Author: Ms. R.

On a gently sloping point with sweeping views of the Olympic Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean, a ceremonial altar stands watch over the simply marked graves of hundreds of Chinese immigrants.   Many of the people buried in the Harling Point cemetery were among Canada‘s first Chinese immigrants, arriving in the late 18th to early 19th centuries to work as cheap labor on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Approximately 400 people are buried in the cemetery, with the unmarked remains of an additional……

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Along the slopes of Mt. Yashima lies a treasured relic of the past. The now-abandoned Yashima cable car is one of the oldest ropeways in Japan. Constructed during the late 1920s, the cable car offered a relaxing way to reach the summit of Mt. Yashima and was a popular attraction.  During the 1940s however, Japan was deep in the midst of World War II. The cable car suspended activities, along with other attractions across the country. The fate of……

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Constructed in 1099 by little-known Italian architect Lanfranco, Duomo di Modena also known Modena Cathedral is one of the more important Romanesque buildings in Europe. The massive structure is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint Geminianus. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. For scholars and fans of the Arthurian legend, the cathedral is well-known for its north gate, Porta della Pescheria (“Fish-market Gate”). The gate is decorated with high relief……

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Though students are still studying for finals and finishing up their term papers, they’re not doing it on campus this year. Instead, dorms are empty, quads are deserted, and playgrounds are covered in caution tape. Instead of cafeterias, students are now eating lunch in their own (or their parents’) kitchens, which, depending on the school, might be a step up or down. But a few schools have treats like no other, from an Albuquerque school district’s legendary peanut butter……

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Isolated in her Brooklyn apartment since March, Stephanie Shih has folded dozens upon dozens of dumplings. “I find it soothing,” she says. “I can do it without thinking, so it’s almost like meditation.” But Shih’s dumplings aren’t made of dough—they’re made of clay, and the results are delicate and porcelain-white. In the past two years, Shih has made more than 1,000 ceramic dumplings, as well as many other replicas of Asian foodstuffs, from jars of chili oil to boxed……

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Twanna Hines, who grew up in rural Illinois, moved to the Netherlands to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Amsterdam in 2000. Not totally used to the stream of bicycles and trams in the streets of Amsterdam, she wandered into a bike lane and got a mouthful from a passing cyclist. “And my Dutch roommate shouted back, in the Dutch translation, ‘Get cancer, man!’” she remembers. “And I was like, ‘What the hell? That doesn’t make any……

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In the years before it served as a Jewish burial ground, the land where the Schönhauser Allee Cemetery now stands was home to a brewery and dairy farm. Many of the brewery’s architectural elements, such as cisterns, can still be seen in the cemetery today. It was alleged that in one of these cisterns a handful of deserters from the German Army hid to evade capture as World War II drew to a close. Ultimately, these men were discovered……

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