Procrastination- Flipping through my sketch book- found these thoughts.

How to break these patterns that we have so comfortably fallen into. Flaws by choice or at birth?
Should they be broken or are they okay? They aren't thought to be socially acceptable but are acceptable. Can we really shut off and move through without attachment, disconnect filling a void that can't be filled? A hunger that has yet to be satisfied.
It's interesting how the human mind treats survival of the heart in so many toxic ways. Entirely separate, located far enough apart, just enough space in between. They keep us functioning. Filtering out insignificant things still comforting ones flaws without repair.
A mechanic of the mind. A couch, low lit lamps, 80 bucks a pop, 1 hour session  for 20 minutes of humane thinking without clouded judgement. Have we ever come far.
The human is interesting.

Attack of the forever growing Paris mouse maze.

  I left Turkey on my flight to Paris early early in the morning. My two Turkish amazing friends Onur and Bengi to drop me off and say bon voyage to me at the airport. It was great having us all bicker about which gate to check me into one last time. :) 

 I managed to easily leave the Turkish soil and enter Paris with a breeze. I must say though, Paris had the coolest airport facilities ever. It was like being in the Jetsons. You leave the plane and then obviously follow the signs ( this whole airport thing just became a regular routine for me at this point.. they're all the same) to the baggage claim and passport control. With Paris' airport system each terminal had its own sphere like building that was hollow in the center and worked in a clockwise manner (this was my experience, some may have had others depending where they arrived? ) Anyways, in the center of this building were these crazy trippy tubes with people in them... haha. They were like Jetson conveyor belt tubes for people? I have no idea how else to describe it but thats how you got from one side to the other and from one level to the next.. and you were outside but inside a tube.. It was really cool. 

 In Paris, London and Turkey they rely heavily on Metro. People.. this is legit metro not this joke bus system we rock in Halifax. In London they call the Metro underground system the Tube and in Paris it's just called the Metro. Now I found using the Metro in Paris extremely easy but more so difficult in London. 

 When I arrived in Paris I needed to take the Metro into Paris center and then change subs once or twice to enter my district of the city that my hostel was in. I did all this mind you with a 18 kilo pack on my back and a 8 kilo pack on my chest which was awesome (off balance say whaa) during this interesting attempt to enter Paris I found about four other packers. One from Turkey ( which rocked because I had just come from there and missed Turkish  a lot so that was nice), one snazzy fellow from Chili and another chick from the US that was departing from Brazil and Portugal after being there for six months! We navigated the Metro system like four foreign ninjas. 

(I'm just going to put in there that have seriously lost my english speaking abilities and am having a serious bitch of a time typing up this blog because of language confusion and spelling ugh.. but wait these were always a problem for me :P ) 

 I arrived at my hostel in perfect timing and passed the hell out asap. By the way I highly suggest the hostel I stayed in for a few nights, it's extremely clean doesn't have internet access though, is very close to the metro and has very comfy beds. Only downside is you have to be up out and outty for about eleven am and can return back about five o clock depending.

 My first day in Paris, ( I have some hilarious stories but they're definitely the kind not everyone needs to know and are much better heard in person) I'm roaming the streets definitely looking look a foolish tourist and see this golden monument statuesque thing in the distance and just walked towards it. I mean if its gold and shiny it must be famous right? Exactly. So I'm pretty chilled out walking along its not an intimidating city just an extremely overcrowded dirty one with identical buildings towering over you. I reached my destination this huge ass circus with a big tower with a gold angel on the top of it and was just like "where the hell am I" not "pretty tower" just what the hell.  So I see this girl with a map sitting on a bench she looked pretty legit so I walked over and made her become friends with me for the day.. basically. And told her where we should go. Funny thing is, she spoke little to no english and was from Spain wuddup amazing communication skills with both had via photo taking and sign pointing.  So Carmen and I went  to all the big touristy spots that day, went up in the little tower everyone raves about, saw Notre Dame thought of Bengi because she's like Elsmerelda(sp), saw everything you can imagine so I walked about 34-40 km that day. This 30km walking thing became a regular occurrence in Paris.  Taxi's cost way too much and don't respond to you basically, metro is easy and kick ass but not so much when its 35 degrees because its basically double when you're packed in like sardines. Walking is much better in Paris because it gives you a chance to check out all those small little holes in the walls and side streets so you can get away from the shitty touristy stuff and find the best cafe's and meet the most interesting characters along the way. If you walk alone, you generally have a small group by the end of the day which is pretty cool considering I only met two Canadians my entire trip. 

