Single Abroad

Faridy, my Mexican love interest, was into doing what made her feel the most joy in any given moment.

“Do you want to go out to eat?” I’d ask.

“No, but I’ll go with you if you want,” Faridy replied.

Once the tamales arrived, she decided that they smelled good and would eat mine. I didn’t mind, I loved watching her hands gently unfold the crumbly cake as she smelled the week-old boiled corn husks. She didn’t want any of her movements to seem the least bit arousing or forward. Her uninhibited greasy-handed eating put me even more over the top in love with her. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. As cars drove past us in the plaza men would honk their horns and yell, “Bon appetite, good-looking!”

During the course of his 235 page self help/travel memoir, Single Abroad: Confessions of a Boyish Man, author Brian Ward travels through Mexico, South America and Europe in an attempt to shed social awkwardness and anxiety. Ward also shares information on how others can do the same while transcending North American borders. Also covered in his book are hotel jobs in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, how to master a second language and how someone who can't even properly slice a tomato can get a job overseas in a Portuguese restaurant.

Ward has been a freelance writer for the Enterprise Record (Daily Newspaper in Chico, California), The Student Insurgent (Monthly University of Oregon Newsletter) and KD Magazine (Quarterly University of Oregon Magazine).