Sheron Long's Blog, page 8
September 23, 2019
French Idioms Pay Tribute to the Animal Kingdom
Don’t give your tongue to a cat. Why not?
© iStock/Maroznc
Becoming Bilingual: Don’t Give Your Tongue to a Cat
In the picturesque and poetic world of French idioms, the animal kingdom is well represented. Noah—and his ark—would be proud. Animals are key players in the proverbs and sayings of French culture.
Cats, lambs, sheep, ducks, dogs, elephants, wolves, chickens, cows, cockroaches, spiders, fish, rabbits, horses, rats, and giraffes all make an appearance.
Where do sheep fit in to French idioms?
© Meredith Mullins
Idioms can come from various parts of a culture—food, history, social traditions, sports, values—but many languages use animals as a basis for their idioms.
Animals have universal appeal. We are familiar with basic animal characteristics no matter what our culture of origin. For centuries, we humans have observed how animals act.
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September 16, 2019
Italy Without a Suitcase
Conversation flows at Caffe’ Cagliostro in Dublin’s Italian Quarter.
Ireland is home to 9,000 Irlandiani, Irish of Italian ancestry.
© Andrea Romano/ Caffè Cagliostro
Italian Culture, Around the Corner
Dreaming of Italy? It may be closer than you think. From 1880 to 1980, 15 million Italians migrated to other countries. Today, across five continents, over 60 neighborhoods claim the moniker Little Italy.
Several U.S. and Canadian cities boast a Little Italy. So do pockets of Australia, Brazil, and Mexico. There’s a Little Milano in Gothenburg, Sweden, a Little Rome in Asmara, Eritrea, a Piccola Italia in Malindi, Kenya.
Oh, I see: Celebrating Italian culture is a global experience.
Italian TAYLOR-ing
In Chicagoland, a dozen Italian enclaves formed after 1850. The best known is West Taylor Street, historically Chicago’s largest community of...
September 9, 2019
Crossing Cultures To Tell A Story of Turmoil
Environmental disaster in Ogoniland, Nigeria (2013)
© Philippe Chancel. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Melanie Rio Fluency.
The World Is Screaming
The power of an image can be far reaching. A story can be told—or a message delivered— in even a single photograph.
And when a space is filled with images that have a common theme, the story becomes exponentially compelling.
This is the impact of photographer Philippe Chancel’s series “Datazone”—photographs made in remote and diverse corners of the world to reveal realities that we don’t ordinarily see. The interwoven essence becomes increasingly clear.
The aftermath of natural disasters
Tohoku, Japan (2011)
© Philippe Chancel. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Melanie Rio Fluency.
This series of images delivers the disturbing message that our planet and its inhabitants are in trouble.
Chancel is...
September 3, 2019
Traveling the World Musically
The way we experience music can isolate or connect us.
© Joyce McGreevy (Public art in Evanston, IL by Jeff Zimmerman)
Harmonious Ways to Connect Across Cultures
Thanks to streaming technology, it’s easy to take music along when traveling the world. Headphones help shorten long flights, but it’s when we remove the headphones that we discover music’s true power. Mixing music with our itinerary and social interactions elevates travel experiences to whole new levels.
Oh I see: To connect across cultures, use a language we all understand—music. Here are suggestions for traveling the world musically.
Show Up and Sing!
I arrived in Montréal not knowing a soul. The next day, hundreds of my new best friends and I performed live in concert across Canada.
How did this opportunity to meet local music lovers come about? Not by auditions—there weren’t...
August 26, 2019
Watery Wanderlust: The City of Spas
The power of water
© Meredith Mullins
Going with the Flow in the Thermal Baths of Budapest
It’s summer. And in the hot Northern Hemisphere, our thoughts turn to the cooling force of water. Beaches. Rivers. Swimming pools. Waterfalls. Fountains. We travel in search of comfort.
Water wanderlust can lead us to many destinations, but none more water themed than Budapest—the “City of Spas.”
Budapest is famous for its parliament building . . . but also for its thermal baths.
© Meredith Mullins
There is much to see in Budapest, including
the Neo-Gothic Hungarian parliament building,
the elegant State Opera House,
the exotic beauty of the Matthias Church,
the vistas of the Fisherman’s Bastion,
the ornate St Stephen’s Basilica, and
the lively Great Market Hall (a covered market designed by Gustave Eiffel).
