My loves, now for yesterday's adventure to carmona, an hours bus ride from prado san sebastian and within the province of seville. it is a town which is literally overwhelming in its history, old city walls in view any which way you turn. it was one of the main enclaves of the lower guadalquivir area and was a principal communication route, very st

Darlings, coucoooooooooou!! how are my beloved parents today? another day done as yours hasn't long begun - 8 more to go in spain for me and 79 til dresden, mama. today, i went in to school late. there seems no reason to be there on the dot of ten anymore since noone else is and i'm fed up with being the only one there waiting. i missed a lesson on

Lallie listened carefully to the end of the story and as mama closed the book, marking the page for tomorrow night’s chapter, she gazed at her hard. “what are you looking at me like that for?” asked mama. “i was just thinking how you are the most beautiful mama in all the world – and…you’re mine!” shouted lallie, clapping her hands.

My darlings forgive me for being so inefficient and not writing you an update until now. i'm so sorry. i will start with saturday's visit to ronda in the malaga province, a little under 3h by bus from seville. instead of settling on andalucia's plains, where they would have been sitting ducks for bandits, some andalucians chose to live in the forti

[gheorghe leahu: popa nan, source ] in 1459, 557 years ago today, bucharest first appeared in a written document. 557 years.... bucharest became romania's capital in 1862. this, from wikipedia: "its eclectic architecture is a mix of historical (neo-classical), interbellum (bauhaus and art deco), communist-era and modern. in the period between the t

Lallie was so tired when she crawled into bed and snuggled her nose behind her mama's ear (its favourite place to be) that she was asleep in minutes and didn't even hear the end of the lalliebye. mama kissed her daughter's forehead and went to the lab to marinade some snitzels for papa's lunch the next day. lallie flew through the velvety sky, as a

This morning, i wandered into the so-far-unbeknownst-to-me biserica adormirea maicii domnului (mosilor/sf gheorghe nou), also called razvani by locals in memory of its founder, ruling prince of moldova, stefan i razvan. according to the plaque for historic monuments, it was originally constructed in 1597, rebuilt in 1705-6 and underwent repair in 1

My darlings... and on the high note of my exam results for which i can thank only you because you were my raison d'etre, the delta course in international house, seville has come to a close. without you i would never have been able to get through it - and don't argue mama, because there's no argument. if you had been here and seen how it's been, i

Bedtime once again, after a long day of making cakes with mama and planting flowers on the terrasse… lallie was pooped. “stay with me a little while and sing me a lallie-bye,” lallie begged her beloved mama snuggling beside her and finding mama's ear with her nose - its favourite place to be. and mama, because she loved her daughter so, oblig

Last week, one of my closest friends (s.) came to bucharest for new year. it was her first visit so i really wanted her to feel the charm of this marvellous, vibrant city. we sped about all over the place taking in museums, galleries, churches, monasteries and two wonderful days in brasov. towards the end of a lovely busy week, s. decided she'd lik