I sit now in my apartment listening to the call to worship emit over loudspeakers from the Al Maghferah Mosque. The calls of mosques are common in Muslim countries and pretty cool to the ears. It is Friday here in Sharjah, UAE, the holy day for Muslims, a day on which the prayers of the [...]

The first time I traveled to Sydney, Australia, I strolled through the Royal Botanic Gardens expecting nothing but flora. Instead, I got some pretty shocking fauna. Looking up into a towering tree, I saw dozens of large, round black things the size of bowling balls hanging down. A native fruit, perhaps? No. A nearby sign [...]

I have never encountered squeaky sand before today. Never even heard of it. The New England sand on the beaches that I’m accustomed to is brown and sharp. Walk across it for a couple of hours and it begins to feels like broken glass. Strolling on the powdered sugar sand in other parts of the [...]