Items

• 
  2020-08

  Tourism During the COVID-19 Pandemic: 2020 Mississippi River Social Distancing Trip

  This photo was taken along the Mississippi River in August 2020, shortly after stay-at-home orders were lifted in the Midwestern U.S. but still when other states (ex: New York) had tighter restrictions and 14-day quarantine policies upon arrival. My family chose to take this drive because most attractions were outdoors. We traveled here because it was extremely easy to escape crowds and still provided excellent scenery -- and I always enjoy going to more remote areas for that reason. One thing I remember is not visiting any restaurants due to fear of contracting COVID; we ordered all of our dinners to go and had a picnic lunch every day. Since this photo was taken, I have traveled to many other destinations, as I received my vaccines in early 2021, and felt more comfortable interacting with the public.
• 
  2021-10

  Woodcrofts in Post-Pandemic Iceland

  First, let me say that I am not a big traveler. I was never bitten by the travel bug, and I had no strong desires to see the world. A bit controversial, but I remember feeling even just a few months of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic that I needed to get out. I needed to escape my house, not because being quarantined and working from home with my husband was problematic or bad as far as our being with one another 24/7, but I just felt very confined and small, almost suffocated. There’s a difference, I think between choosing not to travel or leave your house and not being able to leave your house because of guidelines and the risk of spread illness. My husband and I had planned a trip to go to Iceland in September of 2019, but I just started a new job and couldn’t get time off that soon after starting, so we pushed it off to – as luck would have it – March 2020. In fact, it was planned for about a week or so after the entire world shut down and said “stay home.” At that point, we were “refunded” our tickets and accommodations, and were in this place of not know when or if this trip would happen. By refunded, I mean that the airline gave us a credit for the amount needing to be spent within a year after this date. So we felt in a bit of a dilemma and unsure of what to do. The news of the pandemic and the guidelines were – understandably - constantly shifting, and we were looking at international travel, so we had to frequently check the U.S. travel restrictions as well as Iceland’s restrictions and compare. Even then, restrictions fluctuated, at some points saying travel was allowed on one end, at others, if you test positive you may have to stay there for your entire quarantine period in a designated space away from others, extending your stay for potentially a month. It was a force to even consider planning. Finally, the stars aligned, and we were able to schedule our trip for October 2021, two years later that we had originally planned, but we were going and excited, if a bit nervous. I remember from the day we picked the flights looking up the travel restriction websites every day. I bookmarked the U.S. and Iceland’s sites to check to see if anything had changed in terms of guidelines or cancellations. We knew that we needed to schedule a covid test about 1 week prior to the flight and upload and bring proof of a negative result for the airline. We had been vaccinated, so we had to bring our cards for verification at customs. We also at that point, scheduled our return flight’s covid testing in Iceland to make sure that we had another negative result so we could come home. It was incredibly stressful trying to schedule all this, some sites were booked up, we had to take time off of work to get available appointments before going, all while reminding ourselves this is supposed to be a fun trip, a vacation in a country neither of us had visited before. Luckily, everything by way of travel went well. At that point, being in such a crowded area, like an airport, felt strange and uncomfortable. Everyone wearing masks, but still getting closer to us that we were used to now. We had heard stories of how planes are breeding grounds for covid, the air was recycled, so if someone on the plane is a false negative, they’ll give it to everyone. But we landed 6 hours later, and were relieved to do so. Despite not seeing a single puffin, our week in Iceland was absolutely fantastic; however, I can’t say that it wasn’t hindered a bit by covid and the transitioning public guidelines. After planning this trip for two years, we had read and marked up a number of travel guides that suggested areas to visits, restaurants to try, and trips to take while there. None of these books were equipped to prepare us for what vacation would look like post-pandemic. On one side, the sites and streets, even in the city of Reykjavik, were not nearly as crowded as we had read and expected it would be, which, for someone like me, who gets incredibly overwhelmed when around too many people, was perfect. We were able to visit museums, go on a virtual flyover of Iceland’s landscape, and see sights with no line or trouble. On the other hand, many store, restaurant, and attraction hours had changed or were complete shutdown, and were not updated on Google or on company sites. Occasionally we would finally reach a destination and find it was closed, but we understood that this was a small price to pay overall for a trip to Iceland so soon after things re-opened. One restaurant we stopped at in a small town south of Reykjavik was completely empty, we were the only customers from when we walked in to when we left. We were able to talk to the owner, who was saying that this is what it has been like for them since the start of the pandemic and restrictions on travel, especially international travel and tourism. It was a family-owned restaurant, where the owner and his wife sold art and homemade Nordic pieces on one of the tables in the back. They relied on tourism and the income of international visitors, and they said that this was the hardest part of the pandemic for them, seeing Iceland, a huge tourist spot for years, now hit financially and, really their way of life, changing because of this long ban on travel. For our trip across the country, fortunately, as it is, my husband and I are moderately outdoorsy people, so most of what we wanted to see or wanted to visit was outside and didn’t have the same restrictions that we found in town. We were able to spend a day at the Blue Lagoon, climbing a relatively recently active volcano, walk on the black sand beaches, and just drive around, climb out of the car and hike up a hill for the view. Early on, we decided to abandon our strict itinerary and just think of what we might want to do the next day and plan from there. It was jarring for someone like me, who is almost too reliant on structure and order, but the flexibility worked better and developing that mindset of being adaptable in this post-pandemic time helped combat the frustration and panic we felt after realizing so much had changed from the typical and expected. A stark difference we noticed while there was the general feeling towards covid-19 guidelines and vaccinations there compared to the U.S. at the time. Since the start of the pandemic, so many people were outspokenly skeptical and against the restrictions and guidelines in place and the vaccine, but we never really experienced any of that in Iceland. Rules and guidelines were quietly followed wherever we went, wearing a mask or maintaining distance, there was never a fight or resistance to this. We never saw or heard of any anti-vaccination groups or protests, as we had experienced both where we lived and on the news across America. All in all, our trip coming out of the pandemic was great, if not a bit unexpected because of the guidelines and transition period that came from international travel post-covid.
• 2023-07-13

