Prior to this whole JS0 thing I had never had roommates, lived on campus in a dorm or ever shared a living space with anyone other than a girlfriend or my family ever before. Moving into an apartment in Quito and living with 4 other strangers under one roof was an adventure in and of itself.  I loved the experience and got to meet some pretty amazing people that I will never forget.  Here is a little bit on my friend Laurene. She is an interesting person and I’m sure you will love her just as much as we all do.

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Jenna

1. Jenna hated Quito until two months ago when, to everyone’s surprise, she declared she was in love with the city and didn’t want to leave. Loving a foreign city doesn’t always come easy but persistence goes a long way. Our hats off to you, Jenna!

2. She excels at being a waitress. She loves the job and is great at befriending guests. There’s no doubt she will be missed at Uncle Ho’s.

3. Jenna bought a can of pepper spray and a whistle within a month after landing in Quito. Fortunately, she hasn’t felt the urge nor the need to use them.

4. An aspiring pastry chef, a funny joke teller, a light-on-her-feet dancer and a silent sleeper, Jenna is the perfect traveling companion.

5. Since we set foot upon Ecuadorian soil, she has been obsessed with Ayahuasca. What is it? Some say it is a sacred beverage usually prepared by and for shamans seeking guidance or wanting to foresee the future. Others say it’s a drug which, despite all the vomiting, gives you the best high. Jenna did A LOT of research on the subject and hopes to set upon an Ayahuasca spiritual journey.

6. Jenna is “looking for the truth.” May Ayahuasca help her fulfill this quest.

7. Another of Jenna’s obsessions since we arrived in Ecuador is Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse. It’s been a big joke all season long and, at some point, we have all joined her to watch RPATZ fighting the werewolves. Unforgettable, especially when Ryan fastfowarded the movie- dubbed in Spanish- to “get to the good parts.” Team Edward or Team Jacob? It’s a hard call…

Music has a way of defining travel moments. Here are the top four tracks that every Italian radio station, car stereo and bar were cranking the volume on.  They’re so damn catchy we couldn’t escape singing along. They’ll forever remind us of a summer unlike any other.

#4.  ”Alejandro” – Lady Gaga

#3. “Hey Soul Sister” – Train

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This week’s release brings us the next chapter in the story of Jet Set Zero: Quito. 

After Freddie and Laurene’s adventurous meeting – finding a place to live, and then climbing a mountain – they moved on to a critical next step: meeting the rest of the team. This week’s episode sees the premiere of Quito’s next two characters:  Jenna and Ryan. 

With the whole team intact they can move on to more challenges: the challenges of jobs and security.  Two aspects of life in Quito that may prove to be even more challenging than their previous mountain adventure.

NEW EPISODE HERE

(Version française plus bas)

Quito, Guayaquil… Ecuador is teeming with beetles. Behind the wheel of those multicolored little bugs are both men and women, the elderly and the youth, the trendy and the old-fashioned. Here, the Beetle is a truly intergenerational little car!

Dark green beetle

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In Italy, everyone has at least one dog. Moreover, the streets are crawling with strays. (The Catholic aversion to birth control seems to apply to animals as well as people.) The dense puppy population certainly increased my love for the country at large.

As with food and art, every country has a unique variety of canines. Being partial to the breed, I decided to stalk out the best of them while abroad. Here’s a sampling of the most adorable, tough and bizarre to date.

YO ITALY, WHERE MY DOGS AT?

Biggest Badass: Stray at Pompeii

Cutest Puppy: 6-week old rotweiller in San Remo

Best Driver: Golden retriever awaiting a ferry in Ancona

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Unplanned excursions are favored among our crew. Here’s the tale of our very unplanned, very un-cultural evening in Florence:

The fountain of Neptune, Piazza della Signoria

We had planned to go to the Tuscan wine paradise of Montepulciano after camp, thanks to our Camp Director offering to leave Courts the keys to the minivan! She had the keys in her hand and we were piling in for the road trip when she realized that the car was stick shift, which she had only driven a few times. Despite my suggestion of a quick hurl around the block to get used to the clutch, she decided it was too risky so we ended up racing to Florence with Franzi and Taylor, the two other tutors we were working with that week.

So we’re on the train and a storm hits. “It’s ok,” we said, “It’s just a passing one to clear the skies.” And then came our usual reassurance of how nice the pictures will look when the Rainbow comes out! Not quite. We stepped in to Piazza Duomo which is the main square in Florence and the rain came down in buckets. We of course were again appropriately dressed in flip flops but were determined not to let it hold us back! Why does it rain in every city we visit?! Who knows! So we gave the other two tutors who hadn’t been before the mini tour, at top speed through the rain! We went from the Duomo di Santa Maria di Fiore to Piazza della Signoria on to Santa Croce.