One more thing, for you art historians out there. In Paris you can literally see the Haussmannization its terrifying and you feel like the buildings all the look identical and they're going to cave in on you. This might be from the lack of tree's that aren't cut like squares and lack there of a mass of water anywhere. The canal doesn't count.. thats sewage. 

 

Last day of Turkey

For the last week I have been in Cesme which is a holiday 'summer home' getaway for most Turkish families. We have been beach bathing and beach clubbing straight through. I finally have a tan. I also haven't had a regular internet connection for the entire time aside from updating on a rare occasion through the use of my friends Iphone. We had been to some of the top beach clubs in Cesme which were absolutely fantastic. Sun all day with blue Sea and shots.. at noon... in total one day we ordered 50 shots.. of course we only did this day ONE time because I died the next day.. moving on..
Here's some strange things I've experienced and noted about Turkey. Basically as I'm sure I've said before, Istanbul is a very grand city, many clubs, yellow cabs and people dressed to impress 24/7 there are no pajama pants grocery shopping here folks. The streets are continuously buzzing with life. This is definitely a city that never sleeps. It's pretty funny though, if you need anything you can find it and at ANY time of day. If you need apples at 2 am or pm I guarantee  there is a spot you'll be able to pick some up. Even electronic stores or restaurants. There has been many a night where we end up getting dinner and breakfast because nightlife here is never ending.
Some odd occurrences would probably be Christmas music in every Starbucks I go into, fifteen minute unannounced breaks during theatre movies, Christmas lights outside some streets at night, the lack of child protection laws, lack of laws..., servers coax you into their restaurants like hunters on the street, people constantly trying to sell things to you whether you're sitting eating food or looking in a shop at clothing.
 I remember saying in a previous note that women seem to have a lot more freedom and appear less suppressed here in Turkey than my previous observations and experience in Israel. After staying in Turkey and having more time to take in the culture I have come to the disturbing realization that this is not the case. The very idea of independence for a woman in Turkey is a mockery. But it is not entirely the families or men's fault. Women commonly marry young and for money, to keep their family a float and to continue on their families expectations of high 'honor'. Some may disagree but too bad, this is my opinion. In Canada we are very lucky to be seen more so as equals than most places I've visited. Independence definitely carries an entirely different more restraining meaning than what we see and experience it as in Canada. There seem to be a lot of young dependent (too dependent for my liking) relationships, a lot of low self esteem which is then protected by expensive clothing and over dressing, thus the 'dress to impress' and 'high fashion expectations' delivered on the daily. I think it's quite interesting how in Turkey they kind of mock our society but the sad truth is aside all the amazing culture and fantastic esthetics and food in Turkey, when it gets down to human rights we definitely are on the right side of the bridge.
I have learned a lot of history through visiting historic palaces and sights, walked many streets and through these experiences can very easily support my theories.
Its kind of funny though the huge cultural differences I've noted. In Turkey and Israel they definitely have their differences and I've funny enough been like a politician defending Israeli's in Turkey and Turkish people in Israel. But their cultures are very close in the facts of honor and a love and loyalties to their land and honor for their families.

I'm just feeling very fortunate each day to be from Canada and feel sad that many  people don't realize and take for advantage how good we actually have it.


I leave for Paris tomorrow morning and will have an interesting time navigating the metro systems to get to my hostel with my huge ass pack filled with goodies from Turkey.

I'll be arriving home to Canada in five days now and have the HUGEST amount of excitement to see some familiar faces.

I love and miss and definitely ADORE and APPRECIATE all of you and can't wait to see you all.

I saw on Google it's the first day of summer... here's hoping you actually get to experience some summer weather.



I'll be able to update my blog regularly again once I'm in Paris. My hostel has wireless and that will be fantastic.
I apologize for not answering any e-mails right away, I just decided it'd be better to update my blog to answer and update all.

Turkish Adventures

So I have arrived in Turkey and have been enjoying every day.
It's been nothing but sun and warm weather along with great friends and amazing times.
So far I have visited all the famous mosques on both the Asian side and European side. I can tell you one thing life here is never boring and is continuously changing every day. I have caught up on the language and have managed to lose my english in the mean time. The sites here are absolutely fantastic.
I'm so lucky to have friends here to show me the real Turkish cities and places.
I've fallen in love with a place called Moda which is located on the Asian side of Turkey. The streets feel familiar to me, very similar to Halifax. Close small cafe's and restaurants with the servers yelling out to you from their patio's like "hunters" we call them, trying to coax you.
I have probably tried every type of traditional Turkish food you could imagine, have also learned how to cook some meals and discovered a delicious beer called Effes which is Turkeys most popular beer.
The shopping here is incredible, imagine a huge street and all there are is a bar store bar store bar store.

