Big Red Ronda

Back in Seattle for a week and wanted to post some of the photos...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:01:36 -0700

Back in Seattle for a week and wanted to post some of the photos I took with the potato camera on my iphone because my city is just so beautiful. You can even spot the Space Needle in the second picture from the plane if you look for it (hint: just right of the center of the photo).

I apologize for the photo quality but at least it was fun learning how to make panoramas on Photoshop.

(Photos are from around my neighborhood and from my friend’s deck above Sandpoint Way, looking East over Lake Washington)

Walking Montreal (with two subway rides for good measure): Old...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:01:33 -0800

Walking Montreal (with two subway rides for good measure):

Old Port poutine to the Olympic campus (with a failure to get into the Biodome followed by a failure to go ice skating) to ice skating at Atrium le 1000 to O. Noir on St Catherine st. (not pictured for good reason [look it up]) back to Saint Laurent Boulevard and home

Walking Montreal: Basilique Notre-Dame, the organ shook the...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:01:34 -0800

Walking Montreal:

Basilique Notre-Dame, the organ shook the building when it was played

Walking Montreal: Old Port during the day

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:01:40 -0800

Place des Arms

Walking Montreal:

Old Port during the day

Walking Montreal: Headed for brunch in the Gay Village (aka Le...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:01:36 -0800

Walking Montreal:

Headed for brunch in the Gay Village (aka Le Village)

Walking Montreal: Wandering around Old Port at night (sorry for...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:01:26 -0800

Walking Montreal:

Wandering around Old Port at night

(sorry for any blurriness, its hard to hold a camera steady when your hands are frozen)

Walking Montreal: Downtown Montreal at night, Saint Catherine...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:01:38 -0800

Walking Montreal:

Downtown Montreal at night, Saint Catherine from Rue Guy to Chinatown

Photo

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:20:30 -0800

Walking Montreal: Climbing Mont-Royal from Rue Peel to get a...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 09:51:06 -0800

Walking Montreal:

Climbing Mont-Royal from Rue Peel to get a view of the city and up close to the enormous cross that sits there

Walking Montreal: Saint Laurent Boulevard and Rue Sherbrooke O...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 09:37:22 -0800

My baby in the shade near the hotel

Mocha at Java U near McGill

Walking Montreal:

Saint Laurent Boulevard and Rue Sherbrooke O to McGill

The Colors of Winter

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:37:00 -0800

The Colors of Winter

Nemo finally delivered after a slow start so I decided to...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:42:59 -0800

Nemo finally delivered after a slow start so I decided to venture outside for to photo some frolicking before it got too crazy out.

The streets are abandoned except for snow plows which rumble by every 5 minutes (thanks to the governor declaring it illegal to drive after 4 today) and the snow is well over 2 feet at the moment. I got hot chocolate and food for the next few days and I am ready for a lazy weekend.

The Merits of Unscripted Travel

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 03:12:15 -0800

So as I sit here watching the Travel Channel it occurs to me that it’s been almost half a year since I went abroad and ever since I got back I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my experiences and about finding ways to make more. And all this time I’ve been trying to understand what it is about travelling that I found so satisfying and appealing when, after all, I’m the kind of guy who could happily go weeks without leaving my home so long as the refrigerator is stalked and the wifi doesn’t give me any trouble.

Then, recently it occurred to me that travelling is in fact the most liberating experience of my life to date. It hit me because I’ve been thinking about jobs a lot as graduation looms ever closer and I have tried to approach this riddle in the most cliched and perhaps useless manor ever: by asking myself what I would do if I had all the money I’d ever need and was left to do only what tickled my fancy in order to fill my time. Ideally, this approach would lead me to something that could be both rewarding and profitable enough to survive (given that not only do I not have enough money to spend the rest of my leisure but that I don’t have enough money to spend even a few months unemployed once I’m cut off from the parental umbilical cord) and I could begin searching for job opportunities in said area. That might be the ideal outcome but it’s given me nothing but dreams of being the world’s first professional lazy asshole.

After I got home from Japan I started thinking that my positive experiences travelling mean I should find a job in tourism or something travel related. However, beyond that very specific area I’ve had trouble thinking of anything else I truly enjoy doing besides reading, surfing the web, and watching television. Then suddenly, while in the shower (where else?) I realized that travelling is in fact the perfect method for discovering what kind of things you find fulfilling beyond the modern, escapist entertainment of mass culture. Travelling takes you out of the trenches you’ve worn into the floor in your home, your school, and your job and places you somewhere entirely unfamiliar and in doing so it breaks the natural order that usually rules our lives. (And I highly emphasize the importance of escaping regularity, as I sit here having squandered 90% of my three weeks of winter break on my couch in Seattle. For me TV and the internet are traps that cannot be avoided whilst home. The flawed logic which guides my priorities that there is no reason to leave the house without a purpose when in fact I realize that leaving the house is a purpose within itself. Still, without a friend to visit or a place to go it is hard for me to motivate myself out the door.)

Furthermore, because travel takes places outside of “real life” the burdensome and yet comforting presence of “things you have to do” in your daily life are incapable of following you to this new and exciting place. You have essentially freed yourself from need and placed yourself in a situation in which what you do with your time is entirely dependent on what you desire. Do you want to go to fancy restaurants or would you prefer to eat where the locals go? Would you like to walk the city on your own or would you prefer to take a guided bus tour? Would you like to spend your day in a museum or would you like to relax on the beach and listen to the waves? Vacations are yours to design in a way which allows for far more variety and room for personal preference than the daily grind.

