I created Observing Leslie as a creative outlet, an outlet through which I could write to think, discover, express, and perhaps discuss anything that interested me at any moment. (For more about me, the person behind the site, visit the “About” page.)

The blog has four main catch-all categories for a myriad of my essays and documentations:

• In Thinking, I’ve combined my essays on myriad topics that pushed me to research, consider, muse, and shape my thoughts.

• Collected in Wandering, you’ll find recommendations and observations from my travels.

• Migrating gathers my thoughts, research, interviews, and experiences with people (including myself) who have moved far from their countries of origin.

• I pile in the Journal section my personal experiences, including monthly reviews of progress against annual goals, books read, personal recounting, and beyond

Once a month, I send out an e-mail that I call The Letter to people who’ve subscribed to my list. In The Letter, I include a short article typically comparing two countries’ customs or histories. I link to a few of the latest articles on Observing Leslie, while I’m at it.

An important note: I don’t sell or give my e-mail list to anyone.

In fact, this connects to another important note about this site: As a personal project for pure enjoyment, nothing you’ll find on Observing Leslie comes from sponsorships or advertising. I don’t accept free stuff, I don’t publish sponsored posts, and I don’t link to products and services that toss me money for doing so. If I wrote it, I think it, and I recommend it, I bought it and genuinely liked it.

That said, of course, running and maintaining and building content for a site like this one has expenses involved. If you want to support my efforts—keeping this site up on the web and completely ad-free—tip me a coffee. (Full disclosure: I’ll probably actually buy a book instead.)

And because one of my goals with this site is to discuss, let’s make this a conversation. Please interact with me, comment on my posts, subscribe and respond to my Letter e-mails, and find and follow me on social media (links way below, in the footer section of the page). Together, let’s bring back genuine connection and engagement on this wild world of the internet.