Tag: identity

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 7

Today’s the last long driving day when we make our way back to Guanacaste, where we’ll spend a couple more days before heading back to Seattle. So this feels like a good enough time as any to post this random frame I took using Christine’s camera on our most epic moving day when we shuttled back and forth between SLU, SODO, West Seattle, and Madrona. This is where we parked our car when we picked up the U-HAUL. I just love how the light leak that came through after accidentally opening up the back a bit too early actually elevates … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 7” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 5

Today I hope to dip into the Carribean for the first time, but here are the last of the captures from the Quepos side of the Pacific. The great thing about this national park is that the forest paths all lead to the beach, so almost everyone on our tour opted to stay there at the end of our walk. We had places to be, so we left with our guide who couldn’t help but point our every mangrove and every fern he saw on our way out. Swipe to see a slo-mo sloth sequence. Pray for my laptop. It’s … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 5” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 4

I’m typing these words under a mosquito net in a cabin by the Caribbean, but we started our day in Cartago, the historical capital. We were there to visit Our Lady of the Angels, also known as La Negrita, the patron saint of Costa Rica, on this day, her feast day, a major national holiday. We knew it was going to be big, but we didn’t realize just how big it would be until we switched on the local news last night and saw a live broadcast of the Basilica’s plaza already full of pilgrims who kept streaming in all … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 4” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 3

I’m posting these pictures from the suburbs of San Jose, but we started this morning walking around with our necks craned trying to spot monkeys, birds, and sloths high up in the coastal jungle canopy. I found the spectacle of it all just as entertaining as the carefully curated experience of manufactured adventure itself. Our guide’s enthusiasm for every species of any kind we encountered — from fluorescent lichen to the national tree of Nicaragua — was infectious. You couldn’t help but get carried away with everyone else. Swipe to the very end to see two very cute subjects of … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 3” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 2

One of the surprisingly (but not too shockingly, for anyone who knows me or my star chart) difficult things for me is to let go of autonomy and self-direction, all the more so halfway across the globe. It’s been years since I had to follow someone else’s schedule and itinerary, so I mentally prepared myself for the self-discipline of letting go, and did everything I could to set myself up for success by asking for what I needed well in advance and packing things that would maximize my comfort. But things happen, as we saw with my Ricoh, so we … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 2” →

by jad

A Place to Linger

I had a conversation with a friend in between taking these photos and chilling on a bench for a popsicle break. We texted back and forth on what it means to be “boxed in” by an interest or a subject or an identity, and how our shared completist urge can get in the way of getting out of comfort zones and trying something new. And it made me think about how we all need containers to make sense of the world, and how “boxes” can be reframed as “neighborhoods,” or places we linger and repeat ourselves and become more and … Continue reading “A Place to Linger” →

by jad

Birthday Breakfast

We’re not quite moved out but we’ve started moving in; the liminal time in between. Empty rooms are beginning to take their form. Boundless time is beginning to clump up and congeal into rhythm and routine. This is our first morning waking up in a new act in this city. This is also the first light of yet another solar return. We’ve made it through. There is symbolism to this space. There’s a moral to our decisiveness and a lesson in our good fortune. It’s too early to find meaning in the day, but I’ll start making some anyway. This … Continue reading “Birthday Breakfast” →

by jad

Remembering Dubai

“No matter how long an expatriate has been in Dubai, even if they are born in Dubai, they are not Dubaian. At some point, they must leave. This process of exclusion leaves these particular expatriates betwixt and between–they are not legally Dubaian and can be deported at any point, nor are they culturally of their countries of passport. For some, this uncertainty is liberating; it certifies them as global citizens. For others, it merely points out the dangerous condition of their liminal state.” (Dubai: Guilded Cage) Going through my old photos in that memory stick I found in Lebanon reminds … Continue reading “Remembering Dubai” →

by jad

Houston: Y’All Come Back Now

There’s a place in the mall where I’m staying (yes, my hotel is in the mall) that’s called the museum of illusions, which sounds a lot like how this part of Houston feels, especially in the early morning fog. I took these after breakfast yesterday. I could have stared at that thing for hours. It’s fascinating how much this part of Houston reminded me of Dubai, even in its muggy evening breeze that indicated to me that there’s a gulf out there somewhere around here. More street scenes from my first Texan morning. The first breakfast wasn’t included in the … Continue reading “Houston: Y’All Come Back Now” →

by jad

First Impressions

It always fascinates me to hear about how I seem to someone else; not in the egotistical way of commanding attention, but rather, like a switch on a circuit that suddenly sparks a very different array of connections than I had before. Like how I might seem detached; or is it unencumbered? Or how I seem reserved; or is it responsive? That sort of “first impression” story has dogged me for as long as I can remember, with different friends having different versions, always to laugh about together years later, but also always a little bit mystifying for me to … Continue reading “First Impressions” →