Nomad•ness Eps. 5 Open Mic

The Pink Cow Shibuya, Tokyo Open Mic This episode is unlike any so far. If you are a fan of my writing, and raw emotion, you will definitely feel the vibe in this video. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

India.

It's no coincidence that I have been back for over a week and still have yet to post a thorough blog about my time in India.
As a writer, India presented a tangible challenge. How does one convey the power of the images, smells, and emotion captured in a place that saturates the senses in all these ways? India led to some of the best photography I have taken, to date, as you can observe throughout this blog. I also have video footage that I will be spending the next few weeks making heads and tails of for upcoming episodes of Nomad•ness. Overwhelmed with wondering how I was to relay the information of this trip, it wasn't until I started giving slide presentations to my schools in Japan, as a final lesson, that I got the energy and insight to push it out. The look on these children's eyes when I show them photos of me covered in the colors of Holi, or riding a camel, or kids their age too poor to go to school. They get it, and for a moment I see their eyes open beyond Japan. I want to influence everyone I meet enough to make them get over the fear, and get on the plane. This was my journey...

India.

The memoir will most definitely retain the details of my travels, but here I offer some photos as navigation through the most uncomfortable, scary, dirty, invigorating, and rewarding experience of my life. I thought living in Japan for a year made me a warrior. Little did I know what India had to offer.
The ten day trek took Melissa, Stephanie, and I through New Delhi, Jaipur, Pushkar, and Agra. We stayed in the North, venturing locally on buses and trains in the uncomfort of stares, being followed, and constant invasion of personal space. The ratio of men to women, outside, is highly uneven and it is not uncommon to find yourself surrounded by gazing men offering you rides, deaf to the word "No."
Northern India is also knows for being cultural, yet extremely poverty plagued. The South is known more so for the cleanliness, tourists, and resorts. Needless to say, I am happy we ventured in the North first.






They live the way they must. It is the begging of the children that tears you to pieces, but there is a silent understanding.

Five of our ten days we spent in Jaipur, celebrating Holi Festival of Colors, becoming masked by vibrant paint powder colors. The Elephant Festival was amazing, even after I drew a crowd of laughing male faces at my attempts to get on top of a horse. Good times.
Holi was one of the best days of my life, and Stephanie's 30th birthday. Mayhem, chaos, alcohol, and all of us in a humvee were the symbols of the day. We started by braving the Jaipur streets with our new friends and 'bodyguard' and we ended it in a private party hosted by Jaipur's elite, inside the garden of an old palace. The day was a real life fairy tale.







We continued through Jaipur onto the Amber Fort where we were surprisingly greeted by a snake charmer. All three of us took the charmer's word for it, stating that the snake wasn't poisonous, and touched the cobra. My brother would have been proud. When in Rome...right? There were elephants, monkeys, pigs, buffalo, and camels everywhere. Over dinner in the desert I had a monkey scare the hell out of me while I was eating outside, only for it to get into a fight with a cat. I cannot make this stuff up.








We intended to spend three days in Agra, but as per everyone's recommendation, it was too long. Agra also proved to be the dirtiest of the places we went so within twenty-four hours we got there and left, walking away from our hotel payments and all. Though the city left much to be desired, it was here I saw my mecca and the reason why I ventured to India in the first place.
Taj Mahal. The most epic representation of love.

We even saw Japanese people there, something that makes me feel very much at home now. How ironic?!








In leaving Agra, we rerouted for the unplanned part of the itinerary, Pushkar aka the desert aka Little Israel. It's a bit of a hippy town packed right in the middle of the desert and steep hills. We spent two days in Pushkar doing cheap shopping, gawking at the fine Israeli that ran the Internet Cafe, fighting off pink lizards and stomach issues, while riding camels for hours. It was here I met my 10 year old camel guide, the most fascinating young man I have met in my life.






