Author Archives: arleebug54

A Brush with Brandenburg

Posted on June 28, 2021 by arleebug54

Everyone knows the Brandenburg Gate, that iconic symbol of Berlin, known in German as Das Brandenburger Tor. You can see a detail of it on the front page of this blog. But it wasn’t until I started looking more deeply … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

“Wending” our way through the borderlands…

Posted on May 10, 2021 by arleebug54

The travel muse has been on holiday for much of the past year, sitting on some tropical veranda sipping some adult beverage and waiting for this challenging season of lockdowns and quarantines to pass. I’ve been applying myself to studying … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The power of a portrait’s gaze…and the power of an artist

Posted on February 6, 2021 by arleebug54

If I were to try to explain my relationship with my father, I would have to fall back on that useful and time-honored Facebook status phrase, “It’s complicated.” To his everlasting credit, however, at approximately the mid-1950s time period represented … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

A Christmas like no other…

Posted on December 15, 2020 by arleebug54

It’s December 15th here in Berlin, and tomorrow we start a hard lockdown, or, I should say, we start another hard lockdown, where all shops except basically groceries and pharmacies will be closed up tight. My friends in the Netherlands … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Wandering and wondering in Warsaw

Posted on September 7, 2020 by arleebug54

The days are shortening and the temperatures are dropping – on this side of the Atlantic at least. T and I took advantage of a mild early fall and a seeming absence of coronavirus spikes to make a quick trip … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The brave new world of Zoom…

Posted on August 26, 2020 by arleebug54

As some of you know, I often spend a good chunk of my summer surrounded by rice paddies at the International University of Japan in Minami-Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture. There I have been privileged to work with a wonderful team of … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching in Japan | Tagged , | 4 Comments

A sliver of Stralsund

Posted on July 3, 2020 by arleebug54

This is the final post covering my lovely little mini-holiday last month in northern Germany, written in a bit of a rush today because I am preparing to teach my first-ever online course over Zoom. I know this is old … Continue reading →

Posted in Germany | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Whisper of Wismar

Posted on July 1, 2020 by arleebug54

Trigger alert: This post, and perhaps the next, will feature an ungodly amount of red brick. I can’t help it, truly I can’t. Red brick was the preferred building material for much of northern Europe for a very long time … Continue reading →

Posted in Germany | Tagged | 3 Comments

A slice of Schleswig and a hint of Haithabu

Posted on June 27, 2020 by arleebug54

As I mentioned in a previous post, T and I were moving pretty fast this trip, and I must confess that part of my eagerness to tell these stories is to give me a chance to reflect a bit more … Continue reading →

Posted in Germany | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Lucky Little Glückstadt

Posted on June 26, 2020 by arleebug54

In a world still struggling to come to terms with a whole host of “new normals,” I feel extremely privileged to live in a country that has the virus mostly under control. In celebration of that fact, T and I … Continue reading →

Posted in Germany | Tagged | 6 Comments