Many thanks to Angela Scheff, who, once again, made a book of mine even better. Jessica Wong, Brigitta Nortker, Aryn Van Dyke, Tiffany Sawyer, and the rest of the kind folks in the HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson offices—it’s a pleasure to work with you. Thank you for your partnership.
Words aren’t enough to thank our friends around the world who showed us hospitality, poured us a glass of wine, or let our kids play with your toys—Dave and Karen, Ashley and Giff Ransom, Joan and Tim Peagam, Laura and Matt Parker, Darren and Vanessa Rowse, Ben and Brooke McAlary, Beryl and Pete, Adriel and Ryan Booker, Dave and Joy Forney, Asher and Dru Collie, Heidi Wright, Eric and Kristi, Dan and Bethany Bassett, Ruth and John Chestnut, Skender and Jackie Zeqiri, Beqir Dema, Bekim and Fikrie Lushaku, Albina Haliti, Ernie and Suzy Penner, Andie and Chuck Wade, and Murat and Nilüfer Talu. Thanks to the myriad guesthouse owners who opened their front doors and handed us their keys. Thank you to The Well in Chiang Mai for your significant, sacred work. And thank you to Ryan and Stephanie Langford, delightful travelers-in-crime and fantastic friends—we love any time we spend with you on any dot on the map.
Mad grateful for good friends, especially those who understand the weird world of what we do—you know who you are. Overflowing with thanks for the many friends who love us, even when they think we’re a question mark. Saluti . . . a round of drinks are on us, with every one of you, one day, in the same room.
I have so much supportive family, it almost doesn’t seem fair—thank you and much love to Josh, Joan, Holden, Nellie, AJ, Karisa, Kylie, Nathan, Ashton, Carsyn, Carly, Darren, Owen, and Olive, as well as the umpteen-jillion cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents of mine that I count an honor to call family. Of course, thank you to my in-laws, Ed and Linda, and to my own parents, Rod and Karen—love you all to Vacoas-Phoenix, Mauritius, and back approximately eighteen times, and thanks for praying for us as we cart your grandchildren to the four corners of the world.
And finally, to my favorite people in the entire world . . . I can’t believe God’s great blessing in letting me live life with you, Kyle. Thank you for hailing that taxi and telling it to chase that bus across the Macedonian border, and for pulling up old floor planks to lay down new ones. I’ll make a home and ride rickety buses with you anywhere. Here’s to many more adventures.
To Tate, Reed, and Finn, who are truly my greatest adventure yet—these travels, these words, this home—they’re all for you to find your place in the world. I’m honored you call me Mom, and I love you so. Rudyard Kipling once said, “God gave all men all earth to love, but since our hearts are small, ordained for each, one spot should prove beloved over all.” You guys, along with your dad, are the one spot on earth beloved to me over all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tsh Oxenreider is the author of Notes from a Blue Bike and Organized Simplicity, and is the top-ranked podcaster of The Simple Show. She is the founder of the community blog The Art of Simple, and her writing has been featured in the Washington Post, CNN, Real Simple magazine, and other venues. A graduate of the University of Texas, where she studied English and anthropology, Tsh currently lives with her family in Georgetown, Texas, and eats tacos several times a week.
NOTES
Chapter 2: China
1. Wikipedia, s.v. “List of Chinese Inventions,” accessed October 31, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions.
2. “History of Umbrella and Parasol,” Umbrella History, accessed November 2, 2016, http://www.umbrellahistory.net/.
3. Sky Canaves, “Earthquake Detection Past and Present,” China Real Time Report (blog), Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2008, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2008/06/05/earthquake-detection-past-and-present/.
4. Wikipedia, s.v. “History of Rockets,” accessed November 1, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rockets.
Chapter 4: Thailand
1. Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 43.
Chapter 8: Australia, Again
1. Mary Oliver, White Pine: Poems and Prose (San Diego: Harcourt, 1994), 8.
Chapter 10: Uganda
1. See http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/source-of-the-nile-at-jinja.
Chapter 12: Zimbabwe
1. Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Tales of Travel (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923; digitized by Internet Archive, 2014), chap. 5, https://archive.org/stream/talesoftravel00curz_0/talesoftravel00curz_0_djvu.txt.
Chapter 14: Morocco
1. Nigel Tisdell, “Fes, Morocco: A Flavour of the Nation,” Telegraph (UK), February 10, 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africa/morocco/Fes/articles/Fes-Morocco-A-flavour-of-the-nation/.
Chapter 15: France
1. Doug DeMuro, “Here’s Why Monaco Is the World’s Best Place for Car Enthusiasts,” Jalopnik, July 23, 2014, http://jalopnik.com/here-s-why-monaco-is-the-world-s-best-place-for-car-ent-1609741707.
Chapter 16: Italy
1. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), 175.
2. Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World (New York: Scribner, 2007), 140–41.
3. Attributed to Louis Nizer in Between You and Me.