Christina Waters is a fifth generation Santa Cruz native, raised all over the world (thanks to an Air Force dad), with an academic background and on-the-job training in journalism, painting, music, woodworking, hang gliding, trail running, reiki, organic gardening and teaching. After receiving a BA in Anthropology from George Washington University in Washington, DC, she wandered back to the West Coast, got a PhD in Philosophy at UC Davis, began working in the back alleys of alternative journalism and eventually took up teaching part-time at UCSC. All the while she spent every dime that wasn’t nailed down traveling to Europe, discovering new wines, books and operas, dining early and often and writing about every last itsy bitsy detail of every single sensory experience. Well, not every sensory experience. But lots of them.