Now it is more than possible that any given person would love to do any and all of those things as we crave variety and doing the same thing over and over can detract from its novelty. But in general it seemed to me that there were certain patterns which can be discerned from my choices in activities while abroad; mainly while abroad I chose to write, be active (both through walking everywhere as well as finding specific things to do), and to meet new people either on the street or in the hostel I was residing in at a given time. Looking back I see how I condescendingly scoffed at people on tour buses and people who chose to stay in luxurious western resorts and people who spent their time abroad going to tourist traps and amusement parks. However it’s clear to me that my snobbery is at least partially (if not entirely) misguided as these people were simply doing what appealed to them and that there is nothing wrong with that. My point is that vacation is perhaps the only time in our high-pressure strictly-regimented lives in which we are faced with the challenge of finding something that is both appealing but still beyond the comfort of our couch.Yes I loved travelling and would enjoy finding a way to make a living doing it but more than just an answer to the question of what makes me happy, it is a light illuminating a great number of other possible answers.

Everyone hates that stupid bitch who gets back from her abroad smug and full if stories about how transformative her experience was. We all know she’s a vapid moron who would be far more palatable with a sock shoved down her throat but perhaps her pompous claims of self-discovery aren’t just a way of seeming interesting. Perhaps they reflect the kind of self-assessment that naturally arises from encountering a whole new set of opportunities, lacking only in the demands and comforts of daily living. Then again, maybe not.

In any case what I’m trying to get at is that it doesn’t really matter where you go - you could drive 15 minutes out of town or you could fly to another continent, you could stay in a Hilton or a motel 6 or a tent, it doesn’t matter - but when you escape from that couch, that narrow track which you trod each and every day you become free in a way which is all too rare for most people. And in turn this freedom provides a new level of insight into your own desires because it’s far easier to know what you would do if you didn’t have go earn a living when you don’t have to anything at all. Essentially, while a “stay-cation” may save you some money and a pre-planned trip can save you energy, they can never afford you the kind of opportunities for self-discovery and utter freedom; opportunities that arise only when you arduously pull yourself up and out of your hobbit hole to find that there is no path to happiness laid out before you but only the tools necessary to discover your own.

So yes, I want to travel and I’d be doubly happy if I could make a living at it. I’d do damn near anything to become Anthony Bourdain, getting payed to travel places just to eat good food and get drunk on camera. Hell, I’d be ecstatic writing for Lonely Planet too. But back in the realm of reality, neither of those options are likely to present themselves to me. In fact, it might just be that I can’t find any kind of job that allows me to travel right out of college and I’ll have to learn to be ok with that. But if I could get a job doing something that I love to do, something I chose to do when I was free to do just about anything, then “dayenu” that would be enough. If I could find work leading something active (that doesn’t involve large numbers of children) or doing something with writing or history or if I could just do something that involves meeting interesting people then I think I could go to work each day without dragging my feet, if not always with a smile.

Every once in a while I forget that Brandeis has a mediocre...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:49:00 -0800

Every once in a while I forget that Brandeis has a mediocre campus but then I come home and visit the UW and realize that there are truly stunning colleges and that mine is not even a contender. It’s not even fair. These are of the Suzzallo library off red square, one of the prettiest buildings in the city and also the only library in Seattle with the book I wanted.

2013: Started with my absurdly expensive camera falling from my...

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:47:18 -0800

2013: Started with my absurdly expensive camera falling from my tripod onto hard concrete as I scrambled to get it set up to catch the fireworks. No apparent damage to anything but it kind of feels like dropping a baby; you just don’t do it, it’s not ok in any sense. It’s one of those things that you feel it in your chest and thinking about it still makes me cringe. If I were one to believe in omens I might be worried. Luckily, I wasn’t born in 18th century Romania so, as in the great words of Neil Armstrong, “Come at me bro.”

Star Gazing at Iron Springs off Copalis Beach on the Washington...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:04:56 -0700

From the porch

Caught a shooting star but it turned out blurry (of course)

On the cliff edge platform

Along the road

Under the Milky Way

Star Gazing at Iron Springs off Copalis Beach on the Washington coast

Last night in Korea (and abroad on this trip) after DMZ Tour

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 09:12:53 -0700

Traditional Ginseng Chicken Soup with dates and chestnuts and rice inside

Apparently this is a federal tax building?

Nice canal plaza in the center of Seoul

Random street war memorial

Last night in Korea (and abroad on this trip) after DMZ Tour

DMZ Tour (I wonder what the North makes of the South turning...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 08:59:00 -0700

Freedom Bridge, where James Bond was exchanged in Die Another Day

Fence at Freedom Bridge

A nice 200km ride from Dora station to lovely Pyeongyang, capital of Lala Land

Does me proud....

A nice sentiment, I suppose

Seeing North Korea from behind a yellow line at the Dorasan observation point

The ROK army spying on the North via tourist lookout

Aren't these illegal under some UN treaty now?

The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel (AKA WTF DPRK)

DMZ Tour (I wonder what the North makes of the South turning their border into a tourist attraction [and making a metric ton of money from it by doing so])

Last hours in Busan

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 08:30:00 -0700

World's largest department store. Whoopee.

Downtown area

On UN street

Welcome building for UN soldiers memorial with movie on Korean War

Got an unofficial guide from a nice old man I met on the way over

Quite a few flags

Over 30,000 Americans enshrined here

The park seemed like a very nice gesture by the ROK

Back at Busan station to return to Seoul

Last hours in Busan

Haedong Yonggung-sa Temple to the North of Busan on the coast

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 08:14:00 -0700

At the entrance after getting lost on the public bus

Near the entrance

The walk there

Very blue water

Very polluted water

Main area

Ongoing service

Hundreds of mini-buddhas & a dragon

Well that looks sketchy

In the underground shrine

Haedong Yonggung-sa Temple to the North of Busan on the coast