  My trip to Xinjiang

  For myself and many others in China, people were faced with policies and travel restrictions that were put in place due to the Covid19 pandemic. These policies and restrictions included, but were not limited to: quarantines, frequent nucleic acid tests, scanning a code in order to enter all sorts of places, and working from home. These covid policies and travel restrictions were finally, and fully, lifted this past winter, in January of 2023. This summer would be the first chance my family and I have to travel, and we will actually be starting our trip tomorrow, on July 13, 2023. As this is the first summer after covid policies were lifted, I’m expecting many places to be crowded. My wife has already done some research and has come across some videos on social media that shows some scenic spots that are crowded. As for the trip, we will be going on a road trip to Xinjiang, which is China's westernmost territory. We chose this place because we have never been there and have always wanted to visit. It is supposed to be one of the more beautiful places in China. While we will visit some urban locations, they will not be our primary focus as we are more interested in natural scenery. We’ll be starting out trip tomorrow, on July 13, 2023 and will be driving to areas in regions around Urumqi, Xinjiang. Among the places we will visit are Turpan, Sayram Lake, and Tekesi Bagua City. After that, we will drive back to Beijing, stopping at various places along the way and spend a few days in each place. Along the way, we plan to take many pictures and buy some souvenirs. My children might also have to write about the trip as well for an assignment for school.
• 
  12/06/2021

  Peter Waselk Oral History, 2021/12/06

  Peter Waselk is a sales and account manager of Komatsu, a company that manages iron ore mines and sales of mining equipment based out of Virginia, MN that services Northern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, Southern Wisconsin, and Northern Michigan. Virginia, MN is located about 30 minutes west of the Wisconsin/Minnesota border. Still, Peter often works with iron ore industries in Northern Wisconsin (Superior, WI) as well as Milwaukee, WI, and Detroit, MI. In this interview, Peter discusses how the pandemic has impacted the iron mining industry, as well as how the pandemic has slowed infrastructure progress, including the automobile industry, appliances and cellphone production, and international shipping costs that have driven up the cost of so many products in the Midwest and the United States as a whole. Peter also discusses how the mining industry will most likely change over the next five years due to labor shortages and technological shifts to mining and industry as a whole.
• 
  12/08/2021

  Ashley Kiley Oral History, 2021/12/08

  Ashley Kiley lives in Oakland, WI, and currently works at Black Hawk Park, La Crosse, Wisconsin. In this interview, Ashley discusses how COVID-19 has affected her life, including her work, family life, and mental health. She shares what it has been like to work as a park ranger and hurricane relief worker during the pandemic, and how the pandemic has affected people she knows. She discusses the implementation of COVID-19 procedures in spring and fall of 2020, and touches on the political arguments over masks, and how the hierarchy of the Department of Defense tried to stem the spread of the virus.
• 
  2021-09-06

  Terrariums out of Boredom

  Covid took us away from everything and reality was hard to cope with. I decided to retreat into nature. The struggle was that I hated being in my house and I couldn't stay outside forever. I decided that I would bring nature indoors and started to make terrariums. I was able to exercise, practice a hobby, create art. and safely quarantine all at once.
• 
  2020-06-22

  Outside on the streets of Staten Island and Brooklyn

  These photos depict some of the events and activities I was part of during the summer of 2020. I marched to protest the killings of innocent black men by police, I attended a street festival held in honor of Eric Garner (on the anniversary of his death), I worked at a Brooklyn Greenmarket doing "covid support" (a very stressful job), and I visited the peaceful grounds of Snug Harbor, wearing my favorite polka-dot mask made by a friend.
• 
  2023-03-25

  Lockdown Story from A Different Perpective

  “During the lockdown, it seems that everyone took on a small hobby to keep themselves busy. For me, I took on a couple to keep me busy. One of them included going for daily walks and taking photos of the scenery around me. I’ve taken walks even before COVID, but this was the only time where I really took my time and payed attention to my surroundings. I normally don’t bring my phone as that time is my 20 to 30 minutes away from technically, however I started to bring it along with me to take photographs of the trees blooming in spring and everything starting to grow and looking amazing. For the remainder of 2020, I kept to my hobby of taking photos and made sure to capture scenery I thought looked interesting. I especially made sure to snap photos in the same spots to capture what they look like in each one of the seasons. Luckily with it snowing weeks before Christmas that year, I was able to get a photo of one street during each one of the seasons. To me, they looked really cool!” Photo by Kyle Collesano, April 19th, 2020 #lockdownstatenisland
• 
  2023-03-13

  The Meaning of Sunset in Lockdown

  This photo is from A Journal of the Plague Year in the Philippines, submitted by Mark Anthony Angeles on May 19th, 2020. I picked this photo because it connects to my experience from lockdown. The sunset to me represents an end of a chapter or era, as in, the end of my first half as an undergrad student. While it was stressful by end of sophomore year, I pulled through without any issues. But the light of the sunset to me also means that there is hope and that things will get better. That’s what I hope throughout lockdown, hope😌. #lockdownstatenisland
• 
  2020-07-21

  #twilight on the #highline #nyc #elevator #greenflash

  #twilight on the #highline #nyc #elevator #greenflash https://instagr.am/p/CC7EA8ApfcE/
• 
  July 21, 2020

  #highline #nyc #goldenhour #bridgeofsighs #bluesky

  #highline #nyc #goldenhour #bridgeofsighs #bluesky https://instagr.am/p/CC7EWhrpc-j/
• 
  July 27, 2020

  A Covid Summer in NYC

  A Covid Summer in NYC
• 
  December, 2020

  Battery to Chelsea, along Hudson River Park.

