Tag Archives: travel

December 18, 2020 · 10:00 am

Why is Reading a Good Story Set in Paris Still a Good Idea in 2020?

“Paris is always a good idea.” This was the title of one of my previous blog posts, a post written after I returned from a trip to Paris. It’s also supposedly a quote from Audrey Hepburn, though no one online seems to be able to trace when she might possibly have said it. Either way, it sums up how a lot of us think about Paris–if asked if we’d like to go, we’d say, yes please! However, this year is 2020, and the question remains–in 2020, is Paris a good idea? In a year of hardship and upheaval, is thinking about a more frivolous subject like Paris worth doing?

Actually visiting Paris is out of the question for most of us, of course–travel restrictions, and reduced flights, and closed tourist attractions make it unlikely. But the Paris of dreams–the Paris of busy cafes and romantic cobblestone streets and boulevards of glittering, luxurious stores–is this idea of Paris worth thinking about and talking about in a year of upheaval and struggle, where everyone is having a tough go of it? It might feel like affrontive to remind people of a world that seems to have moved out of reach.

I ask because this year I finally finished my short novella exploring Paris, and released it in print in my online store. It was lovely to retreat from the present moment into a world of memories, into the heads of characters who had different problems than lockdowns and viruses. All the same, maybe it’s a bit silly to talk about Paris right now. Maybe it’s time to be serious.

But I think there’s different responses to hard times. One is to confront the situation head on and try to make sense of it. Another is to remind us of the warmth and goodness that we do cross come across in this world, the things that give us hope that there could be healing. The second method is sometimes called escapist-rather than facing reality, it’s accused of retreating into rose-tinted times and places. I don’t think it’s always escapist–it can take a lot of courage to hang onto hope. But in case it truly is pure escapism to read only, I will point to another quote I blogged about here long ago:

I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds… Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?
JRR Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

I read that and begin to think it’s important to open the doors of escape, especially if we’re restricted to our homes in this season. And not everyone has the energy to attempt to beckon our fellow men through these doors—I certainly did not during the most unsettled parts of this year—but when we do find the energy, when some of us have it in us to think about something other than our prison walls, then it is worthwhile to bring that to others around us.

In this spirit, over the next few weeks and months I plan to make a few posts about Paris, and the treasures you can see there. In a sense, I hope these posts will make you feel what it might be like to be there, or remember what it was like to be there–in a similar way to how my novella would make you feel. Even if you do not purchase my novella this season, come along and explore these sights with me here! Of course, if you wish to purchase my novella as well as accompany me on these posts, just shoot me an email at info@amrahpublishinghouse.com or check out my store here.

So come along and we’ll peek into Shakespeare and Company, explore the islands in the Seine, and taste the yummy ice cream of Berthillon and the fluffy macarons of Laduree! There’s so many interesting places in the world to see and learn about.

Posts in this series:

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Filed under Creativity and Art, Paris in Clichés Extras

Tagged as escapism, On Fairy-Stories, Paris, Paris in Cliches, travel

May 23, 2014 · 9:31 pm

Paris is Always a Good Idea

“Paris is always a good idea.”

– the internet would like to believe this quote is by Audrey Hepburn*

It’s been a while since I updated, hasn’t it? And definitely for some of those weeks I didn’t have a good excuse, but I’d like to believe a spontaneous trip to Paris is a good enough excuse for a least a couple of them, isn’t it?

How cliché! A spontaneous trip to Paris to “find myself” – well, not really find myself, but at least learn new things about myself. Specifically, how brave I am to travel alone. And what it feels like to be in the French culture for two weeks.

I discovered:

1.) Despite the romantic idea of writing in little French cafés, I can’t actually sit still for very long when I’m in Paris. There’s so much to see! Writing had to wait till I got home.

2.) I am perfectly capable of travelling independently. But sometimes it was more nerve-wracking than I thought it would be. Also, I learned a lot about what it means to feel “alone,” and how to manage this very human feeling. A worthwhile experience, don’t you think?

And now… some pictures! Just a few to give you an idea:

First, a very famous place for us bookish folks – The Shakespeare & Company Bookstore: Then the house of Victor Hugo: And finally, a pic of me taking refuge from the spring rain in a random art gallery in Montmartre!

