Indian Holidays

Since this week's posts seem to be themed around celebrating the holidays abroad, I wanted to pass along this video and link by several former classmates of mine who are currently in Auroville, India for a month. Several years ago the American University of Paris started a sustainable development practicum there where students work directly with NGOs in the area. It's always interesting to see the projects that evolve in such a short time, and I'm still envious that I never had a chance to participate myself. Vicariously works too though.


Watch video by Puxan and read the course blog for more!

UPDATE: The day I posted this piece, I later found out a major cyclone hit the area. Thankfully, everyone in the program is ok.

{Top image by André Lavergne. Read his post on the visual culture of India}.

An {almost} French Christmas

By far the best thing about being abroad over the holidays is being adopted. I was lucky enough to be invited to join my friends Catherine and Caroline's to join their family for Christmas in Picardie, less than an hour north of Paris. The second best thing was that it was all a fairly last minute plan. I was told which train station to get off of at, but other than that I didn't really know where I was going. I always have thought experience gifts were the best, and I got just that.
{Santa is magic. He can find you anywhere in the world!}

The reality of living in Paris means that often I visit friends elsewhere in the world and they have bathrooms bigger than my apartment, so to be in a whole house and in the countryside with an amazing backyard was just heavenly. I arrived just before lunch, and given a quick tour before making it to the living room for what would be the first of many rounds of champagne that weekend. Their father and I had an early exchange about how the French don't drink much water, and he argued that wine is mostly water. Later Caroline told me how they don't drink water. I of course took this as a "I know, all you drink is wine," but in fact, where they live is a very agricultural area, so the water isn't safe to drink. Glad to have clarified that early.
{An American style Christmas dinner.}

{The cheese course made every meal more French}

What was to follow was more eating, drinking and general merriment. I was warned early that what I was experiencing was not a typical French Christmas, but rather one infused by many American habits thanks to their American mother. During lunch I learned about "le syndrome français" when no one wants to be the person to eat the last bite on a plate (in reference to the sole piece of delicious fois gras). This was a reoccurring theme through each meal, in part excused by the fact that there were multiple courses, and so one had to leave room for the next. At the same time, if you every find yourself visiting a French family, if you can be that person who goes in for that last slice, or another glass of champagne, you will quickly win everyone over.
{le syndrome français}

Last year I was in Paris with a American friend in town, and while there was plenty of wine and cheese involved, but I wouldn't call it a French Christmas at all. Part of the irony of this year's first "Christmas in France" is that it was the French who were introducing me to a bit of America. I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that I was watching White Christmas for the first time this year, as instigated by the annual tradition of the French father. Then we later went on to watch Woody Allen's Whatever Works and then a couple episodes of the freshly opened Mad Men Season 4. The good news is that the later two were viewed with French subtitles on, so it was still an educational experience. In fact, it was fun to discuss the films en français afterwards.

{Recipe for a great holiday: family and food.}

The amazing thing was that even being far from home, I felt at home. Heck, even Santa found me! Still, at the end of the day, it's the memories that will stay with me longest. (I made the family an Oh Happy Day! inspired photobooth/shoot which led to many laughs). While I knew I was going for Christmas, I didn't think I realized how much I was going to get out of the weekend. Conversations continued, ideas and inspiration flowed, and I think we're all ready to dive into 2012 refreshed and ready to go.Mille mercis to my real + adoptive families around the world!

From Paris to Picardie

One of the best – yet easiest to forget – things about living in Paris is that you don't have to go very far to leave it. Dealing with French bureaucracy kept me France-bound for the holidays, but I was lucky enough to be adopted by two wonderful French friends, Catherine and Caroline and invited to their family home in Picardie (about a 40 minute train ride from Paris). Little did I know what a treat it would be (more on that tomorrow), and how nice it was to spend time with a family, have more space and get out of the city. For now, here's a look at our stroll through Senlis, where we did final shopping on Christmas eve.

When Books Come Alive: Shakespeare & Company

The making of. Watch the full video below.

Over a week now since the passing of George Whitman, the long time owner of Shakespeare & Company. It's one of those Paris institutions that many visitors make a point of seeing, and locals enjoy frequenting, with its floor to ceiling books, literary events, and walls covered in prose. As Whitman's legacy will always live on, it only seemed appropriate to share this Spike Jonze’s tragicomic stop-motion animation Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side), where books really do come to life. Jonze teamed up with designer Olympia Le-Tan known for embroidered handbags, for a handmade creation in a world dominated by digital. You can read more about their inspiration and collaboration here.




