78Eva's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 7,349 | A language-lover abroad by 78Eva - last update: Feb 18, 2005 |
Living abroad is a great way to... My name is Eva, and I was born and grew up in a small town in northwestern Germany. I have always been drawn to travelling, and could spend hours over the atlas, imagining strange and exciting places. When I was sixteen, I spent an entire school year in NORWAY, with a Norwegian host family and going to a Norwegian school. I had the time of my life, og laerte aa snakke norsk! It was during this time that this whole new world opened up to me: LIVING ABROAD
instead of just travelling abroad. I impatiently spent two more years at high-school in Germany, eagerly awaiting the time when I could go to live abroad in many different places. I was going to go to Alaska and live and study there - nothing became of that and I haven't made it to Alaska yet, but instead I ended up in DUBLIN, Ireland. I spent three years in Dublin, that great city, doing my BA in Near Eastern Languages (Arabic and ancient Hebrew). It was a fabulous time during which I got to know the city pretty well. I'm greeting all UCD people!
After Dublin, I lived in MOROCCO for half a year, studying Arabic in Fez. What a magical time I had there, exotic, exciting, wonderful. It was here that I met my American boyfriend from ITHACA, NY. After having gone through the difficult stage of life of people with distance relationships, we have now been living together for a while, in England, Germany and America.
Later, I lived in OXFORD for a year doing a Diploma course. Although I met a number of really nice people (mostly Americans) during my time in Oxford, it was not a very happy time, and I was glad to leave it in the end. I wasn't the biggest fan of England after this time. However, luckily my England picture has changed by now, after having lived there for another year, this time in DURHAM, in northern England. I absolutely adore northern England, the mentality there, the landscape, the vicinity to Scotland etc. I studied Translation and Literature in Durham, mostly Arabic.
I love remote and unusual places, little islands, quirky small towns etc. Last autumn I went on a road trip through the American Midwest and Rocky Mountain Region. How amazing! I loved it just as much as I though I would! Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, I wish I could have stayed much longer! In South Dakota, a childhood dream came true - I was able to finally visit De Smet, the little town where "Little House on the Prairie" really took place and the home of the Ingalls family. I had read the books sooo many times as a child. My experiences there you can look up in my De Smet page.
I am a total language person, I love languages and try to learn as many as possible! Among my more exotic ones are Arabic and Hebrew (Arabic really is my main subject), but my favourite and most loved one is Italian. I have a passion for ITALY and have spent many great times there, especially in Siena. As you can see below, reading is my world. |
| Cesare Pavese, one of my most loved writers |
|  | Some favourite readings... I always read. Nothing better than getting lost in a good novel. Please let me know the books you love, I'm always looking out for a good read.
Some of my own favourites:
Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient Anil's Ghost
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Alice Walker/ Pratibha Parma: Warrior Marks
Simone de Beauvoir: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Mahmoud Darwish: Eleven Stars over Andalusia
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
Peter H?eg: Smilla's Sense of Snow
Marilyn French: The Women's Room
Natalia Ginzburg: All her writings
Elsa Morante: La Storia
Linda Hogan: Solar Storms
Willa Cather: O Pioneers! My Antonia
Ethan Hawke: Ash Wednesday
Pearl Abraham: The Romance Reader Giving Up America
Cesare Pavese: All his writings
Hayden Herrera: Frida Kahlo
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita
Vikram Seth: A Suitable Boy
Savyon Liebrecht: Apples from the Desert
James Joyce: Dubliners
Giorgio Bassani: The Garden of the Finzi-Contini
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Bruce Chatwin: most of his writings
Mende Nazer: Slave
Janet Frame: An angel at my table, the biographic trilogy
Paul Alexander: Rough Magic (Biography of Sylvia Plath) |
|  | I spent half a year in Morocco, a magical time. This photo was taken on a beautiful day in April, I was visiting a woman I knew from Fes in her home village near Taza. The kids were climbing all over us and even made me ride on a donkey, I still have to dig that picture out. Everything was blossoming, it was green wherever you looked. The hospitality was incredible. |
Under "De Smet" you find my visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder home (Little House on the Prairie). This is me in South Dakota on the Ingalls homestead. |  | |
| Dugout house in the Midwest |
How about sleeping in here? This is my boyfriend in front of a South Dakota "dugout house"; it is built intol the hill. You certainly save on heating this way, but it was kind of dark and gloomy inside. Anyone who has read the Little House on the Prairie will remember this kind of a house - the Ingalls family lived in one in Minnesota. I hear they're getting more popular again among eccentrics; they are environmentally friendly and warm. |
78Eva's Albums | | | |
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Comments for 78Eva | | | | |
travolta159 Thu Jun 5, 2008 13:09 UTC nice page greeting from Morocco | brownfox Thu Jul 19, 2007 17:37 UTC very interesting page. May you have enrichments in your future endeavors and travel!! | Fewf Thu Aug 3, 2006 19:17 UTC Just ran into your page. I'm impressed by the places you've lived in, but I'm much more impressed by the open mind and lack of prejudices you seem to bring with you. | fouads Sun Dec 25, 2005 02:29 UTC Wish you Merry Christmas & happy new year , hope you have great times with your families and your freinds and with who you love ... |
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