My morning.

Today I shadowed Anita, the Nurse Practitioner at a senior home on capitol hill. Anita is amazing. She wants all of her patients to live to their potential, and she hates the use of drugs as the "remedy" for the side effects of other drugs. As soon as someone is sick, she'll dig through their file, and often she'll locate some offending pill, which never needed to be there in the first place. Anita follows hundreds of cases, and knows everyone by face and name; she also knows their grandkids, and husbands and boyfriends and the things that are most important to the in life. When she talks, she never takes her eyes off of yours. People's eyes light up when they see her in the halls. I really hope I can learn how to have that amount of presence someday.....

My Top Ten Travel Memories

I drink cherry wine and learn to dance, in a town where teens compete to do the best polka. - Czech Republic

Ten year old Majda teaches me to count in Moroccan Arabic. "'Wahet,' 'jooj,’ 'tlata,'" she says patiently. - Erfoud, Morocco

We find shelter from a downpour with Rocio and Andres, from Chile. After introductions, he produces from his backpack a bottle of wine carried from home. - Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

Eighty-seven year old Bill teaches me how to plant garlic. - New Zealand

Seventeen and on my first trip alone. I meet a boy on the train who makes me jump out at all the stops so that I can say I’ve been there. - Austria/Italy

She asks in Quechua, and when I don’t understand, begins singing what sounds like a lullaby. Then she points to me. The first thing I can think to sing is Dido. - Bolivia.

I sit on the edge of a cliff, 12,500 feet high in the Andes. Below me is a cauldron of fog. Above me, a star-lit sky. - Peru

Our conversation is so engrossing that by the end of the night, I hardly realize that she and I have not shared a word of common language. - Italy

I am eating meat from chicken that has lived its whole life outside. I never knew meat was meant to taste this good. - Vashon Island, WA

A herd of goats rushes past me, breaking the alpine silence with miniature rockslides. - Austria

This post has been entered into the Grandtourismo HomeAway Holiday-Rentals travel blogging competition. www.homeaway.co.uk