Thank you. It’s a common way of politely expressing your appreciation to someone who did you a favor. But in some parts of the world, it’s actually considered rude. In every culture, you’ll find people use a variety of phrases and gestures to convey different messages. More often than not, we don’t even realize it. We grow up accepting these…
Posts By Monica Montesa
Exercise in 2020 is looking a lot different from years past. While many of us may be missing our treadmill runs, the bland (or mirrored) interior walls of the local gym are far from the idyllic environment most runners desire. This is the perfect time to embrace the fresh air and beautiful scenery of outdoor running. And while we may…
You’re jogging through a park in Berlin when suddenly, you trip over a rock and twist your ankle. As you lay in pain, uncertain of the severity of your injury, your mind begins to race. What should you do? Whenever we plan for vacation, the thought of an emergency situation occurring (such as the one above) rarely crosses our minds.…
Family vacations can leave you stressed - the planning, the budgeting, the worry over your young children wandering away, the worry over your older children… wandering away. Here’s something potentially comforting – you’re not alone. Thousands of parents planning family vacations feel the exact same way. And yet, there’s something about the family vacation that keeps us all planning year…
You’re on a wonderful vacation in a foreign country and everything’s going great. No flight delays, no lost luggage. Even the people you meet seem to be unusually happy. Everything is perfect—until you realize you lost your passport. And the panic begins to settle in. Losing important travel documents such as a passport, driver’s license, or airline ticket is an…
Camping on the ground was so last year… and the thousands of years before then. The latest camping style that’s all the rage? Tree camping. Although there’s not much else to say about what it is (it’s literally camping in a tree), tree camping can be a fun and unique way to change up your usual travel experience this summer.…
To many, a plot of land is more than an area of dirt and grass—it’s a blank canvas that holds endless opportunities for creating beautiful gardens and landscapes. But in addition to being something aesthetically pleasing, gardens also can be important extensions of a country’s culture; styles, designs, and elements used are often unique to each, and there’s a lot…
Traveling with a food allergy can be a nightmare, especially if your kryptonite is something as prevalent as peanuts or tree nuts. Although it can be fairly easy to find meals that don’t list any type of nut as an ingredient when traveling, packing healthy snacks might pose a different issue. Why? Because many of the easy go-to snacks are…
If all the excitement of Cinco de Mayo raised your interest in Mexican cuisine but has you worried about your diet, don’t assume you’ll have to throw your healthy diet out the window. After all, there’s more to Mexican food than cheesy nachos, greasy burritos, and refried beans. And if you want to visit Mexico, you should know that with…
No matter how you slice it, long flights can be brutal. Even though visiting a new city is worth the travel it takes to get there (usually), it’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re on hour ten of a flight and have ten more to go. Between sleep issues, feeling cramped, and sub-par airplane “food,” it’s easy to…