Before you read this post, check out this Buzzfeed quiz:
The Hardest “Would You Rather” For ’90s Kids

I stumbled upon this quiz while scrolling through my Facebook. I love anything 90s related so I was pumped to take this stupid quiz. As I decided whether “I’d rather scoop” Dunkaroos or Handi-Snacks, I felt my mouth start to salivate. OH MY GOD I WANT A COSMIC BROWNIE. FRUIT-BY-THE-FOOT. YES. FUN DIP. PIZZA LUNCHABLE. !@$%^&*)(&%$

Why is my body so f***ing excited to see these terrible foods? Foods I would now NEVER purchase at the grocery store. Is it just nostalgia or something more? The bigger question is, why was I raised on such nutritionally god-awful food? DIDN’T MY PARENTS LOVE ME?

Looking Back

A few of my friends and I have this theory that our parents were raised on very fundamental, boring foods. Think rice, potatoes, Spam…anything cheap. As they started having kids, the...

I saw a trailer for “This is Us” on my Facebook feed a few months ago. All of my aunts were sharing it so I knew it would be some sort of terrible shit that I’d love to binge-watch after a day of dealing with tedious client feedback. The trailer also features a classic, heartwarming Jason Mraz song that could honestly make Two Girls One Cup look sentimental. It also includes dramatic statements that make me feel united with the world even though in reality, everyone is shooting each other and Donald Trump is legitimately running for presidency. Somehow phrases like “This is life”, “This is support,” “This is courage,” and “This is forgiveness,” when set to Jason Mraz of course, really tug at the heart strings. And wait, is that MANDY MOORE??

Watch the trailer here

I was hooked, in a shameful kind of “I love the Bachelor” sort of way. Since I figure it will be mostly 50-something moms...

Me indulging on my one true meat-love: Pulled Pork

I think there are two types of vegetarians in the world; those who want everyone to know they are vegetarian and those who really don’t want anyone to know. I’m not dissing those who are vegetarian for legitimate ethical reasons and believe in spreading those views. I’m talking about the people who seem like they literally chose to stop eating meat so they could announce that they’d have the vegetarian option at the next business lunch to get more attention. That’s definitely why I decided to try it.

Actually, about 2 months ago, I completed a clean-eating challenge that was similar to the Whole-30 program. The biggest thing, and the root of all good diets (IMHO), is veggies first. If I eat as many veggies as I want, the rest of my diet is positively impacted. I don’t feel as hungry, I don’t snack as much, I have more energy during...

I don’t particularly like kids. I got to a certain age and decided I didn’t want to go to musicals anymore and I also didn’t want to spend time with tiny people who are a terrible combination of annoying, dependent, and hyper. When I found a Workaway in Italy that worked with my schedule, I must’ve pretended I didn’t see that they had a 7-year-old boy. I purposefully only contacted Workaway hosts that didn’t have kids or needed help with childcare.

Alas, I arrived at Ruth and Steve’s house on a Thursday night. Steve and Charlie (the 7-year-old boy) were already in bed. I enjoyed some wine and cheese with Ruth, made smalltalk and pretended that I was wildly excited to meet Charlie in the morning. “He’s really excited to meet you,” Ruth told me. “Aww, sweet. I cannot wait to meet him!” I replied. It was a lie, because like I said, I don’t like kids. And I assumed Charlie being excited to...

I recently completed a challenge at my gym which followed a meal plan similar to Whole-30, so mostly paleo. I learned a lot during the challenge about nutrition, my body’s reaction to certain foods, and most importantly, how to create tasty meals on the fly using whatever I have in my kitchen.

Although I’m definitely back in the routine of eating cookie dough, ice cream, and cheese now and again- I’ve continued to follow a similar paleo-ish diet, especially during the week. I hope this blog will be a nice way to share some of the recipes I’ve loved, tweaked, or concocted on my own.

Paleo Kale Shakshouka

Ingredients
1 chopped shallot
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch of kale, stems removed, chopped
½ cup marinara sauce (make sure the marinara is clean if paleo)
2 eggs
Salt & pepper
Crushed red pepper
Optional: Avocado, green onions

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan for a minute or...

I think everyone is quick to judge and share their opinions surrounding anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Even though I’ve struggled with some of these issues myself, sometimes I’m still quick to judge.

“They aren’t even trying to get better.”

“Everyone and their mom has an anxiety disorder these days.”

-Random judgmental thoughts I’ve had while trolling social media

Talking about mental health isn’t fun. Like most serious topics, I worry I’m going to offend someone. I worry that I haven’t had it bad enough to really even discuss these topics at all. Therefore, the best way for me to approach this topic is to discuss what anxiety looks like for me. I’ve recently found the best way for me to deal with problems in my life is to find like-minded people who face similar struggles and to just talk. No solutions necessary, just an open discussion to talk about what’s...

With a lot of moving around lately, I haven’t been great about updating the blog. The last 2 weeks in the cave were a weird mix of being way better and way worse than the first 2. In some ways, I got really comfortable with living in a cave and in many ways, I just got really annoyed. Anyways, I am now in Italy with my new Workaway hosts and I am much happier here.

Week 3
The week was pretty fun. Admittedly, after having so much fun in Granada it was pretty difficult to come back to boring-ville aka Huescar. I worked on some super random stuff including one fun project which involved finding whatever stuff I could around Hannah’s house, painting that stuff, and then hanging it on her cave wall. The weekend was fun, Hannah’s builder friend Raymond encouraged us all to go to Castril (a nearby town) which we gladly said yes to. Hannah went too, cause she only does anything fun when other...

Today I got an email from Hostel World, the website that I have found the majority of my hostels through, with a listicle titled “8 things I learnt as a solo female traveller in South America.” First of all, I hate the word learnt. Second of all, this is not the first article I’ve seen like this. In fact, I read many articles like this before deciding that my journey was the right choice for me. Most of them were quite accurate! But looking back, most of them also read like a monthly horoscope. “You will feel very independent. Although it is lonely at times, your longing for adventure will overcome any lingering doubts. Explore on, fierce Lion! You will get a cute text on the 15th.”

As broad as these articles may be, it is very true that traveling alone causes you to feel heightened emotions. If you hear the sad trombone noise in your head every time you see an old guy out to lunch...

Last week I wrote my blog post while having a serious case of the Mondays. It kind of sucks because it’s way more fun to write when I’m feeling pissy and snarky. Right now I’m just feeling grateful for a fun weekend and to be living with fun girls in the cave. So since being grateful and feeling hashtag blessed is much less fun to read about, I’ll just skip right into the pics.

It was another semi-normal week in the cave and then the girls and I went to Granada for the weekend. The weather was terrible (yes, it’s STILL cold here) but our AirBnB had a heater so we were thrilled.

The girls and I (Judith & Wiebke) were cold (surprise, surprise) so we went to one of the many China stores in town and bought matching flannels, sweatpants, and fuzzy socks.

I took advantage of some nice weather and went for a run. It is much hillier here than MN, FYI.

Some panoramas I took while...