My One Week American Re-immersion

I don’t get a lot of American influences these days. Yes, I still watch a lot of US television, I still talk to my friends via e-mail quite frequently, and talking to my mom once a week on the phone has given me this strange Michigan twang when I talk. But my everyday life, feels less and less American. I call french fries Chips without thinking twice. I ask questions with some strange English inflection pointed out immediately...

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5 Places I Would Take a Guest to in San Ambrosio, Andalucia, Spain

This is a re-post of a guest post I wrote for GotSaga.com in January. Check out the original article here. San Ambrosio. My home. What, you've never heard of it? C'mon! At a whopping 400 citizens in a country most people have on their bucket lists but not in their backyard, I guess I understand. San Ambrosio, Andalucia, Spain. It's a place I haven't called home for very long - less than a year actually. But it's a place that has done...

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Leaving Spain. Feeling Lost.

Let's make a deal. I'm going to share a couple of horrifically depressing journal entries that came straight from my paper journal that I wrote during the bus/plane/train rides after I left San Ambrosio. After these couple of serious posts, I promise I will go back to writing less serious nonsense. So skip these if you want, read if you dare; it won't hurt my feelings...

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A Week in my Life: Friday - Finding the Real Spain

It’s beach day #2 and an incredibly busy day. I ride Polly today, our big pregnant Welsh Cob who doesn’t work much, but who has to get out at least once a week. Jose calls her Elefante (I don’t think I need to translate that) but I love riding her. Riding her for a day on the beach is like sitting in a La-Z-Boy all day watching National Geographic. Jose and I are on our own today and it looks...

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A Week in my Life: Thursday - A Day All to Myself

Today is almost exactly like my Sunday, so I won’t go into too much detail. I wake up hungover today and slug myself and Smokey up to the horses to feed. Today, Rhiannon is cleaning all the rooms so I can take some of our "problem children" out for some exercise. Antonio’s here to help me today and although I’m glad to have the company, I’m worried that the headache I...

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A Week in my Life: Wednesday - Everyone Deserves a Day Off

Now I know what you're saying. Why on earth would I ever need a day off? A vacation? Every DAY is a vacation for me, right? Well. Yes. Mostly, you are right. I am selfish for even writing this absurd blog post. But, the work, however exotic and incredible it is on a daily basis, it's still work. And it's hard work, at that! Lots of physical labor and not a lot of "me" time. Usually this is...

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A Week in my Life: Tuesday - I get Paid to Ride Horses on the Beach!

Tuesday begins the same way as Monday, only I get to sleep in for an extra 15 minutes as we have less to do this morning. We only tack up 10 horses today, and Rachel stays home with her 4 year old daughter Charlie so Vinnie can come out with us on his bike to take pictures of the guests. By the time we’re finished tacking up today, I’m officially awake and notice that Mitch, one of the forest...

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A Week in my Life: Monday - The Reason Sunday doesn't bother me

Today my alarm started buzzing at 7:30 AM. Under any other circumstances, this is the part of the day where I would scream and hide dreading the day ahead of me and incapable of doing anything productive. But it’s a Monday, and that means we have a lot to do today to get ready for the ride as all of the saddles have to be put back together. I roll out of bed at 8 still wearing the t-shirt I wore to the bar last night and not...

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