Month: September 2016

Vlog: Country Mountain Getaway in Callicoon, NY

As I continue on with my late-summer East Coast travels – which will soon turn into my early-fall Italy travels – I’m barreling on with my vlog production, hoping to bring at least one of these to you per week.  This particular vlog is near and dear to my heart: it documents a special weekend trip to a family mountain home in the Catskills that has been an annual occasion for more than ten years.  But decades before this group made the tradition, it was the summer home of my friend’s great-grandparents, who were the matriarch and patriarch of a great family and legends in their own right.


I felt fortunate to be included this year with this group of friends, many who have known each other since childhood.  Some of them see each other regularly throughout the year, and some become reacquainted just once a year here in Callicoon.  I came to get to know them through a close friend from graduate school and his husband at the annual get-together this past Labor Day, and I felt both totally included and like an observer all at once.  Which makes for better vlogging, in the end.  Hope you enjoy our trip through Labor Day in the Catskills.

Experiments in Vlogging: Northampton, MA

I feel like I have nine lives on WordPress: I disappear for a while, but I always manage to make it back.  While some of my favorite alone time is spent reading blogs on WordPress, I’ve jumped into the world of education travel coordination with CISabroad, and coordinating faculty-led university student tours of Italy takes every last bit of energy out of me and leaves no time for blogging.  That being said, I love my new job, and as I travel I’m developing more perspective and knowledge on what’s out there to share with you all.


I’m elated that I’ve finally gotten a little break from work, and last week I went to visit the home office of CISabroad, which is located in the beautiful college town of Northampton, MA.  I have a beautiful new iPhone now with lots of memory (since I dropped the last one on its face and it lives no more), and I’m taking advantage of the great new lens on this iPhone and plenty of storage to start vlogging, as I’ve been aspiring to do for years.  So here it is, friends, my first vlog in several years.  Hope it takes you into the world of beautiful Northampton.  And I hope you enjoy it!  Here’s to many more…