Is it immoral to be a tourist?
A few weeks ago we returned from spending a week long vacation in Cuba. You may have even read my last post with suggestions for anyone else who might be interested in traveling there.
So, why, out of the blue, am I asking you about the morality of tourism?
Well, it’s probably because of Jamaica Kincaid and her book, A Small Place.
Posted in business, Economy, Europe, history, money, morality, politics, Travel
Tagged A Small Place, Antigua and Barbuda, beaches, check your privilege, colonialism, colonization, Corruption, economy, ethical tourism, ethical traveler, ethics, finances, gender, government, Jamaica Kincaid, money, morality, opportunity, race, relaxation, school, sexual orientation, slavery, social classes, social justice, social stratification, Tourism, travel, university
As you probably remember from last week, John and I just went on our belated honeymoon to Cuba.
And yes, there were awesome old cars everywhere.
We only went for one week, but we had a blast. The beaches were just as warm and beautiful as I’d been picturing. There were cigars available everywhere, just like John had been hoping. And the architecture in Old Havana was just as beautifully eclectic as you’d imagine for a country with such a fascinating history.
The only problem was, I really didn’t plan out our trip at all. Our entire summer was one crazy adventure after another and this was our final journey, so I was too busy planning other things to do much more than book an all-inclusive. While we did love our little escape, there are a few things we learned along the way that I wish I had known beforehand. Continue reading
Posted in Canada, government, language, Travel
Tagged airport tax, all-inclusive, barter, beachfront, broken tiles, Casa Particular, credit card, Cuba, Cuba Libre, food, gifts, guidebook, Havana, Hemingway Marina, hotel, hotel reviews, internet, money, Pina Colata, resort, rum, Santa Maria Beach, socialism, Spanish, Sunwing, swimming, tip, tips, tobacco, Tourism, tourist, tours, travel, travel agent, United States, vintage cars, vitamin r
Then it means I didn’t manage to write a post while in Cuba on my belated honeymoon. I hope you can forgive me.
Thankfully, it is officially September and that means I’m home and back in a regular schedule again for next week.
I searched for a hilarious gif to placate all three or four of you who are reading this, but this is all I could find:
Hope you like cats.
This isn’t going to be a long post because I’m on the road again, but it is something that I wanted to quickly say.
A couple weeks ago I told you that I was reading up on ISIS, in particular the rumours I had seen circulating on Facebook. You’ve probably read these rumours yourself, or seen people changing their Facebook profile to this picture as an act of solidarity.
Some of these rumours seemed fishy to me. The one I found particularly disturbing was the account that Muslim terrorists were decapitating children. While trying to fact-check this claim I came across some photos of a decapitated child and was so sickened and angry that I gave up trying to find the truth behind these rumours. Luckily someone else has done so for me. Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Islam, religion
Tagged beliefs, Christianity, Christians, decapitating children, factchecker, faith, Gospel Coalition, Iraq, ISIS, martyr, Muslim terrorists, Nazarene, nun, rumours, solidatity, Syria, western, Yazidis, Yemen
Next week will be my one year anniversary with John. Next week we will also be heading out on our belated honeymoon. Since I’ve made a bit of a habit of updating you on these personal aspects of my life, I thought I’d also go ahead talk about a few things I’ve learned in my new phase of life.
1) Guys Actually Care About Stuff Other Than Sex
I’ve mentioned in the past that I grew up in the purity movement. I realize you may have read some horror stories about how the purity mentality makes women afraid of sex. I can certainly see how this can and has sometimes been the case, but let me assure you, for me, it was the polar opposite.
I built up sex in my head, a lot. I had all these plans and ideas for when I was FINALLY having sex, and some of them were… a little off base.
First of all I thought that all guys ever wanted, ever, was sex. You can blame it on the purity movement, or you can blame it on media, or you can blame it on my overactive imagination, but somewhere alone the line I decided that guys just wanted sex ALL THE TIME.
So imagine my shock when John and I got to the point in our relationship where he could say things like “well, I’m actually in the middle of writing a paper right now” or “just let me finish this chapter.” Sometimes he even wanted to just cuddle (gasp)!
What was this? This was not what happened in the movies! What was he doing? Being a person? With interests besides sex? What was the world coming to?
Don’t get me wrong, sex is still the awesomeness I always imagined it would be, but it was eye-opening for me to realize how I had internalized such a common gender stereotype without even realizing it. Continue reading
Posted in family, relationships, sex
Tagged best friends, besties, Clueless, cuddle, disagreement, first year, fun, John, laughter, learning, living together, love, marriage, married, newlyweds, relationships, roommates, sex, Troy and Abed, work
This week I emerged from my happy little language cult in a tiny remote Quebecois town.
I emerged to discover a lot of sadness.
I had already been hearing bits and pieces about the deaths in Gaza and the lives lost to Ebola before I even left Trois-Pistoles, but the last few days I’ve also been hearing a variety of horrific rumours about ISIS. Last night when I started researching for tonight’s blog, I thought I would look into the veracity of those articles.
That was a bad idea.
At the time, I had a hard time finding coverage of the things I had heard about from any reputable sources. And the things I did come across were highly disturbing and meant to be provoking. I’m not actually going to link to anything I came across in my search, because I don’t want to see those images ever again. I don’t know when or where those photos were taken. I don’t know if they are fake or real. All I know is that they made me very very angry. And they made me feel very, very powerless.
Posted in Africa, America, celebrity, Comedy, crime, Islam, media, morality
Tagged actor, celebrities, children, cnn, comedian, Culture, death, Ebola outbreak, evil, Facebook, fake, Gaza, grief, grieving, Iraq, ISIS, Mere Exposure Effect, mourn, Mrs. Doubtfire, powerless, real, rescue, Robin Williams, sadness, suicide, Syria, Yazidis
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