Being part of the AOB team is truly an honor and I can’t wait to share my love for travel, particularly the Middle East and Caribbean, with you. But wait…who exactly am I again? How and why did I start writing?
enjoying a cold coconut at home (Puerto Rico)
I’m a twenty-something Puerto Rican girl. You know, the straight-from-the-island Puerto Rican kind. I grew up in the Caribbean and spoke only Spanish until I was 18. True, we are taught English since kindergarten, but it is just like Americans who say they took 6 years of Spanish but can only say “hola,” “casa,” and “cerveza.” Howbeit, my hobbies made me become fluent in written English.
My favorite hobbies growing up included watching closed-caption cable TV, roller-blading, mountain biking and blogging all about it in English since I was 13. Needless to say, I had no one to practice my spoken English with, but at least my supportive readers would correct my blog’s grammar horrors and I would figure out the “obscure words” on some comments through a dictionary and thesaurus.
By the time I hit high school, I was somewhat fluent in written English. Still though, I had not had a real conversation in English with an American. Nor a history or math class in English. Ever. But somehow, I still passed the SAT’s. Somehow, my scores got me many academic scholarships. Somehow, I could go to college in America.
So I took my bags, left my family behind, and went after “the American Dream.” I moved to the USA to go to college in August 2005.
And as my “American Dream” morphed throughout the years, a world traveler was born.
Between 2005-2010, I traveled around the world extensively, visiting almost 20 countries throughout 4 continents. My most memorable experiences, however, happened while I studying abroad in Egypt (2008-2009) & Morocco (Fall 2009) — I can’t wait to share them with you!
No, this wasn't photoshopped. Yes, I will tell you all about that trip
Now here I am, 7 years later, working as a marketing & translation manager in the United States, after graduating with 2 degrees in Criminology and World Affairs (in my second language!) from the University of Tampa last fall. My passion for languages, travel, and blogging made all of this possible. Ironically, they will also help me become a digital nomad.
My name is Maria Alexandra Laborde and I’m about to embark on yet another journey: Become a nomadic translator and freelance travel writer, sprinkling Latin spice all over the world. Blogging on LatinAbroad, TravelTheMiddleEast & writing for awesome sites such as AOB are slowly making my dream career come true.
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