Photos: author So many things to miss about Mexico.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have just signed my first lease in the United States in six years.
Six years.
That includes seven months trekking across South America, eating empanadas from baskets on buses and contemplating – alone and ecstatic – those wild Patagonian ranges; a stint teaching on Reunion Island in times of chikungunya, walking past the banyan trees everyday and following up morning runs with plunges into the Indian Ocean; the School of International Training teaching course in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the subsequent encounter with my future husband (a chance meeting in café Nuevo Mundo, a weekend in the mountains, and here we are four years later); a long year in Beijing trying to teach Chinese students to argue (“your own point of view! Unique! Controversial! Different from the rest!”), biking the clogged, polluted, endlessly mystifying streets and stopping for tall 5 yuan Yanjings; and the last two years, writing, back in Oaxaca with occasional ventures into the Sierra Norte or even all the way out to London.
But now, it’s back to the no-longer-so-familiar United States, and I’m terrified and thrilled. I’ll be starting the MFA Program in creative nonfiction at The University of Pittsburgh in the fall.
So this is one major development from your (sometimes) humble editor; the other is that I’m now the editor in chief of Glimpse.org, where I’m working with the Spring 2010 Glimpse Correspondents and getting the Fall 2010 Glimpse Correspondents Program going. If you haven’t applied yet, you should! You’ll get paid to work with a team of editors to develop a body of professional, published work.
Here at Abroad, meanwhile, we want your submissions! Heather Carreiro (Matador Abroad’s superstar intern) and I would love to see more stories about teaching abroad, international education programs and degrees, language learning, study and work abroad, and expat life.
In particular, we have calls for submissions out for:
Learning Experiences Around The World
Tales From The Frontier Of Expat Life
and…
We also, however, welcome submissions related to any of the areas mentioned above. If you’re interested in submitting, check out Matador’s contributor guidelines and submit your article via the online form.
In the meantime, safe travels, and a sincere thanks to all of you for being part of the community here at Matador.
Sarah Menkedick
Matador Contributing Editor Sarah Menkedick has traveled, lived, and taught on five continents, and is constantly in pursuit of spicy food, dark beer, and new places to run. She is an MFA student at the University of Pittsburgh.
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