Back on My Bulls**t: Providence, Rhode Island

Welcome back to my intermittent city guides

Providence: The Portland of New England!

I have a rough time with travel writing, despite travel being the main thoroughline in the Ines Bellina experience. Writers far more accomplished than me have suggested it as a niche, given my extensive years living all over the globe, my multiple trips in a twelve-month period, my inability to just settle down and act like a goddamn adult for once, with mortgages and neighborhood associations.

What they don’t realize is that this blessing (or curse, however you want to see it) has made me extremely cynical of most of the travel narratives out there. I don’t think you can ever travel like a local or off-the-beaten path—it is an ontological impossibility for the newness of the place and of your own presence in said place will make your experience foreign. You can’t will your way out of that one. Unless you experience the mundane muck of traffic, groceries, bureaucratic processes, working conditions, language immersion or alienation, stable friendships, dating or partnering or single-ing, and multiple Sundays doing nothing but sitting on your ass watching Netflix or a similar platform, and everything else that comes with whatever your daily life is now, there is no “experiencing it like a local.”

I prefer humility in my travels. I opt to learn. Open myself to discomfort and wonder. Be aware of how I might be interrupting a space and try my best to be a polite guest. I don’t leave a place with the prideful attitude of a newly-minted authority. I leave knowing the only thing I know is that I know nothing at all.

In short, I’m here for the vibes.

So why this long preamble? Because I have experimented in the past with making this newsletter a travelogue and haven’t quite found a format that suits those aspirations. So here is another humble attempt. I’m calling these Back on My Bullshit because, every time I travel, I snap a picture of my luggage in some liminal space like the Shake Shack at LaGuardia and I announce to the world that I am indeed back on my bullshit. Kicking off this tentative rebrand is the overlooked and underrated city of Providence, Rhode Island.