Lessons Learned | What to pack

This week, I’m packing a backpack again!

But, this time, I’m going some place new for me  –>

Mexico!

I’m by far no expert on packing, but I have packed a bag a good number of times and have learned a thing or two along the way. After my year off, I definitely learned a good deal (*thanks to having to pack for extremes – blizzards in the high Himalayas and a summer in India) and have a general idea of how to pull things together and make it work. Plus, a lot of friends often ask about the great packing dilemma!

So. . .

What to pack:

(*Note: Recently I’ve been spending most of my time in warmer climates, in particular Asia, but this is a list of things that can be handy most anywhere. Also, if you are traveling less than a month, consider making do with less, much, much less. You’ll be surprised just how little you can live without! ALSO, remember, traveling can be rough on everything including your body, so travel with things you like but never what you LOVE and cannot live without, because it is almost guaranteed to get lost//stolen//broken//etc. You can always find things you need, yes, even if you are in the middle of what seems like nowhere. Often nowhere is someone else’s somewhere and you’ll make it work. I promise you that!)

+ + +

+ One fabulous backpack and daypack (REI, you rock! My REI-brand men’s pack comes with a removable daypack! Brilliant)

+ One hat (Who needs showers)

+ One sarong// lungi// or large scarf (because it becomes your everything from a scarf, a towel, a blanket, a yoga mat, a skirt, a dress, etc. )

+ One hammock (because nothing is better and they can also serve as a bed *depending on the circumstances)

+ One pair of waterproof shoes (J’adore my $1 rubber flats from Indonesia b/c they’re light and flexible, but I also often travel with my old, ugly, though trusty Chacos too)

+ One pair of running shoes or hiking shoes (Few shoes beat Salomon trail running shoes)

+ One water bottle (and water purification tablets or drops)

+ One watch

+ One film camera and film (*If you’re in to that sort of thing)

+ Camera. Batteries. Lenses. More memory cards than you think you need. Cleaning cloths. Filters. Audio equipment. ETC. (*If you’re a photographer, you know what you need AND a good way to transport everything! I use a Lowepro bag and it’s great, although a little too big for a bus or train! Cameras are always the best and worst part of the experience!)

+ Sunglasses (I travel with two pairs generally b/c they also get lost//stolen//broken AND b/c you can quickly change your look without taking up much space in your pack)

+ Good books (I find the book question the hardest. When I started traveling this past summer, I had nine books in my bag. And read twice that. One great thing about travel, especially if you are ever following the tourist trail is that there are always bookstores. Often these bookstores understand your dilemma and offer to sell and exchange your books. It really is a fantastic system. Maybe one of these days I’ll buy a Kindle, but for now, I love having a collection of books on hand)

+ One travel yoga mat (I believe that this travel mat is one of my best friends in life. It is the inspiration for my practice on the road and I cannot even begin to tell you the number of times it has served as far more than a mat – it is as a great bed, a train seat cover, a cushion on the floor, etc.)

+ A Diva Cup (Because! *That is, if you are in need of something like this)

+ A small, fold-able world map . . . or blow up globes (*it will come in hand. promise).

+ A laptop (*if away for more than a two months. once again though, it’s all up to you. Wifi exists in strange places. But if not, there are often friends or internet cafes not too far within your reach)

+ Journals (Nothing beats a stack of blank white-paged Moleskines)

+ Good pens and pencils

+ Travel paint palette (*if you’re into that sort of thing)

+ Black clothes. Especially black leggins (*Mine got stolen early on in the journey this summer and I missed them terribly).

+ Clothing you like, that is mulch-functional and only a few white things (*White will not stay white. Ever).

+ Scarves

+ Travel speakers (*a great way to make friends)

+ An ipod (*full of your power songs//meditation songs)

+ A multifunctional power adapter

+ A pocket knife (*hungry? need to defend yourself on a train in India? You never know)

+ A short length of durable rope (*Clothesline//safety//tying your bag to the top of jeeps//etc)

+ A small sewing kit

+ A pack towel

+ Medicines you might need or want (*Eye drops are always good to have, as well as allergy medicine)

+ Candied ginger (*Amazing for upset stomachs)

+ Snacks

+ + +

Most everything else you can get, find, or make!

Enjoy.

And get out there!

[Photos: Travels through Bali, 2012//Grace Farson]

Possibility

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!” – Søren Kierkegaard

[Photo: Island life on Gili Trawangan//Grace Farson]

Portrait of an artist as a college kid

Yesterday on a bench outside on the most beautiful of all fall days, I asked J what I should do when I grow up. He tried to avoid the question and then with some hesitancy, said: an artist of sorts.

Later, I got this email:

When we talked today, I didn’t mean you should be an artist. Rather, you are an artist. I think it means seeing the world a certain way. With your own eyes. With eyes that are uncertain and curious.

. . .

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what’s next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.” – Agnes de Miller

I’m currently working through my third year here . . . And, if I had done things right (* er, not abandoned school for a year), I’d be graduating in May.

Happy and thankful right now I’m only doing school // work // relationships // making life plans . . . but I find that within me there is this growing pressure to know what I want out of life after this. After all, so much of our college careers are wrapped up in that question. Sometimes, it is hard to ignore.

I find that all I want, all I’ve ever really wanted was to be an artist. I want to create. To feel. To be curious (always). And to not shrink back from challenges.

If college has done one thing for me, it has given me a sense of possibility. Each and everyday, us kids are bombarded by possibility and just all we could do if there were more hours in a day// if we were more talented//etc.

I find that I’m dissatisfied by my work and how I spend my days unless I’m touching // molding // and creating things with my mind // my eyes and most of all, my hands.

I find that I want to do. . . I want to do everything and cannot comfortably (*just) learn without actually doing.

I’m certainly a work in progress, but I’m enjoying the process for the most part. . .

[Photo: Swallowed in the sea. Depock beach, Indonesia//Grace Farson]

The same sky

Photo one: Before sunset in Chitwan National Park // Nepal.

Photo two: Sunset on Gili Trawangan Island // Indonesia.

I was attempting to organize old photos last night when I came across these.  They remind me of what I love on land, in sky, in sea, in space. . .

Asia’s big skies are majestic and few things in this big world can compete.

[Photos: Nepal and Indonesia a year apart//Grace Farson]

Bits and pieces, Delhi

Yesterday was the first time India felt really real again. Spent the day sightseeing and trekking through the heat just to experience bits and pieces of Delhi all over again.

Time with Greg has been good fun and it is so lovely to be here with a familiar face. We’ve shared memories of UNC, Indonesia and now India.

Tonight, I’m off to Rishikesh. My stay will be brief but I’m looking forward to seeing a new place and a bit cooler weather.

“Perhaps it’s true that things can change in one day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like salvaged remains of a burned house–the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture–must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.” – Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

[Photos: Delhi life for now//Grace Farson]

The damage

Thinking of:

+ Textures like these

+This image:

“We were knee-deep in packing paper when the cherub’s head fell off. The day before we’d driven nine hours. We’d only spoken through three. Now we were in the home we had to make. Thank God, he said. That hideous thing. I know it’s hideous, I said, but I loved it. I did.” – Emma Bolden

+ This song on repeat

+ Plans// and learning to let go of other plans

+ Aching

+ How a year moves//changes but the same dull thoughts still occupy much time

+ A reunion with my beloved might be sooner than expected

[Photos: Texture found on Java//Grace Farson]

Warmer days

Warmer days are coming. . .

“Always there comes an hour when one is weary of one’s work and devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.” – Albert Camus

[Photos: Parangtritis Beach, Indonesia. Summer 2012//Grace Farson]