The About Page

Welcome to my blog, Where No Mangoes! I started this blog to detail my travels during my first-ever sabbatical from teaching in 2024. It’s a comic travelogue with a bit of satire thrown in. I thought it was a good way for my family and friends to be able to keep up with the time zone I was in.

I’m an English Professor and Satire Scholar.

After 15 years working at Temple University in Philadelphia, and before that at Ursinus College, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia University (as it was called then), and Goldsmiths College, University of London, I got to have a break from working!

So I spent it working. I worked on my second book on satire while mooching around the world in a westerly direction for 8.5 months, sort of like a backwards La Niña.

The sabbatical began with a month in Hawaii, mostly on the Big Island of Hawaii, and then on to South Korea, China, Italy, and England. I set it up so I could spend time in each location and get some writing done, rather than just touring around all the time.

Now the blog is back because I am teaching for 8 months in Japan, at Temple University’s newly rolled-out Kyoto campus. It’s a different sort of time abroad, as I have been dispatched here to teach, and have the support of an established university structure, although the country, language, and culture are all new to me.

My family and friends don’t have to wonder where I am this time around. But they might want to know how the classes are going, and what life is like in Japan.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the sabbatical blog posts and the new ones from Japan. As ever, your comments on the pages are most welcome.

Happy reading!

Amy L. Friedman

Currently typing here in my apartment in Kyoto.