(via catchingskies)
1 week ago - 
4
4
I’ve set aside my sisters for my mom. One very selfish brat, am I?
Taken on the way back from Yogyakarta, May 13th, 2012
I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go, ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on.
Henry Rollins (via saras-vati)
(Source: thesetrialsandtribulations, via eldeis)
The Birds are In
1 month ago - 1
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And so the trip begin. (late post)
There’s this beautiful, very beautiful (yeah, this is a tropical child speaking, she finds snow fascinating) unlimited white lands, waiting to be photographed. But the dirt spots on the window rather dampened the photographing mood. I took some pictures, but they weren’t really something to be proud of.
That was one hell of a snowstorm out there. It was white and black as far as you can see (snow, snow upon land, trees and houses partially covered by snow, more snow). I took a video, but it’s on my phone and I cannot transfer it without the usb cable (which I’d accidentally send home via cargo).
The trip’s notes from that time are these (in Indonesian to preserve the originality)
- 11.50 AM. Snowstorm itu.. gila juga ya.
- 12.10 PM. Kalo diturutin makan lontong buatan mba sul…. Bisa langsung gue abisin semuanya!! Maka itu.. kita makan dulu roti alot ala Silpo ini.
- Some time after 12.20 PM. Boredom sets in. Kaca jendelanya agak2 kotor dgn noda2 nggak jelas di bag luar sono. Agak2 nggak sedap dipandang dan mengurangi semangat ngambil foto. Padahal di luar itu putiiiiiih… cakeeeeeep… (anak gunung dari daerah tropis neh) Not sure at what time I fell asleep.
- 3.30 PM. Hueh? Baru 3.30? Perasaan udah lama gw tidur.
- 04.32 PM Now that I’m bored and have basically nothing to do, (well, actually, there are things I could do. Play Sudoku for example, or photo editing, but I didn’t really feel like doing it; therefore, that clause back there should’ve been ‘basically nothing I want to do’) I began pondering, what the heck it was that make me go through with this crazy trip. Well, to be honest, yeah, it is crazy. I mean, who the hell travelled in winter? Europe in winter? 2 out of three people advised me not to go through it. Or at least, take a damn plane instead of train. Even now I only have the first leg (Kyiv – Bratislava) ticket. Not the second, nor third, nor fourth. Wait, no. I haven’t even decide the third and fourth leg! «suddenly hungry» OK, contemplation later. Now, lontong ala Mbak Sul.
- (dark, forgot the time) Must have fallen asleep again.
- 11.30 PM nothing worth seeing out there. Kuch Kuch Hoota Hai rerun.
Okay, so the point being. Once the sun sets, not much too see, I’m getting bored. This goes on and on and on until… the next part: ____
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.
Rosemary Urquico (via blitzkreigkate)
