All posts tagged: culture

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Amy Zhao

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“North Korea is one of the most mysterious places on earth right now. The experience of going to North Korea has already been the best pick-up line of mine for months. Not only because it sounds intriguing in conversation, but also, it taught me a lot because I would never have believed there is still a country like this without actually getting into it. As a student who majors in politics, the concept of third wave democratization is deeply rooted in my mind. But, North Korea changed my idea and my whole concept of the world. The concept of political culture didn’t actually exist in North Korea because there is basically zero citizens’ participation in politics. Citizens accept the political facts and they are living under a relatively stable situation apart from the outside world. What they care about are their daily lives instead of political issues. As far as I could see, the life standards in North Korea are like those of the Chinese in the 1960s/1970s. But changes to their lifestyles and political systems …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Danielle Williams

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“I live in Arizona (Tempe) but am from the Diné (Navajo) Nation in Tuba City, Arizona. I travel to many different Native American reservations throughout the nation typically to photograph and visit friends and family. I am full-blooded Diné so let me properly introduce myself (translation to follow) – Shí éí Danielle Williams yinishyé. Kinyaa’áanii nishłí. Ta’neeszahnii báshíshchíín. Tł’ízíłání dashicheii. Tódích’íinii dashinálí. Tónaneesdízí dęę’ naashá. Shimá dóó shizhé’é éí Rose Marie dóó Daniel Williams wolyé. Ákót’éego éí asdzáa Diné nishłí. My name is Danielle Williams. I am of the Towering House clan, born for the Tangle People clan. My maternal grandfather is of the Manygoats clan and my paternal grandfather is of the Bitter Water clan. I am from Tuba City. My mother and father are Rose Marie and Daniel Williams. In this way, I am a Navajo woman. The purpose for “Old Love” was to restore balance because I was taught that love is the most powerful and beautiful gift of all. We know this because of the Love that the Holy Ones have …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Sita Chay

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“Silk Road was such a metaphysical term until I traveled through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. It sounded far and magical, hard to grasp. Where people from Asia and Europe traveled and exchanged their cultures, I witnessed genuine interaction and creation of their encounters many, many centuries before me. As a western instrumentalist, little did I know the violin and Asian cellos like the Erhu and Haegeum, had the same ancestor until I saw another violinist playing the instrument between legs like a cello. Among many familiar sounding yet exotic instruments, the most memorable was a Mongolian cello called Morin Khuur. It had a magical balance between the folk-like sounds that we hear in Asian cellos and the sensitivity we recognize in the violin or viola. A horse head scroll was attached to its trapezoid box…a captivating, odd beauty which fit perfectly with one of my favorite legends it’s inspired: After a mother camel gave birth to her newborn, she was stressed and exhausted. She rejected the newborn and refused to feed the calf. To restore the harmony between …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Ayesha Malik

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“I was taking photographs at a photography convention in Saudi Arabia.  I was already excited by the simple fact that I was in an environment where photography was being celebrated, which meant I could roam freely with my camera.  In Saudi Arabia, it is technically illegal to photograph people in public without direct permission, so I tend to keep my camera hanging around my neck instead of attached to my face.  Set aside such technicalities, I never want to offend anyone and steal a photograph of them, especially in Saudi.  On this day, my camera spent less time hanging.  I met her through my viewfinder, through an iMac, in Photo Booth.  She was passing by and decided to fix her scarf in the webcam.  When she noticed me in the background, she smiled…I could tell from her eyes.  She said, “Do you like this…me fixing my scarf?” I said yes and we made this photo together.  It was such a contemporary interaction.  The world is huge, but globalization, and all the technology that comes with …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Flo Cheiron

