Pumpkin Spice Musings

• I'm currently at Starbucks, trying to find a way to get all my stuff to Australia.  And I just found out that I can store my luggage at the airport in Bangkok for $3.25 a day!  Hurrah!

• I spent the day book shopping.   Proof of my nerdiness, and a reminder of how much I love my life right now.  I revisited old libraries in Burbank I hadn't been to in years, and ventured out into LA to find another library I'd never been to.  I feel like no one knows how amazing used bookstores and library book sales are.  Hardcover books for a $1?  Why the hell did I ever go to Barnes and Noble.

• I've been reading "The Art of Travel," a philosophy book by Alain de Botton.  And within the first few pages, I'm already in love.  Can I be in love with a book?

     "If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest - in all its ardour and paradoxes - than our travels.  They express, however inarticulately, an understanding of what life might be about, outside the constraints of work and the struggle for survival."

So perfectly written.  And it made me realize that this year, the way that I've been living and the way that I travel have become almost identical.  When I'm home in LA, I'm usually getting lost in the city looking for a little coffee shop, a used bookstore, or just a cool new spot to take pictures.  And what do I do when I travel?  The exact same thing.  

I mean, of course I love to see the touristy things, museums, famous buildings and such.  But what I really love to do most when I travel is to find the hidden local spots, the secret alleyways that you need to know about to find, the hole in the wall restaurants that only a local could know about.  I love to get a real feel for the culture, and to see beyond what I can see on a postcard in the gift shop.

• I still haven't wrapped my head around the fact that I'm leaving so soon.  3 weeks.  3 weeks!   I'm excited because this will be a real test for me in terms of materialism.  I've been a huge shopper all my life, and admittedly, I'm incredibly attached to all my hard earned clothing and crap I've accumulated over the years.  I'll have to leave most of it behind.  Which will be hard, but I can already taste how good it's going to feel.  I've learned to not base my happiness on material possessions, and living the life of a gypsy and wanderlusting around the world will force me to live minimally.  I can't wait.

Tian'an men Square

It's massive.  It's the third largest city square in the world and it was made to hold one million people.

Being there in the center of it all was the first time I got this really overpowering sense of government.   All of the buildings are huge, larger than life, giving you this almost powerless and helpless feeling.  It helps that when you look toward the Forbidden City, you'll see a giant framed portrait of Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People's Republic of China.  It's a little strange seeing a portrait hanging outside the Forbidden City.  It's almost as if he is being worshipped like a god.

To give you a sense of how big everything felt, I once counted the number of lanes on one of the busier streets in Beijing: 8 lanes, one way.  That's 16 lanes wide.











When in China...

4 Weeks

Exactly 4 weeks left until I begin the adventure of my life. Because if you haven't heard by now...


I'm moving to Australia!!!


It's been a crazy turn of serendipitous events that led to this, and there was no way I could pass up an opportunity to move to another country. I was met with plenty of resistance when I first started to toy with the idea of moving. A lot of people didn't believe me. Most people didn't understand it. I got plenty of "I'll believe it when I see it"'s and a few "it's just a phase"'s. But mostly, the reaction I received was one of confusion, and a simple question..."why?"

Well my answer to you is.. WHY NOT.

It's that simple really. I'm young, and the amount of responsibilities I have are pretty minimal. I plan to only be in Australia for a year (but am open to the possibilities of extending).  I won't be doing this alone either.  I'll be moving with Allison.  I've known her since the second grade.  We lost touch somewhere between high school and college and reconnected at the start of this year. We discovered that we were on identical life paths and that we both wanted only one thing, to travel.

How many times do people say to themselves that they'd love to live elsewhere for a while, be it another country or even another state? Few people actually do it. Most people just dream about it. I still can't believe I'm actually leaving.

To make things a little more interesting, we'll be going to Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines before I eventually end up in Australia. It's going to be a crazy adventure, and believe me I'll be documenting it all along the way.

Cross your fingers and hope that I pick up an accent! ;)

The Details

Let me preface my trip to China by explaining how I even ended up there.  One word: GROUPON!  Yes it's true, people actually buy those travel deals on Groupon.  When you're itching to travel and a friend you recently reconnected with texts you about a Groupon deal for a trip to China... you don't hesitate.

The deal we purchased included round-trip airfare, hotel, food, transportation, entrance to all attractions, and transfers (but not taxes... ahh the catch).  But even still, the price was too good to pass up.  And although I do enjoy traveling without an itinerary and just a general list of places I'd like to see, not having to worry about researching flights, hotels and transportation (which is usually the biggest obstacle), is literally a no brainer.   It took all the stress (and some of the fun) out of traveling.   We were a little worried though.  We weren't informed of all the specific details of the trip, like what airline we'd be taking or which hotel we'd be staying at, until shortly before the trip began.

