The Many Ways to “Go Solo”: Struggling with the pressure of showing up somewhere solo is common among both t... http://t.co/AEddZQ7W
The Many Ways to “Go Solo”
Struggling with the pressure of showing up somewhere solo is common among both the newly single and lone travelers. But there are many levels of anxiety and impressiveness when it comes to going solo. There is a hierarchy. One can quite confidently sit solo at the beach, because there’s a valid excuse for [...]
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Child Brides & Toddlers and Tiaras: a Reflection
Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.
Just having finished the book I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced & a recent National Geographic article on child brides (Too Young to Wed, June 2011), I feel compelled to explore the ramifications both within the countries perpetuating child marriage, as well as take a closer look at our own practices here in the [...]
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More Body Talk
A/n: an adaptation of this article was originally published on Not Another Wave in January 2011. There’s a lot of publicity given to the “majority” culture pressure that is put on White women to be thin, which has a whole field of feminist research devoted to it. As one blogger rightly puts it, “This is [...]
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Beyond Pen Pals: Friends From Afar
In elementary school, having a best friend meant buying matching necklaces or charm bracelets, eating lunch together every day, and gathering for the first of many sleepovers. As we grow older, a best friend is the one who listens to you lament your love life, discusses college or career plans with you, and makes sure [...]
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Diversity in the sun and sand
It’s Christmas Eve. I’m sitting on a hotel terrace overlooking the Gulf of Oman. It’s 25 degrees (77 F) and sunny, but the breeze makes it feel pretty cold. I’m feeling relaxed despite the fact that our semester will drag on for two more agonizing weeks. I’m not staying. I’ve come only for lunch, driving [...]
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Mum’s the Word
. . .. Marvin and I picked Carnivale Chicago for our wedding reception. We are so excited to get our party on in the most colorful, festive atmosphere ever. The only person who was seemingly not excited was my mother, who claimed to have a conflict with her church picnic on that day. [...]
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Marathon Tourism
Since 2006, “running a marathon” has also come to mean “travel excuse.” In fact, I cannot imagine myself running a marathon (whether half or full) in a town I’ve been to before. A race is a phenomenal reason to get to a place you wouldn’t have thought to visit and is a fantastic way to [...]
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Bula Suva: A Fijian Sojourn
What I could only remember was the aching. I was fairly new in a country for a job that didn’t agree with my insatiable thirst for creativity. I was with “friends” who didn’t speak my brand of poetry. It would have been okay if I didn’t have much choice. But no. Back in Cebu, I [...]
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Skinnymania
Ah, 2012: a new year filled with hope for new prosperity, new opportunities, new peace, and, in the US, a new me/you/us. The tradition of establishing resolutions for the next twelve months goes back for an eternity- at least as far as popular culture is concerned- and, over the years, has managed to develop an [...]
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Voluntourism: sustainable vacationing.
A modern day conundrum: You want to go on holiday, but you feel bad for just lazing around for a week and you are really just harming the environment with your carbon footprint….but you reeeeally want a holiday. What do you do? Become a Volutourist. It’s a surprisingly short time ago that volunteering became so [...]
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