I keep forgetting we’re leaving in just over two weeks. But, I have been preparing! Or, shopping anyway. I’m finally taking the plunge and purchasing some legitimate gear, especially since SEA is a trek I’d like to make while I’m still young enough to want to rough it. So, I purchased a 50L pack from Osprey based on a recommendation stating “if you travel by bus, which you probably will, and want to see your luggage again (certainly anyway) you ought to backpack it”. Since regular luggage doesn’t fit overhead (nor in your lap). And besides, I have a few treks I’d like to make that require such gear-EBC anyone? Or other Nepal treks besides base-camp. Not to mention, I really geek out over gear. I always have, even without a trip in the future. When I was a teenager, I wanted to rock climb because I thought the shoes and gear were awesome (regardless of the fact that I didn’t actually know a thing about rock climbing, nor if I even liked it). Wandering REI is a dangerous affair-“ohhh! an ice-pick-I need that right?” No, no I do not. Though, my new backpack does have loops for them, if I do ever decide to summit Mt. McKinley. I need a shopping buddy to keep me in check.
Author Archives: Jessica
T-1 Month.
Apparently, we’re leaving in a month. In two hours, one month from now, we’ll be boarding a red-eye from DC to Accra. It hardly feels like we’re going yet, aside from passports I haven’t thought too much about it, especially since all the details are still very much up in the air.
On another note, I felt pretty “hip” this morning when perusing conde nast traveler online and found this article.
“God has spoken: The future of gastronomy is being cooked up in Peru,” -Chef Ferran Adrià
I feel so lucky to have caught this culinary revolution in it’s relative beginnings-and before major publications wrote it up. And I would love to go back, in a decade or so to see what has changed.
Visa: In Hand.
Yesterday, I got my visa back! So, thank you FedEx for returning it safely. One step closer!
The Geopolitics of Food
I am not a fatalist. Perhaps, I’m naive. I keep up with foreign and domestic politics, generally, but perhaps not enough. From war to natural disaster, we all know that person who insists, the world is at a breaking point. I have faith, that as humans we will continue to innovate new solutions. While humanity has seen the depths of cruelty and disregard we are capable of, I honestly believe in the limitless kindness and ingenuity of human nature. While I think awareness is essential, obsessive focus on negative is of little use, and only results in extreme frustration. I generally stay away from topics such as this, in part because I’m tired of hearing these doom-day cries from people who continue to offer no solutions, as well as arguments for the sake of arguing and hearing oneself speak. And although I can’t pretend I have any real answers, the global politics of food and hunger are of immense interest to me.
Colliding With The Earth 