Leaving Pushkar, I headed back to Japan to conclude my year long journey there, and my fellow travelers flew to South Africa.
Sugoy! Amazing!
If it seems as though I am recalling events, yet not emotion, it is because I still am. I am still searching for the right words to formulate the right sentences, to spit out all that I have in.
I am forever grateful for India. If for no other reason, I know I can sleep anywhere and find some comfort. If for nothing else, because even at my worst, I have so much more than those in the Northern part of their country. In its ugly, I find such a raw beauty. I look forward to the day I find the words...the memoir is going to be amazing.

Loving my life!

Nomad•ness Ep. 4 Sake Festival

Bottoms up! Nomad•ness 4 takes place at this year's Sake Festival in Niigata, Japan's famous Toki Messe building...Check it out!

STA Travel Around the World Internship 2010

Some of you may (or may not know) I applied for an Around the World Internship for this summer. STA Travel has been doing this for the the last two years and this year I have applied. I just found that I made it to the Top 50 finalists, their first round of cuts. I need votes. The link is here

http://worldtravelerinternship.com/member/evita-robinson/

To put a few things in perspective, this trip would allow me to travel to Peru, Brazil, Australia, Egypt, Thailand, back to Japan, Turkey, and then end with a rail pass in Europe. It is pretty much everything I dreamed of and more!

Please pass it on and I appreciate everyone's help!

PS. India was great and I am editing photos as I type....so many things to share!~

Holi...

I have yet to find the proper words to express this day.
The Holi Festival in Jaipur has been, hands down, one of the best days of my life.
Color filled faces and streets.
Driving all around town in an old military style jeep, with a driver drinking beer, talking on the cell phone, and smoking a cigarette at the same time.
I cried today from being blessed about my life.
The perfect words....still aren't found...but I have hundreds of images. Photography and video that you can only see to believe.
This one photo, as an introduction, I will give to you.

To be continued....

approaching India...

This time last year, I shared some of the same feelings I am experiencing now. Confusion. Anxiety. Apprehension. Excitement. Adventure.

This time around it is a reverse in geography. Then, I was leaving New York to head to Japan. Now, I am leaving Japan, headed to New York, while approaching India first.

Stephanie and Melissa are already on their plane from NYC, headed to Delhi. I will be meeting them, at Nirvana Hostel (check my facebook friends, they are on here) for us women to embark on a journey of self-reflection, revelation, and adventure. I began planning this trip months ago with myself as he only occupant. I am happy to be sharing it with these ambitious ladies.

India is far more than a trip, another installment in Nomad•ness, and another stamp in my passport. India represents a manifestation of a dream.
My top three dream trips are Egypt, India, and Greece. Though I have traveled to many places, these three, I have not.

Two years ago, I remember vividly, laying on my bed in the Bronx, on the phone with my younger sister and talking about going to India. The prospect of travel is something both of us have inherited, much from our father. During this phone call, I could envision seeing the vibrant colors of the cities. I could taste the magnitude of the Taj Mahal.

Sarafina spoke about her interest in visiting the Motherland, South Africa specifically. Both of us took our brains on a wanderlust that night. One phone call.

Two years later...2010.

February 1st my sister departed for South Africa/Namibia and will be there until April 1st.
February 26th I depart Tokyo, Japan for India to conquer three cities in ten days.

As my mother always says, "It's never a matter of 'if'. It's always a matter of when."

spirit...

The best way I can describe how I feel is, raw. I feel emotionally fragile, like a glass vase that needs one more push before shattering all over the place. I have had to begun the process of saying goodbye to my students and my schools and it is tearing me apart.
I don't know how you real teachers do it.

I have had everything from tears to children literally running after my car as I drove out the parking lot. I am not prepared for this. I suck at saying goodbye and to have to do it so many times to so many people who have shaped my life so dramatically over this year, is breaking my heart.

Crying has become a pastime in trying to just deal with it all. I have fallen in love with this place, these people, and this culture. I am not the woman I was when I left New York a year ago and will never be that person again.

My apartment is adorned with roses given from the school I had for the last time on Friday, handmade calendars, and posters from the children. My body has felt everything from depression, to anxiety, to love in its purest form. Dare I say I might even have found religion. I wonder if standing in front of a shrine in the darkness of night, crying, thanking the Gods for the course my life has taken automatically means I am now Buddhist.The world knows I have always had spirit.