My friends are getting antsy as I make them wait as I update this blog.
There's more to tell but I will write more later


Much love and CONSTANTLY thinking of all of you.

The second image is of a little girl who was running around the Blue Mosque and sat down and smiled for me as I took her photo. (I've been very interested in the children here.. they have a lot of issues with child labour.. begging for money, watch Slumdog Millionaire and then you'll understand)

The first image is at a famous HUGE ass palace on the Eruo side, Bengi and I look like ants in one of the courtyards (the womans side)

The last image is a famous underground water storage that Turkey used to thrive off of, there are over 300 pillars and famous statues of Madusa located here. 

Turkey Bound

HEY EVERYONE
I'm so sorry I haven't posted in forever.
I haven't been able to have ANY access to internet even though.. Turkey is a very modern fast moving city (ps. I am totally losing my english)
I have been in Turkey now for about five days and haven't  taken any photos just because I've been going around learning the city and taking in the culture.
Turkey is differs from Israel obviously but they share very many similarities.
It is a very open place, with amazing fashion, food and music. I have wonderful friends here and have been indulging in all of these fantastic characteristics of the country. Right now there's a political election going on so the city is booming with conflict due to this election. (Not anywhere close to Israel of course)
The religion here is mostly Muslim but they are not as strong practicing as those in Israel. It is not at all as conservative, and I have definitely noticed a positive change in how women are treated here in comparison to Israel.
The streets are constantly busy, the city never sleeps.
Fantastic :)
I will update again soon with photographs.
Much love, I am safe and having way too good a time.

Turkey Bound

  
 Haha get it Turkey bound.. okay no thats not even joke..
On my way to Turkey right now, just hanging out in the Al El Airport. Again went through some maddd securitas but once you've been through it once (aka coming into Israel) and if you're smart and pick up as much Hebrew as possible while here it makes it way easier and quicker to get through. Also talking to the girls checking your bag and helping them I learned helps a lot too. Its understandable to panic when you go through such heavy security though.. but when you panic or act nervous in any way it gives them every reason to give you a hard time.  If you have nothing to worry about then don't worry :)
I'm basically just posting right now because I'm bored waiting for the plane and don't have facebook or youtube access :(
  So.. there's this couple sitting across from me.. and judging by their attire they're religious but I would peg them as like the catholics from the states that never travel and trust too much into people and get ripped off easily. Classic though, long peach skirt with matching cardigan, amazing big framed glasses with yellow tint, hair greased to the sides and in a low bun, floral button up shirt and can't leave out the sneaks with skin toned tights. Very nice combo. I just had to share this wonder of wonders that is sitting across from me right now.. I wonder if I could get away with a photo... probably not.
  I'm very excited to go to Turkey today! I don't know if many of you know this but I've been planning on visiting Turkey for about five years now. I'm in love with the culture and know I'm in for a wonderful experience like this one! More so though because I'm sharing it with close friends :)

אהבה תמיד ישראל (Always Love Israel)..I think it translated correctly

Sadly folks this will be my closing posts for Israel. I'm not posting an image because I've stopped taking photos in the last few days, took some time for myself to enjoy the people here and actually take in where I am. I do however have photo's from the Dead Sea which I will post next with an image from TURKEY!

I want to dedicate and yes dedicate (I'm getting all sappy) this post to my friends and loved ones in Israel. I have never met such strong genuine people in a new place in my life. Because of them I see through new eyes and can't even begin to express how amazing and wonderful these people truly are. If people were to have hearts of gold its the ones I've been lucky enough to have met here. They have definitely made this trip in Israel dare I use the word 'special' for me in a way you can only understand through experience. It's 100% true when it's said that 'The people make the place'. I have grown so close to these individuals and I can't share enough gratitude towards them for their wonderful hospitality and greeting me with open arms. -I'm glad I locked myself out haha :]- . Basically I'm really heartbroken to leave and am planning in the future to definitely have a longer stay in Israel to possibly open some projects here. I can say with full gratitude that I am very lucky to have imprinted on me the Israeli culture. I love these people so much! They deserve nothing but the best for their futures. I hope to return all of this when they get a chance to visit Canada in the future!

Love always, Israel.

Thank you, so much. 

