Category: travel

the traveler sees what [she] sees; the tourist sees what [she] has come to see.
gk chesterton

lima  /  cusco  /  aguas calientes  /  puno
expired disposables / expired 35mm film  /  la sardina  /  canon e01

annie and i followed my dear traveling friend haley to peru for ten days, after years of dreaming about seeing macchu picchu with my own eyes. we saved and planned and saved and planned and i entered an entirely new country having zero experience and zero expectations. peru blew me away with color, the warmth of people, art, landscape, experience, seemingly huge lack of usa influence (praize), and a deep preservation of rich history and culture.

moments that stick out to me:  cramming into a peruvian bus and getting lost in lima; chatting with fernando about inca history as i watched the andes mountains move below our plane;  playing marbles on the sidewalk with new friends; sitting alone for two hours and watching the sun rise onto macchu picchu; breaths of relief as i breathed in big-city buses on our return to lima; wandering art-filled streets and talking with new friends about diversity, globalization, and holistic community-based health care; forever laughing through sickness and circumstance with hales and annie; writing and debriefing while sitting on our hostel roof and watching the sunset for our last evening in peru. i carry it with me.

i’m currently meditating on why i travel, why i attempt to surround myself with cultures & environments much different than my own. i will let you know if i ever come up with a sound answer. i don’t want to ignorantly collect places or experiences just because it feels like a cool 20-something thing to do. or simply because i can. i worry about my motivations behind travel (especially cross-culturally)—and i especially worry about my motivations behind thoughtlessly sharing pictures and thoughts about them. it feels like i’m contributing to the de-sensitization of our generation. replacing sacred complexities with pompous, appropriative ignorance. wooooah yikes. in mulling over the huge roller coaster waves our ten days were, so much of my experience left me feeling deeply affirmed in a lot of things i’ve been re-learning the past few months. the more you learn, the less you know. i literally know nothing. everything is art. everything is education. every person i encounter and every environment i enter, shape me. mold me and influence and hold pieces of the person that i am, have been, and am becoming. i’m fortunate to be able to be formed by people who carry with them boldness, wisdom, humor, and curiosity. i’m fortunate to be able to be formed by places and experiences as deep, diverse, and rich as what i found in peru.  the privilege it is to be on the receiving end of the worlds’ classroom is not beyond me.

people over places.
my most significant moments in life consist not of staring at huge, historical landmarks or taking incredible pictures of far-off travels and dreamy locations. my most significant moments include people and conversation and deep understanding and togetherness. sometimes those moments have happened on the tip-top of mountains or under stars or in the middle of dreamy, far-off locations. but it’s the people. always, the people.
i only want to see the world if it includes a deepening of friendship and a greater understanding and interaction with the people that live in these places.
last week, one of my dearest friends melissa and i travelled to london, oxford and rounded out our trip with three days in paris.

london was a quick, luggage-less blur. oxford was a walking dream and getting to see my dear friend katherine (the purpose of our trip) was more valuable to me than words can describe. tears and pubs and rainy cobblestones. it was the biggest honor to see her in her place, towards the end of her term studying at oxford, and–as always–a sturdy and anchoring example of the lord’s hesed; loving faithfulness in our lives.

paris was everything you picture it to be and i was filled with little-girl nostalgia at the years i longed to make it to the eiffel tower. i didn’t picture that big ole structure to be so showy and crowded and tourist-filled, but i did imagine my reunion with my cousin to be just as magical and inspiring as it was. there are few people in life you get to share not only your birthday but your three, very specific favorite colors with (mustard yellow, wine-y orangey-red and forest green). people over places.

what a privilege it is to travel; what a privilege it is to know people. i’m thankful for that and thankful for friends like my sweet, steady traveling friend melissa and for the guts to choose buying plane tickets before groceries or clothes or coffee. i was in no financial place to skip a week of school and fly out to europe, but i like to remind myself that i’m twenty and so young and so free and i’m putting off responsibility and steady-mindedness for as long as i can. the bigness of this and the privilege of this is not beyond me. pictures cannot do any of these places or experiences justice. as a photographer, it is forever a deep privilege of mine to be able to take in beauty without photographing it. i try to do that when i travel and worry the least amount about the pictures. england + france, you killed it for me. i carry it in my heart. here is my conglomeration of disposables, iphone captures and a few dslr:

and thus, my month of trips and travels comes to a close as i am gearing up for a final month of school, projects, exams, and moving into a new house. happy spring!

for years, it’s been a dream of mine to roadtrip up the west coast, so i was super pumped when someone finally took me up on my suggestion. my roommate and adventure-friend kenzie was truly the most perfect co-pilot for the job. i’m so thankful for such spontaneous, low-maintenance, kindred spirits like her. we packed up six disposables and three rolls of film and planned to be surprised. six days, two major cities, a million tiny baby towns, multiple boxes of goldfish, two random hostels, endless coffee, so many friends, some semi-sketchy situations, hours upon hours in the car and non-stop screaming over oregon’s beauty. basically, the northwest is unreal amounts of gorgeous and funky and i wouldn’t have wanted to spend my spring break any other way.