Carol Tagawa

Home in Chile

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:06:36 +0000

Not only was I lucky enough that my friend and her family let me stay at their home. They literally treated me like family. The first few days was just living life as it was lived at the Munoz household. Little brother Manu cooked amazing food. Tia came home from working at the feria to have lunch with me and then men of the house. We ate and of course all partook in a nap afterwards. Friends came over. Tea times. Drinks. And of course more and more food and sun.
This was about the time I understood the strength of the Chilean sun. I also didn’t know at the time there was hole in the ozone. Being from Hawaii, I did put on my sunscreen but I thought I could handle it. But no one handles a hole in the ozone very well…if only I knew. I was a lobster by the end of the day and for about three days following that incident.
click on any photo to open the image gallery.

Santiago, Chile

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:14:12 +0000

First day in Santiago.
Belen takes me to a mall the week before xmas.
It was people soup but I loved seeing all the different type of Chilean people.
In a city of 15 million people, in a crowded mall the week before xmas, I run into the girl who sat next to me on the plane. Out of all my travels…that was truly a first. I never seen anyone on a plane ever again. I may have run into people on planes or airports.
I also got to experience the ritual 5 o’clock tea time. We met some of Belen’s friends at Emporio de Rosio and had our drinks and cookies during this everyday social hour. I experienced the hospitality of the friend Renata who without question and only 20 minutes of knowing me urged me to visit her side of the country, at her pleasure of just showing me, in Concepcion about six hours south of Santiago.
And I almost got my phone stolen by the wachiturros.

Buin, Chile

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:06:45 +0000

I arrived in the morning after an all day and all night transit.
The first Chile did was take their $150 from me to enter their country.
After almost an hour of trying to get out of the airport and immigration being mean to me, as usual, I finally made it out. Belen said it was like a blind date. She had no idea who or what to expect. I mean, I had seen pictures of her but I hadn’t seen her in the actual flesh for 8 years. I thought about how we use to stand together in our choir class in the most air conditioned class at Moanalua High School.
I exited out of the opposite side from where she was standing and for about 10 minutes I freaked out thinking what if she wasn’t here and I would just be alone in Chile for the next couple of weeks? Sure enough I saw her familiar face standing on a set of stairs with her eyes peeled, looking for me. We made eye contact and she worked herself through the crowd as I stood there feeling the time pass and return to a meeting point. We shouted in English while having our first embrace in eight years.
After seeing their beautiful home in Hospital and getting settled. Belen took me to Buin’s seasonal feria where her mom had a spot selling things for the holiday. One-I felt like a giant. Standing at 5′6” I towered over the Chileans. Two-there were no Asian people. And mostly, it was in the 80s and awesome.

the beginning of Chile

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:32:49 +0000

Surprisingly, it appears many people are waiting for the Chile posts.
I came back to my very busy Seattle life with a cold and new quarter in effect.
So here are the beginnings. (my apologies on not being able to make up a pop up gallery).
4 hours and 42 minutes from SEA to ATL. Delta ran late as usual.
And 9 hours and 25 minutes to SCL.
It was raining in Seattle as I left. As I mentioned before, transit is an amazing place for me.
I wrote in my black travel book, not knowing what exactly I was going to take away from this trip, knowing in 16 days, I would know a different place, people and foods but not too sure who or what and how I would exactly feel. I knew I would be riding a plane again, similar to the one I was on, and I would feel different. I just really had no idea. Also keeping in mind, a different kind of two weeks than the weeks of healing my foot, deadlines, meetings and Seattle life…time and place are two funny things when put together even though they are alway together.
From ATL to SCL, I sat next to a woman from Santiago and a dude from Macedonia.
Made for good talks while we tried our best to sleep. Awaiting to wake up in Santiago, Chile.

