksgiving dinners to patrons. You come in and throw down what should be a reasonable sum of money and have your free run of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and more, or so we expected. We started looking into these places and - look at that! the prices started at about 55 euros per person and went up from there. You don't have to google the exchange rate - that's upwards of $70 per person for Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. Considering we once got two round-trip flights to Brussels for about 60 euros total, this option was officially eliminated. Option number two was a simple one: Go to some grocery stores and pick up a few items that would properly mimic Thanksgiving foods. A turkey-based di...