It’s Been a While…

Hello friends, family, and strangers.


   I am writing to you from a little city called Rotorua. It is situated slightly inland from the Bay of Plenty. Rotorua is renowned as the heartland of the Maori culture. The city itself it situated among an array of lakes that all formed inside of the craters of extinct volcanoes. Lake Rotorua is the lake nearest where we are staying right now.  The volcano’s last eruption was some 240,000 years ago. But that hasn’t stopped this land from being extremely active. We have been told that every so often there will be a new eruption from the ground of boiling hot mud. This surfacing of mud creates a small mud pool, the texture of quicksand. Needless to say they tend to block any new mud formations off quickly so no one boils to death. Along with boiling mud sand there are also a bunch of beautiful hot lakes and rivers surrounding us. Imagine the geyser lakes of Yellowstone park, but all around you. There are small areas you can walk around these formations and let yourself be completely engulfed in breathing, moving earth.  We have decided the settle down in Rotorua for the next 3-4 months for a couple of reasons; I am really interested in learning more about the Maori culture/language and the city is just central enough to make transportation to other places easy/cheap.

      However,  we don’t need to worry about  taking buses or trains anymore. While walking around the block of the first hostel we stayed at we saw that a little red car for sale in the lot of a local auto repair shop. We had been talked about buying a car for a little while now. New Zealand is quite small but, there are a lot of things to see-and places to explore (Most of which wouldn’t be accessible by bus or train). Franny ( the granny) is  a 1989 Honda Concerto. At first, the idea of buying a car that is older than I am felt like it might be a bad choice. However, after some research, advice from a car savvy brother and a test drive we knew she was the one. Buying cars for one year of traveling is a lot different than buying cars for years of use back home. After a year we will be able to sell this car for as much, or more than what we bought it at( depending on what kind of upgrades happen to it along the way).

            But enough about cars, let’s talk about the trip thus far. We have been in New Zealand for nearly two months now.  The trip out here was the longest I have ever spent in transit-nearly 48 hours -2/3rd of which was spent scrunched up in a tiny seat swaying in and out of a melatonin haze.  Once we landed in Auckland the details get a bit vague for me. I know that we got a hostel room in Mount Eden, just outside Auckland centre. We slept for a couple days, waking only for hunger or bathrooms. After the 2-day- fugue  we finally started to adventure around the city.  Auckland isn’t huge, but it is quite hilly. Every corner we turned it was either a battle against gravity as we climbed the steep and endless hills to our hostel, or a fight for footing as we coreened down the other side after fresh rainfall.

      After Auckland we spent a week in Mount Maunganui -which is about 3 hours South East of Auckland- to  re unite with an old friend of mine from Australia. She is a Canadian lady who did her two years in Australia and then went straight to New Zealand and is now working on her residencey/citizenship.  She opened up her home to us and let us use her address to set up bank accounts so we could get an IRD number from the government.   After a week working out everything we needed to start our journey she drove us to Rotorua-where we still are.

   So many things have happened since we set foot in Rotorua, however I’ll make this post a little shorter. There truly is too much to explain in a single post about what has been going on since we left the states.  But I want to let all of you know that we are safe, ( no one has kidnapped us- they haven’t even tried…) we have been doing some fun things, and we are starting to settle into a life over here- however brief this chapter of the journey will be. Stay tuned for my pictures of Rangitoto island, Te Pua Quarry Park, Wai-o-Tapu, and The Buried Village. Our experience working in NZ, our current living situation, loads of prevalent history lessons as well as my battle with C-PTSD and ED while finding my footing in a new place. Don’t worry I will be more regular, I might even annoy.

Thank you for your patience
Thank you for being here
Thank you for listening.

The Shape of Florida

   We arrived in Florida on January 23rd, after a 22in snow storm in Maine. As Andres drove Sebastien and I to his, and Elena’s new apartment I was awestruck by the color green.  The trees and grass, all varying shades of a green. I couldn’t help but feel like I’ve cheated the season. The absolute contrast from where we had been, to where we were, was shocking;Not only in color but also in shape.  Before we left for Florida we spent 3 days couped up in Gen’s ( Sebastien’s mom) house for what was meant to be The Storm of The Season. We spent  3 days watching snow pile up in front of the sliding glass door, playing board games, watching bad movies, and seeking warmth from a pellet stove.