  I took this photo a couple of weeks ago walking from the Battery to Chelsea, along Hudson River Park.
• 
  2020-03-11

  What Happen During Lockdown

  The lockdown gave me motivation like looking at the stars
• 
  2018-03-11

  From Cu Chi to Hoa Lo

  Travel to Vietnam is seeing increased tourism in the post-COVID world, so while restrictions have dropped, certain destinations that have been included, such as the Cu Chi tunnels or the War Remnants Museum, which typically are densely packed, may have included changes to improve public safety and health.
• 
  2022-10-01

  Chan Yak Ja Pbai (I Want To Leave)

  Unfortunately, I have not been able to travel since the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. The last two years of my undergraduate were affected by the pandemic, and initially, I was planning to study abroad during my senior year. Unfortunately, that was not possible and I was barely able to complete my student teaching placement for my Secondary Education Minor as the program was constantly under revision to ensure student safety. Now, as a graduate student, if I could go anywhere it would easily be Thailand as that is where my personal historical focus is. While my Thai is far from fluent, I have been steadily learning the language for about a year now as I hope to have an opportunity to complete an extended stay for scholarly or leisurely purposes. In terms of specifics, I would first like to travel to Chiang Rai, Sukhothai, or across Isan as Northern and Eastern Thailand have some of the richest historical and cultural sites, combined with the fact that individuals who I am very close to are from these areas as well. I have worked part-time at a Thai restaurant in Houston for a significant amount of time which helps considerably with practicing the language. As I am one of the only foreigners that works for the restaurant, the owners, my co-workers, and the individuals I have been introduced to through them have become like a second family to me, and I am very grateful for their generosity, inclusivity, and willingness to teach me as an outsider to the culture. Thus, I would love to be able to visit the areas that have meaning to them as well as fulfill my own historical ambitions. Two of my closest co-workers and I discussed traveling to Thailand and Laos together, and we agreed it would be interesting if we started a vlog to document the process. Not every temple or historical landmark allows photography or video to be taken, but I do think a vlog would be a great way to capture the moment as I am not the best at actively documenting things through social media. Video documentation also has the advantage of directly capturing the emotions and excitement of traveling as opposed to journaling or even photography. The photo I chose is of my co-worker and me at an event for the restaurant promoting Northern Thai cuisine in the traditional "Mo Hom", or the shirts worn by rice farmers.
• 
  2021-04-18