A hunk of my Heart is left in Israel (I hate being sappy so I said hunk)

SO.
    I've been really tired lately, doing a lot. So I've been catching up on a lot of naps during the late afternoons when I get home from my day trips, but in doing so don't feel so bad.. apparently late day napping is a normal Israeli thing to do.
 I feel like I've seen more than I could have seen or experienced here in Israel and have been taking er' easy lately. My own choice of course.
 Yesterday Sharona and I decided to hit the beach, crack some beers and relax. It was really nice. White sand, blue cool Medertaraniln Sea, Heineken and sun.  TOO BAD the sun here is like the hottest in the world and fries you like a Belgian crepe! (I just wanted to say crepe..) I wore SPF 50 applied it every 30 minutes. The rest of me is brown, MY LEGS however.. Lobster red.. and sure as hell feel like a lobster had its pincers on them a few times. Ugh. Brutal. BUT I wouldn't trade the sun for anything because sadly Nova Scotia has horrible weather..
 It's very strange in the city Tel Aviv. It may be modern and have terrific streets with colourful markets and people.. but underneath this fun active city.. is a very disturbing reality. I'm sure I mentioned this a few times before but I can't walk the streets of Halifax and point out places of suicide bomb attacks. It just bothers me so much that it happens. It's an unfortunate and just plain shitty situation. You can flower coat it or say "Its okay, it happens" no. It's messed up. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have sites, city grave stones if I may to walk passed and remember what had happened there.
 My friend Sharona works in the Hotel Industry like most such as myself, well bartending anyways. Very common great job, good income, high hospitality. Not even three blocks from her work was a suicide bomber that unfortunately her ex had been involved in the bombing (he was security for the site and was injured). He had a ten cm nail shot through his side from the bomb, was launched 12 feet away from the site, landing on a car. People shouldn't have to have these occurrences as memories.  The bus bomb that only happened in March on the 24 of 2011, drove passed it yesterday. Its a beautiful city and people continue on with their lives, we need to have a respect for that. Israel has strong people, with good hearts. Think about that for a while before you go walking around your city, we are lucky. Very lucky, that we have such a safe country to live in. I really hope you all appreciate it, because after this trip, my insight has completely changed and I feel sorry for those of you that don't realize how easy your lives really are. I understand you cannot compare anyone's life, but you sure as hell can learn from others and appreciate the one you have more than you did before. Phew, anyways as you can see I am very passionate towards the stories and people and sights I have been to.


 The photo's above are two from one of the farms I visited. This one was a rose farm, Thai workers whom get paid 6 shekels which works out to be about two canadian dollars and hour to work the fields here in Israel, mind you this is by choice. Accommodation, fresh water and food is provided free of charge and the workers usually sign a contract of five years. I still felt that their living conditions were poor, the work environments were also poor, but I was told it was better than Thailand.. I stand to disagree but everyone has an opinion about everything.

 The third image is of my most FAVORITE house in Israel. It belongs to Jacob's brother and his wife. His wife is a self taught oil painter/ ceramics master. Her works were fabulous and her house was beautiful. Full of her work and crafty interior decor I had to photograph this space!

 I leave for Turkey on Sunday and will miss all the people I've met here greatly. It makes me sad just thinking I only met this people a few weeks ago but grew to have a strong connection with them. I hope to keep them as friends for a long time and see them again soon in the future. I feel I will definitely have plans in the future to re visit Israel, now that I have new family here it's a good enough reason to come back.
 Like I said before, I plan on posting their stories with their photos when I arrive home :)
 Some strange things I will definitely miss about Israel though which I can't remember if I mentioned in previous posts, would probably be the dogs barking at night, 4 am wake up to Muslims prayer calls from across the Palestinian border, random gun shots at 2 am from Palestinians shooting guns in the air and all the fantastic grand market places scattered throughout the cities.

 I would also like to say, I miss all my friends and family back home. They have been nothing but fantastic supporters of me before and during my travels. I hope you are all doing well and rockin' Halifax for me. We're all going to have a ton of catching up to do when I get home. I send my love.

Post soon!

The End

   Sorry I've been so MIA lately. There's been a lot going on here! I'm finally settled in and have been spending a lot of time with my fantastic group of friends here whom feel a lot like family to be honest. They are such great people and work really hard every day. In meeting them, my prospective has changed greatly and has left me to appreciate my life and experiences so much more than I try to already. To hear the past stories of these individuals is unbelievable. I will be posting their stories with my  photos when my independent project is done. These aren't stories you can just tell in one way..
 In the last few days I've been up to quite a bit. Sharona and I went to Tel Aviv, I also visited and had a wonderful chance to observe the agricultural side of Israel as well as get a view of the Gaza border. I've also been to some pretty sweet A shops and visited the BEACH! Mm white sand. I think today we're going to the Dead Sea which as I'm sure you all know has the highest salt content in the world to the degree that when you swim.. you float. Also no sea life has the ability to withstand the high percentage of salt except for Pandalus Borealis being a species of shrimp.
 I will post again tonight, explaining the opening for the second paragraph and then a recap of todays adventures. I just wanted to have something written out since it's been so long.  The weather has been nothing but sun and heat for the past week with roses and flowers littering the side walks and birds chirping away.
 The evenings are cool but gradually getting warmer. AND I have finally grown accustomed to the beautiful language here!


