"In a funny twist, Ed whispers how the man at the table next to ours is feverishly working his prayer beads with his hand."

"The man hears us and laughs. Not prayer beads -- he says in decent English -- this is what we do here when we try to quit smoking. Yo...

How I spent the winter break between semesters at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

I sat in my Freedom Chair or stood at my motorized desk in front of a wall of picture windows looking out over our snow-covered yard thou...

"It is shockingly inexpensive to travel within Turkey by plane."

"Take this segment: from Istanbul to Izmir (about an hour flying time) on Atlas Jet, it's $25 (without additional discounts). For t...

"I'm switching to Polish now, in stores and elsewhere. But I find that I have that American softness to my speech. The Polish melodic inflection is gone too."

"I hear its absence, but I do nothing to force it back. I'm kind of enjoying the reaction. At several points, people think that I a...

"It's always interesting to me to see what others, especially Americans have to say about 'what it was like' to live under Communist rule."

Writes my colleague Nina , as she begins her annual journey back to Poland. She's reading Anne Applebaum's new book — "Iron Cur...

The Other Side of the Erlenmeyer Flasks.

In case you were wondering what it looked like from the other point of view in The Wine Beaker Erlenmeyer Flask Café , you have to go to Th...

"When we travel, though, we are asking for hospitality. There’s great vulnerability in this."

"It also requires considerable strength." To be a good guest — like being a good host — one needs to be secure in one’s own premi...

"In France, they’d be unpacking their glorious foods and beverages. En famille! Not so here."

"We tend to like to plump down on a chair or a towel and feel the sun move from one point to the next. Or, in the inevitable quest for ...

"[T]here’s more to life than crackers. But not much more."

Things said to Karma.

Full moon in Warsaw.

The cab driver "does not like it when foreigners think of Poland as the 'former communist country.' It’s not that to him and I ...

"I stand quietly, but with arms out, hoping that I seem big to the bear even if he could nicely tear me up with one swipe of his paw."

"But he doesn't do that. He looks at us, hesitates, turns around and goes back, veering off the path into the thicket of flowers, w...

Did you know the Appalachian Trail continues up into Canada?

I didn't. But then I get all my information about the Appalachian Trial from Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods," which I...

Thanks for dinner!

Nina makes dinner.

Changing hotels in Cassis.

Nino saves the day for Nina in France. And scroll down — she went to Warsaw in January too. Nina has some strange mania — I can't under...

"This season makes me think that individualism is way overrated."

Nina writes: Isn’t it true that most people view themselves as being quite independent, carving their own path, listening to some internal v...

Madison schools canceled for cold.

All the Madison area schools are canceled today for cold, including the schools in Madison itself. Madison schools are always the last to c...

Languedoc.

Nina returns for the harvest. Seriously, if you are into wine or France, you need to hang out over on Nina's blog. Even if you abstain ...

"Those moody French [models] just don't know how to work it."

Jeffrey owes his victory to the exuberant Marilinda, Project Rungay contends . Yeah, look at the picture of the French model in the same dre...

Nina's take on the movie, with photo.

Here I am at the pre-movie dinner: Nina describes the movie here , linking my post from earlier today, and calls me out on two things that ...

A weekend jaunt.

Meanwhile, Nina and the other bloggers are in NYC for the weekend. Would you spend Friday and Sunday flying, with only one full day, Saturd...