Travel
A short while back, I wrote about my trip to the Guinness Storehouse, and today I’d like to share a bit about a similar, yet entirely different, tour in Dublin, Ireland. The Bow Street Distillery in Dublin is one of two Jameson locations that are open to the public and it was one of the most informative tours that I’ve done. You start with a...
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Language Resources / Travel
One of the things many learners aim to do at some point along their language journey is immerse themselves abroad. But for those without much travel experience, it may be tough to figure out how to do that. Do you enroll in an immersion program? Simply travel to the country and hope for the best? How do you avoid expat bubbles or the prevalence of...
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Travel
I’m no stranger to food trucks – at music conferences and festivals, there is often plenty to choose from and I’ve had the chance to try out some excellent items. To be honest though, until recently, I’d never gone out of my way to try out a food truck. For me, food trucks were mostly a thing of convenience. If there was one nearby when...
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Travel
I probably told this story once before, but before I ever fell in love with either music or language, I wanted to be a marine biologist. From the time I first ever saw The Little Mermaid until my first year of university, I was certain that was what I was going to do. But then I received a music scholarship and everything changed. Including my...
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Travel
When M and I were in in Venice, Italy, we quickly learned a very important lesson. If we wanted to know where the good local restaurants were, we needed to ask the receptionist at our hotel. Her first recommendation to us was excellent and on our last night in the city, we knew she’d have an equally excellent suggestion for us. This lead us to...
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Travel
One of my favourite ways to get a bit of unexpected language practice in is by taking tours in one of my target languages. Or at the very least, picking up the guide in one or two languages. Since I love travel, and usually love the focus of the tours that I’m taking, there’s quite a lot of relevant vocabulary for me to collect from the...
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Travel
During our summer concert tour, M and I had a stop in San Antonio, Texas to perform at the Balcones Heights Jazz Festival. We were there with just enough time to perform and fly back, but before our return flight, we had a few hours free during the afternoon and we wanted to make the most of it. With the Riverwalk and the Alamo only...
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Travel
Beijing, the capital of China, is a pleasant mix of historic and modern sites and architecture. There are so many things to do in and around the city, so here are a few of my favorites from my recent (and first) trip to the country. 1. Visit the Summer Palace // A short metro ride away from Beijing, the Summer Palace is an expansive park...
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Travel
As some of you may know, I studied martial arts for some time. More specifically, kung fu. Upon visiting China, I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was explore China’s martial arts and I thought one of the ways I could do it would be to join up with those practicing Taichi in one of Beijing’s many parks. The first time...
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Travel
In my opinion, one of the best things about Beijing are its hutongs, or alleys. These narrow streets are lined with old homes and shops, particularly in the traditional courtyard style. Sadly, these areas are slowly disappearing. Many of the hutongs have been demolished to make way for more modern constructions, roads or buildings. Thankfully, however, many efforts have been made recently to designate the...
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