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An Examination of Life’s Characters in Tahoe
The Setting: The liftie life in Tahoe: It’s 7:45 a.m. and the tenured lifties (people who work as lift operators at a ski resort) just lit their second bowl of the day. This time, it’s on the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain. Olympic Valley unfurls beneath the gondola, snow capped peaks and exposed boulders edging past, pristine, untouched slopes glinting in the morning light. The lifties climb on the seats, yanking open the plastic windows to let their smoke out, and pry the doors of the gondola open to dump the burnt flower into the wind. A lot of lifties don’t immediately engage with you. You…
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Navigating Solo Dining and Solo Dates
There was nothing more peaceful than sitting down at a restaurant to finally eat after spending a day recovering from the loss of my phone and fanny pack at 6 a.m. in Barceloneta. I had used my only money (€20 under my insole) to get cash from a family friend just north of the city. And then I took a bus almost all the way back to Barceloneta for a solo date at a paella restaurant. 7 Portes graciously made space for me at a corner table, despite my missed reservation. The single portion paella I ordered was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day. The silver lining of…
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A Last Minute Drive to San Carpoforo
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The Culture of Enjoyment and the Flâneur
Italy— and much of Southern Europe— breeds the flâneur, makes an art of the aimless stroll. One can wander the streets with no destination and find purpose in the pace, in the eyes watching you watch. It is so at odds with the Fordist, conveyor belt “walk with purpose” that was drilled into me in school. But Italy made an amateur flâneuse of me. When you live in an 18×18’ apartment, weaving your way through the alleyways and porticos in Bologna is necessary for one’s sanity, even if there is nothing more to the outing. Small private spaces mean people take to public spaces, blending boundaries between public and private spheres.…
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Solo Travel Dos and Don’ts
solo travel dos and don'ts
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Friends, Figs, and Fruitful Frolics
It was the night of the supermoon and the three of us took to the water like wild nymphs full of giddy, nervous energy, offerings in hand. Three figs, one for each of us, and the branch of a fig tree that was collateral in our foraging. Our hands found each other, trusting and certain. It was just us, our breathing, the water, and the moon as witness. Swimming in dark moonlit water that felt like shadows and looked like glassy, luminous mercury made me feel like I was soaking up the moon’s beams and power. I pumped my arms as though I was making a snow angel on the…
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Advice From Around The World
You can become best friends with someone at a hostel within a night. The beauty of solo travel is getting to experience the openness and inherent goodness of humanity because you’re surrounded by people who have the same hunger for life and connection. So many people made lasting impressions on me while solo traveling— whether through fleeting moments found in a common tongue while offering to take someone’s photo or lasting hostel friendships that survive the journey home. My most prized possession on my travels was a little blue book from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, printed with his Almond Blossoms. It came with me everywhere because I wanted…
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10 Things You Can’t Miss in Bologna, Italy
(From someone who lived there and went back almost solely to revisit the city’s gelaterias) 1. Outdoor movies in Piazza Maggiore in the summer It’s hot, like a nice breezy dress still sticking to your sweat drenched thigs, but by dark, the city falls into a nice dully warm night, rumbling with happy people and bikes chattering over cobblestones. That’s when you make your way to Piazza Maggiore from June through August (preferably not by car, like my parents did, resulting in a ticket) for Sotto le stelle del Cinema. I had the pleasure of seeing a silent film accompanied by an orchestra. 2. Cremeria Santo Stefano Every time I…
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Channel Islands: UCSB Senior Year Bucket List
Senior year at UCSB meant trying to check off as many experiences as I could. At the top of my bucket list was making it to the Channel Islands. So when the opportunity presented itself, I pounced, blood pounding when a signup list came out for a trip in April. There were 15 of us girls, mostly strangers until we slowly gathered in front of UCSB’s Excursion Club house, exchanging names and distributing food while the sun rose over the ocean across the street, dusting the sky a light pink color. They would be my companions for the next two days, people I hoped to share my top senior year…
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Creating a Happy City
Written for a class on happiness communication, I used Montgomery’s Happy City to explore the creation of a city with people in mind. An idyllic city should be the perfect environment to situate its residents with all the tools they need for a happy life. American cities as we know them are the case studies for books like Happy City with their “layers of imported traffic, noise, pollution, and road danger, [that] do not currently meet our needs for well-being much better than the sprawl” (Montgomery, 2014, p. 77). Cities are concrete, man-made, fabricated realities that do not serve everyone. Integrating collectivist values that benefit everyone, such as public spaces…
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A Last Minute Drive to San Carpoforo
There are very few reasons to say no to the spontaneity of adventure. I like to think I could be ready for anything with a 15 minute notice— less if it’s just a hike, walk, run, sunset outing or something of that sort. And sometimes the best trips are the last minute ones, the “I have friends going skiing, camping, [insert outdoorsy, adventurous activity], do you want to join?” ones. When I was asked if I wanted to camp on the beach near Big Sur, I was in. My adventure buddy and I drove north, stopping through Solvang, an adult theme-park-esque town (drinks included), Morro Bay, and trusty Trader Joe’s…
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Navigating Solo Dining and Solo Dates
