See gressa grow
mostly a travel Blog
But also whatever I feel like writing about.
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Rereading The Gretchen Tragedy: A Post-Modern Feminist Analysis of Faust
Hi! I wanted to share this very nerdy literary podcast I collaborated on with my classmate Magda for our final project in our Victorian literature class. In a less MLA-formatted summary: men in the nineteenth century were on a power trip (what’s changed), women suffered under male fantasy (what’s changed), and Tom Hansen from 500…
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Meandering Rivers and a Glitch in the Matrix
You know those moments when a topic from one part of your life suddenly shows up in a totally unrelated part? Like when a weirdly specific subject you just talked about at lunch randomly appears again at work the next morning, or pops up with a completely different group of people later that week and…
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Hurricane Helene
The first thing I noticed when I stepped outside on the day after was the American flag torn to shreds. The cushions I had left in a neat pile the night before were soaked and scattered across the porch. The second thing I noticed was that I was blocked in by a massive tree across…
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My Parents Hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc, Part Two
My parent’s trip began the way most stories worth telling do—with a few hiccups. The plan was to take a bus from Geneva to Les Contamines, spend the night at their friend’s chalet, and then head to Les Houches the next day to stay in a cozy hotel right at the start of the trail.…
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My Parents Hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc, Part One
It was 9:30am by the time I was flying over the Aegean sea on my way to Chamonix, France, to reunite with my parents for a weekend. The weekend, or so I was told, was to consist of hot tub soaking, some light exploring, and a lot of catching up over drinks and cards. I…
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Pivoting on Filopappou Hill
Although a jog through Filopappou Hill had become an evening ritual of mine, this was the first time that I heard traditional Greek music carried on the wind from The Dora Stratou Dance Theatre. I pivoted, cutting off my last mile, and slowly jogged in the direction of the music.
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Narcotizing Dysfunction in Mass Media: Exploring a Political World in Mass Connection
Does mass media serve as a social narcotic, producing a generation of mass apathy, as presented by Lazarsfeld and Merton (1948)? Or is it a tool that can be used to help organize social action and rise against oppressive governments and regimes? Moreover, if both are true, can citizens harness the benefits of social media…
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Decolonizing Narratives: exploring The urge to Control in white feminism
I found myself, one late night in February, in Exarchia, the edgy anarchist neighborhood of Athens, buried in a one-sided conversation with a tipsy film director. He said he was living in Berlin, although his ponytail and parachute pants said that for him.
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Are you Feeling a Ton of Pressure to Figure your $#% out? Maybe it would help to remember that we are floating on a rock in the middle of nowhere, and literally nobody knows why
I, for one, am under a significant amount of pressure to figure my sh*t out. When I first started this blog, I was 22 years old, on the verge of great adventure, and with the majority of my 20s ahead of me. I remember that rush of freedom that came with a one-way ticket and…
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10 Tips to Stay Safe (and still be a baddie) as a Solo Female Traveler
The next morning, I found myself standing in bewilderment at the Mariscal Sucre Quito International Airport at some ungodly hour, the result of an ill-thought-out flight, without any knowledge of Spanish, no one I recognized from my flight, and no Wi-Fi connection. I had never been so alone in my whole life. I had never felt…
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The 10 Do’s and Don’ts of Workaway
From Workwayer to Workawayer: tips on how to protect yourself and stay safe at a Workaway… This could of course also be Woofing, HelpX, or any kind of work in the trade of food and or shelter that is so popular in the backpacker community.
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An Unexpected Lesson in Birding, and other Pandemic Hobbies.
An audio entry. On May 1st, 2021, I sat down on a rainy evening in Oaxaca, Mexico with landscape architect, nature enthusiast, and birder Iris Van Diel. At the time I was interviewing her for an article I had been tasked to write during my journalism internship at Envia; an organization that provides interest free…
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A Peek into the Creative Lives of the Indigenous Women of Oaxaca, Mexico
The Oaxacan sun is already peaking when our small group of Fundación En Vía volunteers and employees pile into the tour van at 9am. We are the pilot tour; a group consisting of a translator, two photo journalists, a prospective En Vía tour guide, the new tourism coordinator, and me, a communications and journalism intern.…
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The Philosophy of Pura Vida; A Tribute to my Last Month in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
The kayak guide replied that yes Costa Ricans have been struggling economically, and yet, it is still all “pura vida.” As he said this he motioned all around him at the rocky island, the lush jungles, the palm trees, the families with young children screeching for joy as they plunged into the ocean…you get the…
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Follow me from Surfer Town Santa Teresa to the Caribbean Coast of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
That’s the thing I’ve learned about traveling without a plan; to truly reap its magic you have to be willing to move with the current. And to do that it is absolutely necessary to be in touch with your intuition.
Creativity, humor and words have always been your gift. This post is no exception.
You’re the sweetest, thank you and thanks for reading!! <3
I love this. Yay liberal arts education and you’re beautiful waterty meandering soul.
I think the rest of this must be cut off… :)
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See gressa grow 
Wow thank you! <3