  Edinburgh and Northumberland, "Post Pandemic" Historical Tourism

  I had been dreaming of this trip since 1996 when I went to England on a high school theatre and literature trip and fell in love with the UK. Specifically, I fell in love with Scotland and its history, becoming a British History enthusiast. In August, 2021, I completed my BA in History at ASU, then changed careers from Film/tv costuming to a special education teaching position. During the peak age of Covid-19, I worked full time, completed full time undergraduate studies, interned in politics and not-for-profit law, and started over in a new career and life in a new state. All of 2020-2021 was a non-stop adrenaline rush of constantly moving, getting Covid, and burning out mentally along the way. In 2021, I was halfway through a teaching contract and gravely unhappy, longing to just... escape. I kept dreaming of one photo of Edinburgh that was on my vision board. The picture, from Pinterest, was of a narrow Close in Old Town, Edinburgh, the historic "original" city that squeezed so much history and magic in about a mile. Old Edinburgh held tens of thousands of people in one square mile with their Closes serving as narrow alleyways between buildings of both stone and wood, both affluent and poor societal classes. After creating this vision board, I started working a ridiculous amount of overtime in the school's residences for special needs students and saving money. I was used to already working over 60 hours a week, so I didn't see the problem yet. The short staffing crisis of special education staff provided the opportunity to earn $40/ hour plus $1000 monthly bonus for anyone willing to work and be okay with less support for challenging behavior or emergency resources. I was willing to work hard to be free for just a short time over the Easter/Passover School break. Flight and accommodation prices were incredibly low at the start of 2021, encouraging tourists to travel. British Airways and other airlines offered incredible fares! These discounts still enabled me to book more affordable fare into 2023. My flight from Boston to Edinburgh was just over $400, with 7 nights stay in two 4 and 5 star hotels plus one castle for a total of less than $1000. My dream trip was planned to every detail and paid in advance or booked for free with historical memberships. The pandemic and rising popularity of Airbnb and Verbo created the perfect discounts for hotels and upgrades to better suites. Pre-pandemic, I got bed bugs from an Airbnb and had a nightmare of an experience, so it was out of the question for accomodation moving forward. While in planning stages, I booked historical tours and entry into sites like Edinburgh Castle, Mary Kings Close, Ghost Tours of the Vaults, Sterling Castle, then in England, Alnwick Castle and Chillingham Castle's paranormal investigation. I already had memberships to multiple British historical and public sites like the Alnwick Gardens (site of the famous Poison Garden) and Historical Scotland. From Edinburgh Castle to Chillingham Castle, I finally got to see the gallows, dungeons, and artifacts that were in my undergraduate classes. Finances and waiting for a travel companion to finally find "the time" to go held me back from going previously, but I was there, alone, at this particular time for a reason. I got to hold Witches Collars and touch an Iron Maiden that tortured so many innocent "witches". I sat in castle common areas alone with a glass of Whisky and venison sausage while hunting ghosts. Museum staff showed me witches charms and introduced me to folklore that secretly told tales of history in starkly lit archival research rooms. It was this trip that solidified by decision to continue onto graduate studies in history at ASU. It was this trip that made me question, "Why are we so fascinated by death and folklore?" It would be remiss to mention that during my historical tourism of Edinburgh and the Scottish-English Borderlands, the stories of historically significant pandemics and major moments of medical and scientific struggle or discovery were always present- It was..."everything, everywhere, all at once", if you will. The comparisons between Black Death to Cholera to Spanish Flu were ever-present while exploring Mary Kings Close, places of Surgical and Medical History interest, The Vaults, the Grass Market Gallows. I stepped into a cramped spaces that were once the homes of a families who all died of The Plague. White rags hung out the windows of these tourist destinations to remind visitors that it was the way leather beak masked Plague Doctors identified the infected and quarantined. "Haunted" Vaults served as reminders to modern tourists that the poor and disenfranchised once stayed here. If you want to go anywhere in the world to see a pandemic being held with an engrained fear and solemn respect for medical research, it's Scotland. In England, Chillingham Castle and Alnwick Castle allow visitors close proximity to places where prisoners carved each imprisoned day before their deaths into the walls. In Edinbugh, if it isn't a Harry Potter tour, it is a ghost tour. These ghosts are explored with light-hearted entertainment or found during paranormal investigations with high-tech gizmos and Ouiji Boards in this new age when we don't want to talk about how many people died of Covid-19 or a lack of health resources, but pre-modern history when people don't currently hold memory of the dead... One late morning, I went to a pub on the Royal Mile for a proper Scottish breakfast of sausages, haggis, bacon, eggs, tomato, and toast... and a pint. Bagpipes echoed in the air, passers-by spoke different languages and carried their cameras and I (Heart) Scotland t shirts and Whisky. As I sat outside, just taking everything in, a group of domestic tourists sat at my table. We laughed because we were all uncertain of "Mask? no Mask? What does 'optional Mask mean?' Were we bad people for NOT wearing a mask inside the pub to get another beer?" "Is it appropriate to sit so 'close'?" That particular day was the lifting of the Scottish masks in public places mandate. My mates-for-the-day spoke of their quarantines and experiences with Covid-19 and quarantine with both humor and sombre memories. The photo attached to this story was from this day where masks were no longer a must. It is also the same scene from my vision board. On my camera and iPhone camera reels, before this moment and after are dozens of photos of castle chambers, countryside fog, tourist photo ops of High Tea or plain ol Costa Coffee at [Insert Tourist Destination]. My photos are visited with gratitude and inspiration. Not only do I have a renewed desire to travel, but I have a spark of motivation to keep learning. I would never have been able to afford this trip at the level of luxury and privilege I experienced it without the Covid-19 pandemic's aftermath of needed promotional discounts. Misery was everywhere, yes, but joy and purpose were found for me. I hope there were others that experienced incredible change and revelation during this time.
• 2020-06-22

  Milestone Year

  To get to this story, I have to go back a few years first. I'm an immigrant from El Salvador. I came to the U.S. as a teenager in 1994, and never went back. I was in my 30s when I decided it was finally time to visit the grandmother I'd been missing for so long. I started to save and plan. Then she died. It took several years before I finally took my first trip back in November of 2019. I spent the time vacationing on the coast. I avoided my grandmother's house, my friends, and my family. I wasn't ready. But I decided that for my 40th birthday, in 2020, I'd return for a longer stay and visit my childhood home and all the friends and family left behind. Then there was a pandemic. The trip was cancelled, but it was the least of that year's problems. I lost my job and went back to school to start a new career. Our dog got cancer and died. My partner had a friend in El Salvador who died of COVID. I can never reschedule that same trip. Too much has changed. I'm planning to return this summer. This time with a firmer grasp on life's impermanence. I want to visit the white sand beaches at Playa Mango before it gets turned into a "surf city" tourist trap. I want to visit all the important cultural landmarks, especially those from which I can learn about my ancestors. More importantly, I will not avoid friends and family. On the contrary, I want to cherish the time I will have with them as if the next day isn't guaranteed. I plan to take dozens of photographs, portraits of everyone I see, I want to write down their stories in my journal, I want to record every visit, every meal, every experience possible in my journal. I plan to say "see you later," but not leave anything unsaid. Just in case.
• 
  2022-06-01

