“To say that I came from a country was to say that a country was an absolute, a fixed point in place and time.” This is what writer-photographer Taiye Selasi argues in a 2015 TED talk, Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask me where I’m local. Selasi argues that our notion of statehood is constructed, and our attachment to a country …
Tia
Five Tips for Florence
I can’t believe it…. even though it feels as though I was stepping off of the plane in Bologna and setting up my dorm room last week, I have only three weeks left of living in Italy – and moreover, living in Europe. After a year of study abroad, I feel as though “in flux” and “on the go” have …
The Soundtrack to Travel
What songs mean the most to you? The ability for music to succinctly capture a metaphysical experience, feeling, or memory is almost universal, and it’s power to transport us to a different mental state can be moving beyond belief. Throughout the last year of travelling through Europe, this marriage between music and memory has grown stronger for me as I …
We’re All Strangers Somewhere
The barrier between strangers and friends is heightened by a difference in language – at times more pronounced than at others. Simultaneously however, “friendships” that transcend this linguistic divide are particularly meaningful. Making local friends in Italy has been difficult because of the language barrier, as well as the fact that most young people in Florence live in the suburbs …
Travelling with Rose-Coloured Glasses
In the morning we took breakfast in the garden, under the trees, in the delightful German summer fashion. The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers and wild animals; the living portion of the menagerie of the “Naturalist Tavern” was all about us. There were great cages populous with fluttering and chattering foreign birds, and other great cages and …
Art As Travel
Art is the kind of thing that I have always been adjacent to from a young age – taking ballet classes, keeping a sketchbook, making short films, and taking photographs – but it wasn’t until recently that I really became interested in and engaged by the power of art. This transition coincided, not incidentally, with moving to New York for …
After Hours
One, two, three If you close the door The night could last forever Leave the sunshine out And say hello to never All the people are dancing And they’re having such fun I wish it could happen to me But if you close the door I’d never have to see the day again I recently rediscovered the song “After Hours” …
Tourist Trapped in the Age of Social Media
“All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.” This is one of the key arguments of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. Although it was first published in 1967, it may as well apply to today, as modern social life becomes increasingly mediated by technology – particularly social media. When travelling, the impetus has drastically shifted focus from having …
Vienna Waits For You
You know that you’re hooked on Europe when a weekend spent “at home” instead of travelling feels like wasted time. In search of more adventure and some time away, I boarded an overnight train from Florence to Vienna on Thursday night, spending 11 hours squished between strangers and clutching my backpack, trying to sleep intermittently, and waking up – in …
A Room with a View (on Travel and Self-Actualisation)
On the threshold of adulthood, it is easy – even mandatory, perhaps – to find oneself feeling adrift. In many ways, like travelling, coming of age is fraught with exploration, doubt, isolation, and fulfilment (or sometimes lack thereof). While travel may embody a physical journey and all of the various psychological implications that come along with that, growing up is …
In Florence, Where Craft Has Its Day
I am currently preparing to write a story for a magazine on Bianca Saunders, a young menswear designer from London, who recently travelled to the notorious Pitti Uomo, one of the most important men’s fashion tradeshows in the world that is held twice annually in Florence. In my research for my interview with her, I came across an piece on 1 …
#ItalyToo?: The Complex Identity Politics of Contemporary Italy, Explained by an Outsider
TW: Harassment, cat-calling, victim shaming “First they put out, then they whine and pretend to regret it.” This is an October 2017 headline from Italian newspaper Libero in response to the initial wave of allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, allegations that rocked the Western media and led to the downfall of dozens of men in entertainment, journalism, and politics. But not …
Scusca, No Italiano!
I will come right out and say it now – I have taken being a native English speaker in an English speaking country for granted. Growing up in Canada in a fourth-generation Canadian family, English was naturally my first language, and French my second. No matter where I went in the country, I could communicate, or at the very least, …
Befriending Florence
Feeling lost and being lost are very different experiences. As the resident ‘mom’ of every friend group I have ever had, I am always deferred to as the navigator and/or Google Maps operator. “You have your life together,” people tell me with a laugh, as I lead them to the grocery store and back again, cook for myself, read a …
Greeting Fear Wholeheartedly
Pico Iyer writes that “we travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves,” an aphorism that immediately brings to mind much of why I chose to spend the length of my sophomore year abroad. In many respects, one could say that my time at NYU in its entirety is one extended “study abroad” experience, given that …