This instruction manual for travel yoga by Darrin Zeer, covers poses you can perform casually in the airport as well as tips for every portion of the trip, including layovers, at the luggage carousel, standing in line for the security check, on the plane, etc.  Some of top tips from the book?

• When stressed, stop. Take a deep breath . It doesn’t matter where you are, according to Zeer. Crowded street, bus station, middle of the airport or even a taxi cab. All are appropriate locations to get a grip.
• Make peace of mind your highest priority throughout your trip.
• The back-stretching cat pose. This one’s great for the hotel at the end of the day. Just get on your hands and knees, and slowly arch your spine up and down. This will get out the kinks from a long day of sitting on a train or plane.

Slightly larger than a pocket-sized book, this hard cover title is small enough to pack conveniently if you are on a short trip, but I’m not sure I would lug it on a long-term excursion when space is an issue. Available through Amazon.

Photo Credit: Chronicle Books

Three Cups of Tea

Discovering what we love, pursuing what we love and creating an opportunity to do what we feel is our life’s work is a gift. For many these discoveries take time and evolve through opportunities, hobbies, travel and every day life experiences. Sometimes it’s a chance meeting, a conversation with a friend or a significant life event that propels us to change our direction, widen our horizon and open a door to our life’s work.

Recently I received “Three Cups of Tea“written by Greg Mortenson. I’d seen the book in bookstores, but never read it. This book is deeply inspiring, attitude changing and just a beautiful example of how following our beliefs and our life’s work can change not only our lives for the better, but the lives of many people around us.  Greg Mortenson’s desire to climb K-2 took him to Pakistan, but it was his experiences in a small village in Pakistan that changed the direction of his life.

Three Cups of Tea should be required reading. It’s one mans journey to transform our world and our attitudes by building schools in remote villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan where girls are rarely educated. It’s Mortenson’s belief that if we educate women we can change the world. Women stay in the villages and teach others the knowledge they’ve learned. They share it with their children and their friends, thus creating a chain reaction of education and positive change within the villages. It is Mortensons’s belief that we will have more success ridding the world of terrorism through educating women and children than we could ever have through war. He has now built over 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and his life’s work continues with great support and appreciation. It all began with one dream and one man’s simple income. He was a nurse, who sometimes lived out of his car to save money so that he could go back to Pakistan and build the school he had promised to the village of Korphe after his injuries and failed attempt climb K-2. This book will inspire you and touch you. For anyone with a dream or a vision of creating their life’s work, this book is a beautiful beginning. For more information on Greg Mortenson, view his blog.

Greg Mortenson’s new book Stones into Schools was released last month by Penguin Books. Order a copy of Stones into Schools.

Special thanks to my friend Elizabeth for sharing Three Cups of Tea, with me.

Susan Van Allen’s Italian travel book 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go is part travel guide, part “inside peek”. Broken down into topic areas such as beaches, sights, beauty spas and cooking schools, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go points out spectacular unknowns in addition to well-known “gotta see ‘ems”. A few on her list?

• The Palazzo Barbarini in Rome
• The Florentine home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• The Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice
• The romantic and undisturbed temple of Segesta in Sicily
• Michelangelo’s Pieta in St. Peter’s basilica

I particularly enjoyed how destination write ups come with accessible hours and possible literary pairings, as well as a clear inside knowledge of each location. While anyone traveling to Italy would find this title helpful preliminary reading, I think this title would be of particular use to expats or travelers exploring Italy through an extended stay.

Related Reading: 11 Things to Do in Bolzano, Italy.

Photo Credit: Traveler’s Tales

Carolyn Theriault’s move to Morocco thrust her into a situation many expats are familiar with: extreme cultural adjustment during a time of total career transition. Those of us who have been through this understand the punchy sense of humor that arises from the “might as well laugh as cry” phase so typical of international moves.

It’s not that we don’t enjoy travel, or value the cultural integration opportunity. We do. But the fact is, the settling-in phase rarely goes smoothly, resulting in one hilarious research mission after another (grocery shopping, obtaining a driver’s license). While we all go through the same adjustments and attempt to get a good laugh out of them, few actually go the extra mile and commit the experience to paper. Theriault has done dust that with an edgy, honest style born of authentic life experiences.

Two particular incidents stuck out to me. First, the weekend getaway with the coworker and local drivers / guides / “new friends” where Carolyn gets stuck in a continuous loop of struggling to reach her desired destination, regardless of how clearly she tries to communicate her needs. A version of this story happens more frequently than most independent travelers might care to admit. Second, the initial post office visit where Theriault goes to retrieve her package from home. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I have had the exact same experience on numerous occasions, but to me this was just wet-your-pants funny. Ditto with the no bathtub chapter.

As a huge fan of the Middle East in general, I was a bit sad that things hadn’t gone more smoothly for Carolyn during her time in Morocco. Negative accounts from westerners relating to the Middle East region always seem so abundant, and positive ones are unfortunately less prevalent. That being said, her experiences and voice were utterly authentic and I enjoyed her style. Congrats to Theriault on her first title, Stealing Fatima’s Hand. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Photo Credit: Vox Humana