     When we arrived in Florida it was  20c (above 70f) balmy and humid. The palm leaves cut the skies into geometric shapes. The tiny neighborhoods thick with foliage so green it almost seemed blue. Each tree, and bush, and vine bunch taking up it’s own unique space creating a puzzle of shrubbary and life.  This is where I drew the inspiration for “The Shape of Florida”.  I want to  expand upon my photography skills, but to do that I need to keep challenging myself. I need to look at the world differntly than I already to do in order to take pictures I haven’t taken before.

      With that in mind I chose to only take photos in B&W while in Florida. I wanted to challenge myself to see the world through shapes (something less obvious) rather than color ( something very obvious).  There is one photo towards the middle in color, but that is only because in order to capture the shape, I needed color. You’ll get it.  A lot of these photos are more artistic than you might be looking for. Dont worry,  I will also do a segment of photos I took on my phone while I was in Florida, to give you a more “home video” feel of the first leg of our trip.

Thanks for being here,
Let me know what you think.

Sebastien took this picture while Elena and I waited in line to ride the “Hydro Shock” at the  South Florida Fair

Sebastien at the dog park being beautiful

For Elena’s birthday we went to a resturant called “The Alchemist” this is a still of their bean roasting process

Taken abour 20min. after arrive in Florida, everyone patiently awaiting to be picked up

The photo you will understand.

Brunch at a Spanish-American diner

Walking through Taylor Birch State Park

Taylor Birch State Park

Taylor Birch State Park

Local greenhouse

Florists

A lamp shop along Las Olas

Quarelling duck on the river walk

A look at the night life scene

The End

Fluff Post

Okay, okay, I’m terrible at posting “selfies” or pictures of me doing things in the world. However, I took this photo earlier this evening while a top a rickety, convulsive-when-it-moves, ferris wheel at the local Greek festival. I love this photo because the colors came out so bizarre. When I looked through the lens it glowed cobalt. I’m always delighted by camera light reception, and the way it perceives the world so differently from me. I thought you all might enjoy this picture.

Okay

Uhh, thanks.

P.s. ily

Carmen Knoll- Chopin Free Concert Series

     One of my favourite things to do when I get into a new city is check out their public library. I’ve been doing this since I got my first apartment in Augusta, Maine all the way to Geraldton, Australia.  I like to see what it takes to get a library card as well. There seems to be endless possibility inside a library- any question can be answered, without google, without ads tailored from your previous searches and without pop ups.
  
   On one of our first days in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida Sebastien and I took a day and walked around the city. We were dropped off at the Art Museum, right around the bend from the Science and Discovery Museum. We weren’t sure where to go, so we meandered. About 5 minutes into our journey the skies opened and it started to monsoon. We found cover under a red and white tile outcove across the street from a parking garage. Checking out my surroundings I noticed that we were meters away from the opening to the Fort Lauderdale Broward County Public Library.

     The Library was 6 floors tall. The first floor was the auditorium which lead into a large in door wishing well. The second floor was mostly introductory: a reference desk,  some seating and a large display of Library events. All of the events are free, and take place at different library branches across the city. The third through 5th floor is ALL books and the duodecimal system, no flare only books. The sixth floor was dedicated to only black and white photography, life size models of space suites, live video feed of NASA T.V, and a piece of moon rock. It was beautiful, and exciting but without a library card- not accessible. Instead we focused on the list of free events.

                                                                  [one week later] 

         A small woman with effervescent gray hair handed me a white pamphlet  and smiled. On the front of the pamphlet was a portrait of Carmen Knoll, a young internationally recognized pianist who got a full ride to Julliard when she was 17. Reading the pamphlet I grew more and more exciting to watch her perform. We arrived forty five minutes early to insure we would have good seats. When we entered the auditorium I was amazed at the sheer size of it; the seating capacity seemed to be about 200. Nearly every seat was all ready filled. We scanned the audience for two empty seats near one another. It was then, that Sebastien and I looked at eachother and started to laugh. We were the youngest people there, by between 40 to 60 years. A sea of gray hair, nana perms, and therapeutic casual shoes. So we did what we know best, found a seat, put on my reading glasses, and read our kindles for 45 minutes while occasionally making polite conversation with the retirees around us.