The rainy Piazza Duomo

Then bright star here decided to try and locate what is known as one of the best pizzerias in Florence Il Pizziaolo in Via dei Macci. After circling Santa Croce and getting us lost for a while we got there and…..yep you guessed it no table til nine thirty which would lead to us getting stranded in Florence and not being at camp the day after so…..we came up with a solution. We found a pizzeria called Pizza Man (the direct translation in English of pizzaiolo, the other pizzeria!) We learned that just as one should not judge a book from it’s cover, one should not judge a restaurant from it’s napkin! Yep, the tacky looking diner with a heart shaped pizza logo actually handed out free vino nibbles and served up a top class pizza! All without meat as they believe at Pizza Man that the true pizza was made with tomato, cheese and veggies!

Don't judge a restaurant by it's napkin!

So after dinner it was decided to top it all off with an Italian ice cream. A lesson to be learned: never buy an ice cream in the center of big tourist cities! Franzi asked for a grande ice cream and was served up a mountain on a cone!! They then charged her 8.70 for the cone which was in fact half price as it would have cost 15 euro!

Then it was time to get back on the regional train to Arezzo, our home for the week. This was the most unusual trip I have had to Florence but one to be remembered!

I don’t quite know what to say.

When the Jet Set Zero team – a team I am now fortuitously part of – first expressed even the slightest interest in me just a couple months ago, I cried. (Fine! I admit it, I’m emo.) As a sensitive, filmmaker, photographer, writer, artist type, I have been known to shed a few tears, but this was different. The usual awkward facial contortions were absent, the smile was not crooked, my brow un-furrowed – the tears just fell. This was fate. This was years of travel, beginning when I moved to Mexico at age 6, and endless revolutions in the evolution of my authentic self all coming to a head. I could just feel it.

Nowhere in the email I received did anything confirm my emotional production as at all valid. It was a feeling. A feeling that proved that my past couple years of trauma, displacement, homelessness, and the delicate balancing act I mustered to keep myself afloat was all paying off.

I’ll sum it up for you:

• In 2007 I volunteered in Kenya…
• Campaigned with a Maasai Member of Parliament candidate…
• Returned home renewed…
• Turned on the news…
• Kenya’s election has turned violent…
• My friends in Kenya, including the MP, are beaten, displaced, and one child I met dies…
• Me: “I need to do something”…
• I create A Chance for Peace – a documentary film to show that Kenyans are capable of peace…
• I lose myself within this process…
• I film back in Kenya for 1 month with one other team member and no plan other than to make some magic happen and to represent the Kenyan voice. Simple enough, right? (Right.)
• I return feeling blessed to finally feel I have a home and not just a place to live…
• My place to live catches fire and burns down 1 week later. After my birthday party. Woot.
• I’m homeless and displaced, myself, for 11 months…
• I find a home…
• Struggle to graduate after they suspend my major and cut off my financial aid…
• I set out to travel California…
• I search for jobs…
• Send Jet Set Zero probably the most unprofessional email of my life…
• And four days later I cry out of bliss for the second time in my whole life.

So now what? I no longer have school to tie me down. No reason to prove my intelligence on issues I have lived off the written page anyway. I have accepted that my home is where my heart is – and my heart just so happens to be too big for social conformism. So now what? Now it’s time to take flight, but this time to find myself and create my own chance for peace, Jet Set Zero-style.

Such is the life for me.

Check out a visual autobiography on my blog, Lessons from a Vagabond

It may seem strange to talk about season 8 while seasons 6 and 7 are still being released, but this the reality of production.  The amazing casts that we have had in Quito and Italy are finishing up their adventures, and now we’re working on pulling together another team of travelers for the next big challenge.

We don’t know where it will be, or even who the team is. yet  However we do know one thing – it will be awesome.

In just a few minutes you’ll get introduced to the first cast member from Season 8, and next Wednesday we’ll introduce number two. As far as who comes after that… well it could be you.

If being  a part of Jet Set Zero sounds like something you want to do then this is one of your rare chances.  Apply now and take the leap.

Got an idea for a location, cast occupation, cast member or otherwise for season 8? Rad.  Send it to us: web@jetsetzero.tv.

Who said “Cooking can’t be fun”?! Well, whoever that is, it is not true. Here’s the proof…

Qui a dit “Cuisiner, c’est ennuyeux à mourir”?! Eh bien il n’y a rien de plus faux. En voici la preuve…