China Pt. 2: 我是机器人

Trips as long as the one I just took are interesting because after a point, it doesn't feel like vacation anymore. You create routines, pick favorite restaurants and meals, get to be recognized in coffee shops, and know where the subways intersect without having to check the map. And then it isn't until right before you leave that you realize you're comfortable with where you are and what you've been doing.

I had that moment of realization; that voice in my head saying, "This is it. This is your life now." And I'll admit, I'm missing the little life I created. There's a feeling that comes with immersion into a completely unfamiliar culture and I'm not sure if I can quite put it into words. Things were difficult there, not speaking the language. I felt so helpless and a little scared and I was constantly trying to grasp onto something - anything - that felt familiar enough to give me a starting point. There was a learning curve I knew I would never surmount, but that was what made the little victories feel so good. The first time I managed to order coffee without help or without pointing at a menu provided this bizarre adrenaline rush. It feels like working towards something tangible and you can clearly see progress when it's made. I haven't figured out yet how to find that feeling in my real life.

I've been back in America for a week now and I have to say, this has been one of the longest weeks of my life. Between jet lag, illness, and reassimilating into the hectic day-to-day, I feel like I've been back a month (at the very least). Perhaps it's just post-vacation blues, but I've come back with a feeling of discontentment. I finally had some space and time to evaluate my life. The scary truth is that while I still have no idea what I want in the long run, I don't think I'm supposed to be doing...whatever it is I'm doing. 

We'll just call this my existential crisis and move on. 

On today's episode of Where In the World is Alyssa, I have for you the second installation of Beijing photos. This includes such locations as Dazhongsi (home base), Costa Coffee (on second thought, maybe this was home base), Wudaoying hutong, and the Summer Palace. The title of this post translates back to the most important sentence I could have learned to say: I am a robot.

China Pt. 1: 北京

I am someone who clearly has an addiction to traveling and despite my rather meager income, I've somehow managed to leave the country several times this year. This current adventure consists of twenty three days in China. I just concluded week one.

Adjusting has been interesting, to say the least. The jet lag was brutal and I think I'm just now getting over it. I've also never been in a situation where I was completely and totally inept when it comes to language. When I was in Istanbul, I began to catch on to Turkish pretty quickly. In Mexico, I understood/spoke enough Spanish to get by. Drunk Scottish was a little harder to understand but, hey, all we had to do was compensate with a little more whiskey and that brought us onto their level. But Chinese is an entirely different experience. There's no alphabet, no real connection between the written and the spoken language, and no reference points beyond memorization (which is one of my weakest qualities). I have a hard time accepting that I more or less constantly need help, even for something as simple as ordering coffee. At least Alex is patient.

Yesterday, we wandered around through Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a temple called Beihai. These pictures are in no particular order. Also, I generally would change the color tone a little and try and up the contrast but the air pollution is such a staple of China, I felt I had to preserve it in all its hazy glory (particularly in that first photo). At least it creates an interesting natural filter effect?

Color Channel | Event Photography

Trying some new stuff with low light and crazy colors. Color Channel is an awesome band (which you should all check out) that rocked Brooklyn Boulders Somerville on Halloween. I was pretty psyched to get to shoot under such amazing visuals.

Alicia and Ian | Wedding Photography

I've been terrible at keeping up with this thing but, in my defense, it's been a really busy couple of months.

Once upon a time almost two years ago, I was working a nightmarish waitress job. I was miserable but the entire experience was totally worth it because I met this beautiful friend of mine, Alicia. She and Ian are two of the most kind hearted people I've been lucky enough to meet since I moved to the east coast. I'm so honored to have been a part of their wedding (including the most sitcom worthy bachelorette party of all time).

I love you guys!

I was working on that first photo while in the box office at work last night. My boss came in and was bordering on shocked that this was a real wedding. He was convinced that we'd staged it because everything, and I quote, was "too pretty."

Midwestern Road Trip

This August, I went on a road trip with my parents. I haven't seen much of them since I moved to Boston so this adventure was some much needed family bonding time. Here is some cataloguing of our adventures:

TROY, MO

My younger brother has been living in Missouri the past few months and I hadn't seen him in a year, so it was nice to get to spend some time with him and his adorable girlfriend.