    All in all it was a really great time, Carmen  was an incredible pianist who I hope to see a lot more of in the future. And Sebastien and I have come to terms with the fact that we have transcended our 20’s, blew past our 40’s and  landed at a cool 65. The tells have always been there to be honest. We are now just accepting it. If you need us we will be yelling at Jeopardy  and experiencing some hard-core juvenoia. Just call on the landline.

South Florida Fair

Hello,

It’s the end of January and I have been laying on a couch all day letting my introverted self recover from an exhilarating night at the South Florida Fair. When I was growing up, my home town put on their own fair. It always seemed magical to me as a child. A sleepy agriculture town with more cows than people and more apple orchards than cows puts on a real fair. We always went after the sun went down on an early August weekend. The ferris wheel acted like a homing beacon-guiding our way to adventure. Last night felt an awful lot like those last summer evenings back in Maine.

    Andre’s sister drove the five of us in her car an hour north to West Palm Beach. The sun set to the left of us, and the South Florida Fair ferris wheel  lit up the sky to our right.Even more than riding the rides I love to watch the vendors and the ticket buyers interact with the fair and its surroundings. Since I’ve gotten a camera taking pictures at fairs and festivals has been one of my favorite things to photograph. I decided to go B&W for the Florida leg of the trip. I think that it is a fun way to challenge myself.

Okay, Have fun looking.

.

This Is the Beginning

Hey, Hello, and welcome, this is the beginning. Think of it like a tutorial.

The last week and half Sebastien and I have been traversing the state of Maine; saying our goodbyes to friends, family and the occasional friendly Lyft driver. Some stays were longer than we expected and others fell through (sorry Andrew and Victoria).  We have felt so grateful for all of our friends who came together to say goodbye at the Great Lost Bear on the eleventh. I never expected to invite over thirty people and then in return have over thirty people show up. I suppose that says more about my perception of myself than of anyone else. So thank you to all who made it and to all who have housed us over the past week.

    When I last ventured out to the otherside of the world I left without so much as a whisper. I went without fanfare or a goodbye party. I felt it was important to fade into obscurity quietly without eyes on me. I don’t regret it. I feel that it was important for me back then. But this time I pushed for the party and I wanted to spend a lot of time with many people before we left. I have a community: we  have a community. We have friends who cry when they hug goodbye. We have friends who throw going away parties. We have friends that let us hang around their house all day drinking beer and playing scrabble. We have friends who make beds in the living room for late night cuddles and chats about mortality and our eventual deaths. We have family who open their home to us to watch movies late into the night while we eat their food. We have parents of friends who housed us last minute on a Tuesday afternoon when our flight was cancelled.  We are greatful for all of you.

Sometimes it seems a little counterintuitive to leave that now. But I think that is the exact reason to leave it. We are always growing and changing and we need to push past comfortable into the uncomfortable. I know that not everyone has the kind of opportunities we have right now. I know that many times it’s not possible to save up enough money to move to a different country. We are privlaged in many way.  We have had opportunities a lot have not, we are also in a special place: Our brains have or are about  to lock into place, we can make less risky decisions with a fully formed frontal cortex. We have little responsibility ( no kids, or college loan debt)and we have had the opportunity to work and save for the past year without many bills.

    I think that it is important to be honest. Frankly- I feel weird about documenting our trip through a blog. I’ve never been a fan of attention, or putting myself out there. I want to be authentic because I hate the trappings of social media other blogs included. The way we only broadcast the best parts of our existence as if that is all there is.  Writing this blog makes me feel uncomfortable, and that is exactly why I want to do it. I want to write with honesty. Honesty about the good, the bad and the minutiae of living. So that is about what you can expect from this blog. My observations and feelings of this new journey, also photos and videos and silly stories. 

    Thank you for following and for listening.