I have not been to Cuba, though if you count the stories my grandma told me growing up, I've been there in my head many times. I think someday I will see it, when things are different there, but I've come to feel like I really am a Miami girl.

When I left for college, my mom really latched on to the dog; She started buying him little outfits and calling him our brother, but that's as far as it got.

While my college had done an excellent job recruiting me, I had no road map for what I was supposed to do once I made it to campus.

My parents were more surprised that I wanted to go away for school than anything. They didn't really understand the benefits.

Somebody once told me I treated my smart phone like Wilson, the volleyball Tom Hanks turns into a friend when he's stranded on a desert island in that movie 'Castaway.' It's an apt comparison: parenting a toddler occasionally feels like being marooned, and your phone is your only connection to the rest of the world.

Statistically, Portland, Oregon has the most street kids, like kids that run away from home and live on the street. It's like a whole culture thing there. If you walk around on the streets, there are kids living on the streets, begging for money, but it's almost like a cool thing. They all just sit around and play music and squat.

Relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are like those of a family.

All my life I've had a weight problem. As a child, I loved to eat. I would hide from my mother and drink whole cans of condensed milk in my room.