robertxjamieson - Tumblr blog

[robertxjamieson]

Los Albicelestes: 3 Les Bleus: 4 Aún cantan, Olé olé olé Olé olé olé ola Olé olé olé Cada día te quiero más, Soy Argentino. Es un sentimiento No puedo parar #vsco #vscocam #Trashumante #BuenosAires #LaCopaMundial #IFP2018 (à Parque Centenario)

[robertxjamieson]

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of my Dad and I handy so how about some pics of kick ass people rallying to end the patriarchy instead. Happy Fathers Day #SeVaACaer #DaleLaMujer #vscocam #vsco #IFP2018 (à Buenos Aires, Argentina)

[robertxjamieson]

5 am choripán, Puerto Madero. Left a seat open for you, @anthonybourdain #vsco #vscocam #trashumante #partsunknown (à Buenos Aires, Argentina)

[robertxjamieson]

Finding Interzone

“I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born. Far both geographically and spiritually. To leave it behind ...

I don’t think that I am asked one question more often than “Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps?” And I fucking hate that question. It ranks just slightly behind the even more skin scratching inquiry of “so the Peace Corps..how was it?” Not just because it’s an unoriginal and lazy question but also because forces me to give an unoriginal, lazy, and even partially untruthful answer. It usually goes something along the lines of I was entering my senior year of university without any real idea of what I wanted to do with my life (true. and still pretty much true) and decided to apply for the Peace Corps because I thought it was an interesting option (kind of true) and then after applying, going through the process, and learning more about it I realized it was the right thing for me (damn lies). The truth is, I would have done absolutely anything that allowed me to escape the reality that I found myself trapped in. Up until that point I had never been outside of North America and I can only use the slightly more expanded term North America instead of just the U.S because we go on family vacations to Ontario every year, which is hardly a dramatic shift in culture besides the odd fact that they put vinegar on their french fries. The only problem with being trapped sometimes, however, is that you don’t always realize it. And this is going to sound so fucking corny and part of the reason why I give the half-assed answers to the questions mentioned above but what first made me realize I was trapped was that quote at the top of the page, narrated by Anthony Bourdain.

I would say that one of my biggest character flaws is where I derive my motivation from. It is some form of extrinsic motivation that mostly revolves around the concept of cool. Frankly, I am pretty obsessed with it. My motivation levels to do something will likely highly correspond with how cool I perceive that thing to be. But before chastising me on the flawed nature of my thinking, please know that I am at least very aware of it. The least fucking cool thing in the world is when people are hyper-aware of what cool is and then try to manufacture it. Cool cannot be reproduced or manufactured. It is like gold in the sense that it only exists organically and drives uncool alchemists like  myself crazy trying to recreate it. And Anthony Bourdain was so fucking cool. That quote I mentioned before is from the opening sequence of his episode from Tangiers, Morocco. We see Bourdain sitting on a white marble terrace at either dawn or dusk with his legs crossed. He’s tanned, wearing flowing linen, and with some warm drink sitting in front of him. His worn voice breaks you of your trace with the words “I’ve always wanted to get as far away as possible…” That was it for me. I was fucking hooked. That episode aired sometime in early 2013 I spent the next x amount of months trying to figure out how to get out. How to leave it all behind. Eventually this search manifested with the Peace Corps. I had no idea at the time this it would turn out that way but after everything I am glad that it did. Honestly, I am pretty lucky that it did. But it started on a terrace in Tangiers.

I am not someone who gets too worked up about death. I don’t cry or mourn or curse the heavens and hells when someone passes. It might be because my lack of spirituality or that I still encompass the invincibility of a 26-year-old or whatever. But I don’t think I have ever felt as invincible as I felt Bourdain was. The New Yorker did a profile of him in 2017 that has kind of stuck with me. Especially this;

The kind of care and feeding required of friends, I’m frankly incapable of. I’m not there. I’m not going to remember your birthday. I’m not going to be there for the important moments in your life. We are not going to reliably hang out, no matter how I feel about you. For fifteen years, more or less, I’ve been traveling two hundred days a year. I make very good friends a week at a time.

It stuck with me because I felt that it kind of was me. I don’t know I still think it kind of is me. Yet, every time I read it I swell up a little because it makes me think that maybe I’m a little bit like Anthony Bourdain. That maybe I’m a little bit cool too. Today, however, was the first time I read that and felt something besides pride. And honestly, I don’t know what I feel. I rarely ever do. I’ve found that is kind of the trick to being okay with not ever being there. I wonder if Bourdain used the same trick too.

The internet right now is obviously inundated with tweets, pictures, quotes, and articles about Bourdain. I’ll probably spend the rest of the day reading them all but one in particular that has stuck out to me was a tweet about how more than anything else, his show and his writing tried with all its might to teach Americans not be scared of other people. And I swear to you that this is fucking everything. The quote that I have mentioned a couple of times and that is at the top of the page is from the novelist and composer Paul Bowles but is only half of it. And it’s the only half that Bourdain uses in the episode. The end of the quote, however, is a bit less melancholic and, to me at least, a bit more representative of Bourdain's life. 

… I feel that life is very short and the world is there to see and one should know as much about it as possible. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.”

Thanks, Tony

[robertxjamieson]

#platdejour two people speaking who are much smarter than me. 

[robertxjamieson]

Hoy en nuestro glorioso Colegio Ancon celebramos el día de la bandera. En cada colegio todos de los terceros dicen "SI JURO!" para mostrar su lealtad a su patria. #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vsco #vscocam #eldiadelabandera #sijuro

[robertxjamieson]

I might need another vacation after that vacation but truly nothing like having friends like these guys making a trip to see my home for these two years. Can't wait for our next adventure, hermanos. #amigosabroad #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vsco #vscocam (en Carondelet Palace)

[robertxjamieson]

Nice day for a ballgame. #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vsco #vscocam (en Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa)

[robertxjamieson]

Caught and then cooked. #oceantotable (en Puerto López)

[robertxjamieson]

Say hello to Chimborazo. Some say it's the closest point on earth to the sun. I just say it's pretty damn beautiful. #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vsco #vscocam #allyouneedisecuador #volcanos (en Riobamba La Ciudad Bonita)

[robertxjamieson]

Si llegue tarde a la misa pero jamás llego tarde para pan y chocolate a @cafeinglesec con familia y amigos #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vscocam #allyouneedisecuador #allyouneedispanychocolate (en Ancon, Santa Elena)

[robertxjamieson]

Hayacas con las más guapas #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vsco #lavidaricaesconlacomidarica (en Ancon, Santa Elena)

[robertxjamieson]

The only way to end the weekend. #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vsco #vscocam #allyouneedisecuador

[robertxjamieson]

Selfies it with some Cucuruchos #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vscocam (en Nayon City)

[robertxjamieson]

La salida del sol #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #suerte (en Ancon, Santa Elena)

[robertxjamieson]

Yesterday was the birthday of a very important person. She has truly been a mother to me in my time here at site. She continues to be one of the most loving, generous and caring people I know and I don't know where I would be in my service without her. Happy Birthday! Ayer fue el cumple de una persona muy muy importante. Ella ha sido una mama a mí durante mi tiempo acá en Cuerpo de Paz y ella continúa a ser la persona más amorosa y generosa que yo conozco. No sé dónde debería ser sin usted. Gracias por todos y feliz cumple! (en Ancon, Santa Elena)

[robertxjamieson]

Celebrating Carnaval in the land de las frutas y los flores. Que viva Ambato #peacecorps #peacecorpsecuador #vscocam #photobombs (en Ambato. La Tierra De Las Flores Y Las Frutas)