ABOUT

Hi, thanks for dropping by! I'm Steph, and I've just moved to the metro Washington, DC area for a science communications fellowship. I'm something of a small-town couch potato, and so I'm here to share the adventures and misadventures of my assimilation to city culture.

I've always loved writing and photography. I've been blogging nearly continuously since I was 14 years old. I'll spare you the adolescent awkward, but you can read my Peace Corps blog here.

Here's some replacement adolescent awkward: euphonium player extraordinaire.

This blog is an outlet for me to write not only about my adventures and growing pains in DC but other topics I'm passionate about like the environment, science, human nature, and how the 7 billion of us on this planet live.

After growing up with a lot of issues with my body image, at 27 years old I'm finally at a point where I am happy (thrilled, so grateful) for my body, so I also share the occasional reflection on how I got there.  (Spoiler: not by running on a treadmill.)

Nothing better for the heart than a brisk cross-country ski on a fine winter's day!

Family

Two years ago I married my best friend (let's call him Mr. P), a Latin American scientist. We don't have any kids, but we do have an adorable contradiction of a cat named Oliver. I'll be living the next year apart from both of them as the two of us humans pursue disparate professional opportunities, but they will likely make an appearance now and again.

Mr. P. is a research scientist and lives far, far away :-(

Our little pride and joy, Oliver, whom I brought home from Peace Corps.

Life in Many Languages?

When I was in Peace Corps in Guatemala, I lived my life routinely in four languages (Spanish, English, German, and a local Mayan language called Mam). As a language geek, I found that really exciting. While switching between languages all the time, I also realized that fluency in a language involves a lot more than words; it requires a subtle understanding of intention and culture as well.  In that way it seemed to be a fitting blog name as I embark on learning all the subtleties of how to live, work, and communicate in DC!