1.  I taught English as a Foreign Language for 10 years.  My clients were mostly Japanese moms and their kids living in Miami.  For those ten years, I heard Japanese more often than English!  Before I taught English, I lived in Nagasaki, Japan for almost five months.  It changed my life.

2.  I never did anything with art until I was well into my 20's.  The only art class I ever took was in 9th grade.  My teacher said I drew too small.  Now art is a serious part of my life everyday.  You can see some of my work here and here and here.

3.  I have a serious reputation for losing things.  Once I lost my friend's keys to her car, and then locked her other set IN her car on the same day.  Even though my husband has trained me to leave my keys in a little bowl on our counter, it still takes me ten minutes everyday to remember that they are there.

4.  I am slightly obsessed with cross-cultural friendships.  It's a good day when I see my friend Fatou from Senegal, my friend Mahasti from Iran and have a houseful of kids at my house from Ethiopia and Turkey.  I really love being connected to and learning about other cultures.  In some ways I am only able to really be myself with people who are from somewhere else.

5.  I talk on the phone for many hours everyday.   I'm a notorious multi-tasker and can keep up with quite a few serious friendships at once.  I have three younger sisters and must speak to them on the phone several times a day.  My one sister gets very annoyed, because I can clean or answer email while on the phone while she has to sit down and concentrate.  When we talk, she's wasting time, while I am getting stuff done.  No fair!   (That said, she's still the neater of the two of us!)