My hair elicits a global response. Its reception shifts like dialects do, as slight reinterpretations on a theme. In Rodez, France, I wore it as a lion does its mane. The stares were unrelenting, as though we were on safari.
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While planning a work trip to Mexico City, a location I already loved, I hatched a plan to bring back the ultimate reward: a patio-full of the legendary Talavera clay pottery the city of Puebla is revered for. I pictured myself buying and shipping huge multicolored hand-thrown pots, pewter accents, maybe a huge ceramic yellow sun to turn my rather drab patio into the tropical paradise I’d always known it could be.
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Clarissa Wei is a journalist who has worked around the world, seeking out little-known stories that speak to the heart. After living in Central America, she packed up and moved to Taiwan, where she's currently working on her first cookbook, Made In Taiwan: Recipes From the People.
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I stumbled into The Queen Vic in Aberdeen, Scotland after 16 hours of travel. My taxi driver from the airport had said, looking at my AirBnB address, “I think you live close to the local here in Rosemount. It’s one of the best locals in Aberdeen, so you are a lucky lass.”
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In crossing oceans for our 40-day honeymoon trip through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, my wife and I had put ourselves back in the closet for a constellation of reasons. Public displays of affection were frowned upon in these countries, so we were careful not to kiss or cuddle in restaurants the way we would’ve back home in Boston.
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I can’t feel my right foot and my legs aren’t even in the lotus position. Cici, my husband’s former grad student, and Shifu, as we call the Buddhist master, have folded their lower bodies into tight packets — knees down, soles and palms turned heavenward. Shifu’s posture mirrors the row of buddhas and bodhisattvas, radiating stillness on the shelf behind her close-cropped head.
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Features Editor Yi Shun Lai provides an inside look at disaster relief over her decade-plus of volunteering for ShelterBox.
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Tegan Aileen Wylie is an international plus-size model and the mastermind behind The Travel Curve, a website that focuses on travel and fashion tips for “full-figured” women. We loved Wylie’s tone and her message, and wanted to get to know her and her mission a little more. Undomesticated talked to her about getting into modeling, being an influencer, and more.
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Whether it’s called the farmers’ market, the wet market, or the central market, it’s one of the first destinations on my itinerary, no matter where I land in the world. The reasons can be practical—simply buying some fresh fruit to eat—but they can also extend far beyond that as a means of entry into a culture.
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By designing clothing and accessories that tell the story of their personal experiences, minority and immigrant designers are not only using design to stay connected to their roots, but to also share their cultural pride with others. I’m a fashion anthropologist, and I’m working to highlight these designers’ efforts.
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Need a gift for the traveler in your life? The Undomesticated staff put together a list of gifts ideas that can bring us to all corners of the world, even if it’s just in spirit.
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When Sara and her husband David were both laid off within a week of each other, they picked up and moved from New York to Spain where they opened an intimate bar in Altea’s picturesque old town, high above the Mediterranean.
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Sometimes I feel like Miss Havisham in a flight attendant uniform. I may inhabit the 43-year-old body of a Tucson mom—complete with unfashionable bob and part-time work-from-home business—but I’m still haunted by the 24-year-old London-based flygirl I used to be.
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I see you, walking to bore holes, or wells. You carry aid buckets full of soap and water purifier. You are re-building your homes, or hanging up mosquito nets around your children.
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