Back to Basics

Me, age 4

So, I've had this blog for just about one month, And I thought it was high time I told you a little bit about myself and what brought me to Albania, of all places.

I was born in Toronto and raised in Burlington, Ontario.  When I was 14, my dad got a job in The Netherlands, so we packed up and moved the family to Amsterdam, where I lived for 4 years until I graduated high school.  During those 4 years, I was extremely lucky to be able to travel to all sorts of places, from Japan to Paris to Tanzania.

Modeling kimonos in Japan, 1997

I spent one year at York University in Toronto, where I lived with a family and took care of their 2 children every day in exchange for room and board.  It was a tough year, as I had virtually no friends and very little free time.  By the end of the school year, I was ready for a big change.

Luckily, my parents had just learned that they would be moving to Bucharest, Romania, again because of my dad's work.

My mom and I in Budapest.  During the year I spent in Romania.

I decided it was a good time to take a year off from school and plan what I was going to do next.  My next move was back to Canada, and I spent the next 5 years in Hamilton, ON where I studied Art History at McMaster University. Hamilton was very good to me, it had (and still has) an exciting arts scene, and I was working at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and even had the opportunity to take another year off from school for a curatorial internship, which allowed me to spend a month in Moscow working at the State History Museum and The Tretyakov Gallery.

My view from behind the bar, at an opening at Loose Cannon Gallery in Hamilton

Once I was finished my degree, I felt that it was time for a change of scenery, so I once again packed everything up and moved, this time, to downtown Toronto.  I've lived in Toronto for the last 4 years, and really loved it, but I was starting to feel like the pace of life there was getting a bit too fast for me, and knew that I had to make some big decisions, yet again, about the path I was on and where I wanted to go next.

good times in Toronto.  At Les Savy Fav during nxne this summer

 In the meantime, my parents had moved from Bucharest to Prague, and then from prague to Tirana, Albania.  And once again, I was presented with the opportunity to join them in another country and figure stuff out.  The plan, while I am here, is to get to know myself again, and take the time to do the things I love to do that I had lost sight of in recent years.  This means being creative; making things, taking pictures, baking, starting to draw and write and blog again (I had a little knitting blog when I lived in Hamilton, but it is long gone...)  One of the blessings of this move is that I was forced to part with a lot of my stuff, and leave the rest in storage.  So I have the chance to start fresh, and filter out all of the distractions I once had, and really get back to the basics of what makes me, "me."

taking photos in Tirana

So there you have it.  An introduction, one month into my stay, and one month into my blog.  Thank you for being a part of this journey, I hope you stick around!