Traveler Profile: Sarah Menkedick

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Screen name:

Sarah Menkedick

Age:

Gender:

Female

If you must know:

I'm taken

Travel status:

Traveling now

Hometown:

Columbus, Ohio

Currently in:

Oaxaca, Mexico

Traveling Next:

The U.S.

Favorite places I've been:

Patagonia, Salar de Uyuni, Kruger National Park, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, France, Italy, Reunion Island, South Africa, Brunei, Beijing, Hong Kong, Qingdao, Inner Mongolia, Borneo, New Orleans, American Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Big Bend, Rocky Mountain and Acadia National Parks.

Places I want to go to:

Patagonia again! Anywhere with big, high, scary, beautiful mountains. Prague, Spain, all of Africa (particularly Senegal), Brazil, Indonesian Borneo...and pretty much everywhere else.

About me:

I've been traveling, teaching and exploring the globe for four years now, and I live in a turbulent state between wanting to explore the new and unfamiliar and wanting to stick around the places I love and dig in deeper. I love the sweet sense of homesickness I get for all of the places I've lived, visited and loved. I am spontaneous, contemplative, and probably too stubborn, passionate and talkative for my own good. I drink too much coffee.

Profile URL:

http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/sarahmenkedick

Read more about Sarah Menkedick

I'm fired up on:

Climbing mountains, wandering the streets of cities, street food, cooking, trains, running, microbreweries, beer in general, coffee, long bus rides with the windows open, writing letters, airports.

Tunes I rock out to:

Lila Downs, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Manu Chao, Iron and Wine, Tito Puente, The Magnetic Fields, Luna, John Coltrane...and more, so many more.

Travel style:

Daypack crammed with too many books and notebooks and bizarre snacks from foreign supermarkets, bus rides followed by train rides followed by boat rides, coffee in the most unexpected places, a tent pitched wherever and whenever possible, finding little routines and mini-lives in particular places.

Sports I do:

Running (marathons when possible!), hiking.

Favorite artist(s):

Annie Dillard, Haruki Murakami, T.C Boyle, Nabokov, Hemingway, Bruce Chatwin, Julio Cortazer

Favorite books:

In Patagonia, short stories of Haruki Murakami, An American Childhood, Ada or Ardor, Rayuela

Who I'd like to meet on my travels:

Haruki Murakami, enthusiastic and thoughtful beer drinkers, hikers, writers

I want to make a difference by:

Breaking down assumptions about what is and is not "authentic", discussing and struggling with questions about how travel can help local peoples and economies without ruining environmental and cultural landscapes, coming up with ways and programs for people from developing countries to be travelers and see with travelers' eyes. Talking about travel as a way of seeing.

Languages spoken, other than English:

Spanish, French, and basic Chinese

I felt the most immersed in a foreign culture when:

I suddenly get a new perspective or understanding of something I was confused about for a long time. I see something from a completely unexpected light.

Why I travel:

To not forget that the miniscule details of everyday life are unique and interesting and can be truly cherished. To avoid falling into patterns and only seeing the obvious things from an ingrained personal perspective. To make unknown places into felt, lived places and to be able to imagine the daily lives of people in those places after I have left. To build connections.

Ideal place to watch the sunrise:

Running up a Bolivian riverbed.

Ideal place to watch the sunset:

Bundled up on a Patagonian mountaintop.

Before I die I'd like to:

Take a massive road trip, write a book, and do the John Muir trail.

Let's collaborate:

I'm interested in studying and writing essays about both helpful and harmful forms of travel and ways of thinking about travel. I'm also interested in forming connections between travelers and local communities in Mexico, and in ways of bringing youth from developing countries (particularly in Latin America) to the U.S to write about their perspectives as travelers. We almost always see travel from the eyes of people from the U.S, Europe, or other highly developed places. I'm interested in creating opportunities for new perspectives from other places.

My links:

www.beijingbadabing.com