That’s it for now! Hope you all had a nice spring. 🙂

*note: I can’t really find a good source proving this quote is actually originally by Audrey Hepburn, but if anyone can point me the way to one, I’d love it. It does sound like the sort of thing she’d say, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Paris is always such a good idea that I wrote a whole novella about it! Check it out: Paris in Clichés

8 Comments

Filed under Randoms & My Life

Tagged as Paris, travel, travelling, Victor Hugo, writing

August 17, 2012 · 7:43 pm

How Not to Write About Brazil (Several Tips)

Let’s just say you’re going to write a novel set in Brazil. I know, I know, there’s not a whole ton of novels out there set in Brazil, but I think the world could use a few more set in South America. If you’re going to go that route, or even if you just want to travel to or talk about Brazil, there’s a couple common mistakes you’ll want to avoid. I’ve written before about getting the setting right, and I don’t feel fully confident I’d get Brazil quite right if I wrote about it, but at least I’d avoid obvious mistakes like having my main characters take their honeymoon off the west coast of Brazil. And now you can avoid mistakes that will mark you off as a naive gringo to all your native Brazilian readers, just by keeping these tips in mind!

First tip: Think about Brazil. Now let me guess two things that crossed through your mind: Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon. Congratulations! You’re right, both well known places are located in Brazil (and you must have learned something in Geography). But just because they’re both in Brazil, it doesn’t mean you should be planning plots where characters dash from the wilds of the jungle into the streets of Rio, or (in the case of tourists) planning vacations that dodge back and forth between those two places. They are NOT right beside each other. Not even close – to take myself as an example, I’ve been to Brazil twice and have only been once in the Rio de Janeiro airport, and nowhere near the Amazon. It’s like saying Vancouver and Toronto are beside each other, or maybe New York and Los Angeles if you’re from the States.

Why do people easily assume other countries are small, even when they know how hard it is to get around the place where they live? It’s a common problem – people in Europe ask me if I know people in Toronto, when they’ve never left the borders of their two-hundred-kilometre-wide country themselves. I think it’s because it’s easy to know the differences between places in the country you live in, but when you think of a place you don’t know very well, you tend to put the whole place into a single category. It’s only when you get to know a place that you realize it’s got just as much variety, or maybe even more, than the country you come from.

So maybe chalk this one up to a common human failing?

Next tip: Brazil is more than a jungle. Talking about variety – there’s about a zillion different regions in Brazil, with their own culture and climate, yes, the southernmost parts do get snow. What, you thought the whole country was a rainforest? While most stereotypical descriptions of the place like to portray it as the deepest jungle, any country that big is going to have a variety of landscapes. For example, where I stayed in the northeast, there seemed to be a lot of hills and tangled forests, fields of sugarcane, and (fortunately) absolutely beautiful beaches. Brazil is not as big as Canada, but it’s sure big enough. So clearly, if you’re going to write about it, you’re going to actually have to pick a region. Think about it on the same scale as you would if you were writing a novel set in the United States – you’d probably pick a state to put the story in, right? Fortunately, it’s tons of fun to find out stuff about the cultures of all the different regions in Brazil (and listen to them tell you why you should pick up their accent for your Portuguese, rather than the Rio de Janeiro one.)

Bonus tip! Rio de Janeiro is not the capital of Brazil either (that would be Brasilia). I’m told it’s a very beautiful city though, and that I must visit it on my next trip. 🙂

Two further tips: Brazilians do not speak Spanish, and obviously don’t enjoy being told they do. It’s not too much of an effort to remember they speak Portuguese, the sixth most spoken language in the world – apparently more spoken than French, which surprised me since I’ve been told since I’ve been in grade school that it would be the most useful thing in the world to learn French. I’m glad to hear learning Portuguese wasn’t a waste of time either.

Also, if you call yourself American – well, Brazilians are Americans too (South American, that is). Just like Canadians technically are Americans as well, we’re just usually too polite to argue about this. 🙂

In the interests of full disclosure, I’m going to reveal I did set one chapter of a terrible fantasy novel I wrote in highschool in Brazil, mainly because we were covering Brazil in school that year. But I did not do any research, and most of the chapter concerned a hidden base in the jungle where magical power was concealed. Clearly, I missed an opportunity to insert realistic culture and background into my novel! Oh well, perhaps I’ll come up with a better plot now I’ve actually been there.

