"Je ne parle pas..."

I have 3 or 4 years left of Youth-hood as defined by Working Holiday Visas. Having never truly lived (worked/paid rent/purchased a month long bus pass) anywhere aside from Vancouver I feel like I should take advantage of these visas. Help!

I'm oddly enamoured by Europe (odd because I had a heavy lean on obscure/cheap locales) so France or Spain would be fantastic. However I don't speak a lick of French, Spanish or Catalan so finding work would be near impossible.  So UK or Australia make sense. The UK means I can travel around Europe easily. I'm also allowed a 2 year stay there. Though when I was 14 I told myself I would live in Australia one day. Plus I have some friends and family there. So I'm torn. While very large, choosing Australia means I'd just be in Australia/NZ, unlikely jetting off on long weekend trips to another country. Or maybe I should throw myself in a country where I don't speak the language and be forced to learn it quickly. Or I could do it all too...

The Best Camera

There's that phrase, "The best camera is the one you have with you." I was a huge proponent of this idea, especially being an iPhone addict until recently, when all I had for a month and 3 countries was my iPhone.

X-Ray film pouches, a travel must back in
the hey day of analog, now totally archaic. 

I love the photos I have taken with my DSLR but I was never in love with shooting digital. I was an analog film kinda girl for a long time; backpacking for months with a backpack stuffed with X-ray bags of film. So the shift to digital, initially, was out of necessity and practicality, like most. A few months ago, I participated in a film contest-scavenger hunt forcing us to work with the limitations of film. While challenging after so many years of digital, it made most appreciate film so much more. It made me, however, really appreciate digital photography so much more. I was in love with how accessible digital was and when the iPhone 4 with all its sexy specs came out I was set. My DSLRs quickly got shelved and I began to get comments about what kind of amazing camera I was shooting with when I started sharing my iPhone photos.

Maybe I need more of you.

When it finally came time to pack for my latest adventure, I lamented at the space and weight my DSLR took up and debated whether to bring it at all. I "compromised" and told myself my amazing lithium battery would last the duration of the trip so I probably should not bring my charger /self sabotage much. Of course my camera would be left powered on for the entire 20+ hour journey. My battery last another two or three days before I had to turn to my iPhone for the rest of the trip. I began to miss my "real" camera immediately but it wasn't until I got home and began culling my photos did my infatuation for my phone subside. My stomach dropped as I flipped through my phone photos in contrast to my handful of DSLR photos. What did I expect. So I have mixed feelings about the "best camera" - while better than nothing, it seems like a low bar.
 

Away Sickness

My Wanderlust Journal

Since coming home from my trip around Europe, I have buried myself in travel blogs, videos, forums, and booking sites and I came across this term, "Away-Sickness". When it feels more right to be away than at home, I feel guilty about my wanderlust pangs. It seems like a selfish first world problem; to be less than content with first world luxuries and to be able to hop aboard a plane on a whim to satay the most frivolous curiosities.