KatieBlue - Katie Powers

I just graduated (May 2008) from a Buddhist-inspired university with a degree in Contemplative Education, Psychology and Peace Studies. I originally went to college just so I could join the Peace Corps afterwards, but now I'm not so sure. I've done some travelling, most of it based in "volunteerism" and I wrote my thesis on all the ways "help" from the outside can in fact hurt. I'd like to travel some more before I make up my mind.

Right now I work as a professional dog sitter (something I did on the side in college that has somehow morphed into a sustaining career) so I spend most of my time interacting with dogs. Since all my "deep/profound" loves in life eventually deconstruct in my mind (too much thought can kill something), I decided to spend some time on the one stupid thing I love that I can't really explain: animals. There's nothing deep or profound about my love for animals. They just make me smile. I don't want to think about why.

It's nice to get paid to do something that doesn't feel like a job to me, but sometimes I feel like I should be doing something more. Travel and experiencing other cultures has a way of sorting things out for me, so right now I'm saving up so I can go somewhere and find out what's next.

Right now I'm planning a trip to Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia & Indonesia)-- a lot of the trip is based on awesome animals I'd like to meet along the way. Reading other people's travelblogs has been very helpful. I hope that when I go, the travelblogs I write will help other people as much as the blogs I've read have helped me!

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Joined on: May 13th 2006
Last Login: October 31st 2008

Blog Entries: 12
Photos: 124

TB Code: [blogger=16925]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by KatieBlue, order by Date newest first.

By KatieBlue
September 30th 2008

La Chureca the Second Time Around Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Managua

La Chureca
houses made from trash

I broke my #1 rule of travel: I went with HUGE expectations. But how could I not? I'd dedicated the last year of my life entirely to learning Spanish so I could return and talk to the people who had changed my life the year before. I didn't speak very much Spanish then, but I knew enough to promise them that I would return. Most of them rolled their eyes or smiled sadly and said "sure you will." It was obvious they didn't expect me to come back. Tons of volunteers had come into the dump to bond with these children [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
July 31st 2006

Rainforest South America » Peru » Amazonas

rainforest
en route to Tingo Maria

It began in La Merced. At 3:30am, I took a motor-taxi to the truck stop by the river, where I had five minutes to think before I was ushered into the tarp covered trunk of a pick up truck. Two hours of darkness and the occasional whites of eyes. I could feel the shape of the rugged jungle road clearly in my spine. As the air got thicker it acquired a taste of the warm breath of trees filtered by rain, heavy with a sort of smoky flavor. When the sun came up, the tarp went down and we were in [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
July 18th 2006

And I'm Still Me South America » Peru » Junin » Huancayo

kids at work, Chupaca

"I think this dog needs love more than I don't need fleas." Lyon, holding a neglected puppy in Nicaragua after being warned that it had fleas "The question is not 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' but 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" Martin Luther King, Jr. That's the seed that Naropa has planted in me. I've given it room to grow, and discovered that this concept is much larger and entails far more 'questions' than just that one. For example, "If I stop to help this [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
July 13th 2006

A Moral Dilemma South America » Peru » Junin » Huancayo

I had made up my mind to leave this Saturday. I would have bought my bus ticket today if they let me, they only sell tickets the day before departure. That gave me more time to think, and now I am totally confused. Some guy (who was originally trying to sell me sunglasses) accompanied me for most of my walk home from the ticket counter. About ten minutes into our walk, some words came up that I didn't understand, and he said with surpise "ahhh, there are words you don't know..." There are A LOT of words I don't know. But, [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
July 9th 2006

Highs and Lows South America » Peru » Junin » Huancayo

View from my bedroom

I'm in one of the many internet cafes here in Huancayo. Green Day is playing on the radio. 'You can't go forcing something if it's just not right...' How appropriate. I don't know what I'm doing here. I planned on staying in Huancayo a month, but it's just not clicking. I don't know what to do. This is turning out to be less of an adventure and more of a pain in the ass. I like doing community service work for many reasons. (1) Because I can. (2) Because every time I've done it in the past, I've undergone huge personal [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
June 30th 2006

Cusco and Machu Pichu South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco

On a Catholic Holiday
We happened to be in the Sacred Valley. Imagine that Neutral Milk Hotel song, track five I think? The instumental. I swear that's the song they were playing! I wish I was in the parade instead of watc... [more]

just photos [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
June 20th 2006

Much needed update South America » Peru » Lima

Miraflores at sunset

Sorry! Top Five Most Interesting Experiences so far: 5. Riding in cambis. In case you don’t know, cambis are the hundred-thousand little vans that buzz around the streets of Lima taking peoples’ money and getting them from place to place. Each cambi has it’s own little man sticking his entire upper body out the window, shouting and pointing at at anybody who is not already in a cambi, begging all to ride. He uses a very rapid, almost indecipherable language to tell the destination. At every stop light and slow point in traffic, he hops out and tries to wave random [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
June 9th 2006

Perdida en Lima South America » Peru » Lima

Gatito
the little kitten I found while lost(he's about to attack my shoelaces)

Before I start writing I have to ask myself, Who is reading this? What can I say that will (A) not scare my parents and (B) not bore other people? Is this journal for me? Is it for my friends? Is it for the curious, anonymous traveller who happens to find it? I'll do my best to please everyone, but I may fail sometimes. Actually, I'm probably about to fail right now. I got lost yesterday. After my morning Spanish class, I hopped three wrong buses and walked about a mile in the wrong direction. I know that’s not the kind [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
May 21st 2006

"Home" North America » United States » Massachusetts » Boston

...

This is my last week at "home," although I'm pretty sure that I don't spend enough time here for it to merit that title-- and I am cramming Spanish so much it almost feels like I'm in a Spanish speaking country. I don't normally watch TV, but I have been watching hours of the Spanish channel. I listen to only Spanish music. I am translating several of the children's books people (mostly my mom) donated into Spanish, "helping" my sister with her Spanish homework, making more Spanish flashcards and flipping through the hundreds I have already made, limiting my thoughts to [View Full Entry]

By KatieBlue
May 14th 2006

How nice of us, to build cages for the children Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Jalapa

kids at a school in Jalapa

I guess it's nice for people to have the option of school. My classmates and I stayed in a barrio called El Trapeche but since Jalapa was the closest "city," I put that down as our location. Jalapa is the agricultural capital of Nicargua. We worked in Nueva Esperanza, a small barrio whose people had requested a school. It is my understanding that the school was a reward to the people for working together to build a potable water system for their small community. Last year, people in the community were dying of plague. Yes, "the" plague. My teacher, Deb Young, [View Full Entry]

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