Backpacking Model and Biology Student

It's amazing who you can meet while taking the bus. We usually see interesting people all the time, but never have the courage to start up a conversation for fear of rejection. I sat behind Rosa and the first thing I noticed was her big hair. I wanted to take a picture, but it's hard to ask to take a picture while sitting on the bus. However, we both got off at the same stop and were going the same direction so I started talking with her. 

She's only 19, and since graduating high school she's done some modeling back east (for a street photographer!), she's backpacked all through South Asia for  3 months, and is now getting ready to start university in Calgary taking biology. Since she's Dominican and has an interest in languages, she also speaks Spanish, French and a bit of Italian. Wow. That's a very wide spectrum of interests and talents.

When I met Rosa, she reminded me of the power and the talent of our youth today. I've been recently listening to a 16 year old New Zealand musician Ella Yelich-O'Connor aka Lorde and I am just blown away by her talent. Watch her Youtube video and you'll see what I mean. 

It was nice meeting you Rosa. I hope all goes well in Calgary, and don't forget to take a linguistics course. Perhaps one day we will both make it over to Europe as well!

To photo nerds: I decided to go black and white and colour isolation because the building in the background was very distracting. It was bright yellow with red window trim. I liked the subject's jacket, shoes and hair colour, so I decided to colour isolate the second image. The blue backpack to the left is actually mine. Notice how her shoes match the bottom of my bag...

To blogger nerds: I find that the best ice-breaker to start conversations with strangers is to have business cards made up. Don't just print them off your printer and cut them up yourself. Pay the money and get them professionally done. I find that my unique MOO cards are a great way to introduce myself, and people are usually very impressed by how "professional" the cards look.