Today is Valentine’s Day, so I thought we’d start today’s post with a little love story.

Back in the 1600’s, a young man fell in love with a beautiful young woman he saw in the bazaar. Not an uncommon event, I’m sure.

They married a few years later, and lived happily together until she died while giving birth to their 14th (!) child.

The husband was devastated, and decided to remember his dear wife with a stunning monument.

Four hundred years later, that monument is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, visited by millions every year.

The young man was Shah Jahan, and his wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, was known after her marriage as Mumtaz Mahal. The monument, in Agra, India, is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

It’s known as the Taj Mahal.

And here’s a little Valentine’s Day gift from me — a new list of expat and travel sites to follow. Ah, if only there were a way to deliver chocolate through a browser. . .

Expat Sites

1. The Social Expat A comprehensive site with lots of interesting information and stories for expats.
2. Expatriating Julia, a British expat in the Netherlands
3. 4 Kids, 20 Suitcases and a Beagle, a great suggestion from reader Aisha Ashcroft Ashraf last month. Very funny.
4. Malta: Moving Up, On and Away, an expat’s guide to the island of Malta. If you like Europe but want to live in an English-speaking country, Malta might be your best choice.
5. How to Get By in Malta. Another expat’s guide to living and working in Malta.
6. The FrancoAmerican Flophouse. a serial expat from the US living and raising a family in France.
7. Where Mt. Fuji Meets Matterhorn, an expat from Switzerland living in Japan.
8. Colombia (official tourism site). With Colombia being talked about so much as an up-and-coming expat destination, I thought I should include a couple of Colombia-related sites.
9. Colombia Travel.
10. Living in India, a guide to expatriating to India

Travel

11. Wandering Trader
12. YTravelBlog
13. Jessie on a Journey
14. Curious Places. This is a very cool site featuring pictures of some of the most unusual places and buildings in the world.

photo by Christian Haugen on flickr