I’ve been accused of being optimistic to the point of being delusional and until reading an article in the Huffington Post, I assumed that all of the play-it-safers telling me not to backpack through Guatemala alone or vacation in Columbia were the ones not in touch with reality. They’re exaggerating, I thought. They’re wussies. They’re only cautioning… Read More Are You a Perpetual Optimist? You May have Brain Damage
Considering Las Vegas is a city that promotes living in excess and overindulgence, it really shouldn’t have surprised me to see this sign hanging above a restaurant doorway: But it did. In fact, it stopped me in my tracks. It was a sign for the newly-opened ‘Heart Attack Grill’, which my friend and I came… Read More Only in America: Obese Eat Free at the Heart Attack Grill
In Sin city, anything goes. Drinking in public, prostitution, gambling, smoking in bars and ferrets. Wait, what? Ferrets? Yep, you may not know this but in addition to relaxed social norms in relation to public intoxication, Nevada is also one of only 20 states that allows people to buy and sell exotic animals. Though owning… Read More Monkeying Around at an Exotic Pet Shop in Vegas
When it comes to dating, many foreign accents (like French, for instance) are considered sexy. In fact, CNNGO compiled a list of the world’s sexiest accents and placed the Italian accent in first place (lesser known accents like Nigerian, Czech and Thai were also on the list). But when it comes to employment in the US, a foreign… Read More Foreign Accents: A Help or a Hindrance?
I was researching cultural stereotypes for one of the ESL classes I teach when I came across a video clip from the 80’s film Sixteen Candles. The clip shows a Chinese exchange student, Long Duck Dong, drunk and making a fool of himself in heavily-accented, incoherent English. Ironically enough, the actor who played Dong isn’t… Read More The World According to Hollywood
Bradley Cooper speaks fluent French?! Swoon. … Read More 8 American Celebrities You Didn’t Know Spoke a Foreign Language
Yep, you read that right. I bought a house! That’s part of the reason I haven’t been updating this blog; I’ve been too busy house-hunting, signing escrow paperwork, buying furniture, decorating and throwing housewarming parties (yes, that’s parties, plural). Not to worry, this doesn’t mean I’m hanging up the suitcase and retiring from the nomad… Read More Update: Your Favorite Travelholic Bought a House
Last week I found a cheap ticket to Portland on the ultra-low-cost Spirit Air (77 dollars round trip!) and impulsively decided to fly to Portland for a weekend with my new travel buddy, Tom. Portland was by far the strangest city I’ve ever visited and that’s saying a lot (I’ve lived in New York city,… Read More Adventures in Portlandia