What pops into your head when you first think of Brazil?

6 Comments

Filed under Brazil, On Writing

Tagged as - Brazil, Portuguese, Rio de Janeiro, setting, the Amazon, travel, writing

July 16, 2012 · 7:31 pm

Why Travel?

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

– Mark Twain

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Yes, I did a Google search for “travel quotes,” and these two great quotes came up. They sum up so nicely what I love about travelling. Being an introvert, I have a tendency to get wrapped up inside myself. Travel forces me to see things from other perspectives, and consider my way of doing things is not the only way of doing things. That said, I have seen people walk into other countries and be astounded people do things so “stupidly,” so I’d have to disagree with the Mark Twain quote. Travel should be fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, but sadly some people are immune even to the power of travel. Oh well.

Here’s a great quote from Augustine, to finish things up before I head out (I actually leave on Wednesday):

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

– St. Augustine

Things You Might Not Have Known About Brazil

One last post on Brazil, now that I’ve returned to North America (and experienced a touch of reverse-culture-shock). Here are a few things about Brazil that I found interesting:

Brazilians like things very sweet:

You may have been able to guess this one, since Brazil is known for growing lots of sugarcane. Still, I was surprised by how sweet their desserts and candy were, since I thought North America was known for liking things sweet! Here is a picture of some banana candy I brought home for my family to taste – they liked it, but it’s a bit sweet to eat all at once:

banana candy!

I never drank a cup of coffee that wasn’t sweetened either. Fortunately, I always put sugar in my coffee already. My mother, on the other hand, would have to insist not to have sugar added.

There are very strange fruits in Brazil:

I expected fruit to be fresher here, since it’s closer to where they grow it. And bananas, pineapples, and even plain old apples, did taste a million times better – it’s amazing what a difference freshness makes. But Brazil is also home to fruit I never knew existed. If you ever happen to be in that part of the world, don’t be shy, try them! Even the spiky ones taste delicious. Here is a picture of what is known as graviola fruit. It makes amazing juice as well:

A graviola fruit – they’re quite big! (“Corossol” by Damien Boilley, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License)

Not everyone in Brazil speak Portuguese the same:

I expected this. I was kind of nervous I’d show up in Northeastern Brazil and find out all the Portuguese I’d learned was completely incomprehensible to them. It wasn’t that bad, but some of the pronunciation rules I’d learned did go out the window. For example, all my language programs carefully taught me to pronounce “de” as “je,” and “te” as “che.” Guess what? That turns out to be the way they pronounce it in Rio de Janeiro (obviously where all the language teaching programs assume you’re going if you go to Brazil, because they all taught you to do that). Of course, I go to the one area of the country where they don’t do that – they pronounce it the way we do in English! It actually would’ve been easier for me to pronounce some of the words they way they looked to me, instead of learning the “Brazilian” way of pronouncing them.

For example, the word “pode” (“you can”) is pronounced in Northeastern Brazil as “pod-de,” and not “pod-je.”

So I had to decide what kind of accent I wanted!

They shower more often than we do:

Unless you happen to shower multiple times a day, the people in Brazil probably shower more often than you do. When I was there, my frequency of showers did go up, because the weather can be hot and sticky, and a shower feels quite nice. But still, I thought showering once a day was pretty frequent, and now I know it’s not!

Anyway, those are a few things I thought I’d point out! This will probably be one of my last posts on Brazil, so I’ll probably go back to my usual blog subjects over the next couple of weeks.

“tchau!” from Brazil 🙂

9 Comments

Filed under Brazil

Tagged as - Brazil, candy, observations on..., Portuguese, travel, weird fruit

August 11, 2011 · 6:34 pm

My Typical Day in Brazil

I thought I’d give my faithful readers some idea of my life in a different culture, since some sort of explanation as to why this blog isn’t being updated as often might be nice!

Recife, Brazil. Photo by Esther S.