If you’re not spending all...
August 20, 2019
Wanderlust Leads to . . . Libraries?
In Montréal, library walls open up to create book stalls in summer.
© Joyce McGreevy
A Catalog of Reasons for Travelers to Check Out the Local Library
When you travel, how often has wanderlust led you to a library?
Once—for free WiFi or a public restroom.
Never. My Kindle is all the “library” I need.
The library? Seriously? I’m on vacation!
Actually, library tourism is trending. There are stacks of reasons to add public libraries to your travel itinerary:
Cultural Experiences
Castles and cathedrals aren’t the only places for cultural discovery. One of the world’s newest libraries, Tūranga Library in Christchurch, New Zealand, is not to be missed. Even its entrance expresses whakamanuhiri, the Maori principle of hosting travelers and other visitors.
The design of Tūranga Library is based on the Maori concept of ...
August 12, 2019
Cultural Encounters with a Competitive Edge
Is this the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County?
© iStock/Stevelenzphoto
Five of the Most Fascinating Competitions in the World
Grab your frog, your worm, your spouse, your crying baby, your cheese-chasing outfit, your cherry pits, your cockroaches, and your mustache wax.
Let the games begin.
From Calaveras frog jumping, to British cheese chasing, to Japanese baby crying, to Finnish wife carrying, to Indian mustache competitions, it’s time for some competitive cultural encounters.
What is it that drives us to compete . . . besides that thrill of victory? And, more to the point, what is it that drives us to compete in competitions unique to our cultures?
Most competitors in these kinds of contests say the same thing: it’s just fun.
But it may also be the cultural connection. Often, the competition is part of a country’s traditions and customs, shared with...
August 6, 2019
Quick! Trap a Travel Memory
Travel memories speak volumes. But you needn’t compile volumes to keep them.
© Joyce McGreevy
How to Keep on Keeping Travel Keepsakes—and Still Enjoy the Trip
Keeping a travel journal is something that some people enjoy doing and some people wish they enjoyed doing. If you’re in the latter group, you probably own one or more beautifully bound journals, the sight of which filled you with travel inspiration—initially.
Then came the journey, and despite your best intentions to create a travel keepsake, your journal sputtered to a stop. Why? It’s often about how we view the travel journal—that most non-stationary of stationery objects—before and during a journey.
In the anticipatory period before departure, the blank pages of a journal are an invitation to adventure and a promise of keen observations. There will be aha moments! There will be rich...
July 29, 2019
What IS That Thing?
It’s beautiful . . . but what IS that thing?
© Meredith Mullins
The Nyckelharpa: Rooted in Swedish Cultural Traditions
On Olov Johansonn’s first journey to America, he remembers clearly that he stared into the eyes of wildness.
The Swedish musician was on his way to teach in a music camp in Mendocino— winding his way on a dusty, dark, dirt road in the California hills.
Suddenly the driver stopped the car. A mountain lion was commanding the center of the road.
Caught in the headlights, the animal stared curiously into the car for what seemed like, on this moonless night, a very long time.
“What IS that?” the mountain lion wondered.
© iStock/Ben Masters
Olov was certain that it was because the creature had never seen a nyckelharpist before. (In fact, surprisingly few people—or animals—have ever encountered a nyckelharpa.)
The...
July 23, 2019
Carry Where You Came From With You
We come from everywhere, crossing cultures to build new communities
and enrich each other’s lives.
© Orbon Alija / iStock
Crossing Cultures: A Perspective on Traveling Through Life
Ever since I opened my first “big kid” textbook in third grade, I’ve been fascinated by one of history’s earliest, ongoing events—the ways we the people of Earth are perpetually crossing cultures and coming together again in shared places.
In airports and train stations, the faces of those arriving and departing reflect every emotion—excitement and curiosity, exhaustion and confusion. Meanwhile, we’re all traveling through life.
Alongside the joys and challenges of this journey, we each carry the need for home, a place to come to and people who want us to be there.
Coming or going, rooted or uprooted, we are all traveling through a world we share.
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