Coming Home From Saudi Arabia

It was water that impressed me first when I got back to the U.S. I spent the month of June in Saudi Arabia, teaching teenage girls about writing and science. On the van ride home from the airport the other day, I couldn’t believe the trees. I’d forgotten about trees. The highways are lined with […]

On Eating Whale

Whales are impressive, enormous, beloved animals. Whaling has been banned since the 1980s, but it still goes on in a few pockets of the world. I spent three years of my life in two of those pockets, Norway and Japan, but somehow had never eaten any whale meat. Until this spring. Over the 17th of […]

The World’s Biggest Mountain Town Gets Its Due

The other day I was casually perusing the internet and I happened on this article by the National Journal. In it, they ask 1,000 Americans for three words describing Mexico. Seventy two percent described their neighbor to the south with “drugs,” “danger,” “cartel,” “crime” or “violence.” For someone living in Mexico City, this is sad […]