I was raised in Modesto California, a city which always ranks as one of the worst places to live in the United States. It currently leads the nation in car theft, home forclosure, and childhood asthma. As a child, unable to leave the house because of the air quality, I spend my time reading and playing with a globe. I would spin it and dream of the places I would go.

I did then didn''t get far at first, just to University of California Santa Cruz, which was only 90 miles away, but a completely different world, and after graduation, to San Francisco, where I got an M.A. from San Francisco State University in English, and made up for all the fun I missed, doing some theater, a little writing, and enjoying a social life.

I decided to get a PhD, and so went to University of Denver. After five years of poverty and struggle, I discovered that the only US jobs going were in

places that made Modesto look like Paris. I took off for Prague and taught for three years at the first private University in the Czech Republic, and have been exploring the world ever since, living and teaching in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. This is my first time in China.

I used to write, though I do not do that much these days, but published some fiction and essays along the way,and sold a few screenplays, which were never produced. Oh well, they gave me money.

I like reading, traveling, and trying different foods.