What am I doing?

I had a chat with one of my intern bosses this morning and it got me thinking. Why don't I know what I am trying to do with my life. I like to make lifestyle photo essays. I will spend the rest of the day sorting through the Eurotrip photographs and make some essays of them.

I thought of an idea of doing photo profiles of local stores. Very raw candid shots of the store front, interior, employees and possibly some customers. I have to figure out where I can post these so that people can see them.

What are my skills? What do my skills translate into? How can I live a life doing what I love?
I need to talk over all of these points with someone.

I am also going to make a book out of the "Ordinary Beauty of Africa" show. Kim might be writing the forward. I have to talk to her about that again.

First Solo Photo Show

Last week I closed my first solo photography show in Harlem with great feedback and a bunch of sales. The exhibit was called "Ordinary Beauty of Africa" and it opened in April at Colgate University in the ALANA Cultural Center where it stayed for two months to close as a part of the 25th Anniversary of the Alumni of Color during Reunion Weekend. The next weekend it was installed in a garden apartment in Harlem for a two day show. "Ordinary Beauty of Africa" is an exhibit comprised of photographs of various countries in Africa that express ordinariness. I took these photographs during three separate trips to the continent. During the summers of 2005, 2007 and 2010 I was the staff photographer for a non-profit organization called Three Female Ballers (F3B) that takes African American high school girls to Africa for a cultural exchange facilitated through a basketball camp. I have had the opportunity to travel to Niger, Morocco, Benin, Liberia, Ghana, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. I sorted through photographs from all of these countries to find images that conveyed my message. The show had 12 11x14 photos, 4 5x7 photos, and 4 20x30 photos.

At each reception (there were four) I gave a little speech about how I got to take the photos, how I took the photos, and what I was trying to convey by putting them all together? The photos are the first 21 photos on my website at the moment. http://flavors.me/kaliflower

So I am looking at the title of this blog and thinking not so true anymore. I am more of a woman than a girl at this point. I am no longer a student, but still might go back to school. I will always be an artist and daughter but I feel like I should also factor in struggling to find a job, moocher, and volunteer. I have been applying to jobs everyday, emailing resumes, and follow-ups with of course no response because they don't give responses which is the most irritating thing ever. I feel like I am mooching off my parents, living in their house, eating their food using their cable and wifi to no end. I am also currently volunteer at just about everything. Which is good it keeps me busy. I volunteer at the Princeton Community TV station, West Windsor Arts Center, for Dr. Joy and assorted of things when needed. I think it is helping me figure out some other things I might be interested in. It also allows me to meet new people on a regular basis.

I have started to become fascinated with social media and not just being on it all the time, which I most definitely am but building audiences for people and companies. I have been trying to read up on it so that I can understand more than what I have picked up over the years of being on the internet all the time. I am slowly starting to apply for social media positions thinking that this may be a good line of business for me. Right now I have found myself doing social media for a bunch of people, and I like it.

Unexpected Travel Problems

I have only really run into travel problems once before on this trip and that were not my fault at all, however, this time it was all me.

The first time was when I was making my way from Brussels to Barcelona and got stuck in Paris for two days. Not the most fun I've had all trip.

This time I had booked a ferry and three trains to get me from Dublin to Oxford (at both places I'm staying with someone I know, which helps). I need to preface this with saying that I am not the best with time management and the fact that this is the first (and last) incident like this is awesome for me. Prior to going to the port to catch the ferry I was watching a movie and doing laundry. I was not quite thinking about the amount of time needed to do those, get to the ferry and board it. First problem was my clothes would not dry. SO instead of taking 30minutes they took an hour and a half. Which means I didn't leave the apt until about 1350 to attempt to catch a cab in the snow for a 1430 ferry. The first 5 empty cabs I saw weren't picking up. I finally got a cab with about 15 minutes to get to the port. At that point I should have given up. But, no. I spent about 20euros to go all the way to the port to find out that I was right, there was no way I was going to make it there on time. Once at the port I realized that not only was the next ferry wasn't until 2040 and that once I got to the UK I wouldn't be able to Oxford because my trains would not be running. Changing the ferry ticket to the next day was no problem. The friend I was staying with had no problem with me staying for the extra day.

