- Where are you now?
As of Tuesday, October 6th:
- Izmir, Turkey right now.
- London, England tonight.
- New York City tomorrow.
- London again in November with a quick trip to Haifa, Israel.
- New York again, where I pretend to be a grad student.
- Bogota, Colombia for Christmas.
- Do you do anything else other than this blog? What do you actually do?
- Right now, grad school, and before that . . .
- In New York, I freelance as a writing consultant. That means that businessmen and women, who are good with numbers and poor with words, pay me to edit their emails, websites, business school application essays, etc.
- In Israel, I volunteer full time doing reconstruction on a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Bahá´í Shrine in Haifa. Hard hat, steal-toed boots and all.
- In Pasto, Colombia, I volunteer at the Governor´s office to write articles in English about Narino and the diversity of people there. Stay tuned for a new Wikipedia entry (in English!) on this southern state . . .
- You´re part of an underground religion?
No. There are Bahá´ís in over 200 countries and territories in the world. We´re on CNN, in the New York Times, and mostly getting press for persecution. This deserves its own post, later. - Why don´t you eat sugar? Are you sure it´s not psychological?
Cane sugar makes me feel sick. Really sick. No, I can´t take a pill for it, yes my doctors are aware, and if it´s psycological then fine, it´s working! When I don´t eat sugar (or wheat, for that matter), I feel fabulous. - Is Chinese food good in China?
Yes, but I still prefer Persian. (This is an excellent Ted talk on Chinese food worldwide.) - What´s your favorite country?
- To study, the U.S. (New York, to be exact).
- To live, quietly and peacefully, Israel (Haifa, to be exact).
- To visit, Colombia is looking pretty amazing right now . . .
- You had malaria?!
Yes. In Niger, twice. A post on that to come, but briefly: I slept a lot, lost a lot of weight, became even more sensitive to the foods I put in my body, and no, I´m not contagious. - Are you Persian?
No. I love this question. Can I just be ambiguously ethnic? Great, thanks.
(Otherwise, I think I have to check off ¨white,¨ but I´m holding out hope that our grandmother, who was adopted, originally came from a Finish/Farlander mix. You never know . . . Does ¨part-Jewish¨ count for something?) - You´re traveling alone?
Yes and no. Sometimes I have great company, like the 漂亮 and indefatiguable Hui in Southeast Asia or the hermosa and indomitable Mariana in Australia. Mostly, though, I board a plane alone and then a friend, or friends of friends, or parents of friends, or even drivers of friend´s parents will meet me at the airport, and we go from there. - How can I travel, too?
Look at these four things first: heart, time, language and money:- Where do you want to go? Where do you have friends? Where do your friends have friends?
- For how long?
- What languages do you speak or want to learn?
- What can you afford — can you volunteer? Do you need to earn money? How much?Then email everyone and anyone you know for suggestions, tips, invitations to coffee, dinner or a couch to crash. Then email all their friends.
And a few dishonorable mentions; these — honestly – happen to be the most frequently asked questions, no matter the country, city, or household: Do you have a boyfriend/husband? How much money do you make/How can you afford grad school? Can Bahá´ís have/do/eat… [fill in the blanks]? What type of hair dye do you use?