Post another tonight with photos! (Or today.. your time..)

Holy Tourists

  

   Today I visited another market which lies within the walls that separate the religious quarters here in Israel. Because I am not religious I found this to be a very interesting place to observe. I'm actually really liking that I have no religious followings while I am here. Why? This would be because I have an opportunity to observe every religion with 'equal sight'. We walked through the narrow alley ways packed full of anything and everything you could imagine. The air was filled with different incense and oils. Food, cafe's, glass, bags, clothes, everything had it's own shop, it's own hole in the wall.. I mean this literally. I looks like stone walls that they carved out to place shops. Now we began in the Muslim quarter of the wall. Here you could see women selling grape leaves in large amounts sitting on the ground, fresh shawarma everywhere. There were people bushing up to get passed you every two minutes. Everywhere you looked, something different was going on.
 We then made our way down through the alley's into the Christian Quarter.. for me this was the most interesting quarter. SO here I saw the most famous church in the entire world. The church where Jesus is known to be buried along with his mother Mary.
 Upon entering the church there is a breath taking mural of individuals from the bible and laying in front of it the stone in which 'Jesus' dead body lay' while in the tomb.  Basically he was killed on it. This stone EVERYONE was touching it. Priests crying and rubbing their faces on this slab bathing themselves in the oil that the rock is covered in. People would take out crosses and lay them on the stone and cry. Of course I had to touch it, you can't not.  It's about the size of a person in width as well, and about two inches thick. Appeared to be marble?
We moved further into the church (ps. this Church is MASSIVE, I'm talkin HUGE) and there is a giant wooden/stone tomb where Jesus' body supposedly lay. Let me tell you, the line ups to get into the tomb for TWO MINUTES was like four hours long... like insanity. People fly from ALL AROUND the world just to go to this church. That blew my mind.. the things people do for certain belief's.. when you see it you don't know what to say or think.
 (Sorry this post was so long, I just forgot to write yesterday)

ALSO..
 I HAVE to put a word in on this whole "World Ending" crap. Yes it's crap. How do I know this because Israel is the 'HOLY LAND' and if people aren't trippin' here then nothing is going on. If anything the people that know about it only from friends in North America are making fun of how stupid we are. Way to keep a good rep guys... not only will Obama announce a 'solution' for Israel but the world is also going to end and the Conservatives will run Canada into the ground. Greeeaaaat.

Haha oh well.


First Image- Candles lit within the burial place of Jesus Christ

Second Image- Mall (Saturday) Awesome lady in shorts.

The Machane Yehudah, Israel. Famous Market Place

   Today I ventured into the city of Jerusalem with my good friend Jacob.
We went to the Machane Yehudah which is probably the most breath taking market places I've ever been to before. Photo's definitely cannot do it justice.
Everyone is very friendly and would ask me to take their photograph with their stands.
 We also visited, The Israel Supreme Court which had some fantastic architecture within its walls (Dad, grabbed some nice shots with you and Geoff in mind!)
 We also visited and saw the walls surrounding Jerusalem. The history behind this city lays within it's people and structures. These structures have been standing and maintained for thousands of years.
 Although I lack in religious beliefs I still found myself at a loss for words for most of the day while taking in all that was going on around me. The mixture of relgious  people in practice I still find astounding.
 We stopped to check out one of the two Hebrew Universities and I noted a taxi driver had pulled over to pray, he was a practicing Muslim completing his mid day prayer.

(my apologies for photo size, I'm still trying to figure out a decent conversion for this blog!)

