Vienna’s Cafe Central is like a time machine. One step inside transports you a hundred years in the past to a ritzy cafe where the likes of Freud and Trotsky spent their afternoons discussing the world over coffee, cake, and a thick cigar. …

I’m writing today from my balcony in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. It’s summertime. It’s hot. Tourism is at its highest. I look out below as selfie sticks extend, sunburns worsen, and loudness takes over. Living in the Gothic Quarter has been one of the best, yet worst decisions I’ve…

Once upon a time, traveling to Europe from the US was a seamless, easy, and exciting procedure. We simply needed tickets and a valid passport. Now, as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must bring along a grocery list of certificates and verification before heading off overseas. The idea of…

I’m peacefully reading a book under the Mediterranean sun when a group of girls plants themselves nearby. They drop their bags, grab their iPhones, and immediately commence a bikini photoshoot by the water with the backdrop of the iconic W Barcelona Hotel. This show goes on for half an hour…

Chocolate boxes of red and pink have filled the aisles of your favorite supermarket, red roses are on sale at every street corner, and that snuggly crisp breeze fills the air… Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! …

I sit looking out over the East Tennessee mountainside writing this as my grandparents lay in hospital beds facing the reality of the world we’re living in. Hospitals at capacity sent them to Asheville, North Carolina, blood clots and pneumonia have grown in their bodies as this unforgiving virus takes…

When the year 2020 has more similarities with a fictional, dystopic interpenetration of 1984 than the prior year, it’s evident our world has become quite familiarly unfamiliar. In George Orwell’s 71-year old book 1984, we follow the main protagonist Winston Smith as he navigates London in what he believes to…

He’s not what you might be picturing right now. He doesn’t wear a turban or a kaftan that goes down to his ankles — at least not on a typical day. No, in fact he prefers floral, short sleeve button-downs, black jeans, and leather loafers — all which hug his…

Planting virtual flowering, showering my villagers with love, wishing on shooting stars, and redesigning my island 1,000 times over has consumed my life since the pandemic hit. I’m so addicted to the goodness of this game that I’ve accumulated of 300+ hours of game time since April, joined like 5…