Dating

What it Feels like to Date a Nice Guy

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Harry* and I met less than a month ago. After our first date, I texted my girlfriends: “For reals, best first date ever.” After dim sum and bubble tea, we checked out the new library in Chinatown: #booknerdsunite.

For our second date, he bought tickets – in advance, mind you – for Second City.

I found out that my friend Joe had passed away right before meeting up with Harry for our third date. I was a wreck, but Harry was already at the restaurant and I didn’t want to be rude. At the end of the date, he hugged me and told me that it was okay to be sad and that if I needed to cry right then and there, I could.

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Travel

Asia Adventure: Battambang

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I’ve just returned from a 3-week trip to Southeast Asia, including 2 weeks in Cambodia, 5 days in Laos, and 2 days in Hong Kong. Overall, the trip was really fantastic – I met a lot of great people, got to meet up with friends from Hong Kong, saw amazing historical sites, had fun travel buddies, and ate yummy food. So as not to overwhelm, I’m breaking up my posts by city. Today’s adventure: Battambang, Cambodia.

I adored Battambang with its more laid back feel than the bigger cities like Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. There’s a fresher, cleaner air to this city – it did win the clean city award for 2015-2016! My suggestion is to spend one full day here. On this full day, explore and walk around the city in the morning, and then head out for sightseeing around 2pm with a tuk tuk driver.

Bamboo train

Maybe I shouldn’t have loved this as much as I did because it’s just a train, but the hour I was there, was one of the best hours of my entire trip.

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That’s my train on the left off of the track since another cart was approaching

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Travel

Finding Inner Peace in the Cambodian Countryside 

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Set amongst rice paddies, thatched huts brimming with smiling children, ancient temples, and markets filled with dried meats, fresh fruit, and shampoos in tinny pouches, Hariharalaya is a paradise in the Cambodian countryside. With twice daily yoga and meditation sessions, three types of massages, and myriad fresh pressed juices and vegan delights, the retreat is perfect for the yoga aficionado and the meditation novice alike.

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The 6-day session I attended at Hariharalaya featured students from various countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Canada, the U.S., Poland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and England. We came together for this week to find inner peace, relaxation, and/or a deeper yoga or meditation practice.

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Travel

Asia Adventure: Siem Reap

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I’ve just returned from a 3-week trip to Southeast Asia, including 2 weeks in Cambodia, 5 days in Laos, and 2 days in Hong Kong. Overall, the trip was really fantastic – I met a lot of great people, got to meet up with friends from Hong Kong, saw amazing historical sites, had fun travel buddies, and ate yummy food. So as not to overwhelm, I’m breaking up my posts by city. Today’s adventure: Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The temples of Angkor Wat are the reason why people travel to Cambodia. Built over 800 years ago, these temples are absolutely fascinating. Many of the structures were unfinished and left to ruin. In the 19th century, French explorers rediscovered the temples and since then the historical buildings have been the go-to destination for Cambodia.

There are many temples that make up Angkor Wat and you can choose to explore most of them with multiple-day passes. You can hire a guide to drive you around and explain the historical significance, bike around the complex, or simply hire a tuk tuk driver for the day. We chose to go for one day with a tuk tuk driver who took us to the four main temples we were most interested in visiting.

Angkor Wat  

The most common way to visit this temple is at sunrise. It’s a 5:00am pick-up so you can enter the park at the 5:30 opening time. It definitely is worth the early alarm.

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Travel

Asia Adventure: Phnom Penh

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I’ve just returned from a 3-week trip to Southeast Asia, including 2 weeks in Cambodia, 5 days in Laos, and 2 days in Hong Kong. Overall, the trip was really fantastic – I met a lot of great people, got to meet up with friends from Hong Kong, saw amazing historical sites, had fun travel buddies, and ate yummy food. So as not to overwhelm, I’m breaking up my posts by city. Today’s adventure: Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is home to the Killing Fields & the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. A brief history lesson: the Khmer Rouge seized power over the Cambodian government in 1975, with the intent to make everyone “equal”. They forced many people out of their homes, either brutally killing them or pressuring them to do break-backing work with little to no food. The Khmer Rouge’s reign over Cambodia lasted 4 years in which an estimated 1.5 to 3 million people died.

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Living Life and Yoga, Too

A Eulogy to my “Wild Grandma”

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This past weekend my maternal grandmother passed after a journey with cancer. She was a kind soul who loved many things, among them:

Word searches

BINGO

H&G (aka HGTV)

Country Music

My grandfather

Pranks

Corny jokes

Telling stories of her past

Her friends

Getting her hair done

Taking care of her long manicured nails

Singing

Lottery tickets

Her dog, Peppy

And most of all, her family

Even until the very end, she never complained. She smiled, made jokes, and even flirted with the EMTs when they brought her home with hospice. She was proud of all of her grandchildren and told us each and every time she talked to us. She was brave, patient, and strong – one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. There were many ups in her life, but through the downs she always kept her head held high. She loved my niece, her great granddaughter, more than life itself. She was quick with a smile, quick with a joke, and quick with a hug. Whether you called her Mom, Grandma, Wanda, Elwanda, Granny, GG, or Wild Grandma, she treated you fairly and with respect, never judging or doubting. She was a wonderful and caring woman whose loss will be felt by many.

Gram, I’ll miss you so much. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving me and our family so fiercely. May you rest in peace.

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Elwanda Taylor Obituary

Taking Chicagoland by storm…one date, one yoga class, one salsa lesson, one blog post, one trip, one drink, one meal, one new friendship at a time.