Jamie, Author at North of Something

The Museum of Natural History | Vienna, Austria

05/02/2015 by Jamie 31 Comments

The Museum of Natural History was first recommended to me by a stranger in a coffee shop. I had a Vienna guidebook peeking out of my coat and my son was playing with a dinosaur transformer. The guy behind me in line said, “Well if you are going to Vienna and your son likes dinosaurs…” and the rest is (natural) history!

We took the red line on the underground train from our hotel and got off at the Volkstheater stop, which is the closest to the Museum of Natural History. Tickets are 10 Euros per adult and young kids are free!

There are lockers to store coats and backpacks, costing 3 Euros for the largest locker.

This is the view looking up from the cafe on the second floor. We took a break from walking the enormous exhibits to have some chocolate cake and coffee.

It seems like displays of rocks wouldn’t be that interesting, but it was actually really neat. It started as a personal collection and grew to be so large and diverse that it was eventually donated to the museum. There are meteorites, fossils, and every kind of rock, stone, and gem imaginable!

The quad/lawn in front of the museum has some gorgeous statues and trees. There are two other museums surrounding the lawn, but we didn’t wander into them.

We got my son a stuffed T-rex at the museum gift shop and I got some awesome postcards (I sent 10 from Vienna – check your mailbox)! They also have small fossils and meteorites for sale in the gift shop for a nice chunk of change.

We really enjoyed the 2 hours we spent exploring the Museum of Natural History and I definitely recommend it for all ages!

Naema – Whereabouts Unknown | Kids in the War Zone

04/02/2015 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Naema Whereabouts Unknown

With so many dark things happening in the world right now, especially in regards to war, I wanted to share a book review that highlights the experience of children in war zones. It’s hard enough to hear about acts of war that cause human suffering, and it’s worse still to think about the kids that are affected in so many ways.

In the short story “Naema—Whereabouts Unknown,” Mohammed Dib paints a picture of a man and his children in the midst of the Algerian War for Independence. The story is in a diary format that allows the reader to experience first-hand what the narrator is feeling.

The narrator is a good man who is surviving the war while taking care of his children, and also not knowing the whereabouts of his wife. His seven-year-old boy, Rahim, asks him questions that break his heart: “You mustn’t dawdle, Daddy, must you, when you throw a grenade?” (16). As the narrator struggles with how the war is affecting himself and his children, Dib highlights what a horrible position the child is in. The boy has apparently lived through three years of war already, and he has eerily childlike solutions: “Kill the lot. Keep throwing bombs” (16). These chilling words are meant to shock those that read them. The boy’s anger is a representation of the anger of all the Arabs that were resisting the French in the occupation. He encompasses the violence and hate that Dib feared would consume the next generation of Palestinians.

The war and death that surrounds the children in this story is not unique to this family alone. Dib tells a story that is familiar to anyone who has raised a family in a combat zone during wartime. As the Arab nationalists fight against the French colonialists, the narrator begins to reveal his own concerns not only for his country’s future, but his children’s future as well. He laments the fact that a high price has been paid already by the people of his country. He wonders, “How will those who survive the war adapt themselves to life? … How will they manage to give it a human face again?” (19).

These concerns affect not only the people of the narrator’s generation, but even more so the generation that was born into the war. For the children who grew up hearing grenades and bombs going off in the streets, who saw women and other children gunned down with machine guns, they won’t even know what peacetime is like. Dib presents a difficult problem when he conspicuously places children in this piece—the children represent the future of Algeria. They are children without a home and without the knowledge of peace.

This story took place in the 1950s during the French occupation of Algeria, but sadly, there are many children around the world today who are still affected by war, terrorism, occupations, and violence. It’s not a very uplifting read, but it’s interesting to think about the world from the viewpoint of a kid in a war zone and wonder, like Dib, “How will those who survive the war adapt themselves to life? How will they manage to give it a human face?”

Other Works by Mohammed Dib

If you liked “Naema – Whereabouts Unknown,” you might also like other works by Mohammed Dib, one of the most popular North African authors on the Twentieth Century.

Please note: the following list includes affiliate links, which means if you purchase an item from my link I will get a (very) small percentage of the purchase. Full disclosure statement can be found here. Thank you!

Tlemcen or Places of Writing by Mohammed Dib

This book is part memoir, part rumination on writing, and full of photographs that Dib took in his younger years in Tlemcen.

The Savage Night by Mohammed Dib

This is a collection of short stories that highlight the violence and brutality that many people (including children) deal with on a daily basis.

Entertaining a Preschooler on a Transatlantic Flight

25/01/2015 by Jamie 12 Comments

Complete Preschool Carry-on Packing List

(Under Construction!)

Our flight from Seattle to Germany was was long, boring, miserable, and eventful. Trying to entertain a preschooler on a transatlantic flight can be very tricky!

