Wandering.

The wandering has begun. I finished my time with the TED content team, and now I'm in Boston for a few days working on some research and finishing a project proposal to launch next week before I head to London and Turkey to connect with some interesting people and new projects.

I have never been very good at the "relaxed" vacation... I think part of it is that I remember days based on the cool things I was working on at the time. It's a celebration of time, as I see it.

This is my plan to actually sort of relax and make the most out of my vacation time until I start working at Locus. The goals go as follows:

1) Make time to write. Every single day.
Even if this means just for myself in the privacy of the notebooks that I sketch out ideas for articles and blog posts next to my grocery lists or my hardbound journal, I need to do more of it. It's centering and helps me think through things that might be floating in bits and pieces around other parts of my mind. I also need to spend a little more time blogging because... well I've missed it.

2) Reading Books. Not just articles and blogs and emails and everything else I read on a daily basis.
I love the fast information and touches into different things I can get through articles, but it will never replace the longer mental conversations that we have with characters in books when we really sit down and engage with the author. I honestly do think that my writing has improved because I read as much as I do for fun. (Not just because I have to!) Plus, it's really the sign of a vacation for me when I can close my laptop for a while and just read something unrelated to my research because I want to.

3) Go for long walks just to see things in New York => Boston => London => Istanbul => Bodrum.
I think this ties in a bit with the hypothetical love child of the "solo" trip I took in the woods for a few short hours my freshman year of high school and my desire to fill a notebook with ideas, vignettes of narratives I'm thinking about, and weird research thoughts. The solo trip was one where my high school planted us together in the woods for two weeks, and we had an option to be dropped off alone somewhere in the woods for series of hours and entertain ourselves. As someone who falls between the Introvert and the Extrovert on that scale (speaking of which, interesting thoughts), this was wonderful and terrible at the same time. I love the energy of being around people, but often crave alone time to draw out my thoughts into tangible language. I had a notebook and all the time in the world.

4) Take the train to every corner of Manhattan (then I will move on to Brooklyn)
(Fairly straightforward, but promises some interesting experiences)

5) Go back to my creative projects.
Though most people don't know this, I do some work in jewelry design on the side. I need to go back through my boxes and do some work with the beads and other materials that I have been saving for some time... good time for me to get back in touch with some people I've sold to before and make some extra cash!

And

6) Work on TEDx. All day every day. (Which always makes me happy!)

Architecture and the art of being breathe-taking

There are moments in your days where something will cause you to stop. Be silent. Retreat into that thoughtful place in your mind that pushes everything else out and leaves you with a question.

Mine is usually simple: How?

For me, Ellora was one of these spaces. One of those spaces where life pulls off the blindfold and you stand there desperate to make sense of the flood of sounds, images, smells, emotions and things going on around you. There was an added element of fear for me in this occasion: when I had my first view of the temple in the man-made cave I was standing 3 ft away from a sheer cliff. (for those of you who dont know, I have an intense fear of heights. All drops 10 ft or higher cause something resembling a fight or flight response to kick in)

The site is unbelievable. Made only more so by the fact that all of it was carved from the top down. Out of a sheer rock cliff. While no one is certain as to why it was done this way, there are many stories and rumors that people are happy to share with you if you ask them.

The closest experiences I have to spiritual moments usually take place in buildings. I realize that doesnt sound very glamourous -- what I mean by that is that I love architecture and art and all places where human talent can be shown off and admired in an approachable way. I love sculpture and working in 3D forms because you can experience a piece from different angles and see it totally differently. How it manipulates shadows, how it interacts with you and the space, and most importantly, how you in your most instinctual self react to it.

Most importantly I love buildings where the talent of the architects and engineers that worked together to create masterpieces. Where so many talents and minds come together to design and build a space and a living sculpture that becomes more than just a piece of art to be seen. It loses that elitism attached to formal art galleries and art spaces because everyone is interacting with the piece in a space.



