About

A short-term volunteer trip to Haiti in November 2001 opened my eyes to life outside my comfortable American cocoon, and I’ve never looked back.  Since then I’ve studied abroad in Morocco, gone on several trips to Europe and Asia, and spent three years working in education development in Lahore, Pakistan.

Since I always read those “25 Random Things About Me” posts sent to me via email or posted on my Facebook wall, but I never write back, I figured I would do it once and for all and immortalize it here on the website so you can get to know a bit more about me. An additional benefit will be that whenever I get one of those emails in the future, I can just send people here if they really want to know what strange and interesting things are on my list.

25 Random Tidbits About Expat Heather


  1. My favorite city in Europe, so far, has got to be Madrid.
  2. I can’t pronounce my husband’s Portuguese name correctly.
  3. My parents forbid me from traveling during college with the threat that they would not pay for my education. I quickly signed up for a major where studying abroad was necessary in order to complete my degree.
  4. I’ve been playing electric bass since I was 16.
  5. I love reading South Asian literature – Khuswant Singh and Salman Rushdie are two of my favorite authors.
  6. I am a super light sleeper. If a person in a different room sneezes, I will probably wake up.
  7. My dad is a Saab mechanic and I have owned five different old Saabs. I feel like a traitor now that I’m driving a Volvo.

  8. I met my husband at UMass-Amherst. The first conversation we had was about marriage, but we were both dating different people at the time.
  9. I learned to waterski when I was seven years old.
  10. I’m a certified horseback-riding instructor and have worked as the riding director at Camp Brookwoods and Deer Run for three summers.
  11. My favorite Pakistani take-out order is chicken handi, naan bread and chicken tikka.
  12. I studied Linguistics & Middle Eastern Studies for my undergrad degree.
  13. With my friend Jenna, I once bought the ethnic dress of the Berber women in Tafroute. Since buying it in 2004, I have never been able to remember how to wear it.
  14. Once I traveled on a bus during Ramadan through Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. I was not able to go to the bathroom, eat or drink water for seven hours straight.
  15. I went to space camp when I was in middle school and was convinced that I would become an astronaut.
  16. My favorite ethnic cuisine is Thai.
  17. I did all my wedding shopping in Lahore and my bridesmaids wore silk saris.
  18. I’ve studied French, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Biblical Hebrew and a smidgen of Portuguese.
  19. My best childhood memories are from my family’s cottage in Wales, Massachusetts.
  20. I’d love to go to Iran, Syria and Turkey.
  21. My husband is from the Azores.
  22. I think I’d prefer to walk through that desert than ride a camel.
  23. If am going to eat chocolate, it has got to be dark chocolate.
  24. When I lived in Pakistan, I went by the name of Michelle since “Heather” was similar to the Urdu boys’ name “Haider.”
  25. I was once lost on a volcano.Yes, that volcano.