  Old Faithful Yellowstone National Park

  The first trip my family and I took once COVID restrictions were lifted was to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. My family enjoys being outdoors and in nature and had been discussing a trip to Yellowstone for years. We rented a cabin a half hour north of the park and drove in everyday for four days. Each day, we took a different road so we could see as much of the park as possible. The most memorable part is that on the northern road, up in the mountains, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. About a week after we left, all that snow melted, flooded the Yellowstone River, and destroyed the road that we went in on everyday. I also enjoyed seeing the wildlife in a natural habitat, even if there were buffalo in the road a few times a day. The busiest day was the day we went to Old Faithful. Old Faithful is probably the most popular tourist attraction in the park aside from the wildlife. Everything in the area was busy; the gift shop, hotel, restaurants, boardwalks, parking lot, everything. This was the most people I saw in one place the entire trip. When we took this trip (June 2022), as far as I remember, there were no COVID restrictions in place. I would not have minded, and maybe even preferred, if there were as some places were quite compact. They did encourage social distancing in the indoor areas but nothing was enforced. It was, however, nice to experience the park in what could be perceived as normal.
• 
  2021-06-09

  Professor Vanlife

  In the summer of 2021, I accepted an adjunct job at a college back East. Rather than spend half the salary on rent and in order to socially distance from others, I fixed up a Toyota Sienna minivan so I could live in it for the summer. This was the first trip I had taken since the late winter of 2020. On the drive out from California, I stopped to climb a mountain in Wyoming and had the trail to the summit mostly to myself. Here's what I wrote about it on Facebook: "View of Laramie Peak (elev. 10,275) in present day Wyoming, an important landmark on the Oregon Trail. For those emigrants not from Appalachia or northern New England, it was the first really big mountain they’d ever seen and it loomed in front of them for several days as they approached it from the plains. Mark Twain passed by here in 1861 and recollected later, speaking about the mountain in the third person: 'Looming vast and solitary -- a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right.'"
• 
  2021-03-30

  Mojo Leaves

  I took this photo of Watson Lake near the Dells five days after restrictions were lifted. From what I remember, there were no travel restrictions at the time. I was one of the few that lived on a large property, and I could stay busy feeding my animals, chopping firewood, and working on homework. However, concerning the photo, I was coming home from getting guitar strings in Prescott. It was the first time I had thought about playing music since my good friend Joseph Morganfield passed away in December 2020. He's the son of Muddy Waters and was one of my biggest supporters as an artist and musician. I always tell folks if I could have chosen a dad, it would have been Joseph. This day was important because I realized life would go on, after Covid, like it or not.
• 
  2021-03-12

  No Mask, No Garden

  The Desert Botanical Garden is a fixture of Phoenix area tourism. A botanical garden of arid lands, it's unique and draws thousands of visitors every year. Their social media emphasized the importance of masking during the pandemic, with the catchy phrase "Let's not get prickly about safety."
• 
  2020-05-11

  Desert Plague

  Once summer hit Arizona and all the clubs and pools remained closed due to the pandemic, my friends and I were forced to get creative. We managed to find several hiking trails outside of Phoenix that led to glorious water (a treasure out here). We would spend hours at the little pools and waterfalls, talking about what we missed from our previous lives. Sometimes we would bring packs of White Claws- a COVID hit, and pretend we were in Vegas at the dayclubs. Back then, everything was a big ‘what if.’ We all thought that by September of 2020 we would be back in classes, moving on with our lives and not giving a second thought to the mayhem the pandemic brought on. We had no idea what the future held, but we were able to escape to our desert oasis and enjoy one another the way we deserved.
• 
  2020-05

  Staying Active

  San Diego has always been known for its beautiful beaches, especially during the spring and summer seasons. Normally beaches would be crowded with people laying about and basking in the sun. But this photo shows the opposite. During the lockdowns in Spring 2020, outdoor activity was encouraged for anyone who wanted to stay active. The beach was no exception. However, we could not just go to the beach to relax; we had to stay walking and moving around. There was more enforcement at the beach to make sure everyone was moving and had their masks on. Due to the lack of travel, the beach crowd was smaller than normal. Parts of the beach were even blocked off to discourage people from going too far and breaking rules. Distancing rules were enforced pretty much everywhere.
• 
  2021-09-16

  Life is Better Where It's Wetter

  Travel had always been in my blood. I can even remember the first time I was legally allowed to board a plane on my own without having to wear a silly "Unaccompanied Minor" badge around my neck. The idea of getting on an airplane and landing in a completely new place only hours later would always thrill me. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit, travel started to look a little different. The freedom I once felt when I stepped foot on a 737 began to feel more like an anxiety-filled hassle. Normally, I would have been found jet-setting across the U.S. to the big cities on the east and west coasts where the parties lasted all night long, but that was no longer possible. I started to remembered how I had always wanted to visit Lake Tahoe. I'd always seen the outdoorsy girls on my Instagram feed post pictures of the clear, blue water. Maybe this was my chance to take a break from the major hubs and slow down my pace. One thing remained, though. I still didn't want to face those airports. That's when I made one of the biggest decisions of my young life. I packed up my Jeep and started out on what would become 3 weeks across our American highways - just me, a Jeep Wrangler, and the open road. I never could have expected what I would discover while driving. I truly gained a new appreciation for the world around me and realized I much preferred travel by wheel than by wing. Here I thought the freedom I felt when traveling was at risk of becoming obsolete, when in reality it was the opposite. Any time there was a unique store along the road or a picturesque landscape, I simply stopped. I never could have done that in an airplane! When I finally made it to the beach at California's gorgeous Lake Tahoe, I was speechless. It was everything I could have imagined and more. The views, the smells, the sounds - breathtaking. It was in those moments, I got my freedom back in the middle of a pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-10

