Seeking Transcendence – a podcast bro’s spiritual journey

Bling bling! Morena’s alarm starts beeping on the floor next to our bed. She rolls over, hits the off button, and falls back asleep in 10 seconds. I’m

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Death, fasting and public nudity – Random Thoughts #10

Two old people in my building died over the weekend. Both lived on the 6th floor, actually. On Saturday, a note appeared downstairs. Written in Spanish, block capitals,

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American Ignorance: How Much do Americans Know about Spain?

How much does your average American know about Spain? Probably very little. So are Americans all ignorant? Well, that’s a longer story, which I’ll tell here. Let me

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European Stereotypes Revisited – update from a small peninsula

Hey, y’all! Greetings from the peninsula. It’s a hot weekend here in Iberia. And rather than go out and get sunburned, I figured I’d revisit an old theme

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Beat the Heat in Madrid: 9 ways to cool off like a local this summer

Summertime. If there’s one thing nearly everyone in Madrid can agree on these days, it’s this… It’s hot. And in a country where many houses don’t have air

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Is the Spanish timetable getting you down? Blame Hitler!

I wrote this article 10 years ago, in 2013. Those were different times. The Partido Popular was in charge, and we were in year five of the Great

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Spanish seafood vocabulary: pescado, marisco and much more

Hey y’all! Let’s do some Spanish seafood vocabulary. The other day I wrote a little article about my love for Spanish cuisine. And I described the rather disorienting

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The Pathless Path – or, why careers are overrated, and what to do instead

Several years ago I went on a blind date. The girl was Venezuelan, and (stereotypically) quite late for the occasion. I’d selected the venue: a Mexican restaurant off

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Revisiting the Great Recession, or: how to waste your youth in a country in crisis

What’s shakin, y’all? I recently got back from about 5 weeks in the US. Funny thing about that: I’d heard from all sides that the US was now

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Santander, Cantabria – one of my favorite places in Spain

Hey, y’all! It’s been a while. I’m recently back in Barcelona, after a week or so in Santander, and I’ve got a new video to share. Santander – and

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