For the past few days, I've been traveling around Alabama with my small group from the Philippines. Our stop in Alabama was part of our program because a key interest was the study of civil rights issues for African-Americans. Alabama, I've come to discover, was the center of the Civil Rights Movement, when it all started with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956, I believe. With visits to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham and the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights in Montgome...
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Since I just got back on the road, working as an English Language Officer with the U.S. State Department,  I thought I'd blog about what's on my mind right now: Hotel life. I've always found that there's negative and positive things about staying in hotels, and I generally focus on the negative, which I'm hoping to change sooner rather than later.

The best part about living/staying in hotels is that you get your own private room. Nothing beats that. Whenever I need to take a break from the wo...
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I just returned from a 10 day trip to Brazil (just for vacation), and it was fantastic! I never really believed that going on vacation was the best way to explore other countries. In other words, I had a previous "train of thought" that living in other countries and doing something valuable (like work or volunteer service) was the best way to get to know the people/culture. However, after traveling around Brazil, I've realized that one can learn a lot as a "tourist."

I seriously hate that term...
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