Hello Israel

  Israel is a beautiful country with an amazing mixture of culture and a lengthly filled history BUT one thing you might not know is they also have and are known for the BEST and HIGHEST security in the world. I dare you to argue me on that one.
 I go through security in Halifax with no problem, have a glass of wine on the plane and fall asleep. I slept for almost the entire flight. Six hours later I arrive in Heathrow airport. Which by the way is MASSIVE. Any store you can imagine, it's there. So I have a five hour lay over in Heathrow, so I sit in this Skybar place have some frits and hang out.
 The gate opens at noon to check through El Al so I decide to go at this time. I get down from the second level to the first where the airline is and the line, 45 minutes long. Why? Because El Al is so great with security that they have their own. (You'll soon hear of Israel and how the entire country is like this. Which is great for safety though.) Anyways,  I finally get to the end where there are a ton of security asking you a series of questions etc. For me, the question of "Where are you going after Israel?" I say "Turkey" BAM questions go bonkers I'm waiting patiently while they speak in Hebrew to one another. BUT When you think about it, it's pretty understandable I mean, I don't travel much. Why Israel alone and visiting this family friend? Why a five hour lay over and not a shorter one. Many things made sense in the end. Also I am not Jewish so what is my purpose to visit etc. Added on the factor of traveling with camera gear.
 So, after an hour or so of questions after waiting in a 45 minute line, they let me through. I walk to my gate with the load of people and pass in my passport with my ticket at the gate. They take me to a blocked off area and set up a strip search private section with screens and ask me if they can empty and search my carryon. I was like holy crap. While they did this they proceeded to ask if I was okay. DUDE I have traveled for like a million years, am on Malaria medication which makes me want to puke and I'm being checked out, Uhh yeah I'm a little worried.  So for like the fourth time that day within being in Heathrow they take my carry on apart again, swipe everything etc. Clear. I finally get to go sit down. Poor dude next to me got strip searched, I was lucky.
 Now, within Israel is different quarters of religion so because of this you get to see the origins of them and strong people within practice of these religions.  It's really quite neat to see all the different dress, hear the assortment of language and interaction. Especially with the Jewish community.
 The weather is perfect, not too hot just right with cool evenings. Roses line the side streets of the neighborhood I'm staying in. The houses are all on mountain side made of white stone but very modern architecture with modern appliances. Well ahead of our time.  Its very Eruo, North American. Mind you this is the neighborhood I'm staying in, like other places it varies.  This neighborhood is very nice, I'll post a photo tomorrow of it for you guys. One thing thats odd though is it is right on the Palestinian boarder.. for those of you that know your History and Politics this is a different situation here in Israel than in Canada. But from my standpoint I find it interesting. You see barb wire fences and guards in the morning with guns at the boarder gates. (I was told this and have only seen the gates with my good friend Jacob, I would never go there alone..) You can see the giant main Mosk over the wall, from a distance. Its really beautiful. During the times of prayer an announcement is said on a large speaker system and can be heard everywhere. This is very common wherever a Mosk is in Israel.
 Anyways, all is well. I'm going inside Jerusalem tomorrow to visit the market and finally get my photo's a flowin' so I have some stuff to post for you! Its been hard to get going with the six hours time difference.


The End

No Liquids On the Airplane please. WHAT ABOUT WATER.

Finally I get to begin to use my blog for its sole purpose which was to help communicate and document before, during and after my trip overseas.

In two weeks I will be heading over to Jerusalem, Israel to apprentice under a pretty popular Israeli photographer for two weeks. (It was going to be a month but due to certain circumstances the time frame was adjusted).

I will be staying with a very very dear and close family friend who I basically consider my uncle named Jacob. He's absolutely amazing for putting me up for two weeks. 

After I complete my two weeks in Israel I will then be heading to Istanbul Turkey for a month. While in Turkey I'll be continuing my independent study from Israel (a couple things on the go during all this as you can see). Lucky for me I have the best tour guides in the country! My two best friends Eser and Bengy whom I've been friends with for years now will be yet again putting me up with their families and friends in Turkey! We will be traveling within Turkey but using Istanbul as our main spot. 

After a month in Turkey, Eser and I will be traveling to Paris for five days. I figured after all those crazy art history courses I might as well see what I've learned. 

So there's the break down. 

While I'm away, I will be posting an image every day of my trip turing my blog into a photo journal if you will to help document my trip.

Of course when I have more free time, I'll leave in a little more detail what's been going on.

Of course you can all contact me via e-mail, for the few I'll miss the most ( which is obvious ) I'll be calling you at random :] With the amazing six to seven hour time difference this should be fun... hahahaha because see you can't actually get mad at me for waking you up because like.. man... I'll be calling from Turkey, how the heck can you get mad at that?

SO! 

Two weeks.. 

I'm freaking out. Not going to lie. Not freaking out in a sense that I'm doubting this choice, more or less this is really going to be I honestly think something that will change my over all perception. Sure you can say yeah yeah a load of crap Alex but this will be the biggest trip I've taken alone before. I'll be pretty self dependent even though I am staying with friends. I'm leaving Halifax for a month and a half. Sorry two months in Saskatchewan doesn't count as leaving home. 

I'm excited to experience culture outside of Canada and to have a chance to compare where I live with where my friends came from. I think if anything it will be a definite eye opener and I'm really looking forward to developing an even greater appreciation for what's around me and for what's to come.

I think it will the unexpected.. because things never really appear as what they seem to be in your head I've learned. So we'll see how she goes. 

Keep checking my blog for updates. 

My next post will be the day before I leave May 14th. 

