#VACAGABOND

NORWAY



The idea of a Scandinavian Vacagabond came by a few sources of inspiration:

1. MY ANCESTORS migrated from Norway + Sweden, allowing to always feel connected to the place of Vikings, Landscape, and Nordic Mists. I did extensive resarch in the 7th grade and found that many of my relatives also feel this connection. This led me to #2
2. SCANDINAVIAN ARCHITECTURE was the name of a course in my master's program which I learned about how this place can be relative to my chosen profession. This led me to the discovery of #3
3. A TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP was offered by the University of Utah as a sketching fellowship to learn and tour an area of interest. My failure to have ONE fluent concept (oh, decisions) did not land me this opportunity, HOWEVER this leads to reason #4
4. PHILIP GEORGE, my husband, had started a fund for us to fulfill this dream of traveling to the motherland, which made this trip somewhat financially viable.

We battled everyone we encountered with their American ideals of maximum two week vacation, and raised them a third week. This, not being quite enough time to have experiential sublime at each place, would still allow us time to see four of the Nordic nations and their natural and manmade built environments. We settled on 19 July through 10 August as the trip of our lifetime. As you will see in the following posts, I'm not sure we will get another more opulent.

ELATION

I just spent a good couple hours in the woods today. I walked out of my front door with a 3' pair of branch clippers and a camera. I was so brimming with appreciation for nature I thought myself silly and laughed aloud. It echoed through the trees, but the sound, felt as a secret. My smiling meant nothing to the trees or the meek grass I crumbled beneath me.

I walked inside, and glanced over while passing a mirror. I was beaming. My lips moist, nose blushing, and eyes alive. My features were softened, blemishes stricken clean. My skin was radiant and unveiling. I felt 12 years old again. I could see my youth in the reflection and remembered that I was beautiful. I did not feel vain. I felt as I would 10 years ago: confident, ignorant, exuberant! All that I knew became a cipher and could not dim my perspective of the peace I gained.

Music:
Bon Iver-SkinnyLove
Incubus-Aqueous Transmission