Transit

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:09:00 +0000

Some people tell me how much they hate airports and plane rides like it’s purgatory.
I especially love these places.
It’s a marker of the first, last and sometimes only things of a place you will see.
I still remember the smell of plumerias as I walked off the plane when my dad took me home to Honolulu and the auntie-made the candy lei that was waiting for me at the gate (back when you could go to the gate). It was the first moment to the rest of my life in Hawaii.
Do you notice the kind of efforts a city puts into their airports? It’s a first impression. Especially for travelers on layovers who judge a country or city on just the few things they learn at the airport. Incheon in South Korea G-uped the shit out of the airport for the Olympics and it’s quite a spectacle I must admit. It was also the last time I saw my half-brother and his family. My sister-in-law was crying watching me go through security. We had no idea when we’d see each other again. And as of now, we still don’t know.
On the plane, I have conversations with people I don’t usually have the opportunity to. Being stuck next to someone for a few hours opens that window. Meeting people from all over the world, hearing their stories of breakups, weddings, honey moons, first times, last times, how far they have traveled, how excited they are, their grief, the excitement and learning about the place they are from, maybe a place I want to go-I love it.
I once told a student of mine who rode a handicap bus to and from school if she talked to the people on her bus. She said no. What was the sense, if she was never, ever going to see them again? And I said, that is exactly why you should talk to someone because you may never, ever see them again!
If I knew I was never ever going to see my mom or dad again, the conversations would have been different. If someone told me I would never see my favorite cashier at Viet-Wah ever again, I would be glad that I always took the time to stand in her line, talk to her and smile like I meant it because I did.
A friend of mine who was moving to a foreign country and didn’t know anyone there told me she was so scared when she got on the plane. She questioned what the fuck she was doing and she cried until she fell asleep. When she woke up, she found out the girl sitting next to her not only was from the same place as she was (being extra serendipitous since they were flying out from somewhere else) but they were going to be students at the same school in South East Asia.
I like watching people get dropped off-like the ones who dropped them off are probably someone special to them, or dependable or that last minute person who really didn’t want to do it. People who get picked up and kiss because their lover has been away for so long. Or maybe with internet dating, it’s their first time meeting…maybe even a first kiss. The people on the plane, rushing to get off because they hate planes or because they have a connecting flight elsewhere. The people at the gate plugged into their electronics dreaming of vacation or home. On an overnight flight I heard someone a few rows back crying. A trip to home or a new place was someone’s else grief. I know that maybe I might have to take that long flight to say goodbye to someone one day…
I once watched the sun set twice in day. Once in Japan and once in Hawaii. I also watched the sun set somewhere over the middle of America and wondered where I was watching it set from. And who else on ground was enjoying it.
Once I sat next to a young man from the east coast. It was his first time in Hawaii. People clapped as the plane touched ground and he shook with excitement while rubber necking to look through the small portals of first glances. When the door opened, I asked him…if he could tell me if the smell of plumerias were still there.
Transit-it’s that place that is not anywhere (but it is), a place ignored, sometimes uncomfortable and forgettable and a place where a whole shitton of people pass thru. But I guess it’s one of those things that people always like to say about life but is rarely taken into consideration beyond mere talk or the obvious-not-so-obvious….Transit…is…it’s apart of the journey and destination.

Denver, Colorado

admin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:32:34 +0000

A few hours in Denver on my way back to Seattle from Texas.
Got to see my good ol’ friend Jess.
Him being the traveler himself-we finally got to catch up in the same city.

San Antonio and Austin’s Buildings

admin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:52:10 +0000

Click on any photo to open image gallery

San Antonio- Art in these streets

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:55:17 +0000

Cut out from the wood. Some clean stencil work.
Don’t know who did this. But it’s amazing work, use to negative space and tells you a little something about the people in San Antonio. Located somewhere in downtown.
(click on any image to open gallery)

San Antonio Shelves

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:55:33 +0000

My latest travel to the South.
Came across a part of SAT I’ve never been to. Everything was the same and not plus we walked so quickly, it really was kind of a blur of colors on a brick walk way.
(Click on any photo to open the small three picture image gallery)

1-2-0-6 Mos and Talib rock a set.

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:27:36 +0000

Blackstar at the Showbox SODO, Saturday November 5th 2011. Sold out 2500 town folks.
We, the OTOW GANG (operation take over the world), had the privilege to open for them.
Here some of the flicks. Click on any image to open gallery.