1. 2 years ago 
    MY FIRST DAY IN LONDON (click here for pics) Europe - as has been mentioned previously, this trip of mine represents my first time across the pond here and arguably my first real travel experience. I find myself in Germany for a length of time of three months, and although I appreciate the value and integrity of my experiences here thus far my mind can’t help but wander… A couple hundred miles west of the German city of Hamburg lies Britain’s capital, London. And in North London is the N17, within which lies White Hart Lane, within which lies…well, I’m not sure words could really describe that after experiencing it. Some of you probably know what I’m talking about and can’t help but either grin or roll your eyes, some of you probably have absolutely no clue, and I’m sure there are even more people not even reading this in the first place. For some time now I have considered myself a Spurs man, a fan of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur. While in Freiburg I realized that my time in Hamburg would see me within a short trip of the former capital of the Empire, compared to the 8,000 miles from Los Angeles, and I knew this was an opportunity I could not pass up on. As the footballing culture would have it, I had been summoned to make my pilgrimage to the Lane. I was reluctant on some level to leave Hamburg and more importantly the structure of my gap-year program. However, although it was a conflicted decision, it had to be done. Things were still floundering in Hamburg - living outside the city proved difficult in terms of filling free time and meeting people, and I felt I could honestly benefit from the fresh start provided by some time away from my existence in Germany. Hopefully the exhilaration of London and traveling would prove the spark needed for a different approach toward rest of my time in Deutschland. But more on that later. And so I went. London was absolutely fantastic. I was immensely fortunate that the weather there was nothing short of brilliant - as you can see from the pictures - despite September having turned summer to autumn. Accompanying this entry are pictures from my arrival and first day in London, as I took about 2500 pictures in my 48 hours in England (no, I’m not posting all of them) and thought the experiences merited that we go through them in some detail. What an unbelievable weekend. So funny story. Having flown into London - Stansted airport using RyanAir, I’m kind of not really allowed in the UK again for six months. Unfortunately I didn’t think it would be a good idea to snap a photo of that annoying border security agent who didn’t seem to like me, so I have no visual images to share. Because I wasn’t really thinking, mostly because I was so excited to actually be in England, when asked about being based out of Hamburg I mentioned that I suppose I was a student, thinking I’m young and in between high school and college and have a student ID. Well, what she actually wanted were visa documents explaining why I was in Hamburg, and since I’m technically a tourist on “holiday” with 90 days visa-free, that was the wrong answer - I don’t have student visa papers. Woops. She ended up letting me in the country, but she also gave me the stink-eye. Anyway on a side-note RyanAir is a lot of fun. Ridiculous, but fun. So I took the Stansted Express through the countryside into London’s Liverpool St. Station, and from there decided that such a lovely day it was I should just head out on foot with my camera. I didn’t realize it would take me two and half hours to get to my lodgings, but I had nothing to do and what better way is there to see London. I finally ended up at Trafalgar Square in central London to find hundreds of others enjoying the city and beautiful weather, and just hung out for a bit. I spent that Friday afternoon perusing the sights and sounds of central London including as mentioned Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Picadilly Circus area. I’ve come to absolutely love exploring a city, just me and my camera, and I hope you can enjoy and appreciate this as well. There is something wonderfully purposeful about wandering purposelessly with a photographic companion, and I hope that sentiment translates. Obviously for me when I see these pictures again, I experience more than just what I see, but I recall the entire process that led me to take that pictures, and all that sights, sounds, smells, and feelings that accompanied that moment. So for me, everything is special. However I understand that it’s often difficult to share these experiences with me when I’m in none of the pictures, and that it’s easier to make the connection and know that I’m there with these things when my beautiful face appears in a picture or two; but being alone in London I had no one with whom I could trust the camera - for the most part. So pictures of me might be few and far between, but they’re coming…

    MY FIRST DAY IN LONDON (click here for pics)

    Europe - as has been mentioned previously, this trip of mine represents my first time across the pond here and arguably my first real travel experience. I find myself in Germany for a length of time of three months, and although I appreciate the value and integrity of my experiences here thus far my mind can’t help but wander…

    A couple hundred miles west of the German city of Hamburg lies Britain’s capital, London. And in North London is the N17, within which lies White Hart Lane, within which lies…well, I’m not sure words could really describe that after experiencing it. Some of you probably know what I’m talking about and can’t help but either grin or roll your eyes, some of you probably have absolutely no clue, and I’m sure there are even more people not even reading this in the first place.

