Nice to meet you!
We are Dottie and Lenza, a bicultural couple (🇧🇷🇹🇼🇺🇸) passionate about traipsing around the world, talking to anyone and everyone, and shoving as much food into our faces as we can. We are based in California and both work remotely (Lenza does freelance filming and editing, Dottie works in tech marketing). Our blog and YouTube channel are side hustles that reflect our love of travel and food.
We hope with us, you can:
- Satiate your curiosity about global food culture and traditions
- Immerse yourself in new cultures via our content
- Find travel guides and resources to help you explore new destinations as authentically as possible
Check Us Out on YouTube! 👇
We try to be as real as possible in all our content and aim to showcase what places are really like with our words, photography, and videos. You won’t find generic posts based on Google search results here, and we’ll never sugarcoat our experiences for the sake of marketing a destination.
In the end, our goal is to help YOU. If you have any suggestions on how we can make our content better, or simply want to say hello, drop us a line on our contact page.
Meet Dottie
Dottie manages writing and marketing for Dots on a Map and is the face of most of our YouTube videos (until she can convince Lenza to be on camera more)
Born in Rhode Island, USA, Dottie moved with her family to Taiwan at the age of 3. There, she grew up as the only “foreigner” in her local kindergarten and elementary school. Seven years later, her family packed up and moved back to the States. She has been there ever since (with a few international jaunts in-between).
Dottie finds it fascinating to reflect on the culture shock she experienced upon moving back to the States and to analyze the differences between the two cultures that have shaped who she is. She stays in touch with her Taiwanese side largely via food, and loves to cook, eat, and discover new dishes all over the world.
Meet Lenza
Lenza is responsible for all the photography and video you see on Dots on a Map. He’s also our resident WordPress trouble-shooter 😝
Lenza is originally from Brasilia, Brazil. As a child, he grew up with his hardworking single mother and witnessed the intense poverty, crime, and violence that dominates poor neighborhoods across Brazil. At 18, Lenza joined the Brazilian Air Force, making his way into tech and IT.
At 26, Lenza packed up and moved to San Francisco with $2400 in his pocket, not knowing any English. A few short years later, he is fluent in English, has found the perfect love of his life (who is certainly not the one writing this), and is working on building a career in photography and video. He loves to skateboard and spot animals in the wild in his free time.