1. The View from the North. This blog comes from the brain of Angie Alston, whom I met in high school. She was the reigning Idaho Junior Miss when we were seniors and can hold a pencil in her cavernous, adorable dimples when she smiles. Strangely, Jake also knows her through entirely different avenues and actually pursued her romantically for a brief time. (Ang, I've never taken the time to thank you for letting him down kindly, but I truly appreciate it.) But now, she's a middle school Social Studies teacher living in Shishmaref, Alaska, a tiny village located 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle that's accessible only by airplane and subject to the occasional polar bear attack. The town doesn't have any flush toilets, and Angie and her endearing hubby Steve (an elementary school teacher) attend church every Sunday via conference call. It's a fascinating, thoroughly entertaining read.
2. The Finnish Line. This blog is operated by our friends Ben and Missy Ames, but from what I gather, primarily by Missy. Missy and I met our freshman year of college at Utah State University and have been tight ever since, but especially since, during college, we both married men who turned out to be one another's tech-geek soul mates. In August, Missy and Ben moved to Jyväskylä, Finland, where Ben is working on a two-year master's program in physics at a campus so breathtaking it looks like it was constructed by God, and Missy is working as an English teacher. Neither of them really speak Finnish, despite Ben's being half-Finish, but they're learning and exploring the landscape almost exclusively by bike. All their entries so far have been interesting and entertaining, but I've especially enjoyed their beautifully-assembled video tours, and I'm looking forward to many more in the next two years.
But, in the words of the immortal LeVar Burton, don't take my word for it!
JEM
5 comments:
Ohmygosh. I made the AD Shout Out! I think I'm going to faint. VFN sincerely thanks AD for its generous outreach. The editor of VFN would comment about its positive contribute to international relations, but the editors of VFN and AD both remain American citizens (despite the fact that VFN's hometown is often perceived as a foreign country).
By the way, I was Idaho's Junior Miss, not Miss Teen Idaho. Thank you for pretending to understand the difference.
Wow AD, thanks for the recommendation. I am blushing.
Angie, thank you for the correction. AD needs a fact checker.
Jaz, thank you for the suggestions. I have visited both sites, read several entries and determined that both of these couples are people I would like to be friends with. And they are living much more fascinating lives than me-makes me feel like we need to relocate to a foreign country just to keep up with the jones'. Thanks for the suggestions--
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