Happy New
Year, Writers Abroad. Be glad, today, that you are abroad.
But for
those in the U.S. like Writer Abroad is now, there is nothing like a strange
new American presidency to make all Americans feel a little more foreign in our
own country.
If there’s
any consolation prize, the recent (and sure to be upcoming) American
strangeness makes Writer Abroad feel less like a foreigner in her own country
than she did after moving back two years ago from Switzerland.
When over
half your country also seems confounded by its bizarre direction, it makes the
last stages of repatriation a little easier somehow. Together, we are all
foreigners in America these days. (This phenomenon is also making Writer
Abroad’s upcoming book project, American
Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known, an even more interesting thing to write
than she ever expected.)
Luckily, Writer
Abroad often escapes into Switzerland, even from the United States. (Funny how
that happens when you are writing a travel book about Switzerland.) Writing
this travel book over the last three years has been a wonderful escape. After
the book is published this spring, Writer Abroad will lose her daily excuse to
escape into another world because she will be 100% focused on her book about
American life. But she’s sure to find another excuse.
Speaking of
escaping, here’s a piece she wrote this week for CNN Business Traveller about
traveling in Davos,
Switzerland. It was timed to run with the World Economic Forum, but really,
Davos is a much better place to go when that conference is over. In fact,
during the Forum, many places in Davos shut down for security reasons.
And for
those of you who would like to escape to Switzerland to do a little writing
this year, the Zurich Writers
Workshop will be held May 12-14, 2017 in Zurich. Hmm…since Writer Abroad is
both planning and attending this workshop, she actually will escape the U.S.
for a little while once again. Care to join her?