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“I have been practicing capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art for the past 8 years with my instructor Professor Tiba from Capoeira Luanda in New York. When you join a capoeira group, you become part of a family, a community. You make new friends along the way.  You meet people from your own city and from all over the world through capoeira events and practice. Every time I travel for business or fun, I always bring my capoeira uniform and make sure to visit a local capoeira class. I have always been welcomed and invited outside of the class to discover the local culture. I’ve found that traveling as a capoeirista is far more superior than traveling as a tourist.  I’ve had the opportunity to experience various cities as a personal guest of a fellow capoeirista and have often even had the option to stay in someone’s home at no cost. ” – Flo Cheiron   078/100 of #100DaysofConfessions Instagram Project

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Andrea Wien

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“Stepping off the plane in a new city, I inhale, searching already for the closest food stalls or local markets. In the same way people travel to gawk at the Great Pyramids or to climb the tallest mountains, I travel for the cuisine. A city can lie its way into a traveler’s heart, but in back alleys down winding, brick-laid roads, the bubbling curries or crispy delicacies are beacons of pure honesty.   Food teaches me about the mundane, the beautiful, the oppression, the squalor and the extravagance of a place in a way that nothing else can. A people’s history lives on my fork, dances across my taste buds and nourishes my soul as it warms its way through my body.  For me, inspiration comes in the form of turmeric and paprika, galangal and ginger. It weaves a path past city squares, ducks behind bright doorways, moves to the rhythms of a tea kettle and explodes in color over the rice paddies, bringing me back to where it all started, and gathering strength for where it has …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Avi Wisnia

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“Imagine Hell. Now imagine being rescued from hell, and returning… I can’t. I am trying very very hard, and I can’t. I am on a bus about to enter Auschwitz-Birkenau in the south of Poland, watching my grandfather as we slowly drive by the wooden-shelf bunks where he slept as a prisoner in the concentration camp for 3 years of his life, and I can’t even imagine. Can you? We started in Warsaw, where my grandfather grew up. We traveled through the Polish countryside to end up where my grandfather ended up during the Holocaust, in Auschwitz. He often says he has two lives: one before the war, and one after the war. It was immensely intense to witness those two worlds overlapping here.  There is something profound about traveling back to the land where your family comes from and touching its soil. Poland in winter is not a particularly inviting place, but I nevertheless felt the warm pull of the land’s history. It was like there was something still lingering in the air, waiting …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Sophie Sarkar

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“As a mixed-race American with international roots, my travels have often been about reconnecting with my heritage and exploring my intertwined cultural identities. Traveling to India, and especially Kolkata, has helped me understand so many things about my relationships, quirks, anxieties, styles, and propensities. It has also been the source of inspiration for most of my creative projects… In India, my senses are overwhelmed by highly saturated colors, smells, and sounds. When I stay at my family’s house in northern Kolkata, I wake up every morning to the sounds of water being pumped up to the roof of the house; birds cawing salutations to one another; unidentifiable bells; street vendors selling sugar cane juice, sweets, and plastic buckets; Bengali bickering; various conch shells calling the Gods into the houses; my aunties gossiping with each other through the windows; the extremely loud and incredibly close neighbors; the donkey-like screech of rickshaw horns; the barking of territorial street dogs; and the call of the garbage man going around on his bike-pulled carriage screaming, in a somewhat melodic …

24 Hours: Luxembourg City

Published by Khadijat Oseni

“Where are you headed next?” “Luxembourg!” “Oh cool…silly question, where is that again? Switzerland?” “No, but close, there’s a “Little Switzerland” in Luxembourg!” “Wait, I thought Luxembourg was a capital city in another country?” “Yeah, Luxembourg City IS the capital of Luxembourg!” “Oh jeez, get out of here before you drive me nuts!” “Haha, love ya!” Typical conversations that surrounded my recent trip to Luxembourg always seemed to either begin and end in a cloud of confusion as to where Luxembourg is, or garner disbelief as to how I spent an entire weekend there without electing to hop over to popular neighboring cities like Brussels, Paris and Cologne. However, during my summer in London, I decided to zip over and find out what the local sensibility of this city full of drifters is, with 60% of its population being expats and having 170,000 people commute back and forth each day. Outside of having well-paid jobs particularly in the EU and financial sectors, what is the draw to life in Luxembourg City? Upon arrival, I quickly …