  Bring The Noise

  Bringing music into the home to ease the pandemic woes.
• 
  2020-06-01

  Tranquility at Camarillo State Hospital

  The property of California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) was not always the site of the CSU’s twenty-third campus. From 1936-1997 the Spanish-colonial style buildings housed 7,000 of California’s mentally handicapped population at Camarillo State Hospital. The site sat vacant for 5 years from 1997 until CSUCI took over the old hospital buildings in 2002. The COVID-19 pandemic brought back an unnerving quietness, reminiscent of when the property was unoccupied. My mom and I took advantage of how serene the campus was and made a point to walk our dogs there several times per week. We did it not just to get out of the house, but due to how enjoyable it was to take in the beauty of the campus. Recalling these memories strongly evokes all five senses and immediately brought me back to the lockdown times of the early pandemic. The absence of college students rushing to their next class made the campus strangely quiet, but there was an enjoyable quality to it. You would occasionally hear ocean breezes whizzing around the vacant corridors and then immediately get greeted with the smell of salty beach air. It would be common for the air to be mixed with the smell of cilantro and strawberries being harvested at farms surrounding the campus. However, not all smells are made equal. When the winds would change, the on-site wastewater facility would waft heinous odors into the direction of the campus, momentarily ruining the blissful experience. The open corridors of the former hospital buildings contain steady slopes, occasionally requiring one to hold the handrails that have stood for nearly one hundred years. It always made me dive back in history and think about the thousands of patients at the hospital that probably held onto that same rail. At times we would hear screeching from the sky near the old Receiving and Treatment hospital where the current university library stands. We both would look up and see large turkey vultures or hawks elegantly gliding over the thousand-acre property, creating a picturesque scene above us. Now that we are in a post-pandemic world trying to return to normal, these experiences are not quite the same as they were in the height of the pandemic when the school was completely emptied. Students have returned to the dorms, and university-related events are once again a common occurrence throughout the campus.
• 2021-01-15

  The Smell of Venetian Canals

  In January of 2021 my husband and I traveled to Venice Italy for a quick weekend getaway to meet up with my brother & his family. My husband and I had visited Venice before, but not since COVID, let alone during a time when regulations in Italy were quite strict; vaccine documentation had to be shown everywhere we went, masks needed to be worn at all times, etc. Upon arrival to the city, there were several things that instantly struck both my husband and I in regard to the changes we were now witnessing. A far different Venice than the one we experienced a few years before. Not only FAR less crowds, all the masked faces, empty plazas once the sun set, the clear waters of the canals, but the SMELL of Venice was different. Even though I love Venice as a city, I vividly remember the unpleasant smell of the canals when we visited a few years prior, in the height of the summer. Remebering that as we took a gondola ride through the canals, I couldn't help but notice the unpleasant aroma coming from the canal waters. But now that we have found ourselves in a COVID world Venice, the smell was noticably gone, and you could actually see the bottom of the shallow canals as you walked over the bridges throughout the city. I was previously unable to notice how truly shallow the canals were until this COVID world allowed for less polluted waters of Venice, and therefore a better smelling Venice as well.
• 
  2022-07-06

  U.S. Yellowstone is latest national park to add indoor mask mandate due to rising COVID cases

  This is a news story from CBS News from Sophie Reardon. Due to rising cases, Yellowstone National Park will now require visitors two years and older to wear masks indoors. Other national parks have mask mandates too, such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and the Grand Tetons. This requirement is for everyone using an indoor facility, regardless of vaccination status. For future visitors at this time to these parks, it is recommended one look up COVID requirements for the place they wish to go.
• 
  2022

  The West in the face of crises since the nineteenth century In the West, returning to the land and to locality is one of the traditional responses to crises

  Confronted with what may appear to be a series of global crises - health, environmental, economic and even democratic - the ideas on the virtues of what is local and rural are becoming increasingly heard. This article aims at putting this return to locality in historical perspective. For almost three hundred years, Western societies have gone through profound changes, especially economic ones, at the cost of a break with nature, in a more or less dramatic, and more or less painful way. Throughout our recent history, surprisingly diverse voices (political leaders, artists, activists, etc.) have conjured up this return to the land, which has taken on various forms. This return appears to be a providential solution to these disruptive changes. The health crisis due to Covid 19 seems to have not only confirmed, but also exacerbated this trend.
• 
  2022-06-24

  1.6 billion face masks entered our oceans in 2020

  This is an Instagram post from birdlife_sa. It discusses the amount of face masks that ended up in the ocean, and what you can do to make your mask disposal more environmentally friendly.
• 
  2022-05-27

  Mask trash calle Andrés Razuri

  Picture of a black disposable mask in the street near Parque 15 de Enero de la Independencia in Arequipa, Peru.
• 2020-05-01

  Background Noise

  From 2005 to 2020, I was a police officer. My life was hectic and noisy. I carried two mandatory work cell phones everywhere I went, 24 hours a day, which rang, beeped, and chirped continuously. A police radio was on in my house, in my car, or in my ear, every hour of the day. In my world, people were always talking, at work and at home. I resigned from my position in April of 2020, just as the COVID lockdowns were coming into effect. I suddenly found myself with nowhere to be due to no longer having a job and having minimal to no contact with others due to the lockdown. Being an avid flyfisher, my days became about spending most of my time on the river alone. This was also not normal, as I am also a flyfishing guide, and am used to fishing with other people, who are usually talking to me, but due to COVID, I no longer had clients. The constant of my life went from hearing people talking (and yelling) and devises making noise, to the sound of the rushing water of the river. I soon found improvements appearing in my life. I began feeling better, sleeping better, eating better, was able to focus more, and had a much more positive attitude. All of which were side effects of being on the river everyday by myself. The COVID pandemic was an opportunity for people to re-connect with nature unknowingly, as outdoor activities were their only choice of recreation outside of their homes. Due to outdoor activity being the only option for recreation, people learned, or remembered in some cases, the value which nature can add to life, as well as how simple it is to take nature for granted. The pandemic forced people back into nature, which re-awakened (or maybe awakened for the first time) the special relationship between the human senses and nature.
• 
  2020-04-10

  Warmth of the sun and the feel of the grass beneath my feet.

