Travels | helena-long

Travels 2010-2013 (Excluding Nepal and Tibet)

Iceland. February 2013.

Sundance. January 2013.

California. November 2012.

Nebraska. March 2012.

New York. November 2011.

Just because.

My father had found a deal on Iceland Air- they were trying to lurn tourists (obviously unsuccessfully) with the promise that Iceland winter isn't that bad. My mother, father, and I set off to face the bitter winds of the north, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis.

We were met with beautiful women, freezing temperatures, and 10 o'clock dawns. Iceland is a twilight zone, literally. The sun barely comes up by midmorning and doesn't set, but fades into greyness around 8 p.m.

My family and I stayed at one of the nicest hotels in Reykjavik due to lack of tourists. Each day we ventured out into the elements. We went to museums, bakeries, and bookstores. I filmed the famous waterfall that was featured in last year's summer flick "Prometheus". We hiked along manicured walkways, trying desperately to find wilderness for our photos and footage, but failed, discovering Iceland was properly kept despite it's harsh terrain. We also unfortunaley missed the Northern Lights due to constant cloud coverage.

All in all, it was an interesting trip to say the least. It left me wanting to come back for more. (Perhaps in the summer.)

Spring Break. For the Birds.

Kearney, Nebraska. A roadtrip with my parents to the crane capital of the spring. My mother is an avid birder and it meant the world to her for my father and I to offer the trip.

I can't say much on this subject. We watched the cranes nest on the water at sunset from a closed wooden observatory. It was quite eerie to watch in complete silence and see crowds of birds land on the water in v-formations like jet planes. After enough of them got settled, they started calling to one another. Their noise hung between headache and music.

Dark fell, but we stayed, watching, not wanting to break the spell. Only by the time the sky was black, were we led from the little wooden box back to the busy roads and fast food lights of Kearney, Nebraska.

College Trip.

California. I had no idea which school I would end up going to for my college education, but I was determined for it to be in California. Every time I've visited, I've never wanted to leave. This time though, it was more of a reality.

I had three schools to visit: Chapman University, Occidental College, and Whittier College. The day I flew in from snowy Colorado to sunny LAX, I knew I could live there. First up was Whittier. A cute town, not too big with lots of palm trees. I met with the admissons director who spent all day with me. He answered my questions, showed me around, set up a lunch with the film professor. I sat in on two anthropology lessons, which I loved. I can't say I fell in love with it, but I was comfortable.

The next school was Occidental. By the time I got there, I had a terrible head cold and could barely hear what was going on. Occidental was not the school for me. It just seemed boring. I couldn't even contiune onto Chapman because of my cold, but it didn't matter. When I got my acceptance letters I was only accepted to one school and that was Whittier. I will be attending Whitter for college and was lucky enough to get a huge scholarship from them. California, now I never have to leave.

Senior Class Trip. Sundance Film Festival.

Amazing. At the top of the list, "Fruitvale", the festival winner. Two of my classmates and I were lucky enough to meet the director and cast of the film; young brilliant talent. My class and I were exposed to a ton of film, filmmakers, and filmlovers. It was a great experience and environment to be it.

The picture to the left, is an animated recreation of the most recent volcano erruption in Iceland, where I was to be travelling to the next month. The volcano was part of a digital exhbit. It was fascinating, but its message didn't stick with me.

We had just caught the festival in its last week, both a blessing and a dissapointment. Some films we had wanted to see were already finished showing. And a blizzard caused an 8 hour delay home. Otherwise, the traditional senior cinema trip to Sundance was a memorable addition to DSA's history.

College Trip.

Junior year. My friend and I thought we would get a jump on things and start our college search early. We planned out three or four colleges to visit including NYU Tish and Pratt. The days switched between sunny and chilly, and we either had wonderful days or terrible days.

New York city. It was buzzing. I couldn't keep up. I think that's what put me off from it. Everyone had their head down and were focused on getting from one place to another as fast as possible. I was getting dizzy from the chaos.

Only one of the schools appealed to me: Colombia University. But I couldn't stand to live in that city with its fast paced scene all by myself. When it came time for applications, none of mine when to the big city.

Aspen. April 2010-2012.

Cinema Class Trip.

Every year, the entire Denver School of the Arts cinema class takes a trip to Aspen for the Aspen Film Festival in April. Each year, it's great. The cinema class becomes a family and bonds. I'm going to miss my cinema class and those trips.

Florida (Disneyworld). March 2011.

Spring Break.

I went with my best friend. I'd say the trip is pretty self-explanatory. Two teenage girls who still love magic. It was awesome.