I wrote an essay for Washington Monthly magazine that I’d started writing at the beginning of Asian American Heritage Month. I had a lot to say so it took a while to finish. Three thousand words later, I feel like I’m still not done plumbing these depths. …
Three days after the 2016 election, I posted an invitation on Facebook. I was looking for Donald Trump voters who wanted to come over for dinner at my house, which is just a short walk from the White House in Washington, D.C. I wanted to understand why over 62 million…
“She’s not like other people.” That’s how a friend’s dad recently described me and he meant it as a compliment and I took it that way. I don’t want to be like everyone else. That hasn’t always been true, though. Growing up as the only Asian-looking kid, apart from my…
On my last night in Paris, I watched the sunset from my apartment window with Nikki, a friend from DC who happened to be in Paris for one night only. By November, the sun was setting around 5:30, which was a little early for apéro. Apéro is similar to what…
I was walking down the hill along rue des Martyrs the other day when a French man asked me for directions. He spoke quickly so I couldn’t understand what he was asking. I was late meeting a new friend for coffee across the river on the Left Bank so instead…
“Are you famous?” asked a slightly inebriated German man sitting at the other end of a communal dining table at Le Bistro du Paradou where nephew and I had stopped for lunch on our road trip to Andorra last week.
I’d taken the train from Paris to Marseilles early that…
Nephew and I road tripped to Andorra together. We were curious about this micro state nestled in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. He also wanted to experience more nature, having visited mostly towns and cities since he started traveling around Europe in early August. An inability to drive a…
“Maybe a raccoon stole your contact lenses,” said Gabrielle. She manages the apartment where I have been living in Montmartre.
A ziploc bag of my daily wear contact lenses had disappeared from the bathroom and she’d come over to help me look for them. We searched everywhere, including inside the…
I made a presentation last night to the Women Painters of Washington (the state not the city) at their monthly meeting. I logged in at 9 PM Paris time, noon on the West Coast, after a low-key day celebrating my birthday alone with a bowl of soba soup for lunch…
At my new place on the hill in Montmartre, I write at a dining table next to a window that overlooks Paris. Every time I look up, I feel compelled to take a picture as if it’s the first time I have seen this view. And I suppose each time…
Creating space for conversations to transform society. Exploring what it means to be American. Recovering lawyer, public speaker, art fanatic philippahughes.com