  The memories that stick in my head the most durning the pandemic are of the time I spent in my backyard with my partner and our dogs. I couldn't go to work and there was not much to do with my job virtually. I spent my days outside playing with my dogs; and sitting or laying on the grass next to my partner. I would sit in the backyard and feel the warmth of the sun cascading over my body; as I inhaled deeply the warm rush of the marijuana smoke into my lungs. I would walk on the ground barefoot feeling the earth beneath my feet and the grass between my toes. Listening to the birds chirp and the bees buzz by on their way to pollinate the many wild flowers and vegetables we have in our back garden. It was such a peaceful time for my partner and I. We had only bought our house a year or so earlier, and during this time we really started to feel like we settled into this space. Our backyard was our shelter from the world. To juxtapose that with what was happening outside of our sun drenched backyard is the most striking thing about these memory for me. Here we were enjoying a freedom that is seldom experienced in this hyper-capitalist world we live in (the freedom of not working). We were fortunate enough that we could spend our days in the sun with our dogs while the world passed us by. There was a brief moment during this pandemic where we hoped that others would see how capitalism ruins our lives and how much better things could be. It seemed in many ways the earth was healing, we had a brief glimpse into what a ecologically sustainable future could look like, but not only that, we had an opening to see what a life that emphasizes people over profit and leisure over work could be. Unfortunately, that was not going to last and was never meant to. The powers that be needed their profits, and their workers to exploit; and slowly but surely they demanded we risk our lives for their economy. The warmth of the sun and the feel of grass beneath my feet was lost to the grinding gears of the capitalist machine and I'm not sure I'll ever get it back.
• 
  2020-05-12

  Rediscovering Nature

  When I graduated high school, I moved to a different side of Houston, TX. I was quite reserved in my new environment. This was in part because the environment was a bit rough in some parts. However, once the pandemic took place, I decided to explore my surroundings a bit more. I discovered overall, the area was quite nice. In the process of exploring my environment; I decided to check out a park that was five minutes from my house. I had been to this park as a child because of it's proximity to the city's zoo. But, I never went as an adult. The park I discovered, which is known locally as Hermann Park was one of the best discoveries I ever made in my life. This park became my escape. My place of peace. A safe space away from the hustle and bustle of everyday city life. The sensecape was pleasant. The sounds of the birds chirping blissfully while watching a squirrel crawl up a tree brought me to a place of internal calmness I had never experienced before. I enjoyed lying between the trees either in my hammock or laying out on my blanket gazing at the sunset and enjoying the peace and tranquility of the inconspicuous indistinguishable sound of people talking who were coming and going.
• 
  2022-05-26

  Relocation in Isolation, Reconnection in Solitude

  When Covid first kicked off, I was in the final months of my undergraduate degree, weeks away from obtaining my B.A. in history from CSU Stanislaus in December 2020. I had made plans to travel and work in Japan, teaching English, doing cultural work, and generally immersing myself into the culture I found so fascinating in my studies. However, the world's shutdown would put an end (or a pause) to this plan. Now working remotely from home, I stayed in my room working on my senior thesis, looking out the window to the often empty street. My family had decided to move, as we had decided years before but loose ends such as my degree were the final threads to be cut. Remote work had given us an unexpected leap in our time-frame, and so in the midst of the Paradise fires, to which I vividly remember the dark orange skies blotting out the sun and the ever present ashy, smoky stench on the air, carried by the warm breeze from the north, we began the process of transitioning our lives to be on the road, and to be resettled in northern Idaho. For the next year and a half or so we settled in to our new home, however the world was still largely in lock-down, and so I spent most of my time inside or in the basement where I had set up a study space to finish my senior thesis and to earn my degree through my last online semester. It was a self reflective and solitary time, in which I would often take many breaks to venture out my backdoor, which quite literally lead into the forest. Not fifty feet from my home, we have a circle of trees where we would eventually put a fire pit and often sit around together around the warmth on cold nights, talking and sharing fun with one another. When alone however, it serves as an incredible spot to simply sit back and become immersed into our natural world, an amenity I often take advantage of to this day while working on my M.A. through ASU's online program. This audio recording is a sample of that, and in it, you can hear the spring time birds chirping away, the low rumble of the highway just over the mountain, feel the breeze through the trees and the valleys from the lake, and imagine the smell of pine and flowers on the forest floor.
• 
  2020-08-16

