cavaan

i was going to let the last year pass unannounced, but the 'camera roll' on my iphone had these to share! so here is a collection of 2011 through a device i mostly use to check the weather. especially of places i don't even share the same hemisphere with. unfortunately it only starts in june because i had no (functioning) phone before that...

london

come on, you can't love london walking around the way i did. some dude yelled KONICHIWA to my face the first five minutes i set foot in the city. it made me realise, no matter where i am, i will get race related remarks, (maybe except for taiwan). by all means this stranger could have been whole heartedly welcoming me, like the way people in china yell out, 'HELLO HELLO' when they want a tourist to buy child laboured clothing off their temporary-set-up-store in the market; or when they see a non-asian in general.

tate modern, london

i visited the tate modern every day in london. the rest of my time was spent eating bagels and being snobbed off. oh london. the friendliest person was some boy working at urban outfitters, and he was only lovely because it's under the basic moral rules of customer service. just kidding, he was probably that nice without his name tag too.

alexanderplatz, berlin

people i met in berlin during a simple overnight stay:

a man (who was driving taxis in thailand when he met his german ex wife and moved to berlin, he now runs a really delicious thai restaurant) and cried when he told me about how he built the restaurant with his bare hands and how sad he was about the breakdown of his marriage and how he's going to close the restaurant early so he can take me for a drink. i told him i had friends. who i needed to meet. urgently. so we can all go feed our cats.
a mexican girl who originally wanted to show me around but that plan kind of went astray when she lost her digital camera with all her 2 months worth of berlin photos within 30 minutes of hanging out and i am instead lead for a whole day on bike around every possible place she has been in the past 60 days taking photos of her.
three australians who took the mexican girl's wallet and passport. i was not one of them and it took us a few hours to get it back again.
an (omg so beautiful) palestinian boy from jordan who probably gave me lung cancer from second hand smoking within a close proximity.

basically i made no friends in berlin, but i want to live there. differences unite people, you know.

airport, berlin

the sunrise before my flight to... i don't actually remember. but i stayed up that night so i could save accommodation costs, i didn't really save any money and never want to do that again, (it's only 15 euros for a super clean and comfortable hostel but i spent way more euros eating food to stay awake). i actually wanted to die by 2am. but i spoke german when i bought orange juice there and was very proud of myself for a good few weeks.

view of stockholm from norwegian air, they have wifi on their planes!

prague

prague was magnificent! it was almost as a couple city as paris. i kind of just took pictures for a lot of lovers and visited the exterior of churches as entry fees were now slashed from the travel budget.

prague why are your streets so preeeeeety!

arriving in venice, veneto

st marks square, venice

green somewhere, veneto

asiago, veneto

vicenza, veneto

sunrise in florence, tuscany

walking back to the city from a camp i stayed at overnight in outer florence. i missed the bus to my accommodation, and spent the night before in a tent with two sydneysiders i met on the street at around 10pm. they were lovely and i feel bad i don't even remember their names.

magical forest in brittany, france

the morning i was to leave in bourbriac, brittany.

valencia, spain

i met some strange but nonetheless wonderfully kind people in spain. one person a friend and i stayed with in madrid had five pots of... *ahem* plants growing on his balcony and a room mate with a cat who looked like victoria beckham.

view of valencia, spain

inside st peter's basilica, vatican city

flying over uae!

best pot of chai, melbourne.

suburbia after rain, melbourne

emma playing the piano. she serenades me with SHINee covers.

back of my door with postcards and collectables from other's travels.

waking up early, gansu

over the past years i stopped making 'promises' unless i knew they would be done in the next few minutes. but one person i always promised to was my grandmother, and that one promise was to call her once a month, for five minutes.

i saw her last year in november, she told me again, 'i just want to know you are okay, just call me once a month and let me know how you are, so i know your healthy, safe.' this year i called her in january to say happy new year, i called her in mid february to tell her i have safely arrived home and will be starting school soon. the next time i called her was in june, i was about to leave for europe and i thought, i should call. i didn't tell her i was going to europe, just that school had been really busy. she started the conversation with 'i haven't heard from you in so long, have you been okay?' and it ended with 'please call again soon'.

i wanted to call her in july, august, september, october... but i didn't. was i busy? definitely not to make a five minute phone call. but when you're so caught up in every day things you always think 'i'll call tomorrow, she won't mind'.

november came and i thought, alright, time to call. i finished all my uni classes, had a summer job lined up, and that's something to talk about. my grandfather picked up as usual, and we asked about how each other were before i asked to speak to my grandmother.

'she's sleeping'

'this early?'

'she's been sleeping for the whole day'

'is aunty there? i can call her mobile and that way grandma won't need to get out of bed'

sure, i straight away suspected her health might have declined, and began to regret not calling earlier. but i thought, if she can't move i will move the phone to her.

'she won't be able to hear you'

'okay, i'll call back tomorrow when she's awake then'

'she might not be able to hear you tomorrow either, you should maybe call back in a week...'

'...what's wrong?'

my grandfather clearly wasn't going to let me worry, so i asked him to pass the phone to someone else.

by the end of the week i made my way to my grandparent's house, 10,000 km away.

she was gaunt, a skeleton with skin, the quilt on her was too heavy for her figure. she couldn't see, but her pupils reacted to light. she couldn't speak, but she moved her tongue sometimes. i wanted to talk to her because that was all she could do, hear. but for the first two days every time i was in her presence i couldn't say more than a few words, i just cried.

my cousin told me it was probably the last time i would ever see her again, but other people said a person could live for a few years in her current state. towards the end of my week long stay i saw she was getting better, her face wasn't so gaunt. i left telling her i'll see her again soon, i told her i was healthy, i told her i was safe.

a month later i received an one lined email from my cousin. grandma passed away.

*deep breaths*

my grandfather reading an old piece of newspaper.

i went for many walks in between staying by my grandmother's bedside. this is the newly renovated mosque down the road from my grandparent's house.

transit in shanghai, i made everyone boarding the same flight to stand behind me so i could take this photo. just kidding.

sofia came to visit me in december just as i had visited her in stockholm past june. she spent majority of her time feeding kangaroos and going 'nawwwwwww' at the koalas.