GregStewart

In conclusion… An Open Letter to My New Friends Around the Globe Hi there! It’s Traveling Greg, or maybe now you can call me Formerly Traveling Greg, or—most accurately—On Hiatus From Traveling Greg*. That’s right. My traveling years have ended. I’m in Toronto now. As of tomorrow, I will be a full-time student at the Rotman School of Business. Some of you met me in 2009, and if I haven’t spoken with you since then, you may be thinking that was quite a long time ago. Your life could be completely different now vs. then. But, periodically, every couple of months, you received another e-mail from me with another album of pictures. I was still on the road. Early on, I called it the Great Freedom. The name fit. img=https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-uj5DHHKMBao/StqCnpbABKI/AAAAAAAAAms/82PPCkR0Ovc/s640/DSC04943.JPG I remember the excitemen... read more

Be Here Now Pictures Not Taken, Pictures Lost I toured the Western U.S. by myself for six months in 1997 and did not bring a camera. I have largely forgotten the people I met and I wish that weren’t true. On balance, though, I am overwhelmingly glad that I didn’t bring a camera. Pictures are about remembering the past in the future. That’s obviously true for practical purposes; it is literally why we take them. But the fact that photography, by its very nature, draws you out of the present is something every traveler should strive to be aware of. The one organized tour I took during The Great Freedom (through Egypt—it was awesome) presented ample evidence of this. One moment epitomized it. We had just reached the White Desert (which is worth going well out ... read more

Living In this society, a man can go through his whole life without finding out whether he is a coward. I think he should know. —John Berryman The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. —Charles DuBois, Did you think you should enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you? —The Koran Adventurous men enjoy mutinies, earthquakes, conflagrations, and all kinds of unpleasant experiences. They say to themselves, for example, ‘So this is what an earthquake is like’, and it gives them pleasure to have their knowledge of the world increased by this new item. —Bertrand Russell At eighteen, our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty, they are caves in which we ... read more

Jordan! Yes! And It counts! Jordan is a gorgeous country with a deep history and you can cover fairly effectively in a week. The people are really, really friendly, and most of them speak English. For all you working stiffs (and I say that with affection), I highly recommend it. Wadi Rum and Petra are two of the most photogenic places to which I have ever been. I was in Petra and Wadi Rum for only one day each but I got a hell of a lot of great pictures. The photos I already posted on Picasa tell a far better story than I could write. If you want to know more about the history of Wadi Rum, rent (and watch it on a massive flat screen). A lot of people recommend staying two or three ... read more

Diving the Red Sea When I told people I was visiting the Middle East, some of them were genuinely concerned about my safety. I personally judge how safe something is with the “driving your car to work test”. Is it statistically more likely to kill you than driving to work in the U.S.? Flying commercial: safe. Flying in a Cessna: not safe. Skydiving: safe. Cave diving: not safe. Hiking in backwoods New Zealand: safe; scoring heroin in South Central Los Angeles: not safe. Well, that last one’s a little ridiculous, but it’s hard to come up with something else. Life is pretty damn safe! You may not think so from watching the news but dying from terrorism or random “I hate Americans” violence is no more likely than getting struck by lightning twice. So I ce ... read more

GAP Adventures offers both one week and two week tours of Egypt. The former seemed a bit short to me, and the latter seemed a bit long. In hindsight, I still feel the same way. The second week of our tour definitely did not have the consistent “wow” factor of the first. Most of it was just OK (Alexandria, for example), and we had to spend a lot of time on the road. There’s no way around it, though. If you want to see the White Desert (and believe me, you do), you have to spend some time out there. As much as I’d like to have the verbal dexterity to describe the experience of sunset and sunrise in the White Desert or, even more, the experience of waking up there in the middle of the ... read more

Leaving Egypt tomorrow. I’m kicking it Bedouin style again—sitting on a cushion, holding a shisha pipe, listening to Moslem prayers over mosques’ loudspeakers. This hasn’t been a kind trip to my lungs; shisha is hard to resist. On the other hand, after two months catching up with friends in the U.S. and, just as impactfully, two days in England, Egypt has been a good break for my liver. Alcohol is rare here. Most of my time in Indonesia was in Hindu Bali so this is essentially my first time in an Islamic country. Turns out Moslems take religion seriously. Who knew? Booze is rare in the big cities and unheard of in the small ones. One positive side of genuine religiosity is a lack of petty crime. I haven’t heard a single story theft story and, ... read more

Back on the Road Pitiful Earthlings! Hurling yourselves out into the void without the slightest idea of who or what is out there! -from the movie Flash Gordon Each phase of The Great Freedom, as I have named these two years, starts with less preparation than the last. This makes sense because it is much easier to pack. I know what I need to bring and I already have it. It’s not much either. A bag full of travel-size bathroom supplies, clothes, a few medicines, emergency provisions, and four different electronic appliances (Q: When did I become a gadget geek? A: When gadgets got so awesome.). With the exception of the clothes (which I change each segment mostly to make my pictures more interesting), all of these wait in a corner of my bedroo... read more

Optional Essay If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Admissions Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weakness in your application). The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size. Oliver Wendell Holmes My most recent job presented a rare opportunity for personal and professional development; however, I felt that I was approaching my maximum potential within the position and was ready for new challenges. Travel has long been one of my passions and the transition from work to graduate school provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the world. I have spent the past year traveling internationally and will continue to do so until shortly before attending gra... read more

Saw I’m Still Here last night. This is the doc about Joaquin Phoenix’s attempt to shift from acting to rapping. Lots to say about this film. It’s a statement about celebrity and media, but not an obvious one. It doesn’t pander. While it definitely has Borat in its DNA, the best comparison I can think of is U2 in the Zoo TV era. A multi-year performance art piece, that the artist buys into so thoroughly that it is hard to accept that they are actually trying to be ironic. The biggest difference is that U2 appeared to be having an enormous amount of fun. Phoenix, to put it mildly, does not. It is, above all, a gross movie. I’m not going to go into the details because I feel like the movie was spoiled for me, ... read more