About Me

Alexandra Berrie is a linguist, anthropologist, writer, and teacher based in Los Angeles, California. Despite all of that, she tries not to take herself too seriously.

My Latest Work

On Parenting as an Act of Bravery, and as an Act of Contrition

It takes courage to summon a new human into the world.Anyone who reflects on the human condition can’t help but see the dissatisfaction that lurks behind every decision. There’s a reason that “existence is pain” constitutes the first of the Four Ennobling Truths of Buddhism.If you come to love something, you will eventually lose it. And if you dislike something, you dwell in its suckage. Either way, no happiness exists between the poles of craving and aversion.And yet.Birthing a child is a profo...

I Tried the "Tennis Ball Trick" to Train Myself to Sleep on My Back

Home » I Tried the “Tennis Ball Trick” to Train Myself to Sleep on My Back — Here’s How It Went

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In the quest for a good night’s sleep, many of us have tried numerous remedies, from the “Sleepy Girl Mocktail” to meditation apps. Of course, the mere act of falling asleep doesn’t always equate to a good night’s rest, especially if you’re in the habit of contorting yourself into a

I Tried the Viral "Sleepy Girl Mocktail" — Honest Review

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I may be a reckless human, but I’m always down to experiment on myself, especially where the possibility of good slumber is concerned. When I heard about the “sleepy girl mocktail,” a drink making the rounds on TikTok that purports to increase both the amount and quality of one’s sleep, I figured it would be perfect to sample. I tried it at night and also, just for kicks, durin

I Spent $1,000 On a Cooling Mattress Pad — Here's How It Went

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What kind of person spends over $1,000 on a water-cooled mattress pad? Someone with more money than sense, probably. Well, paint me green and call me a pickle; I’m guilty as charged.

As a writer who works from home, my natural habitat is the bed. You can tell me all you like that working at a desk is better ergonomically, but you might as well tell it to my dog, who’s got abou

Five Payment Methods in SG - Issuu

FIVE PAYMENT OPTIONS IN SINGAPORE THAT YOU WON'T FIND IN THE US

When you’re an American expat first arriving in Singapore, store clerks can sometimes make you feel like a slow snail on a wet sidewalk. When you first approach a cash register and hand over your credit card, they often ask, “How you want to pay?” You may think, “It’s a credit card, my dude. You just run the stripe along the side of the machine.” But it’s not that easy here – it can take some time to get the hang of the entire arra

I'm A Hoarder In Recovery — And It's Not Like What The TV Show Would Have You Believe

We went on to scream at each other about the bench at the foot of the bed (always useless for sitting down on because it was already full of clothes and papers), the dining room table (unusable due to the pile of mail stacked up on it from the last three months, in addition to multiple partially completed kitchen projects), and the inside of my car (none of his goddamned business, as far as I was concerned).

Researchers observe that hoarding disorder often appears to lie dormant, waiting for pe

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