Off an unassuming winding road cutting through the thick hardwoods against the panoramic mountains of North Carolina near Franklin, there lies a picturesque farm teeming with rows and rows of peach trees, tomato, corn, and pea crops, flowers, beehives and smatterings of delectable edibles in an Appalachian Eden. “U-Pick” says…

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. And I seem to find the happiness that I seek. When we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek. Heaven. I’m in Heaven. Her voice reverberated throughout the house. It was seven a.m. My mom, she’s a morning person. …

“It’s an oven, sir,” Rey said. “Almost two weeks I’ve been here, and the heat makes you weak. I want to do nothing.” A pause in his words. I remembered the long brownouts here at home in Ormoc. No air conditioning. The heat oppressive. Stifling. Poor kid. “I’m writing to…

Annie won’t touch beef. “I don’t like the smell,” she said, handing me a plate of breakfast. Two eggs, always perfectly cooked, rice (hell yes, rice, every meal), and, at least twice a week, a half dozen fried, dried fish. The odor is evident long before the meal is served…

What is this now? Day fourteen? Day fifteen? I’ve stopped counting. The official extension is April 30th, the deadlines for unrestricted movement seeming arbitrary at this point. The streets of Ormoc City in Leyte are a whisper of what they were weeks ago; hailing a pedicab is an exercise in…

You all know those instructors. Most of you can boast having learned from them. The popular teachers. They are the ones that inspire, not only in their passion for the subject, but in the extraordinary lives they lead. …

What you are about to see are the faces of my students, all of them now in their respective hometowns, reasonably safe. I hope. I’m a professor at Huaihua University in the Hunan province, just southwest of Wuhan, the name of which we’re all familiar. As of January, the college…

Beginning in the fall of 1997, I began a seven-year chapter of my life that forever altered the way I thought, my interactions with others, and my take on the relationship we have with the natural world. Throughout the late spring, all summer and fall, my home was a tent…

If you peek around the crannies and crevices of South Texas, you’ll find some fare that one might deem…unconventional, influenced by the stones-throw country to the south. The venerable menudo is a common dish, delicious tripas and sesos tacos, the beloved barbacoa. Just need a snack? …