The train tickets however, were not as easy to change. First I had to refund them, which is not an easy process, considering I still have to print the tickets at the station and staple them to a form and send them to some company so they can approve it and then refund me. So then I went to book the new tickets and for some reason forgot to change the date and ended up buying the same tickets again. But I didn't notice in time to cancel it before they went through so I have to do that refund process times two. I finally found the right tickets and bought them for about half the price.

I decided since I was already online I would go ahead and book my plane tickets from London to Germany. First I was attempting to go to Munich for the day, but it proved to be too expensive, time consuming and annoying. So I found myself a ticket for Frankfurt for the day before I get on the plane home. I was being careful to pay attention to which airport in London the flight flew out of. And found myself an amazing deal. Even after adding baggage it was less than half the price to fly to Munich and really cheap compared to some flights the same day. I booked the flight. Sounds good right? Well it wasn't until after I was done paying that I realized that I had made the second booking mistake of the day. This time, I had booked a flight to the wrong airport, instead of Frankfurt I am flying to some smaller airport about an hour and a half away. I didn't book on Ryanair but the flight is Ryanair, which I guess means that I am not allowed to cancel with calling 4 different numbers and emailing 2 different people. Luckily I gave myself enough time to take a bus from the wrong airport to the right one.

There are a couple more things that I need to straighten out and book before I am done with this trip but I decided that I will do no more traveling arrangements today.

More than Halfway Through

So the idea was to write on this blog often, at least once in each country. But it turns out that I have been busy exploring and hanging out with new people to write, and when I do have time I have forgotten to write here. I have however, been writing. I have been keeping a journal of my thoughts and my activities, of course that is not so easily translated to this virtual page but I have some ideas of how to share that in the future (projects for back in the States).

I have less than a month left on this awesome adventure. I am currently in Paris. Today is my last day and I have spent the last week walking around, seeing the sites and going to museums, flea markets and photo fairs with my mom. Originally my best friend Kim was going to come meet me in Paris. I have been here before and I was looking forward to showing her around and having a little bit of home with me here. She discovered that she would not be able to join me. So I asked my mom if she would come join me and she said yes.

I have traveled with my mom before. When I was a Sophomore in Highschool my mom and I joined my dad on a business trip to Munich, Germany and from there we took an overnight train to Rome. We meet some other travelers and saw all the sites. We even took a train to a small town where my mom's grandfather was born and grew up. It was an amazing trip. This time, instead of me helping mom on her journey, she helped me on mine.

I came to Paris to see the Paris Photo Fair, its an international(mostly Central Europe) fair of galleries and photographers. There were so many photographs, inspiring me to try new things, and I was able to listen and learn about photographers and photographic processes.

Ok, but that's enough about Paris and my mom. (haha) I have been to so many places so far.
I started in Frankfurt, Germany staying with the daughter of my dad's German teacher's friend. I liked starting my journey with a person who expected me and showed me around. Then I went to Erlanger/Nuremberg, Germany to visit a good friend from middle school. I hadn't seen this friend in nine years when she moved away. Thanks to Facebook I was able to get in touch with this friend and go visit her. Then I traveled to Berlin, Germany. This was my first stay in a hostel and first city where I did not know anyone. There was definitely a large adjustment period there. But I had a great time, I did a bunch of walking tours where I met so other backpackers. From there I took a train to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Here I did a lot of the same things, took the tours, saw the sites, went to the contemporary and photography museums. On my last day in Amsterdam I met a girl from India that showed me how easy it is to make friends and how to truly enjoy the backpacking experience. I left Amsterdam for Brussels, Belgium where I have to say I had a pretty awful time, the weather was horrid and my hostel was out in the middle of nowhere. I think I was at a part of my trip where I just needed a break. I took one and then continued my journey. What came next was truly an adventure. I had a train to Paris at 8 in the morning and a train from Paris to Barcelona at 830 that same night. I arrived in Paris around 9 am and decided to go to Louvre and hang out in their food court and the park. I did this for about 10 hours, at about 7 pm I arrived back at the train station to find that my train was canceled because of the striking that I had heard about from other travelers. So, I had to wait until 830 the next evening to get a train to Barcelona. At the train station they had a train that I could sleep on for the night. I waited until midnight to be let on that train to sleep and then at 6am the next morning I was promptly kicked off that train. I then sat around the train station for 14 hours until I was finally on board my train to Barcelona. It was all worth it though. Barcelona was beautiful and warm and I had a great time. I spent time on the beach, looking at Gaudi's work, in art museums and hanging out with various groups of people I met. I then went to Madrid, which was not so warm and kind of gray. However, the day after I got to Madrid was MTV's European Music Awards, which meant that there was a free outdoor concert of 30 seconds to Mars, Katy Perry, and Linkin Park with a surprise appearance by Kanye West. It was an amazing concert and great considering it was not planned at all. From Madrid I made my way to Paris where I met up with mom.