{Thanks for the tip, Monika!}

Fortnighter: Custom Travel Guides

There are so many travel guides out in the world, that at some point they all start to feel the same, and then quickly feel outdated. The Fortnighter guides are a new breed of travel guide which infuses local expertise into creating the perfect itinerary catered to your goals for your trip (areas you want to visit, style of restaurant you prefer, insider tips based on your preferences). Created and founded by Alexander Basek (contributor for Travel + Leisure, The New York Post, Fodor's and more), Colin Nagy (Barbarian Group) and Noah Brier (entrepreneur and co-founder of Percolate) their goal is to pull in professional writers who know the ins and outs of cities around the world to create custom guides for savy travelers. They then call on these local experts to pull together a unique itinerary for your upcoming trip, turned around in 7 days.
While the guides run more than your typical travel guide–at $100-200 depending on the length of your stay–they are a completely personalized guide, based on a series of questions and prompts you answer while placing your order. For anyone who thinks this is steep, trust me, as some one who just wrote/contributed to my first Fortnighter guide, it's worth every penny! Everyone who is writing, knows the latest of what's happening, special events or warnings about closures for holidays during your stay. You definitely get the inside scoop, and it's all in one place, in a easy to follow fashion. Definitely makes for a great gift too!

Boarding Pass – Jeralyn Gerba of Fathom

If you haven't heard of FATHOM, it's a great travel site that launched last spring. The site immediately attracted my attention with a great sense of design, and all of their content is created to bring global-minded travelers together through shared travel experiences. So I'm excited to welcome co-creator and editorial director, Jeralyn Gerba to Boarding Pass to get a closer look into her own style of travel. Thanks, Jeralyn!
last trip taken:
A southern road trip from New Orleans through Mississippi, over to Memphis with a finale in Nashville.
NOLA arts district

next trip on deck:
Beijing and Hong Kong.

Redwood Forest, Avenue of Giants

one place you would go back to again and again:
Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible. The drive is incredible - seaside cliffs, Big Sur sunrises, cathedral-like Redwood forests. I am also partial to the bungalow my parents have on an inlet in Southampton, NY. At the height of summer, the sky is an intergalactic pink.
Southhampton in the summer.

View from my parent's house.

place you'd most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Edinburgh is beautiful and accessible and has a little something for everyone: history, royalty, romance, whisky, wee brogues.
Swinging over the Alps.

Hike in the Swiss Alps.

preferred method of transportation:
I’m pretty sure I’d prefer a speed boat or a luxury train if I ever had the chance to travel that way.
Levinsky market, Tel Aviv

place you've never been but dying to go:
Tokyo and the thermal ryokans of Japan. French Polynesia. The Himalayas.
Teufelsberg, Berlin

place you'd never go back:
I once took a cruise to nowhere -- which about sums up the trip.
Redwoods.

most memorable trip in 2 sentences or less:
A very intense few weeks in South Africa. I hiked to hidden caves with ancient paintings and visited the Soweto township with a poet laureate who sang apartheid songs and made everyone weep -- for days.
Bavaria

how do you prepare for a trip?
I get a little bit of a rush staying up the night before a flight, cleaning my apartment and clearing all the mail out of my inbox.
Diner en Blanc, NYC

how do you record your travels when you're traveling?
An old-fashioned notebook and pen; a new fashioned audio recording iPhone app; a digital camera or two; lots of colored pencils.
Montmartre, Paris.

what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
Whatever’s being sold on the street.
Tel Aviv market.

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
Lots, but when I am really having fun I often forget about the camera.
Hiking in the Berkshires.

what's in your "designer travel kit" ?
I try to travel light, but I never leave home without A Peace Treaty scarf, my Canon G12 (it’s idiot proof), a mini flashlight, John Derian notebook, deck of cards, Soak no rinse laundry wash, Japanese candy, and Sachajuan sea salt spray.
Louisiana bayou.

what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I am always traveling with a story in mind. Since the launch of our site, I’ve been writing tons of mini guides, essays, and travel anecdotes for FATHOM.
Traunstein at Easter.

favorite souvenir/thing to bring back?
A list of to-dos for the next trip back.
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

links:

• FATHOM
• Huffington Post writings
• andthatmeanswhat.wordpress.com
• twitter: @jgerba

Boarding Pass is a weekly column looking at the creative ways people travel.

Way to Work: Distributed Companies

Earlier this week I posted on my Facebook page a status that said: "Not sure why companies encourage people to sit at a desk all day. My best ideas/clarity come from swimming laps and strolling streets." I was shocked how much positive reaction it got. To me it seems common sense, but at my old job even when I went to the gym for lunch, I remember feeling the sense of guilt when I wasn't at my desk (despite the great dose of sanity it gave me each day to get away). But why? These days I still waiver back and forth between the benefits of "real jobs" (salary/stability) and the freelance piecemeal life I lead. But Sara Rosso's talk at Le Web last week seemed to be a perfect solution. She works for Automattic (WordPress.com) which is a completely distributed company, where their employees are located all over the world (she's in Milan), and they don't even have any offices. Her 5 minute Ignite talk—a fantastic format for giving presentations—does a great job of talking about how distributed companies are the way of the future.

One of my favorite projects I'm working on that is set to launch in the next couple months is completely distributed. It's pretty amazing to be able to pull together a project linked between San Francisco, DC and Paris. Can't wait to tell you about it when it launches!

