itmustbewanderlust

truth.

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:10:55 -0400

Nostolgia.....

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:53:04 -0500

….is a word that has frequently been in my vocabulary for the past couple of days. Why? Yesterday marks the year anniversary of my adventure of moving to one of the most beautiful cities in the World. Paris. It is a city that is constantly admired and appreciated for the culture, beauty, romance, fashion, art, food, architecture, lights….. Ect,ect,ect….. Unexpecting the expected is what I was not expecting.. If that makes sense?! (I had to read that over a couple of times for it to actually make sense to me. It did….. as well as the word ” expect” and all forms of it sounding strange….)

To break it down. ^ As mentioned above ^ . To me…..when you read something, hear something, or see something second hand that is continuously “built up” to be something great; in a way, it kind of diffuses the so called “greatness” about it. Having the opportunity to live, travel, study and gain the first hand experience of this city completely went beyond my “so called expectations”.

To make this simple, short, and sweet. This was an amazing experience in its own way. Coming home from Paris, even Europe, was definately alot more difficult than coming home from the other countries I have lived in and travelled too. AND I definately appreciate and miss all of them equally, in their own different ways…… But what I actually miss most of all now, is the excitement and unknown of planning my next trip……..

World’s Strangest | The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:42:00 -0500

World’s Strangest | The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies:

I thought this was really interesting!

Oh! The Places You'll Go!

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:01:00 -0500

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!- by Dr. Seuss

“Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!

So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!”

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel..."

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:10:42 -0500

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have”

- Steve Jobs

This came in on the RSS feed last night after a bad day of self doubt. Thanks, drawnblog. :)

Yes please.

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:28:00 -0500

Yes please.

What's the Craziest Thing You've Done Lately?

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:19:09 -0500

After being asked this question recently, it got me thinking of the recent adventures I’ve embarked on in the past few years, all being deserving of a seperate post of their own (which I’ll touch on later).

Everyone has their own definition of “crazy”, but considering myself as a pretty adventurous and outgoing person, I’ve created a list of just a few things off the top of my head that I look back on and say to myself, “I can’t believe I did that” or “I can’t believe that happened.”

In no chronological order:

- Went bungee jumping off a bridge over a gorge in Nepal in the Himalayas near the Tibetan border
- Rode on top of a van for 3 hours on a bumpy, curvy road in the mountains on the way back to Kathmandu after bungee jumping.
- Got a bamboo tattoo on the island of Koh Phi Phi, Thailand (where The Beach was filmed)
- Got bit on the arm by a monkey in Koh Phi Phi then proceeded to get rabies shots in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
- Got lost in Paris by myself for 5 hours at night after being separated from my friends
- Went into and explored the slums of Mumbai, India with a random Indian man I met at an internet cafe
- Backpacked throughout Europe by myself for 3 weeks (doesnt sound that crazy to “experienced” travelers, b/c I met people who were by themselves for months, but thinking about it now I cant believe I did that)
- Ate some pretty interesting cuisines (chicken feet and cow intestines in South Korea ( I refused to try dog while I was there), frog legs and bellys in Malaysia)
- Rode an elephant in Thailand and India
- Rode a camel twice in India (Jaipur)
- Was escorted to a French police station by an undercover cop after 2 of my friends got mugged and beat up on Pont des arts
- Met Snooki and Sammi in the bathroom at Club 21 in Florence, Italy while they were filming the latest season of Jersey Shore

Those are just some random crazy experiences that I’ve been meaning to document as I can be a forget person! But like I said, each of them deserve their own post that I’ll get to later.

Being in a new place is something that can be scary and exciting and you don’t want to waste time there being tooo precautious or tooo risky (then you just waste time picking up the peices of a stupid mistake). But I mean shit happens, You live, you learn.

So in conclusion, the primary lesson I learned from each of these experiences is to follow your gut instinct and I can not stress this enough, but just use common sense! Most of the time they don’t always correlate with each other (esp. if there’s alcohol involved haaa) but using your better judgement is the key to having a great time even if there is some spontaneity involved.

But I personally like it better that way (lots of spontaneity!)

If only it were this simple!!! I would pack a bag and live a...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:19:22 -0400

If only it were this simple!!!

I would pack a bag and live a metro bum life.

Travel one oh one

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:47:00 -0400

When the thought arises in one’s mind about taking a vacation whether it be a weekend trip or an extended period of travel, the primary questions that surface are:

a) How do I get there?

b) Where do I stay?

….and most importantly

c) How much is this going to cost?

The other minor technicalities revolving around these questions are simply resolved through research and “partial” planning, which are greatly influenced by the next topic of the direction that the traveler chooses to approach. The two “plans” when organizing a trip:

1. The “SET” Scheduled plan: This entails planning, planning, planning…from transportation, hotels/hostels, daily activities, places to go, things to do. All of this is predetermined before leaving for the trip.

2. The Spontaneous/ Impulsive plan: The name is self-explanatory… or in other words, plan as you go.

These two sets of plans are described at extremes, where you could give or take a little from each. But choosing one greatly depends on the travelers personality, time, circumstances, budget, and location.

Altogether, once the three questions are answered and a plan is selected… the only thing left to do is to commence the preparation for the trip to be set into motion becoming no longer an idea, but a reality!!!!

View of Opera Garnier from the top of Galleries Lafayette

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:37:00 -0400

View of Opera Garnier from the top of Galleries Lafayette

View from the other side of the Eiffel Tower facing Trocadero

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:33:00 -0400

View from the other side of the Eiffel Tower facing Trocadero

Making a scrapbook of my Paris adventuresss…. This was the...

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:31:00 -0400

Making a scrapbook of my Paris adventuresss…. This was the view of Champ de Mars from the Eiffel Tower

This was taken from directly above the camels. The black outline...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:55:15 -0400

This was taken from directly above the camels. The black outline is just their shadows…. awesomeeeee.

<— Current read….. Next read —> Have you...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:50:46 -0400

<— Current read….. Next read —>

Have you ever been asked the question (or something similar), ” If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?”

Welp, David Sedaris, would definately be on my list.

Beginning on May 14th, these are my travels by...

Sun, 08 May 2011 21:17:31 -0400

Beginning on May 14th, these are my travels by country:

-Italy

-Greece

-Turkey

-Cyprus

-Croatia

-Belgium

-Czech Republic

-Austria

-Hungary

can’tttt wait to get goinggg :)

This is a video that my friends Renée, Barrett, and Matthew made...

Sun, 08 May 2011 11:11:28 -0400

This is a video that my friends Renée, Barrett, and Matthew made the other night leaving Matthew’s apartment riding the metro to the Dupleix stop. The boys did a great job editing the video….

This is why I will miss it here so much

Goal

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:24:29 -0400

By 2013, I will have stepped foot on every continent.

That’s reasonable?

3 down. 4 to go!

Made travel plans up until April which include: Barcelona,...

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:51:01 -0500

Made travel plans up until April which include: Barcelona, Athens, Mykonos, Amsterdam, London, and Munich

Summer plans include: Everywhere in Italy, Istanbul, Budapest, Prague, Brussels, Berne and eventually back to Paris!

Pusan, South Korea This was the first time I had ever gone back...

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:50:24 -0500

Pusan, South Korea

This was the first time I had ever gone back there since I was 3 months old….. My dad was with me and took that picture of me sitting at the window. I didn’t realize that it looked like a scene from Lost in Translation until my friends mentioned it in comments on my facebook page…

Needless to say, it’s one of my favorite movies and I’m glad my dad snapped this photo :)

"“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to..."

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:37:58 -0500

“

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

— Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild)

”