I am an English speaker with significant foreign language deficits. I can say "hello", and ask a question - only to find that I cannot understand the answer :/
I had a fear of flying until I turned 50, so I spent the last 20 years making up for lost time. My first off-continent experience was Venice during Carnival in 2009. My subsequent travels followed the Muslim occupation/influence of Europe, which took me to Italy (Florence, Venice, Genoa); Spain (Toledo, Cordoba, Granada); Turkey (Istanbul, Bursa) and a circumnavigation of Morocco. My most recent excursion was to France, where I rode a mechanical elephant in Nantes, explored Roman ruins in Santes, slept in a chateau in Niort, explored French-American history in La Rochelle, and was mistaken for a local at the medieval city of Carcassonne.
Domestically, I chased my mother's family history in Colorado (Gunnison, Silverton, Durango, Montrose), traveling by train, wearing 1910 traveling clothes, and lodging in hotels and a B&B that boasted of claw-foot bathtubs and Edwardian charm. In Chicago I embarked on a self-guided tour of Frank Lloyd Wright properties and a list of architectural must-sees. I have also been to Canada by car (British Columbia and Saskatchewan) and Alaska by ferry (Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Haines).
I try to maintain the smallest possible ecological footprint. I live and work in the smallest and most energy efficient apartment possible. Not owning a car, I travel locally by bus and on foot. I have forsaken air travel and I now only visit places I can get to by train and bus. I only buy second-hand; I treat thrift stores as a sort of lending library - buying what I need and donating it back after the object has served its purpose but is still useful to others.
My craft follows suite. Tools, textiles, even threads and yarns are acquired as second use materials. My goal this year is to learn to sew on my treadle machine - to recreate 1900s garments on a 1908 machine, but also to sew in the absence of electricity.
In the art and living history sectors that I spend time in, I encourage, promote and try to protect the voices of those who need to be heard during these times of extremist ideology. I believe that art and history will save us, but only if we are brave enough to stand together to protect the people and ideals that are most important to us.