  Mask Breath and Swamp Mouth

  In 2020 it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 + Celsius) in August in the eastern area of San Diego, California. I was working as a delivery driver for Amazon delivering packages around greater San Diego County. Having been about six months into the pandemic, masks were required pretty much everywhere. For health and safety, we were required to wear those masks while delivering. The picture above shows me wearing one of the masks which is made of cotton and double layered. These masks have a sleeve inside to insert a filter. Elastic strips with a stopper on the end goes around the ears to hold the mask over the nose and mouth. Because this mask irritated my ears, I took a bread wrapper twist and hooked it to the back and tied it so it wouldn't sit on my ears and was instead tied around the back of my head. This jerry rigged mask led to a tighter fit on my face. This in turn led to sweat and moisture collecting in the fabric of the mask throughout the day which led to an extremely pungent stench because of the sweat, mucus from a runny nose, and stinky breath. The other issue that caused more distress was the soaked mask. Especially on this particularly hot day, I was essentially breathing through a wet rag. Breathing through my mouth was the only option because my nose wasn't strong enough to draw in enough air. Climbing up stairs and up and down drive ways made it more difficult to breath. I had to take intermittent breaks to pull down the mask to get air and breath fresh air. Needless to say, mints, gum, and breath freshener was regularly on hand after this day. Along with lots and lots of water.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Water, Water, Everywhere

  Looking back at 2020, and thinking about what event(s) really tapped into my senses, I needed to look back at all the pictures and videos I took throughout that year. After doing so, I noticed a common theme: water. Seeing, hearing, and touching water was a common theme for my whole family. My little ones learned that year, that it's fun to splash in puddles after a big rain storm. They learned that our wonderful state (Michigan) has some pretty awesome beaches. We also started making a point to visit local nature preserves. One we found had a giant river running through it. We found a spot to safely dip our toes and let the water wash over them, while sitting quietly and listening to the calming sounds of the river flow. The video I've attached to this is of the rain chain that runs down the side of my house. I love sitting outside when it's warm and just listening to the water trickle down. I will sit quietly, with my eyes closed, and just enjoy the calming sounds of the rain flowing down the chain. I couldn't immediately remember when I started sitting on my porch and doing this, and then it dawned on me that it started the spring of 2020 (first spring of the pandemic). When life was forcibly slowed down on us, I found myself really enjoying the sounds that nature provides, specifically, water. In a time of such stress and uncertainty, the sounds of flowing water were (and still are) so therapeutic.
• 
  2022-05-13

  Mask trash motorcycle in Peru

  While walking my daughter home from school I noticed this disposable mask next a motorcycle in Arequipa. It was about one block away from Av. Kennedy.
• 
  2022-05-06

  Edmonton high school students create company upcycling masks into jewelry

  This is a news story from CTV News by Adam Lachacz. A group of students from Lillian Osborne High School have formed a company to make use of disposable masks so that less of them end up in landfills. The company is called "Gaia" after the Greek goddess of the earth. The company is selling necklaces and earrings made from disposable masks online.
• 
  2022-05-06

  Plastic bag ban stalls in Chihuahua, a casualty of the pandemic

  This is a news story from El Paso Matters. This story is about Mexico's environmental issues that have risen due to COVID. In August 2019, Chihuahua became the latest state to ban single-use plastic bags. This changed with COVID, when household and medical waste rose to 80,000 tons per day. Fines for violating Chihuahua’s plastic bag ban range from 2,000 Mexican pesos ($97) to 250,000 pesos ($12,200). But authorities have refrained from enforcing it, noting that single-use items were necessary to meet coronavirus safety requirements. The pandemic’s negative impact on the economy and available workforce also presented obstacles, says Gilberto Wenglas Lara, director of ecology at the Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology.
• 
  2022-04-28

  There might finally be a good use for all those disposable masks

  This is a news story from Mic by AJ Dellinger. A new study published in Material Letters has found that disposable masks could be used to help strengthen concrete. The concrete has tested out as 47% stronger than concrete than did not contain traces of masks. The reason it is stronger is due to the microfibers found in masks. Microfibers used in building materials have shown to reduce the amount fo cracks and shrinkage, which can happen within the first 28 days of laying concrete. Using disposable masks in concrete can help reduce mask pollution while making the concrete itself more durable.
• 
  2022-05-01

  Mask trash soccer field in Parque de la Independencia

  This is a mask left behind on a cement soccer field in Parque de la Independencia, Urbanización 15 de enero in Arequipa, Peru.
• 2020-03-08

  How I look at life.

  It is important to talk about what happened so you know what not to do in the future.
• 
  2020-04-06

  2020 is One for the Books

  This collage represents the main events going on in our lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like one of my pictures says "2020 A Year Like No Other." I wanted to represent the election of Trump vs. Biden because it will more than likely go down as one of the largest and craziest elections in history. It divided the country like no other and is still an ongoing battle of Republicans vs. Democrats. I wanted to show the black square and the protests for George Floyd along with The Black Lives Matter movement. I added the air pollution of Los Angeles before the pandemic vs during. With everyone staying inside and not driving around, air quality improved tremendously. We gave the Earth a minute to breathe and heal. A quick photo to shoutout the flight attendants who have had to deal with some craziness on board for the last couple years. It has not been easy, and everyone needed a vacation after 2020. The media has been a huge factor and enemy for this pandemic. I wanted to show an illustration towards facts and fake news. A huge debate on that especially with my final photo of the protests on the vaccine mandates. The world is divided more than ever and hopefully one day we can reunite we can reunite and look back on this pandemic and remember to love each other and this planet. There were many lives lost to Covid, to suicide, and addiction. Rest in peace to everyone who didn't make it and my prayers with the families who lost someone.
• 
  2022-04-26

  Mask trash grifo Porongoche

  Mask trash on the street near the grifo Porongoche in Arequipa, Peru.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #28

  Help the Earth! We want Covid to end! Stop littering! Stop fires! Stop capturing animals! Stop wasting! Stop cutting trees!
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #19

  More nature
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #18

  End world pollution
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #4

  No more people = no more pollution; it's the truth