By the way, you can find Sara on BOARDING PASS too!

Respirer = the Breathe

One of the French habits I've picked up is letting my apartment "breathe." The summer I worked as a nanny, every day we'd open the windows of the house in order to air it out. It turns out that most French people keep this habit year round, even when it's chilly out. I think living in 12m2 has forced me to adopt the habit naturally.
This is what my dossier of French paperwork is currently looking like, so remembering to breathe these days is more important than ever.

Oh, and if anyone hears of any small, affordable apartments in Paris, please let me know! I'm on the hunt for that too!

Six Word Story Every Day

These days you hear about 140 character tweets being the new haiku. Designer Anne Ulku and writer Van Horgen had their own idea in 2010 about condensed storytelling, introducing the project Six Word Story Every Day (aka SWSED) where one writes and the other designs. I love too how it has morphed from a project between the two of them, and expanded to a larger project with creative contributors from all over. I called on Anne Ulku to learn more about SWSED and how it came to be, so in her own words—and curated favorites—take it away, Anne!
07.26.11
One bowl of spaghetti. Two forks.
Writer/Designer: Lisa Currie
A side message from the author and designer really made me love this story even more. The story is inspired by some of her travel memories, which some of her best involved sharing a meal with a new friend.


Six Word Story Every Day began just before 2010. Van and I met years before that working in an ad agency. The inspiration for the project began with a tweet I sent out Nov 2009 after just discovering "the shortest story ever written" (Ernest Hemingway's 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.') - in which Van caught attention to and we discussed some ideas. As a copywriter, Van always wanted to find an outlet to explore and write more. As a designer, I was eager to work on more experimental, personal and collaborative creative projects. We both came up with the idea of creating a six word story and design every day for an entire year. That began our year-long phase one of the project. Phase two began a year later with the intention of bringing in and showcasing talented and inspiring peers; encouraging and challenging the art of short-storytelling, language, typography, design and experimentation. It had been an enjoyable process and exercise for the both of us, and we knew others would also agree.

04.15.11
He leapt, fell, but never landed.
Writer/Designer: Evan Stremke
I love the type in this story, where the form almost creates a grid of ladders. I still wonder why and how he never landed.

I am still in awe at how many amazing creatives we've had contribute their stories. And so happy the project received such a positive reaction from the public. It has been so inspiring. We are not going to continue posting daily updates on the site, but will still keep the archive up online. Van and I are working on setting up a way to sell some of our own SWSED prints (from 2010). Still working out details though!

05.03.11
In a cabin in the woods.
Writer/Designer: Nathan Anderson
At first this story is sweet and lovable, but then it's a bit dark and haunting. Who knows what happens in that cabin in the woods.


The things I look for in a successful six word story design is both a combination of a compelling story and a beautiful design. A story does well when it's written from a universal experience, something anyone can relate to emotionally (love, hate, sadness, joy, etc). Even using only six words, a story should have a beginning, middle and an end. But not all details should be revealed. Creating conflict or tension should leave the reader asking questions and interpreting the story with their imagination.
10.05.11
Noisy yes!, yet crazy and magnificent.
Writer/Designer: Craig Wills
I get a sense of what this story might mean by just looking at it, but I still wonder to this day, just what IS so crazy, magnificent and noisy?


As with design, the art should be universal enough to allow readers to get a sense of emotion the story is revealing, but not narrow in on a subject. Since the words were required to be included in the design, I found that expressive typography and lettering that fit the story to be quite successful. These are some of my [Anne Ulku] favorites—or at least some that make me think twice as long as the others.

04.05.11
Broken words for the broken souls.
Writer/Designer: Adrián Pérez
The lettering in this design reveals such a raw emotion that even if it's tricky to read, you can still get a sense of something that has been broken.

04.04.11
Her friends forgot their drunken promises.
Writer: Dylan Sneed, Designer: Jeff Rogers
I am such a fan of this beautiful hand lettering and I am sure the story brings back memories of those promises once sworn over too many drinks.

05.11.11
A whole lot of nothing said.
Writer: Katelyn Regenscheid, Designers: Peter Smith and Karl Frankowski
I love how this story and visual can easily be interpreted about media and television. Those fuzzy, rambling conversations without purpose or direction . But the story is also quiet, with literally nothing to be said.

09.11.11
All eyes glued to a screen.
Writer/Designer: Noah Batterson
By chance, this story just happened to be posted on 9-11, and was incredibly appropriate.

03.14.11
One for all. All for one.
Writer/Designer: Erik Brandt
An incredible story and design that was submitted in recognition and awareness of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

11.14.11
She liked to watch him struggle.
Writer: Betsy Collins
Designer: Sergio Monterrubio
I'd like to laugh at this, or feel bad, but it also could be a bit sinister and dark.


Thanks to Anne Ulku for the added insight into this fabulous project and for curating her favorites! Don't miss a "sneak peek" into her home/studio!