Amundsons

Over a month ago we spent our first night in London, we were travel-worn and thought it best to just get some Indian food and spend the evening in so that we would be ready for a week of sights.  First of all, yes please Indian food, because wow can London make great Indian food.  We heard rumors before we arrived, and just 2 dishes into the curry we had verification.  So with full bellies, we were nestled into our AirBnB and Jake and I were trying to figure out a way to give our girls some context for this upcoming week.  How could we give them a feel for the British people, the rich historical traditions and flavors they were about to see.  Establishing a sense of place is essential when you travel, and many times film (good film) has a way of capturing a context and preparing your entry.  It was apparent to us there was one, and only one, true British film that could capture this for our girls.  The brave and not-so-brave knights of the roun...

In general, we eat the typical local food when we travel.  Eating like an American when you travel just isn’t worth it for multiple reasons.  First, it never really tastes like it does at home.  Sure it may look like a chicken nugget- but for whatever reason, it will never taste like a chicken nugget, and it will leave you sad.  Second, it’s very expensive to eat like an American.  For the most part in a city, you can find the box of strawberry jello at the specialty store, but it’s gonna cost you.  And spending 10x what you would at home for some jiggly jello just isn’t worth it.  Lastly, as the wise Anthony Bourdain once commented, eating like an American abroad is exactly how you get sick.  Markets and restaurants know how to handle and cook their local cuisine, they have been successfully cooking seafood for centuries, you will be fine!  But throw a little cup of cottage cheese in their kitchens, and you probably need to get ready for a l...

We have fallen in LOVE with Valencia.  Strange cities can become isolating if you don’t make the effort to step forward.  We worked hard right away to get out of the apartment and build a sense of place in this new community.  Now we have a  panadería  (bakery), a tienda (a small store), and I know where to go and how to order some fresh fish, all on my own (progress!!!!).  But our favorite is our park.  Valencia is a large city and although we have an epic veranda, we along with most of the Valencians, do not have private green space.  One of the reasons we picked our apartment is that it is right next to Jardines del Turnia.  And when we found out that our good friends and neighbors the Duffs were coming to Spain, we knew we were going to spend most of our time in the park. As you can see on the city map this 8km long park extends the length of the entire city.   It was a river at one point, however, when it tragically flooded the city...

After two months on the go, our backpacks are empty.  We are staying in an apartment in Valencia Spain for the month of November and trying to create some sense of home.  It was time.  The different place every night is equal parts exciting and exhausting.  Oh, and both Jake and I have Sabbatical stuff to do, I’m sure some of y’all were curious about that...  And although the girls had the world’s greatest museums at their fingertips, there are some things that are hard to learn without a table.   This is the front of our apartment, we are way up on the top and yes that is an ORANGE tree way down at the bottom.  Valencia (the third largest city in Spain) is known for a couple things: Valencia oranges, a world-class Aquarium on the Mediterranean coast, and most importantly the birthplace of Paella.  Obviously, this is where the Amundsons would choose to spend our time.  The next great thing about this city is my parents have come to hang out w...