Ciao! Mi chiamo Alana. I recently graduated from UMass Amherst with a BA in journalism. I minored in Italian and anthropology and I also studied Portuguese, among other things. Ho studiato la lingua italiana nella città medievale di Siena, Italia, durante il semestre di Primavera 2006. I'm 75% French Canadian (French and English) and 25% Polish. I have a ravenous desire to travel and see every distant corner of the world (and would like to possibly get paid for doing so). I've been to Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, France, and EGYPT(!!!). The pyramids are pretty freakin' cool, I must say. :)
I have no idea what I'm doing now. I'm still trying to figure it out. Maybe someday I can combine my interests in journalism and anthropology to write for National Geographic or something similar. It's my dream to be sent out around the world on assignment. I want to cover archaeological digs in Egypt, spend time with native tribes in New Zealand, and write about the culture in Bangladesh. Those are just examples, but really I'm down for anything.
At some point I would like to get TEFL certified (Prague, anyone?) and teach English in a foreign country. I'm thinking Brazil. (most likely Salvador. Or maybe Curitiba.) I'm also seriously looking at Peace Corps, and Mozambique, Cape Verde, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Peru, and Thailand have all caught my eye as viable options.
I love studying and learning languages. Most recently I studied Italian and Portuguese and am trying my best to keep up with both languages. I studied French for 5 years but I'm incredibly rusty, and I have basic reading comprehension of simple Spanish. I tried my hand at learning Polish but apparently it's quite difficult... haha. The Turkish language intrigues me and I love the way it looks and sounds.
History and ancient cultures fascinate me, particularly the Old World Mediterranean/Aegean and the Middle East. I'm obsessed with all things Egyptian. I love ethnic cuisines, especially Japanese, Thai, Polish, and Greek.
I would not be able to live without music, and a wide variety of it. Occasionally I am inspired to pick up my harmonica and pretend I know how to play. I wish I had more time to draw and paint and just generally be artistic.
I've met both Tom Wolfe, author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Bonfire of the Vanities, among others, and Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses who once had a fatwa put out against him by the Ayatollah Khomeini. I'm pretty sure Tom Wolfe has the coolest signature I've ever seen.
Places I would love to travel to:
Egypt (again!), India, Thailand, Nepal, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Morocco, England, Spain and the Canary Islands (plus Ibiza), Portugal, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Georgia (the country obv), Seychelles just because it's random, Australia.... and just about anywhere else. And if circumstances ever permit, I would also like to visit Iran and Lebanon. I would love to see Petra in Jordan.
"If my mind's the weapon, my heart's the extra clip."
~The MovieLife, "Jamestown"
"Nobody who could write worth a damn could ever write in peace."
~Henry Chinaski, Barfly (written by Charles Bukowski)
If I were to point out everywhere I want to go on this map, it would just be one huge dot.
My World Visitor Map!