I will then update May15th while I'm in Heathrow Airport for like a five hour layover so SKYPE is going to probably be on. Don't be surprised if I'm chillin with Beibs. He chills at the Starbucks in Heathrow on the regular and apparently was rockin in Israel like last month? Rando.

ANYWAYS

Sweet treats, thanks for the read.

Hope the next few months rock my world. 

The End

Alex

Running with Tears in my eyes.

   So I'm a pretty huge Grey's Anatomy fan, I will not deny that ever. It's an amazing show and I totally love all the crap that goes on in it. Love triangles and crazy relationships between patients and doctors leading to conflicts in interest and ALL THIS unrealistic television drama. Its entertaining to boot. (People can disagree thats fine, I've probably written you off anyways). 

 SO I generally watch the show when I'm about to go to bed, get all comfy ready to bawl my eyes out. Thats another thing! This is the ONLY show in the entire world that makes me cry like a 12 year old girl. Its pretty pathetic but I'm down with it.    Any who, so I was kind of tight on time trying to wrap up finals get my shit together so I killed two birds with one stone, ran on the treadmill and watched Grey's at the same time. Why not?  I'm not technically moving anywhere andd a lot of people do it in the gym right? I think I'm hardcore, pretty confident in my running abilities on the treadmill there so I say screw the safety clip I don't require that psh. Who the hell falls off a treadmill.. You'd have to be an incompetent idiot to manage that. 

 Grey's starts up, it's the musical episode where my favorite loves of the show Callie and Arizona get into a car accident. Tragic. The entire episode is basically a musical but really really good.. from my prospective. Running away, have a pretty sick incline ya know decent pace workin up a sweat AND SOME CRAZY SHIT happens. I lose it. Start bawling my eyes out. Meanwhile running on this treadmill not thinking that I CAN'T SEE. Blinded by tears. (By this point of the story you can definitely judge me and think I'm a huge loser thats fine. I would 100% think the same. HAHA)

 Tears streaming down my face, running and I all of a sudden get extremely disoriented and I FLIP THE HELL off the damn thing. Like I lose all balance (after P90x Yoga like a million times you'd think I'd be a tad more graceful.. FAIL) 

 Flip off, no safety clip the thing is STILL going at a running speed and I smash my head on the bar thing.. now I'm sitting on my ass Grey's still going treadmill still running full speed or what have you.. and I'm laughing and crying at the same time.

There's a story for you.

Wear your safety clip and don't run and cry.. it's not as easy as the movies make it seem. 

The end. 

Headspace.

 The last month, as I'm sure many of you can relate, my head has been packed to the max. All the time. It's exhausting to be constantly in thought. Constantly running through the "if's" and "buts" of this and that. It's like your brain goes on overload and panic smacks you square in the face and man.. it can hit hard.
 I find being emotionally exhausted definitely reflects physically. It's not easily cured by isolation or sleep. Doesn't seem to have an exit point to release the pressure thats on your head. But then I started to think, why am I doing this to myself ? Because really, at the end of the day you chose how you feel, react and what's on your mind. It's your choice and I feel a lot of people are in major denial over how much control they really have. Its a difficult thing to come to terms with. To realize you are causing your own stress.
 After many days of hiding out at the parents house, I came across the book "Eat Pray Love". It totally opened my eyes. Not in a "oh my god I'm going to change my life and blah blah crap crap shit shit". The things I learned from it were pretty simple concepts that are very easy to apply to day to day life and kicked my ass.
 Clear the head space, can you imagine if you gave yourself the ability to clear all that crap all that over thinking out of your brain how much pressure and stress would be gone!? Its amazing. You feel clean and not empty or dumb.. haha not like acknowledging that. Its a sense of freedom from thought. Not playing ignorant, you're still those feelings and thoughts but setting limits on how much attention and energy goes into them. Instead of missing someone and running through your head about it, acknowledge the fact you miss them. Allow yourself that moment of missing that person forgive yourself and move on with your day.
Anyways ever since adapting this added concept I'm back to my stress free happy self and its a genuinely nice feeling.
Great now my blog makes me out to be friggin Dr. Phil. Good god.

The End.

