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December 8, 2004
Thoughts Abroad
Despite Romanian superstition to the contrary, 2004 hasn't been much of a traveling year for me. In 2003, I spent a few weeks in Europe over the summer, seeing the wonders of Vienna, Budapest, and Romania, and then went on went on a great road trip to California after Christmas, culminating in an entirely uneventful New Years Eve in Tucson, Arizona, where Claudia and I made ourselves nutty driving around the city and singing along at the top of our lungs with one catchy song on a loop.
Romanian superstition says that the way you spend New Years is the way you'll spend the coming year. While I'm grateful that the superstition fell apart in that I didn't have to spend any more time than necessary in Tucson, I hoped that at least living out of my suitcase that night would count for something, and that I'd do more traveling this year. Sadly, it's been mostly the "uneventful" part of the evening that's shaped my year.
Since returning from our road trip after New Years, I've left the state exactly twice, both times for short weekend jaunts to New Orleans. And while I enjoyed New Orleans, I really wanted to go back to Washington, where I haven't been in years and years, or to see some fall color in the northeast. But nope, nothing doing. For some reason, the money we kept in our pockets on New Years (to ensure we'd have money in our pockets all year round) didn't seem to stick over the past year, and going on a big trip wound up being out of my budget. (My new digital camera, you'll notice, wasn't out of my budget, but I refuse to accept that particular correlation.)
My dad and stepmom were in town last Sunday, and I had a belated birthday dinner with them at the Clay Pit, which was very good, and they were suitably impressed. We spent the meal talking about photography and my two-year plan (the one wherein I prepare to leave the country by the time I turn 30). The two conversations overlap quite a bit, and the conclusion was that my dad offered to send me to a photographic workshop, if I found one I was interested in.
As luck would have it, one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to sent me a message the following morning -- not twelve hours later -- and mentioned a workshop that I was interested in. The topic is Documentary Portraiture. Nice, eh? I've been very inspired by photographers who take beautiful, touching images of people that tell a meaningful story, so finding one that appealed to me is great.
Oh, did I mention it's in February? In Oaxaca, Mexico. It's ten days long, and I'm so excited that I've been bouncy all week.
So far, 2005 is shaping up to be a good traveling year.
Posted by Rachel at December 8, 2004 8:46 PM
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