World Is Round

The Known World

In India

I'm traveling in India at the moment for the Global Voices conference. Hope to be back to blogging after the New Year. In the meanwhile, you can check out my India photos at my Flickr page.

Beijing: What's Changed

I arrived in Beijing on August 31st and spent my first week in complete shock.  I admit now that it was probably a little ridiculous to think that when I returned 5 years later, the Beijing I knew would still be there waiting for me.

That I spent my first few days in Wangjing - a massive residential development on the outskirts of the city - only added to my initial panic. The streets were wide and  empty.  Gone were the shirtless, potbellied men, the impromptu games of mahjong, the fruit stalls spilling onto the streets, the unfamilar - and often unpleasant - smells emanating from the alleyways that served as a constant reminder that I could only be in Beijing.

My Last Night in Paris

I contemplated eating Chinese



But figured that would be a bit too ironic

Favorite Europe Photos

I'm flying to Beijing in just a few days ending what was an incredible two months in Europe.  I cannot believe how soon my life is about to change...

On Spain

This photo was taken at 4am in Barcelona, a city crawling with Americans on permanent Spring Break.  I wanted to remember that I spent more than two hours running after taxis in cheap stilettos, only to have them snatched up by other revellers who seemed to spring up out of nowhere at just the right moment. In that city and at that time of night, finding a ride home is purely a matter of geographic luck - geography meaning being one foot closer to a cab unloading its last fare than the twenty other people roaming the same street with the same intention. 

Sunset, Lake Konstanz

Leaving Lake Konstanz tomorrow.  It's been a really necessary and relaxing break.  Next?  Back to Colgone, then back to Paris.

Racism in France

My sister and I were on a train from Paris to Limonges on the way to the Dordogne when our train was stopped in some random town and we were asked to disembark - something about a motorcycle being thrown off a bridge.

We had been waiting for two hours when a new train arrived and the crowd that had been sitting on the platform in the midday heat started gathering their luggage to board.  There was an African woman who, admittedly, was carrying a great deal more than her allowance.  But so was I, so was my sister, and so was nearly everyone else on the train.

When the woman tried to board, one of the conductors started to yell, "This is not acceptable.  This is simply unacceptable.  Why do you think you have the right to do this here?"  The conductor berated the women for a full five minutes.  She did not say a single word.  She was so still, she looked like she had even stopped breathing.  She kept her gaze firmly set on the ground and didn't even dare to look at the tall white man in the authoritative-looking uniform.  I don't remember exactly what he said, but every sentence was a riff on the same idea: "Who do you think you are you stupid African woman?!"

Lake Konstanz

Just a quick note - no, I am no longer in Paris.  My three-week post-post college vacation with my pre-college sister came to an end yesterday.  We were in Koln, Paris, the Dordogne, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, Lisbon, and back to Bordeaux/Paris/Koln in only three short weeks.  Needless to say, I'm completely exahusted. I kept a diary of sorts, part in paper, part in photos, and part in my head, so I'll be posting some stories from each of those cities on this site soon...

For the moment, I'm just chilling on Lake Konstanz in Germany...

Dom

When we arrived in Koln on Thursday night and came out of the train station with our mountains of bags, we were not prepared to see Kölner Dom, Cologne's most famous landmark right in front of us.  My sister was astonished - I think for Americans, seeing such ultra-modern buildings (such as Cologne's train station) alongside structures that may be hundreds or thousands of years old never ceases to amaze.