London, 2006I didn’t know much about football. I knew that Americans called the game “soccer” and that we didn’t play it very often. I didn’t even know the World Cup was as big of a deal as the rest of my study-abroad friends made it out to be. Back home, we didn’t bother with the game. The Stanley Cup, sure, the World Series, definitely.
In a matter of hours, he would be my husband.Late that morning, on the way back from the bank of porta-potties at 8:30 & Dandelion, I looked up to see a black ring of smoke, rising slowly above the dusty horizon. I got off of my bike, dismounted with the clunk of my silver combat boots against the hard-packed playa, and leaned it against pink, fur-covered PVC pipe.
I grew up on the MTV Music Awards of the 1990s, so beyond celebrating hardworking musicians, I’ve never thought the Grammy Awards were that exciting. However, when I heard that 30 couples, made up of heterosexual, homosexual, and interracial members, were to be married on live television during the awards, I had to give the Grammys some props.
YOU PROBABLY take emoticons for granted. I do. Colon-parenthesis is a smile. Semi-colon-parenthesis is a wink. Colon-capital-P is a tongue sticking out. For many of you these have probably been a part of your vocabulary since you remember. They just are. But they haven’t always been. Here’s a history lesson for you.
Continuing from where we left off last week, here are several more excerpts of new lessons from the MatadorU travel writing program.LAST WEEK we examined rhetoric in travel writing, the way it’s often used unwittingly, and how this can result in an unintended “packaging” of cultures, people, and place.
Plan ahead.If joining the Mile High Club is a spontaneous decision, you probably won’t be reading this article (unless you’re on a plane with wifi and you’re looking for some help, so I’ll keep it quick). Otherwise, planning ahead can make things easier. Don’t wear underwear and choose clothes that can easily be removed or zipped open (skirts are a must here).
“You can poop in my hat,” he said.We were camped at the deserted Highland Beach, 100 miles into a 150-mile kayaking trip in the Gulf of Mexico, paddling from Florida’s Everglade City to the Flamingo Visitor’s Center and back.I had a suspicion then, which has since been confirmed, that this was my relationship test.
![Wildlife of Bolivia’s Yacuma Pampas [pics]](https://jorgemolder.com/img/mata-2020/3072/image_tdAd007gc37UYONgpz.jpg)