Hello my fellow tour-goers!
Before I start my post this week, I'd like to thank everyone that has talked to me about my blog. It's humbling knowing that we actually get people reading our posts - for me, it makes me feel like my life is actually interesting in some way, shape or form - and I'm thankful for your feedback. From Pomona College employees to interviewees to fello...
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Month: June 2013
How Am I Here?
This afternoon, I perched at the edge of an elevated “human nest” tucked into a pocket of Northern Thailand’s green mountains. Three elephants grazed vaguely before me. I sipped Thai iced tea, and it began to drizzle upon the tin roof.
Sometimes I wonder how I am where I am. Last week on Wednesday at 1 AM, I lurched beneath a freeway overpass in Bangkok, stray dogs at my hee...
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On Maybe Being a Tourist
Sometimes it’s not only acceptable, but good to steal. For example, when you have been riding your bike up a hill for two hours and there is something wrong with the derailleur and it click-click-clicks, and you stop about two hundred times to put the chain back on, and there is nothing in your body except day-old bread and allergy medicine...then, when suddenly the landscape s...
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A Day in the Life of Summer
Today, I woke up at about 7:59, looked at the clock, and thought: "Hellllllllllllllll no." So I went back to sleep, hoping to wake up a time more appropriate for a 21 year old with nowhere to be in the morning, and I started dreaming about some fantasy land where I rode a dragon and this telepathic Empress was dropping me off cliffs to see if it would catch me. Clearly my subco...
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Bangkok
Part of me felt as though I’d dislike Bangkok. Some notion embedded itself in my mind that my stay on the coast of Thailand was rustic and authentic, that its thatched roofs and rugged cliffs embodied some personality essential to Thailand as a country. On the coast, I spent quiet days listening to the waves crashing on the shore and struggling to find English-speakers to fil...
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The Coast of Thailand in Photos
Note: I'll be spending the first half of my summer in Thailand filming a documentary through a grant from Pomona College's Pacific Basin Institute. If you'd like to read a little more about my project and PBI's documentary grants, see all my posts here!
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Heading to Indiana
My struggles through the airport this morning reminded me of one constant in my life: I need all the luck I can get.
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First Days in France
This summer, I am WWOOFing (volunteering at an organic farm) in France.
I flew into Marseille a few days ago to meet Claire and Sallie. I was too dazed to decide if I liked the city or not. My body thought breakfast was dinner and daytime was nightime, so I spent the day sleepwalking through the streets. I laughed everytime I saw a striped shirt and a baguette. Red geran...
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The Coast of Thailand
Sitting in a bed of lush-lush-green-green plants, I looked under a gigantic banana leaf at the waves beyond the sand before me. (Having traveled exclusively to coastal cities so far, I half-believe Thailand revolves around the aquatic—the ocean, long tail boats, monsoon rains, and perhaps even the air [which I’m inclined to describe as such since it’s so humid I feel like I’m ...
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Justin’s (Unofficial) Tour of Pomona College: Oldenborg
Traditionally, the first stop on the Pomona College tour is in Oldenborg. For those of you who don't know, Oldenborg doubles up as our language residence and dining halls. Pomona offers, on any given year, between six to eight language residence halls for students to live in. Essentially, the program is one to model an immersive experience in a language without leaving sunny So...
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