I think first of the church in Ulm, Germany, where I was an exchange student 6 years ago (it's interesting to me how much I have been thinking about that time while I've been here. In truth, it is more than I have ever thought about it before. I guess it's the same episode of feeling out of my element, then slowly learning to adapt, and finally finding a corner for myself). I remember walking into the huge doors of the church into the central cathedral space and being stunned. It was like I was enveloped in peace. I know that doesnt make much sense, but that was what I experienced. It was a sense of calm like the last sigh of tension left my shoulders. A pretty magical experience for a control freak like me :)


This space in Ellora has a different feeling attached to it. One of awe. and Mystery. And seeing how much more there is to the world than we can ever begin to comprehend. This space was built so long ago with tools less technically advanced that we have now. It was built on the backs of countless slaves on an empire so rich that they could create this sort of masterpiece. The details and use of the space is not comparable to anything I have ever seen before and my photos cant begin to do it justice.

For me, it was a moment of accepting that I will never completely understand the space, what it was meant for and everything that was pouring into creating it. I came to experience it in that short-tourist-feeling-attention based way, while so many others spent there lives here in these caves exploring their purposes and adding to the color and history of its years in use.

It helped as we walked through the darkness of its passage ways, dodging the bats and pot holes carved into the stone, I had time to think through a few questions I've had lately. Namely about my majors and my final theses in each of them. I needed that time.

I was only brought back out of my hiding place in my mind when we entered the central temples and stood without our shoes in complete darkness. The first room had pillars with ornate patterns carved into them. The most important space, however, was at the end of this great hall and it was decoration-less. There was just a stupa sitting in the middle of the room, drawing all of your attention to these basic shapes. Our guide referred to it as the "womb" of the temple, which was fitting. It was warm and dark anyway...

I think I'll probably have more to say about this later, once it sinks in, but I wanted to update this now before this next week goes crazy. I only have 3 more days here because I leave really early Thursday morning and arrive in Boston on the same day. Pretty wild, no?

So for now, I'm going to tie up a few more lose ends and pack before our closing dinner this evening.

But I'm sure I'll be back soon :)

Colombian Diaries: 1

Most of the weekend was spent with my head inside of books on campaign finance theories, Colombian history, and transnational criminal organization write ups. All while sitting in the sunshine in the middle of the woods on the cape. A well spent memorial day weekend.

I am closer to writing up my interviews for August, but also realizing how much more I need to read before then. Mumbai is going to be a confusing mix of Indian history and all of the work I need to do for Colombia... before August. My contacts list is growing, but so are my questions. This whole experience is a historian's dream: unraveling the past to understand the present.

The tabs on my computer are my growing excel sheet, with notes cramped into each square on already overcrowded pages... spread sheets just dont look good when you put things besides labels and numbers in them, a few flight options, a calendar with notes scrawled into it, and my email to check facts. It's exciting. I love planning my own adventures and then seeing them through.

Last week I went down to New York to see two friends and my cousin for 2 days and one night. I was curled up on her couch thinking about how much fun it was to plan a last minute trip as I had. To leave without a serious agenda, but with a list of things I would LIKE to do. To enjoy the rain that didnt seem to stop once it started. To wander through a pub where I was one of three women and the only options were the bar's own brews (light or dark, we were told when we asked what our options for the evening were).

We spent an afternoon in the Met avoiding the rain. I finished with an exhibition before the rest of the group did and wandered through the African-Oceanic-Americas wing... because obviously we should cram all of these peoples and their art into the same space, given all that they have in common and such (???)... to look at a tapestry made by a ghanaian artist out of flattened metal from liquor bottles (check it out here). El Anatsui had several pieces at the Met and all of them had the COOLEST sense of motion to them. Like the wheels of life would keep on turning... even if you werent there to keep up with them. It felt like waves of these HUGE wall hangings could swallow you if you let them...

And I just felt it. I dont like to read descriptions in museums beyond time period, brief history etc. There is something so pure and interesting about that initial reaction that we have to things. For someone who overthinks a lot of things, its a refreshing way to consider life and information.

So my adventures have started just as I needed them to: some well planned, well documented and fun, and others sporadic, changing, impressionable.

I think I'll look back on these evenings and wish for them again. There is nothing like this calm feeling in my life, knowing that I still have another year of university and this time where all I need to do is think and figure a few things out for myself. I am grateful.