Wolftrap

So I've had quite a bit of wine but decided to write in my blog anyways. Makes it kind of funny. I just saw a random big ass bruise on my leg how the heck did that get there.
Anyways, I SAW THAT HIPPY HOLY SHIT today when I was in the wine bar with a lovely friend, I flipped my shit.. quietly... and stayed in my seat with my glass of wine clenched in hand. Decided to keep it classy and drink away my disgust.
I seriously can't write about anymore right now because the only way I'm seeing straight right now is with one eye closed... ahahah oh dear.
SO. I'm going to sleep and write a more updated decent blog post tomorrow morning during class. Which I have a feeling will be quite long.... help me :(

COFFEE is going to be a savior tomorrow I have a feeling :)
Ps. Love my friends at Obladee. They're amazing :) (VOTE FOR THEM!)
There guys, put it in my blog as promised. VOTE before 10 AM!
Fuck it I'm tired hahah. ps, Wolftrap is my favorite of all wines on the planet I suggest you try it. Runs at about 16 bucks a bottle.
The End.

Why make them into glue when they're our future therapists.

 Today I took photographs of my cat getting her little lady bits cut out. Probably the neatest surgery I have so far to photograph. I'm finding the more I work with animals within the medical/ photo realm the more I feel at home.
 Animals are interesting creatures. The connection you can create with them is like no other. I know for instance when I horse back ride I focus on how my muscles trigger my horse. They can feel every twitch, sense every emotion or mood your in all through your energy and body language. They have the ability to read you like a readers digest in two seconds and react accordingly. Those of you that have experienced riding can relate. It's a sense of freedom when with horses, no speaking just a quiet content form of communication through eye contact and touch. A therapy no douche bag with glasses and an annoying voice could provide.
 Animal human relationships are so important. I think we under-appreciate animals really. They were here first to start with, they have survival skills that we can't even imagine or begin to comprehend. Animals rely on strong family ties, instincts that prolong their lives and that of their kin. We sit at home eat shit and drink beer bitching about how crap traffic was, or like me that douche that licked my face. I'm not trying to sound like some pathetic animal enthusiast or activist.. those are different topics. Also I'm not trying to put down humans, whatever we're screwed either way.  Just some random shit I thought about today.

Sock Rant.

 My room mate finally decided to get groceries today and because it totally blows trying to lug all that crap back home I went with her to help. So I toss on some shoes, jacket and we head to superstore. Yattah yattah we get groceries and are on our trek back home when I realize I'm not wearing socks. 

 I hate socks. They're horrible. Alright so you buy socks, white ones. Wear those once, THEY ARE NEVER white again. Wash them? Good fucking luck matching them up again. Don't think so. That is a negative. It's like socks decide, we are only going to be worn once together and then, sorry bortha didn't work out I found another NON MATCHING friend. Are you kidding me? SO I hate them. They get all weird in your shoe, make you slip and fall on your face if you have hardwood. 

 How stupid do you feel when you go to someone's house, take off your shoes and realize you mis-matched those bad boys. If you don't feel stupid, I'll tell you.. you look stupid. 

 Also, those of you that sleep in socks, you're sick. That is the weirdest shit in the book. You have blankets and sheets.. those are made to keep you warm. Socks? That have been in your nasty shoes all day in your bed? Nice. 

 I will not sleep in the same bed with someone that wears socks to bed. I'll take the floor thanks. 

 So anyways, back to the superstore walk home- the realization of me not wearing socks came to another realization- I have bought some pretty decent sneeks that I thought were all white (judge me, I totally would but they were 15 bucks and DC at West eff that), THEY ARE CREAM wtf with white laces? So now I not only am not wearing socks (which you all now know I hate anyway) BUT I'm also a huge loser with cream shoes with WHITE ass laces. Brilliant.

 Someone find me cream laces. 

Sorry I still blow at blog writing. I'm practicing? :D

The End. 

Peace and love, more like nasty.

  I'm starting a blog because I feel I'm the type that has a lot on my mind, why not blog the shit.

 Apparently you can't walk the streets without getting licked by a hippy.

Simply walking home, listening to some tunes enjoying the sun and notice some dude walking in the same stride as me. Pull out my headphones and he begins talking to me. That's cool, he had mad dreads wearing all white combat boots gnarly teeth. Pretty typical hippy profile. 

 So he only walked with me for about a minute when we reached the light. He starts grabbing at my arm and I pulled away, licks his thumb and rubbed it on my cheek. I looked at him and gave him a puke face expression. - if you don't know that expression, get really hammered to the point of puking and take a picture.. that's the face..- HE THEN leaned in and LICKED MY FACE. I just stood there and stared at him. He smiled and walked away. BY THE TIME I had realized this idiot just left his disgusting slime on my cheek he was half way across the intersection and I was ready to puke all over the sidewalk. SO, I busted my little butt home and rubbed my cheek with soap until it was raw. 

 Just because you're "down with Earth and God" and think all man kind should "jam their energies together and hug" DOES NOT mean you can lick my face. I want to encounter him again.. so my fist can lick his face. 

I promise these blogs will contain more substance once I get used to writing in a blog.

The end.