Pam Mandel
Pam
Mandel: A few years back, I had a
little money in my pocket. My phone rang. It was an old friend asking me if I'd
like to go on a trip across Australia. I wasn't doing anything interesting, so I
said yes. While there, I met J, the Austrian, whom I subsequently married, and
my life changed in many surprising ways. Now I divide my time between Seattle,
where I work as a technical writer, and Austria, where I work as a snow bunny.
Regardless of where I am, I play the uke, take a lot of pictures, chase travel
writing gigs, make some art now and then, and play outside as much as possible.
In Print:
Baked Insanity and Other Stories is now out! You can buy it online from Lulu.com. Pam has also been published in many outdoors, sports and travel magazines and, to pay the bills, as a technical writer.
Homebases:
Seattle,
Washington, USA.
Aigen, Austria.
Websites:
Countries Visited:
Australia, Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, India, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America.
Places I want to go next:
Cuba, New Zealand, Turkey
I never get tired of 100 years of Solitude and Alice in Wonderland. There's always a world atlas near to hand at my house. And a German/English dictionary (okay, maybe not my favourite, but certainly essential).
What do you miss most about the US when you're living in Austria?
Cultural diversity. Austria gets nailed all the time for being racist. I haven't really experienced it, but I think the main reason for that is the homogeneity of the culture. We live in a pretty traditional farming region and to say it's WASPy would be understating it. I find myself staring when I see families that aren't white. And one time, I followed a transvestite around a record store. I don't think he'd have understood that the reason I was stalking him was that I was just so happy to see him. Plus, Asian food in Seattle kicks ass and in Austria, it's just terrible. Bleh.
How do you do it? It seems like you're always travelling.
How do you NOT do it? Okay, seriously, I actually work really hard when I do work and I save like a crazy person for the Next Big Adventure. Some people blow their money on fancy cars and consumer stuff, I have an 85 Tercel and a library card. All my disposable income gets blown it all on plane tickets. Also, it really helps to have friends in far away places. They want to come visit you and you want to visit them. It totally works out.
What's the stupidest thing you've done while travelling?
Okay, this is pretty bad. I booked a ticket to Pakistan without knowing anything about the country. Islamic culture? What? Thankfully, the clerk at the hotel suggested, in a very gracious manner, that I might not want to leave the hotel in shorts. Thank god for the kindness of the Pakistani people, who gently educated me in what was okay without once lecturing me or making me feel like I should have known better - even though I should have. "You must understand, it is just this way in our country. I'm sure it is very different where you are from." One family even took me shopping to help me find the right stuff to wear. That was the very last trip I made without reading a guidebook first. I was very young, but I've never forgotten what an idiot I was at the time.
