Freya Stark was an explorer and writer, born in the late 1800s. She spent most of her time in the middle east. I've been reading about her in the New Yorker. I liked what I saw, and kept reading on the internet; here is a quote of hers that I like:
"One can only really travel if one lets oneself go and takes what every place brings... I suppose that is the difference between travel and tourism."
From the New Yorker article, which is a review of some of her books which are being re-released, I chuckled at this quote:
"The great and almost only comfort about being a woman is that one can always pretend to be more stupid than one is, and no one is surprised."
After laughing I realized that we have come a long way. Here I am, a woman studying to get a PhD in electrical engineering. This Monday is my preliminary defense, and as it turns out, pretending to be stupid will not get me very far.