With about eleven hours of flying time, I wanted to make sure my son had enough stuff to keep him occupied. But is there ever really enough for a bored, tired, anxious 3 year old to do when he has been up for 18 hours? Oh, the misery of being cooped up with a preschooler who won’t sleep, use the airplane bathroom, or stay quiet while everyone else is trying to sleep on the flight. Since my husband was already in Germany, my amazing Dad offered to accompany my son and me on the trip over.

We did have about 5 hours of peaceful bliss while he was enjoying the contents of what I packed for him, and before he was just too tired and restless. So, let me share what went well, and I’ll just pretend the rest of it never happened + 2 thumbs up+

Packing the Carryon

Ok, first I went out and bought about $50 worth of new toys and snacks. Yes, I know, shame on me, but if you had flown the flights I have, you would just nod along and say: Yes, good, $50 worth of new toys and snacks.

Then I took them all out of the packages (huge waste of space when packing a carryon) and wrapped them up to be opened on the plane. The brown paper wrapping was used for candy so I could let him open those ones after snacks throughout the flight.

Here’s a close up of some of the toys. I tried to get things that could be enjoyed quietly or take awhile to put together so the entertainment value would last.

My dad flies often and is accustomed to having all the perks and none of the lines. Sorry about the 40 minute wait for security, Dad. He kept turning around and saying: This is ridiculous! My son kept trying to escape by low crawling on the dirty airport tile. But he did get to ~~write his name~~ scribble on a luggage tag, which he was really proud of.

The Easy Hours

The first hour of the flight was spent enjoying the new games on his new LeapPad. (He opened it the night before so he could get the hang of how to play the games.)

And he enjoyed showing his bunny Lemmiwinks around our row.

Of course a 3 (and a half) year old can’t put an 18 piece transformer together all by himself, so my dad had to lend a hand. It was a good quiet activity and I’m glad we saved most of them for when the lights were dimmed so that everyone (but us) could get some sleep.

He loved opening up Marshall and his fire truck, and then getting to watch the show on the kindle – PAWS Patrol for the win!

The International Layover

We had a really short layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. After briefly falling asleep on the descent, he woke up SCREAMING bloody murder for the entire 20 minutes of landing. I think it was a perfect storm of having refused to use the bathroom for 8 hours, being midnight in the time zone we had been in, and just wanting to get the hell out of his seat belt. As we entered the airport in a dreamlike stupor, he threw up his hands, tears in his eyes and said: This isn’t Germany! followed by a pitiful sob. I got an empathetic laugh from a passerby, which gave me just enough gusto to carry the little screamer through customs and onto the next plane.

At that point I took him to the bathroom and insisted that he use it. While he screamed, I’m sure everyone on the plane thought I was beating him, but eventually he went, and the plane took off.

There was a beautiful sunrise, and even though none of us had really slept, it was exciting that we were almost in Germany!

He was out cold for the last hour of the short(er) flight. Actually we were the last people to walk down the stairs of the plane and board the bus to the terminal. He slept all the way to baggage claim. Why couldn’t he sleep like that on the flight?!

But as miserable as those few dark hours were, we made it to Germany and I will never have to fly with a 3 year old for eleven hours ever again. +fingers crossed+

Have you ever entertained a preschooler on a transatlantic flight?

Travel Print + Travel Journal Giveaway

12/01/2015 by Jamie 17 Comments

I’m really excited to introduce my good friend Sarah, the designer behind Letter + Line Studio in Seattle, Washington! I met Sarah in college when we were paired together as lab partners in Chemistry 101 and we have stayed friends over the last 8 years. I was lucky enough to attend her wedding in Seattle a couple months ago, right before she set off to Paris for her honeymoon, and I moved to Germany.

Sarah has designed a beautiful travel print just for this giveaway! And she is also offering 20% off all the prints in her shop for the next 2 weeks with the coupon code TRAVEL20. Take a minute to check out all her stuff at the Letter + Line Studio website.

At the Eiffel Tower

The Metro stop near Notre Dame

From the Letter + Line Studio site:

My passion for design, paper, and definitely weddings has helped establish this company for what it is today: a full service design and print studio based in Seattle, Washington. I locally source papers and printing, use almost exclusively recycled and eco-friendly paper and processes, and assemble everything by hand, in house.

I believe invitations should be an experience, not a throw away; that prints and posters should be extensions of one’s personality; and that sending a card really can make someone’s day! Thanks for visiting and I look forward to working with you and sending some paper love your way!

The exterior of the Louvre

Arc de Triomphe

Letter + Line Studio does amazing work with wedding invitations and did a fantastic job on mine! It was a great experience working with Sarah (even though I am super picky and I’m sure I was a pain in the butt). I got the exact wedding invitations I had envisioned and they were even more beautifully hand-crafted than I imagined (or could have ever done myself). If you are in the market for wedding invitations you should definitely check hers out, or chat with her about your dream invitations!