Tidbits that we’ve come across that made us think.
Learning organizational culture or community standards is a core element of moving into a new apartment building, accepting a new job, or meeting your significant other’s family. We do it all the time. So it is special when something from this acclamation process stands out. When we were preparing to move to Slovakia – our… Read More Put Down the Carving Knife
A Slovak, a Brit, and an Albertan walk into an apartment – this might sound like the start of a joke, but it was actually a visit we had this summer with dear friends we made in Slovakia. It was wonderful and life-giving to have friends from one chapter of our lives be present in… Read More First Love | Second Love
Tonight was Maclean’s National Leader Debate. If you missed it, the #macdebate hashtag will lead you to some insightful thoughts and some useless rants. Though we lived away from Canada, we voted. Since returning to Canada, we have voted. Not because we are the ultimate Canadians or champions of electoral rights, but rather we simply… Read More Research. Vote. In that order.
With “Sochi problems” trending around the world, the conversation about Russia (and by extension the Slavic world as there seems to be a misconception that all Slavic cultures are Russian-esque) hasn’t moved much beyond stereotypes. Admittedly, the number of athletes that have flown off alpine courses is alarming and the Ring of Steel is imposing,… Read More Why You Don’t Get Sochi
Basements are odd places. Often a peculiar mix of livable and functional space, they house play rooms, odds and ends, that thing from Grandma we’re not ready to part with yet but don’t want to display, VHS players, and our Christmas tree (unless of course it’s Christmas and the tree is out and about). This… Read More The Basement Matters
We know our neighbours. We intentionally try to be a part of our community (even in simple ways such as buying our milk from the same corner store). We ask ourselves how our faith values are embodied in our everyday lives. We speak honestly about why we live the life we do. Of course we… Read More Billable Hours
A Polish friend recently posted this picture of Ryan Gosling – the other kind of Canadian beef export – and commented on how they’d love this particular gift from Canada. ‘Tis the gift-giving season after all. The holidays exaggerate the feeling of distance that most expats live with. It goes from being background noise to… Read More Presents from Canada / Presence in Canada
We doubt the power of presence and we shouldn’t. Somewhere along the way, being there for someone became less about being there and more about saying the perfect phrase, buying the perfect Hallmark sentiment, or doing the perfect action. The intentions may be good, but sometimes it smacks of a second-rate substitute for being there… Read More This is Not a Hallmark Moment
“Some things you just have to experience” is one of the most unsatisfying answers in the history of sub-par responses and yet it is true. There are life experiences that are nearly impossible to convey in words to those who have yet to share that experience. It’s quite an extensive list actually: the haunting (in… Read More What’s with the Parenting References?
“I know where you live” is never a statement you want to hear while sitting in a stranger’s car, but we get it semi-regularly. In a flat country subject to the brisk Baltic blast where cab fare is more than affordable, taxis are a lovely alternative on cold Polish days. Not being on any tourist… Read More City Mouse / Medium-Sized Industrial Town Mouse
the price post 