I wake up in the morning around 7:30 (thankfully my fellow Canadian, Esther, has an alarm clock, or I’d never know what time is it…) For breakfast, Brazilian usually keep it simple bread (pão), maybe with cheese or eggs, and coffee. How I love the coffee part… the coffee here is always strong and sweet, and you can add milk if you want. I probably would never wake up if it weren’t for coffee.
Of course, the bread is a no go for me as a celiac, so I’ve eaten a lot of eggs. And rice. Somehow, even though they eat rice all the time here, everyone still thinks it is incredibly weird to eat it for breakfast. But what’s a celiac to do?
In the mornings, I spend of a lot of time practicing English with the people I’m staying with. They’re very enthusiastic students! Many people in Brazil do want to know English, as it’s very useful since so many books, etc., are in English. But I’ve never been anywhere where the average person knows less English than here. In Europe, it seemed like everyone knew enough English to help a poor, hapless tourist from Canada. Here, even in the airport, it is hard to find someone who speaks English fluently. Fortunately, the friends I am staying with do know a lot of English, and enjoy practicing.

Turtles that live outside the place I am staying at. Photo by Esther S. (Yes, I do not own a camera)

Lunch is the big meal of the day here. As I’ve spent more time here, I’ve come to realize I love Brazilian food. It’s not known world over like French cuisine is, or anything, but I enjoy it. Just give this celiac rice and beans, and she’ll be happy 🙂 But there’s usually plenty of meat and salad to go with the beans and rice. They take their meat pretty seriously here… and somehow their beans always taste fantastic. And their rice too…
While practicing English with the Brazilians, I am still attempting to absorb as much Portuguese as possible. On rare occasions, I find myself understanding a whole paragraph. But more often, the random phrases I understand just confuse me. (Why are they talking about chickens? And policemen? And jiujitsu? And sharks?) If I understand enough to respond in Portuguese, it’s even better. It’s such a rush to have a conversation of more than two sentences in another language.
Between all of this language stuff, I still find time to take a dip in the pool, learn about cooking in a Brazilian way, play Risk, and just get to know Brazilians better.
Well, hopefully that’s enough to give you an idea. You can probably tell I’m enjoying myself. Unfortunately, before I know it, I’ll be on a plane back to Canada!

Olinda, a lovely seaside town. Photo by Esther S.

5 Comments

Filed under Brazil

Tagged as - Brazil, food, life, teach English, travel

July 30, 2011 · 2:55 pm

Possibility of Blog Post Scheduling Interruptions! Oh, the Horror!

I mentioned in a previous post that I decided to stay in Brazil three weeks longer. The good news is, that means I like Brazil! (Also, none of the things in 3 Things that Scare Me About Traveling to Brazil actually was a problem!) The bad news is, I may not be posting as often. Before I left, I scheduled enough posts to cover the weeks I was gone. Every post that has gone up recently was scheduled ahead of time, except for the posts I made about Brazil (The Portuguese Echo and Things You Shouldn’t Do (In Brazil)). So expect interruptions in my usual Monday-Thursday posting schedule, including in my posting of my novel, Why Polly? I guarantee a post on August 20th at the very latest.

I look forward to catching up when I get back! And I plan to post all about Brazil every time I get enough access to the internet here!

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Filed under Brazil

Tagged as - Brazil, blog, travel

July 23, 2011 · 12:31 pm

Things You Shouldn’t Do (In Brazil)

On Doing Them Anyway

Soccer field in Brazil, by Esther S.

Before you go off to a tropical country, people give you all kinds of advice. Advice from doctors on how not to get sick, advice from your parents, advice from other travelers… there’s a load of things you should or shouldn’t do. Of course, half of them you find yourself doing anyway–without exactly intending to break every rule in the book.

For example, the water at the Training Centre in Brazil that I’m staying at. We all thought it was filtered when we got here. Then someone told us the filter didn’t work. Then someone else told us it did work, but it was only a carbon filter and didn’t filter out bacteria. Either way, by that point some of us had drank gallons of the stuff (soccer is a popular sport here, and you work up a thirst afterwards). Fortunately, by the time we figured out maybe we were drinking something we’d been told not to drink, none of us had gotten sick. And days after that, still none of us were sick.

There was a whole list of other stuff – don’t walk barefoot in the sand because of the weird e. coli that might live there (advice from my doctor – but seriously, walking or running in sand with shoes on spoils half the fun. The sandals are off before you even remember you weren’t supposed to do that). Don’t get bitten by mosquitoes (yeah, you try telling them to stop biting me. I’d appreciate it. Dengue fever doesn’t sound like fun…) Don’t risk eating anything that might have come into contact with gluten at any time (because I have celiac disease). I think I’ve been doing okay with this. But it’s really hard to communicate this because of the language. Waiters stare at me in Canada because they’ve never heard of celiac disease. They stare at me even more here because 1) I’m a gringo 2) My Portuguese is horrible, and 3) They’ve never heard of celiac disease.

