Heather M. Surls's Archive

Following the Map in My Feet
As a student and later during a two-year stint volunteering with a study-abroad program, I spent hours wandering Jerusalem’s streets and alleys, finding new shortcuts and dead-ends, faster ways to get to the falafel stand near Damascus Gate, quieter ways to cross the Old City’s four quarters.

This Norwegian Blogger Wants to Visit Every Country on Earth
EthnoTraveler interviews Jørn Bjørn Augestad, who goes by Vagabjorn online, as he heads for the Seychelles.

‘Things Could Get Crazy’
Outside of Amman, women from the Talbieh refugee camp are dealing with waste one tote at a time

The Dream of Fluency
The first year in Amman, I encountered lots of things I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect that my Arabic voice would sound different than my English voice. That people would laugh at me for saying something correctly. That in the same day I would feel the heights of exhilaration and the depths of humiliation.

‘The Most Important Blessing Is Bread’
In Amman, reverent care for bread is an economic necessity, a religious discipline, and a cultural obsession.