CHICAGO, IL

Sci-fi themed coffee shop in Chicago

CEDAR SPRINGS, MI

Maternal genealogy in my great aunt and uncle’s house

BOYNE CITY, MI

This little town in northern Michigan is where my mom’s family comes from. We aren’t able to visit often but I’ve always found this lake to be so peaceful.

I found a treasure trove of old photos in my great aunt’s collection and knew I needed to save them.

My parents at their wedding in 1989

My maternal aunt and grandfather in the 80s

My aunt at her wedding in the 80s

My parents in the early 90s

No one could identify who the clowns are...

...or why there were so many of them.

TORONTO, CANADA

 NIAGARA FALLS, CANADA

And a bonus collection of iphone pictures.

Istanbul III: Hoşça Kalın

I've spent a week procrastinating on posting the last of my Istanbul photos. I'm still not prepared to admit to myself that the trip is over and that I'm back to my regularly scheduled programming. (I guess it's lucky that my next adventure to St. Louis, Missouri is in t-minus seven days.)

Alex posted another entry on his blog, this time featuring a video detailing just how difficult it is to make Turkish coffee. Check that out here.

HAGIA SOPHIA

BASILICA CISTERN

Alex and I have a pre-established penchant for creepy underground tunnels (thank you, Edinburgh) so when we found out Istanbul has a cistern complete with giant medusa head columns, we were excited. I only took a couple pictures thanks to the dim lighting, but I'm pretty psyched on how this one turned out.

GALATA KULESI

Galata Tower sticks out of the Beyoğlu skyline and the view from the top is amazing.

This polaroid was the both the last shot in the pack and the last photo I took in Istanbul, which felt fitting. It was an amazing adventure and I really can't wait for the next one.

Istanbul II: Kaleidoscope Sky

While I indulge my wanderlust with photographs, my partner-in-blogging expresses his with words. Alex posted a piece earlier today (which was tonight for him since he's one of them crazy time travelers) about our adventure over on his site. To tie his post to mine, we're going to start things off with a photo of a cat. Why? Read his piece here to find out.

TAKSIM, ETC.

My friend sent me a buzzfeed article before I left that listed the top coffee shops in the world because luckily for us (and our caffeine addictions) one of them was in the Taksim neighborhood. If anyone is ever in the area, Kronotrop certainly lived up to its hype.

SULTAN AHMED (BLUE) MOSQUE

I had to cover my head before going into the mosques so I bought a scarf of my own. I never did get the hang of keeping it in place.

I've never seen something quite like the mosque's ceiling. It was a kaleidoscope of tiles and I was terrified I wouldn't get any pictures that could accurately portray just how expansive and amazing it was.

KADAKÖY

Istanbul is a unique city in the fact that it is split in half by the Bosphorus and because of this, it rests on two continents. Alex and I took a ferry across to the Asian side because, hey, why not?

We saw a minimum of five kids who played accordion for lira.

Next time, Hagia Sophia, Galata Tower, and Basilica Cistern! That'll be up sometime this weekend.

PS: If anyone ever wanted their head to look like Nemo, I know the place for you.

Istanbul I: Banks of the Bosphorus

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm addicted to traveling and I'm lucky enough to have people in my life who feel the same. I met Alex in Scotland, he currently lives in Beijing, and he was just crazy enough to meet up with me for a week of adventure in Istanbul, Turkey.

After an exhausting twenty hours of travel, we both made it to Atatürk Havalimanı (airport) in one piece. Like the stubborn folk we are, we decided to find our way to our hotel via the subway system despite speaking no Turkish. Adventure, initiated.

Beyoğlu

I found a Polaroid camera at a yard sale a few weeks ago and decided to test it out. Not thrilled with the colored frames but you take what you can get on short notice.

Alex learned that the Turkish word for shave is "sakal".

Eminönü Yeni Camii

One the second day, we went to the New Mosque. In the courtyard, there were little stands set up where you could buy bird feed for the pigeon population.

More pictures to follow tomorrow!

And shoutout to the awesome dude I met in Logan airport while waiting at the gate. Ben made the ensuing five hour layover in JFK really fun. Thanks for the nerdy conversation and good luck in Singapore!