The important thing to remember is not to get freaked out by the possibilities of something happening in a tropical country, but just to enjoy it while you’re there. After all, you could get mauled by a bear in Canada (not likely, but still…) Or hit by a car. Or die of cancer. At the same time, you can’t be too stupid. Don´t wander the streets of Recife at night, alone. Don’t drink the water from random taps. And so on.

Obviously, I’ve found Brazil interesting so far. I apologize I haven´t had a chance to post more about it. We’ve been so busy! But I’ve enjoyed it so much that in fact, I have decided to stay here longer. Three weeks longer. Hopefully all continues to go well 🙂

Note: I also apologize to all those blogs I’ve faithfully been following until these past couple weeks. It´s a bit tough to keep up from here! But I look forward to catching up and commenting when I get a chance.

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Filed under Brazil

Tagged as - Brazil, celiac, things you shouldn´t do, travel, water

July 13, 2011 · 7:17 pm

The Portuguese Echo

As you may know, I’m currently in Brazil–which means I need to know Portuguese to communicate. The area I’m in (northeast Brazil) has very few people who know English. I tried to learn as much Portuguese as I could before I got here, but it’s been a challenge for sure!
At first, when I arrived Portuguese sounded like, “blah, blah, blah–word I know!–blah, blah, blah–voce (means ‘you’)–blah–agora (means ‘now’)” etc. But it gets better the more you try and try to understand it. Now, I’m so used to struggling to learn Portuguese than every word that crosses my mind comes with a Portuguese echo (if I know the Portuguese equivalent). So, like this: I (Eu) acho (think) that (que) I (eu) hear (ouvir) a Portuguese echo (um echo Portugues).
If you know Portuguese at all, you know I’m missing all the accents and cedillas and so on. I don’t know how to do it on this computer (English computer, you see). Wish me luck with this strange new language!

7 Comments

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Tagged as - Brazil, echo, language, life, Portuguese, travel

July 5, 2011 · 2:41 pm

3 Things That Scare Me About Travelling to Brazil

“Praia Juaquina, Florianopolis, Brazil, December 20 2008”, by Mike Vondran. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License, 2.0 Generic

In psychology, they tell you that the closer you get to an event, the more your excitement increases – and the more your anxiety increases. In fact, your anxiety rises faster than your excitement. Yes, that’s why they make you buy your plane tickets ahead of time. You can’t back out so easily.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about travelling all the way to South America. But…

1.) What if I don’t make it there?

One of my worst nightmares is getting stranded in Chicago or something. Or worse, in Sao Paulo, 1,300 miles away from where I’m supposed to be (and from anyone I vaguely know). I’m flown before, to Europe, but not by myself. And flying has never scared me before, but suddenly I notice the hundreds of things that could go wrong… bags stolen, strip-searched by security, suspected of drug-trafficking or being a terrorist, missing a flight… Oh goodness, now I sound neurotic.

2.) What if I can’t handle the stress?

I’ve never travelled so far alone before, so I hope I can keep a cool head on my shoulders to deal with whatever issues come up. Travelling is fun, but not always completely stress-free. Last year I had some issues with anxiety and stress. This year seems to be better… let’s hope it stays that way!

3.) What if I can’t speak Portuguese?

Yeah, I’ve been trying to learn, because in Brazil that is what they speak. Because not everyone I’ll be meeting will necessarily know any English. But I’ve been learning online and off audio tapes, so what if my accent in incomprehensible? I’ve got visions of people staring at me and thinking I’m crazy or something. In addition, I have a condition known as celiac disease, which means I can’t eat a speck of wheat. I hope I’ll have enough Portuguese to be able to tell people, “no bread, please.”

All the same, the day of departure is coming up fast! I’ve scheduled a few blog posts to show up when I’m gone, and for Polly, the Princess, the Enchanter and the Jadess to continue, but if I have computer access in Brazil I may add a couple travel posts as well. Stay tuned for that!

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Filed under Brazil

Tagged as - Brazil, fear, life, planes, Portuguese, travel