It turned out to be an amazing experience, and one I'd highly recommend.  It was organized, educational, entertaining, everything you'd hope for out of a tour but wouldn't expect from one you'd purchased off of groupon.  Because the company was an educational one, we were able to bypass lines and security at entrances.  The hotel was nicer than expected.  But let's just say that after 5 days of Chinese food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I still haven't been able to eat Chinese food since I've been back.

China Details



















It's not a trip to China without an Asian tourist flag!

Coming Soon...

China!!

But first, how do you get through long international flights? In the past year, I've been on 8 international flights (4 countries). I've gotten pretty good at passing the time, and finding comfortable enough ways to curl up in a middle seat to sleep.

East > West

I've been obsessed with Eastern philosophy lately.  Most recently, I've become interested in Taoism.  And then I stumbled upon something that Joseph Gordon-Levitt retweeted.  (Ahh further proof of why he's so awesome) 

           What if money was no object?  

And in case youre lazy, it's a short video on some of the thoughts of Eastern philosopher, Alan Watts.  Basically, he challenges the western idea that making money is above all else.  

"You will spend your life completely wasting your time.  You will be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is, to go on doing things you don't like doing.  Which is stupid.  Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.  And after all if you do really like what you're doing, it doesn't matter what it is, you can eventually become a master of it."

The more I learn about Eastern philosophy, the more I realize I'm not meant to be here, at least not now anyways.  It's time for me to start making my dreams reality.

I'm working on a post to let everyone know what I'm doing with my life for the next year.  I'm pretty excited about it, and I hope you will be too.

St. Louis Cemetery

The only time we got caught in the rain was at the St. Louis Cemetery. It started to rain once we arrived and stopped when we left. Creepy. We paid our respects to Marie Laveau, a famous voodoo queen, by leaving an offering at her grave. Try to guess what I left her!









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aaaaand then we might have had an impromptu photoshoot amongst the graves.

Art Walk

It only comes once a month in Los Angeles. New Orleans doesn't need to specify a day of the month to celebrate art. It's all around you every day, rain or shine. One of the strangest things I've seen was this one woman, who was controlling a marionnette puppet version of herself, painting a picture. And of course the occasional life size spirit animal you encounter in the middle of a street that you weren't supposed to be on.



I mean, what is art really?

The Tao of Pooh

Practically speaking, if time saving devices really saved time, there would be more time available to us now than ever before in history. But strangely enough, we seem to have less time than even a few years ago. It's really great fun to go someplace where there are no time saving decices because, when you do, you find that you have lots of time. Elsewhere, you're too busy working to pay for machines to save you time so you won't have to work so hard.

Ghosts and vampires. But what about pirates?

What's a visit to one of the most haunted cities in America without a ghost tour to help scare you. We opted to do both a ghost and a vampire tour, which turned out to be a good idea. The ghost tour took place as the sun was going down. The vampire tour started right after, when it was already dark. We walked down the same streets and passed familiar houses, but the city became completely foreign to my eyes after the sun set.

The tours turned out to be more than just entertaining, they were pretty informational. Our tour guide gave us all the facts of New Orleans' dark past and what was on the land before French settlers came in. We learned that beautiful homes hid stories of murder, torture and suicide. Specific street corners can even be pointed out where bodies were piled up during the bubonic plague. You've got to know some of the facts before you hear the legends. Some of the most famous vampire legends come from the Catholic Church and the vampires that are hidden in the attic of the Old Ursuline Convent.

It was all pretty shocking, so we listened eagerly as our tour guide enthusiastically doled out famous ghost stories and infamous vampire legends, which was all a little strange because he looked like a pirate. Allison and I concluded that the relation we made with our tour guide to Jack Sparrow is a side effect of living in Los Angeles, where you see Jack Sparrow look-a-likes almost regularly. But when you're in New Orleans, I guess pirates can also be ghost hunters and vampire slayers.

Catching Romeo in NOLA

New Orleans was the ultimate juxtaposition of time.  Well really, what city full of history isn't.  I guess it was just more shocking because when you're there, it's hard to believe you're still in the States.  From the humidity in the air, to the eeriness in the atmosphere, the old Spanish architecture to the crumbling sidewalks, you can be walking down Royal Street and be completely transported to the past. The city is so rich in history that it's easy to get lost in it, but it's also littered with signs of the present which quickly pull you back to reality.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar boasts that it is the oldest structure used as a bar in America. Unlike other bars that try to claim this title, it remained open as a "blacksmith shop" during the prohibition period. To this day they still do not use any electrical lighting in the bar, only candlelight.

The last is a photo of the infamous "Romeo catchers." Placed on the balconies of one wealthy man's home, they were supposedly meant not to deter robbers, but to prevent young boys from sneaking into his daughters' rooms.