Tomorrow morning I will take 3 trains and 1 ferry to Dublin to see another from middle school who is currently living and working there. Then to Oxford to meet up with a girl I met on my plane back from South Africa in August who is studying abroad there from Princeton. Then I will make my way to London. I just couldn't make a trip all the way over here and not go to London, I loved it there so much when I studied abroad. This time I am going to see some other cities (Brighton and Bristol) I make a short stop in Munich to visit a friend from YEP (the exchange program through my dad's office) and then I will be coming back to the states. Just in time for the holidays.

I am working on figuring out what exactly I plan on doing when I get back. I already have a residency to apply for and a photo contest of sorts, as well as planning my first solo show to be exhibited in the Alana Cultural Center at Colgate in the Spring.

Hopefully I will write again before this trip is over. I am trying to organize some photos so I can put them up or at least link them to some place to be seen.

Finally in EUROPE!!!

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. I went to Africa with F3B visiting 3 countries: Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. As a little summary. We stayed in a small town called Naamacha. we lived in their public secondary school which once an awesome experience after I got over the fact that there was no running water and it was unbearably cold. I meet a lot of great girls and hung out with some cool prepubescent boys. Trying to communicate in English and Portuguese with a translation book, a pen, and a sketch pad. I was able to take some really stellar photographs. Many were simply to capture the life and environment of the area. How my surroundings moved me. Some of the photos will be selected for an art show that the director will be putting together, others will be used in a calendar for fund-raising and I am trying to create an exhibit that looks at various aspects of life in the many African countries I have visited. The commonalities and differences between each country and also with America. I am hoping to try to show that work at Colgate University possibly this year if not the following.

After spending 3 weeks in Africa I continued to work my behind off and prepare for the journey of all journeys. My two month backpack through Europe. It has been my dream for awhile to explore Europe. There were only 3 things I truly wanted to do after I graduated: travel, take photos, and read. On this trip I get to do them all together. I have planned my whole adventure myself. What I am taking, where I am going, what I am doing and how it will all get down.

Now that the planning is over the adventure has begun and I am taking it one day at a time. It's moving a little slow right now, but I attribute that to pre-departure stress, travel exhaustion and jet lag. I may have spent my first two days of this journey mostly sleeping not doing enough exploring, but this rest will lead to a most adventurous and energetic exploration in the following days.

I have a couple of tasks on this trip. See as much as possible. Meet as many people as possible. Complete a scavenger hunt for my mother. Create a fashion blog for Randi. The results will hopefully be inspiring photographs, lifelong friends, a kick-a$$ blog, and growth.

As this journey continues I will try to update this blog with stories and possibly some photographs of the amazing things I encounter.

Tschüs

AFRICA!!

so I found out today that I am going to Africa again in August. I'm going to Moambique and South Africa. I'll be gone for about 14days and my only job is to take photographs. F3B has taken me to Africa twice already, visiting: Niger, Morocco, Liberia, Benin, and Ghana. I am excited to bring some more photographs from Africa into my collection, while gaining the experience of yet another place and culture.

SO now the plan is going to Africa in August then back to the states until late September and then start the Eurotrip, trying to explore as long as possible, hopefully with Kim, maybe a little Alex and staying with Molly in Dublin.