fiestyorange

you have no idea

2009-07-20T22:28:00.003-10:00

I've been sitting at the computer for the last 2 or 3 hours..... I'm supposed to be doing homework. I *need* to be doing this homework. I know this. but.I.can't.seem.to.get.myself.to.DO.it. I don't know if the frustration is communicated in that last sentence. This is intensely frustrating right now. The obvious question is, clearly, why don't you just do it? get it done? you'll feel better. I'm starting to really understand just why obvious questions are so annoying.
The thing is that I don't know! I don't have any idea why sometimes I just can't seem to do it. I can do anything BUT the stuff I need to do most. It doesn't even matter what the stuff is that I need to do. It can be something that I otherwise enjoy, but as soon as I *NEED* to do it - like someone telling me it has to be done, or that it's *time* to get it done, or it'll be better to just get it done now, it's like all of a sudden my hands are tied and that's it. The only thing that unties me is straight up fear. it has to get to the point of - ohmygodifIdon'tgetitdonesomethingbadwillhappentome. Then I do it. I will fail out of school. I won't be able to pay my bills. I will be embarrassed in some way. I will feel bad - really bad. Because just regular bed doesn't seem to be motivating enough. I mean, I feel pretty bad now and it's not helping me do my homework. It's amazing to me that I ever get anything done. How did I ever get through college?

It's not like this is a new thing. This has been a part of me as long as I can remember. I was telling a story the other day about how when I was little I'd be going about my day, and maybe I'd have been thinking, "Man, my room is disGUSting! I should maybe clean it up a little..." ..and of course this would be the EXACT moment that my mom would come find me and *tell* me to clean my room. disaster. Now I can't do it. Like physically painful to clean my room. Like it is going against every FIBER of my being to clean my room.

What's even more amazing to me are the situations where having someone stand there and tell me what to do is the only way I can do things! Like exercise. I *hate* getting myself to exercise, but if I have someone telling me to go run around and do stuff, like in a class, or working out with certain friends (this is also interesting - can't just be anyone), I'm super happy to be ordered around.

WHY?!!!! why is this?? Why does it seem to take SO MUCH EFFORT to do anything, and even more, why does it take ORDERS of magnitude MORE effort to actually finish a task??? Follow-through, perseverance, drive, motivation, self-discipline........ these things are tenuous and elusive for me. Like a slippery greased pig and I have small hands with big sausage fingers that have no dexterity or any ability to hold on to things. and on top of that I'm fat and slow while the piggy is quick and agile.

Right now I'm wonderig if I'm having this inertia (do you call it that is this kind of situation?) because I'm so nervous about finishing school. I'm terrified of being done and out on my own. I have no idea how I'm ver going to have my shit together enough to support myself. I hate that I'm 30 years old (almost) and I still can't take care of myself properly. Or that (more accurately) I have a bad attitude about it and I don't like the ways I'll probably have to do it. Meaning I don't like working jobs that I don't care about. I don't like the idea of having to have part time jobs that require that I have no life outside of them because it takes all my time to get enough money to pay my bills. I hate that I've spent so much time and money to learn so much stuff and when I have the piece of paper that says I can do these things, it's still not enough.

Why don't I have that drive? Why don't I have a Go GET It attitude? Why am I not money motivated? What am I afraid of? What do I think is going to happen if I do or don't do these things? I can think through all these things and I can come up with my answers - and these answers even make me feel better about getting shit done and doing what it takes, and that working hard for what I want will make it so much better once I actually get it and blahblahblah. and that's just it. it's all just more words and it doesn't get me any further towards my goal. This ethereal goal which is always looooooming out there where you can never quite poke at it, even with the longest stick you can find.

I guess I've come to think of it, funnily enough to me, kind of like I think of religious people. I've always been amazed by people who just seem to have blindly accepted this world view from their parents/families/whomever.. this is the right way to live, these are the rules, etc. EVEN when they don't make any sense. Religion provides a safe place for these people to exist. They don't have to answer these questions for themselves - it's all done for them and they can spend their time praying about how thankful they are that they don't have to think about it. I guess this is how I feel about being in school. It's so safe. I know how it works, I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm not in charge, it's expected of me that I don't know everything. I'm not SUPPOSED to know everything. That's why I'm there! I'm financially supported and my job is to have fun and learn things. I have to take tests and write papers and go to class, but that's all fine because I don't have to be out in the real world where nothing conforms to the rules of the book. and I don't have to figure out how to get someone to pay me to do what I think is fun. and I don't have to spend a bunch of time doing things that aren't fun in the meantime while I figure it all out.

Ugh. You can drive yourself crazy thinking about crap like this.