    For some time now I have considered myself a Spurs man, a fan of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur. While in Freiburg I realized that my time in Hamburg would see me within a short trip of the former capital of the Empire, compared to the 8,000 miles from Los Angeles, and I knew this was an opportunity I could not pass up on. As the footballing culture would have it, I had been summoned to make my pilgrimage to the Lane.

    I was reluctant on some level to leave Hamburg and more importantly the structure of my gap-year program. However, although it was a conflicted decision, it had to be done. Things were still floundering in Hamburg - living outside the city proved difficult in terms of filling free time and meeting people, and I felt I could honestly benefit from the fresh start provided by some time away from my existence in Germany. Hopefully the exhilaration of London and traveling would prove the spark needed for a different approach toward rest of my time in Deutschland. But more on that later.

    And so I went. London was absolutely fantastic. I was immensely fortunate that the weather there was nothing short of brilliant - as you can see from the pictures - despite September having turned summer to autumn. Accompanying this entry are pictures from my arrival and first day in London, as I took about 2500 pictures in my 48 hours in England (no, I’m not posting all of them) and thought the experiences merited that we go through them in some detail. What an unbelievable weekend.

    So funny story. Having flown into London - Stansted airport using RyanAir, I’m kind of not really allowed in the UK again for six months. Unfortunately I didn’t think it would be a good idea to snap a photo of that annoying border security agent who didn’t seem to like me, so I have no visual images to share. Because I wasn’t really thinking, mostly because I was so excited to actually be in England, when asked about being based out of Hamburg I mentioned that I suppose I was a student, thinking I’m young and in between high school and college and have a student ID. Well, what she actually wanted were visa documents explaining why I was in Hamburg, and since I’m technically a tourist on “holiday” with 90 days visa-free, that was the wrong answer - I don’t have student visa papers. Woops. She ended up letting me in the country, but she also gave me the stink-eye. Anyway on a side-note RyanAir is a lot of fun. Ridiculous, but fun.

    So I took the Stansted Express through the countryside into London’s Liverpool St. Station, and from there decided that such a lovely day it was I should just head out on foot with my camera. I didn’t realize it would take me two and half hours to get to my lodgings, but I had nothing to do and what better way is there to see London. I finally ended up at Trafalgar Square in central London to find hundreds of others enjoying the city and beautiful weather, and just hung out for a bit.

    I spent that Friday afternoon perusing the sights and sounds of central London including as mentioned Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Picadilly Circus area. I’ve come to absolutely love exploring a city, just me and my camera, and I hope you can enjoy and appreciate this as well. There is something wonderfully purposeful about wandering purposelessly with a photographic companion, and I hope that sentiment translates. Obviously for me when I see these pictures again, I experience more than just what I see, but I recall the entire process that led me to take that pictures, and all that sights, sounds, smells, and feelings that accompanied that moment. So for me, everything is special.

    However I understand that it’s often difficult to share these experiences with me when I’m in none of the pictures, and that it’s easier to make the connection and know that I’m there with these things when my beautiful face appears in a picture or two; but being alone in London I had no one with whom I could trust the camera - for the most part. So pictures of me might be few and far between, but they’re coming…

     
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So I, Sean Kesluk, left Los Angeles for a 6 month adventure abroad in Europe and South America. After a few weeks studying the Deutsch in Freiburg, Germany, it's two months up north in Hamburg working for the city's Jewish community center. After a brief foray into Sweden, I'll head South to Buenos Aires for some Spanish classes and volunteer work in a La Boca soup kitchen. After that it's back home to the States and national service with AmeriCorps NCCC. With a month of training at the VA medical campus in Perry Point, MD, it 's off to Baltimore for my first project, two months working for The Samaritan Women, a non-profit renovating a hundred-year-old mansion to use as a transitional home for women in recovery from heroin addiction and human trafficking, in addition to expanding a farm/urban garden to distribute produce to soup kitchens, shelters, and those in nutritional poverty. The second project will see us down in New Orleans, LA doing post-Katrina work with The Phoenix of New Orleans, a non-profit which renovates homes for Lower Mid-City homeowners who can't afford to do so.
 
 

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