Profile, Personal, and Biography Page

"I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list" ..... Susan Sontag

Professional Associations

Member of Travelwriters.com (Travelwriters.com)
Member of NAWW (National Association of Women Writers):www.naww.org
Fiesta Editor for Justsaygo.com (www.justsaygo.com)

Short Biography

I have been interested in travel for as long as I can remember, and often say "I think I need to travel like other people need to breathe".  Ever since my first overseas trip  to England from Rhodesia at age eight , I've travelled whenever I get the chance. Sometimes travelling alone, sometimes with family and friends, I've been to all the continents except Antartica.

I believe that, after education and health, travel is one of the most important things people can do, as a way of trying to understand the world.  I trained as a clinical psychologist in South Africa, then switched to Psycholinguistics, then teaching ESL and counseling international students which I now do in a program affiliated with the University of Illinois.  My husband is involved in many international research projects and we both travel as often as we can. I've always had a passion for reading and writing, so keeping a travel journal and taking (too many) photographs and slides was a pleasure that came naturally, and recently I decided to branch out and do freelance travel writing.

"I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias"....Vikram Seth.

Current Interests

Besides travel and learning about other peoples and cultures, my other major interests are music (ethnic and classical), cooking, conservation, and being with family.

Family

They are all bitten by the travel bug too. We travel together whenever we can. It's fun, and gives another perspective to have different generations traveling together and sharing adventures.

Next to the snow on Glacier Point
Musing at Mirror Lake
Both at Yosemite National Park, California

The posse

Contact Info

Email: vmackie@prairienet.org
Mailing: obtain via email above

Some of my favorite websites

(See under Links too)
Images and Text copyright Vivienne Mackie, 2004.
No reproduction, electronic, written or otherwise, without prior written consent.