So I keep thinking, "I just wish I knew what I wanted." If I had a clear idea of where I want to go maybe I could start piecing together some kind of path so I could get there. And upon writing that just now, I think maybe I might possibly have stumbled on one of my major problems. I see an outline of what I want the end of the road to be and because I can't see anything along the path I'm giving up and throwing the compass on the ground and walking away screeching about how it's not possible... noooooooot unlike how I felt about cleaning my room as a kid (god! I still remember how angry it made me). So here I am about to have a peptalk to myself over the computer and broadcast it out to the 3 people who ever look at this thing - haha - and probably won't read this far......... I need some more interesting exclamations. So I guess the lesson here is that if I have at least an idea of where I want to end up, I can start trying to piece together a route. and I guess it doesn't really matter how it is that I end up getting there... and blahblah the journey is all the fun anyway, except that it's really stressful and nervewracking and feels shitty and terrible and I hate it the whole time. God, it's like hiking up something steep on a really hot day with no breeze and a heavy pack with terrible support, and there are swarms of all the worst kind of bugs crawling in your eyes and you're having to walk next to the most annoying person you can possibly think of and it's not even scenic except for every once in a looooooooooooooong while when you think you're just not going to go one step further and then you seem to find yourself on a flat spot and the wind is blowing the bugs away and the annoying person fell far enough back that you can't hear them and the trees clear and all of a sudden you remember why you came this way because the sunset is spectacular and somehow that gets you to walk a little further up the mountain. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO HARD?

Shark!

2009-06-30T16:42:00.002-10:00

Angelica came to Coconut with me today (it was my last day..... sad!) and we were snorking the reef by the point and...
1. saw a baby jellyfish - roughtly the size of a nickel,
2. saw a sad sick diseased giant honu that had big tumors growing out of its head,
AND!!!!
3. got buzzed by a 6-8' hammerhead (I think)!!!

I say 'I think' because bythe time it registered in my head that I'd ust seen a shark swim very close to me and that it was big, I was out of there. I don't think it was bigger than 8' but it was definitely no smaller than the same size as us, I think it was bigger than us for sure, but I can't really say. It was thick. I was SO scared! and of course, Angelica was ready to go chase it, disappointed she hadn't seen it. I was pretty impressed by how fast I can swim! by the time we got close enough to the island that I was willing to stop I was shaking so badly I could barely stand! It was pretty funny, I just fell back down into the water..

It's even funnier now that I'm wiriting this, but just a few hours ago I felt like I'd just cheated death. And upon reflection, I doubt it had even the remotest interest in us, but I wasn't really interested in sticking around to find out. Once we got back to the Point Lab, Ku'ulei told us that they come into the bay to have their pups. I'd heard that but told myself repeatedly that I'd never see any. Exciting!

Colorado Day 5

2009-06-10T17:19:00.005-10:00

Today we hiked to Copeland, Cascade, and Ouzel Falls. It was pretty great to be so near rivers for the whole day - they're my favorite!! There were many spots along the way where I'd have been content to just flop down and sun myself all day long - not even making it up to the 'destinations'.

No idea what this flower is, but it's so pretty!

I loved these bridges!

Cascade Falls

Family Portrait!

Ouzel Falls

This was our lunch spot for the day - pretty sweet view

We took a differnt trek back to the car - following a 'llamas and hikers only' trail - meaning no horses or other 'stock' - it was pretty fun - mostly walking down a little stream. We barely passed another 2 people. Very nice, great day!

Colorado Day 4

2009-06-09T14:52:00.005-10:00

Today we started out at the Bear Lake trail head and hiked to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake. We got a pretty late start, but luckily the hikes weren't very long or very steep so we were able to cover ground pretty steadily -especially once we got warmed up.

Nymph Lake was first on the trail - I think it was less than a 1/2 mile - real small lake, we saw some ducks, had a snack and then moved on towards Dream Lake. The scenery on this hike was so killer! Huge views everywhere totally made for a super hike.

look!

We definitely ran into a little bit of weather, nothing major though. Just enough to keep us from sweating or getting too hot. I really like hiking in that kind of weather.. little bit of sun, little bit of rain, some wind, repeat!
There was also a lot more snow on the trail than any of us were really expecting, which also made for a fun day. I was kicking myself a little bit for not packing my boots for this trip - I guess it shows my level of ignorance about June in the Rockies! No trouble though I didn't fall into any of the lakes and my two pairs of socks kept my feet plenty warm.

After Dream Lake, we were on to Emerald. There was a lot more snow for this part of the hike, and I was lucky that a guy on his way down gave me the hiking stick he'd picked up. It really made sliding around on the snow more enjoyable for me.

We hung out at Emerald Lake and ate some lunch before heading back down. The views were pretty special and it was hard to get myself to leave.

