Postcards from Cádiz

Wandering through a slow-paced Andalusian province and baking under the sun.

Postcards from Montserrat

 

It would seem like this is the kind of place where heaven and earth meet. I'm sure it's one of those places, but I think we can also experience that union in our own backyards, too. 

Postcards from Barcelona

 

Over the next few months, I'll be sharing moments from our August - September trip captured on my camera and phone. Our time in Barcelona was short but sweet. Everywhere we looked, our eyes feasted on Gaudí's architectural genius and the lush Mediterranean greenery. It was a treat to be reacquainted with a city we met seven years earlier, though this time, not in the middle of the winter, but in its prime, when the city was still bustling with visitors and baking under the sun.

My Favorite Photos From 2024

Some bits and pieces of my heart from moments small and big, near and far, in 2024.

Postcards from Cusco

Tears streamed as the plane left Trujillo. We made it to Lima way too quickly. Looking out my seat window with a clouded vision, I saw Huanchaco's famous waves, snowcapped mountains jutting out of thick clouds, miles upon miles of desert sand dunes, and Lima's colorful shipping containers. Peru is truly a beautiful country. 

Postcards from Trujillo

What is it like to call a place so other-worldly "home" for 3 months? 

Paris with Jenny

Last September, I finally met Jenny, my French penpal of 7 years. We initially connected through a penpal website and lucked out that we were both the same age and safe people. On paper, we seemed to have so much in common; as we got to know each other better over the years, it seemed like we found kindred spirits in one another. But we had only written emails, letters, and postcards prior to sharing our hotel room at Hôtel Littéraire Arthur Rimbaud. 

I booked my trip to Paris on a whim because I found the costs of traveling solo in Norway too high. Over a year earlier, snagging dirt cheap flights to Oslo realized my dream to visit Norway for my birthday, but a month after my booking, my family reserved a trip to Norway by sea in August. Diverting some of my birthday travels to another country made sense, and inexpensive flights to Paris were available. Jenny found out she'd be available one month before the trip and our adventures took off from there.

Solo Adventures in Oslo

I didn't realize how much I missed Norway until I landed and saw the blanket of deciduous trees shrouded by mist, modern and sparse roads, red houses. Oslo Gardermoen was beautiful - warm lighting, wood floors, glass and light wood paneled walls that screamed the beauty of Scandinavian simplicity. My TSA officer greeted me with a smile and friendly conversation as she did with all the other passengers passing through immigration. What a welcome back.

Sailing the Norwegian Sea

Everywhere I looked was a photo I wanted to take. Even now, as I sit on the balcony in 50-some degree weather, slightly shielded from the strong breeze by our balcony partitions, the majestic fjord is begging for more photographs. The air smells clean, the water is a deep aqua with ripples of navy. The fjord is craggy and weather with trickles of melting snow running down and carving its side I hear the low hum of the boat "motor" and the crash of waves against its sides - hushed, natural, and mechanical, all at once.

Ellis Island (Hard Hat Tour)

A mix of photos from my phone and Fuji camera.

Winter 2023

A season of celebrations, lament, transitions, and a sabbatical that gave me a taste of what a balance between productivity and play could feel like. 

En Film

Film photos taken between 2019-2023 on 20+ year old, expired film.

Cameras: Nikon N70, Kodak Ektar H35
Film stock: Kodak Gold 200, 400, 800

Fall 2023

Life lately has looked like a smattering of lists: 

Letters to Open When...

A peek into letters written last winter - 

looking back now, it was like walking into a house and suddenly knowing I'm home. 

Slowly, but all at once, too, my whole world began to change.

Becoming: Brave

At some point during clinic, while between patients, I began to wonder how whirlpools form. Turns out, they form when two opposing currents collide, causing the water to spin like a tornado. I can't imagine what it's like to be caught in an actual vortex, but life's full of them. Life spins whirlpools from simultaneous doubts and certainties, vigor and lethargy, frustration and callousness, grief and joy. 

As dangerous and exhausting as whirlpools can be, they're hauntingly beautiful, too. Look up a photo to be mesmerized by Saltstraumen or Corryvreckan. Let your eyes trace the spiral, its energy pulsating, defying the limitations of a still image. Where does it lead to? Does it ever end? 

Summer 2023

The spiral staircase from the train platform is currently under construction. Wait, let me rephrase. The spiral staircase from the train platform is finally under construction. It's been a year since I walked down and discovered I had to jump the last 3 steps. It's also been about a year since I met my train buddy. 

Fieldnotes from Costa Rica

I heard a writer describe the traveler’s eyes as “the eyes of love—disoriented and incredibly curious," attentive to the micro and the macro-view of their surroundings, immersed in noticing, full of wonder. 

Spring 2023

I've come back to this page several times over the month of May, each time with the same writer's block. Ideas come and go, but nothing has stuck. So much has been simmering, decisions big and small; so much life has happened, and I'm grateful for both the daily joys and the milestones. Yet as significant as the growth and learning appear in hindsight, the changes have felt subtle, like I'm undergoing cardiopulmonary training after heart surgery; like I'm sinking deeper in developing a skill after learning the fundamental basics; like I'm being refined rather than molded from scratch, over and over. 

Photo Journal: Winter 2022-2023

After the holiday festivities, all I want to do is plow through the dead of winter, straight into the sunnier, hopeful days of spring. There's usually a lull after Christmas, a slight peak with Chinese New Year, and a dip back down until Easter. With fewer occasions to mark the passage of time, my survival tactic this past winter has been to create opportunities to gather. 

Solo Journey to the Emerald Isle

I’m sitting in my favorite blue dress, the one I recently thrifted for $20 and wear twice every week, on a stone block overlooking the Corrib, watching it rush over the slippery, algae-stained riverbank. Dingy boats rock back and forth in the wind under a blanket of hazy grey clouds. The air is slightly briny, and my coffee warms my fingers.  It’s the morning of my fifth day in Ireland, and Galway had already become a second home. A few years have passed since my last solo trip, and I’ve forgotten how luxurious solitude can feel. It affords a way to be fully present in a way that traveling with friends or family can’t. Solo travel hands me the potent pleasures of fresh attention and an expanded imagination. Digital disconnection grants deeper intimacy with the breathtaking creation before me.