I guess this isn’t the first thing that I should be worrying about when it comes to my upcoming venture to Europe, but due to the nature of 21 year olds and social media, I am nevertheless consumed with how I want to remember this trip. The follow up to that is that I’m also consumed with making sure I provide an experience for the people who follow me on my various medias. Because even though a majority of the small number of “followers” that I have online, are people that I know from high school, that only makes the tensions higher. 

I’m torn between this new self respect I have grown into over the past couple months - I guess having your heart broken is the best way for this travel novel to start. 

Young wide-eyed girl, travling abroad for the first time looking for adventure. That is a movie I would see. That is a youtuber I would subscribe to. So why do I have this overwhelming sense of panic when it comes to my carry on, and the clothes I’ll be wearing and the technology I will use to capture my journey to entertain the people on the internet rooting for me to have a good time. I also think of this as a way to share my experience to those who dream to one day travel but can’t afford it right now - for example literally every single person I have told about my trip gives me this look of... judgement? Jelousy? Hatred? Compassion?

All I know is that I bought this great dress for the trip. This great dress that makes me feel like an old movie star trouncing around in Rome with a pretty co-star. The person who sold me on it saw me hold it - and let it be known I have to shop at a plus size store because... well that’s a whole other issue - she said “Oh that dress is either going to look great on you, or it wont work. Don’t be hard on yourself if it doesn’t work.” She’s literally the best thing to happen to me. She’s the best. 

So I closed my eyes, held my breath, and put on the dress looking for the signs that this would not be “The Dress”. I turned around and looked in the mirror in that dressing room and for a second I couldn’t recognize myself. Granted I have been trying to loose weight for the trip too, and my mental health has been on a rollercoaster, but this time it wasn’t that I didn’t recognize myself, its that I looked how I always pictured. I looked empowered, like some character from my favorite movie. 

That dress is hanging on the back of my door, just waiting for me to put on on one hot day on our trip where I want to look extra nice. 

That’s the other thing about what I’m packing. I’m making sure everything I take is hellah versatile. Every shirt should look good with every bottom. Every bottom should look good with every accessory (bag, glasses) because I want to have my picture taken standing alongside these great works of art that someone spent years erecting from jagged, raw, useless matter.

5 Things I learned about shooting in the cold (or how I didn’t freeze to death)

1.  Dress warm.  No really. Oh, and you’re gear too.  -  It’s not so much the cold air but the wind in it that air that will make 19 degrees feel more like -10.   Fjällräven was kind enough to equip the crew with their jackets and at first, my biggest complaint was “how is that huge jacket going to fit in my already full luggage?”  Vanity aside, the jacket was perfect for Greenland.   I also purchased plenty of hand warmers, a 40-pack which I used entirely for the the gear cases.  Cold weather causes the chemical reactions in batteries to run slower and in essence, they drain quickly even when not in use. 

2.  Be prepared for the bad weather - Day 2 into our shoot schedule and we encountered bad weather.   Severe wind and snow delayed planes that were due to arrive in Nuuk.  This caused a ripple effect and we ultimately missed our flight because it simply didn’t show up.  We scrubbed our plans for a shoot up north and had to make due in Nuuk.  

3. Want to use a monitor? Better yet, use the Zacuto Gratical - There was snow everywhere.  Plenty to white balance off of, but plenty to reflect bright light that makes it difficult to see an image on the monitor, even with a shade. Zacuto was kind enough to send me the Gratical, an extremely sharp viewfinder (w/ peaking!) that also allows the shooter to send an additional feed to another monitor for the producer - because it’s ok if they have to strain their eyes. 

4.  Over-the-ear headphones make the best ear muffs - self explanatory.

5.  Wool is your best friend - Wool, especially super-soft merino wool, offers several unique advantages over cotton:

Unlike cotton, wool is an great insulator. When it's cold out your feet will be toasty and warm in your wool socks.

Wool can absorb a high amount of moisture — much more than cotton. Wool can actually hold a third of its weight in moisture before it even starts to feel "wet."

Wool keeps its insulating properties while wet, which is perfect for sweaty feet.

Not only that, but wool also dries much more quickly than cotton or other synthetics.

7 Days in Jordan - Shooting Yahoo! Travel’s “A Broad Abroad”

Day 1 - Amman

Amman is one of the oldest cities in the world that has continuously been inhabited with a population estimated at 2,842,629.  Our first assignment was it's nightlife.  We found "Jordan Bar", the first and one of the oldest bars in the country.  It was here I learned about the "finger clap", some sort of old Bedouin way of clapping by pulling on your fingers with one hand while they snap back.  

Day 2 - Street Art

We met with Laila Ajjawi, an amazing street artist whose work currently appears on the "Women on Walls". Ajjawi’s piece features a woman whose head is capped with symbolic images—a light bulb, a speech bubble, a rainbow, and a flying dove leaving an open cage. “It is a message to guys in general,” says Ajjawi. “Guys look at girls as objects. The media shows the girls as objects.”  From here we toured around Amman at the various "urban galleries" that have pooped up, walls in various spots decorated with artistic graffiti by local artists. These works have been a way of introducing art to the loal youth and even young Syrian refugees who have found a second home here.