“Of all people, you’re scared of flying?” I get that reaction whenever I admit to having flight anxiety. How do I even travel full-time if I dread the idea of getting onto a plane every time? Ironically, the more I travel, the worse my anxiety becomes. When I was 10…

On a sleepy Sunday evening, John and I wandered into an empty bar in Hudson, a charming small town in Upstate New York. “Where are you guys from?” asked the bartender. He was perhaps curious why the two of us were strolling around a ghost town on a Sunday night…

Motorcycle ride is a romance by default, especially for a backseat rider. When I was five and fearless, I loved asking my then 13-year-old cousin to take me on an exhilarating motorcycle ride through the rainstorm, on the dirt path among the fish ponds and farm fields, in the rural…

Yeah… life sucks, we agreed and sighed, longing for an answer to life’s absurdity. It was a breezy winter evening in Taipei when I walked home with my roommate Yayoi. I remember our routine, awkward Airbnb introduction followed by the first night of an eerie silence in the 3-bedroom apartment…

Hi Daphne, Thank you so much for your interest and effort in the application process. Unfortunately, we have made the decision to not move forward at this time. Ultimately, we had so many qualified applicants and a very limited number of positions. Blah. Blah. Blah. Sincerely, a nice enough editor who…

Ljubljana, what an intriguing name for a capital city. My love for the Slovenian capital started when I searched for its pronunciation on YouTube. No one really knows the origin of the name Ljubljana. Some say it stands for a flooding river. Others point out the Slavic prefix “ljub-” means…

Tainan, Taiwan — In the narrow, intertwining alleyway of old brick houses, we paused in front of a rusty, sky blue door. It looked like a private home entrance without any business sign. I peeked through the mesh window and saw a mid-aged man conversing with a younger gentleman. …

New Yorkers simply don’t say no to pizza, whether it’s a dollar slice from 2 Bros Pizza or a classic coal-fired oven slice from John’s Pizzeria. Being a New Yorker requires a strict adherence to the following rules: #1: Never say no to pizza. …

Panicking, I scrambled to dodge bullets in the middle of a student slaughter in a contemporary museum. It was Battle Royale on steroids. Men in army green combat uniforms were sweeping the floor with their rifles. Students in white uniforms were running like flies. In a matter of seconds, the…