My favorite part of today was watching my dad stomp through the snow. It cracked me up - it was like seeing him as a 7 year old little boy back in the UP. I tried to get a movie of it, but I was a little late - the deep and steep snow was pretty much done and there wasn't much reason to stomp through it.

Colorado Day 3

2009-06-08T19:21:00.005-10:00

Today we drove Trail Ridge Road. I expected many precarious ledges and to be simultaneously scared for my life and awed by the beauty around me.

The weather started rolling in soon after we started the drive. We thought it was going to be rain, but soon found out that because of our elevation it was more of the hail-snow we'd experienced at Cub Lake yesterday. Semi-dense balls of snow driven by serious winds!

Visibility kept getting more and more restricted until we were barely able to drive because we could only see 5-10' in front of the car... but yet the road remained open! (we'd been told the road would be closed at Rainbow Curve - only 11 miles down the road)

We made it to the Alpine Visitors Center juuuuuust as the clouds were clearing. The view was so exciting and spectacular - I couldn't possibly capture it with a camera, but I did my best.

The snow was deep and when we started heading up the little trail to the top of the hill by the center, I was definitely regretting that I hadn't brought my boots -there was deep snow on either side of the trail - which was intermittently covered in slush deep enough to soak my puny running shoes.

We all made it to the top though and while we were aware of the approaching brew of snow contained in the clouds racing towards us, we managed to see and appreciate the sights while catching our breath from the climb (my RBC count must be SKYROCKETING!!!)

This area used to be a glacier field according to a sign I didn't read - I wonder if it was only 5 years ago or 50....

We road tripped all the way to Grand Lake on the other side of RMNP - pretty awesome trip, amazing views everywhere, then headed back so we could meet up with a friend of my mom's from work (Matt). The trip back was less exciting, except for just after this pic (which I'd been planning all day - wanting to capture just how deep the snow is) when I heard a big rumble of THUNDER!!! sooooooooo awesome!!! I wish it had just raged hard core lightning and fearsome snow, but alas it was a one time event as we raced down the mountain and back to our little cottage. I fell asleep in the car.

Meeting Marr was pretty cool. He's about my age and has been living in CO for a while - serious fisherman/dog lover (you know how I feel there). He had some seriously entertaining stories about fish, bears, and moose that I will take into serious consideration before I'd ever decide to move to CO and become some kind of backwoods mountain-woman. Dinner was killer tonight - buffalo burgers and root veggies! My stomach has never been so pleased.

Colorado Day 2

2009-06-07T18:47:00.001-10:00

Today we hiked the Cub Lake Trail. It was pretty easy - 2.3 miles with very little elevation gain - 700' +/- .. It was our first day out though and I still haven't really slept so there was definitely a little tension on the trail, but only at the end when Dad and I were getting hungry.

The landscape was soooooooo beautiful!!! I am so in love with mountains and meadows and rivers... sometimes it just kills me that I live in Hawaii and don't actually find it to be the pinnacle of my existence. If we had rivers (and I mean like mountain rivers, not sludgy crap streams that barely make it to the ocean and only exist on the windward side or when we have days of rain)........ I don't know that I could leave.

We got snowed on pretty quickly into the hike and allllllmost turned back since Steve didn't have his rain gear and I didn't have my hat and gloves (it was cold!) but we persevered (mostly because we couldn't see mom and dad because they were so far ahead - haha) and it stopped pretty quickly. It turned into an amazing day and we didn't have any inclement weather again until we were almost to the end of the hike.

I saw sooo many pretty flowers that smelled soooooooo good! we saw elk (maybe a baby moose), and ducks, magpie, a snake!

We were all pretty done by the end and when we headed out the only focus was food. We stopped in at the Estes Park Brewery but were sorely disappointed, the food was junk!

Dad and I are a liiiiiiiiiittle crank tonight, but hopefully we're going to sleep it off and tomorrow will be a better day.

So far I love Rocky Mountain National Park!!!

Colorado Day 1

2009-06-06T14:10:00.002-10:00

Arrived this morning/noon in Denver and was surprised to have my mom meet me at the gate. So fun! I haven't had someone meet me at the gate since I was 15. Amazing. It was nice to meet up after our respective flights. Dad and Steve met up at the bag claim and we were on our way to Estes Park. I'd had a pretty good flight. I managed to sleep maybe 2 hours or so on my way from HNL to SFO and then had awesome conversation with the guy next to me (Andrew? from Thetford, VT - wish I'd gotten his last name!) from SFO to DEN - we covered all types of issues including all the wonderful uses for acupuncture, undergrad degrees, insurance companies, consulting jobs, math, surgery, it was good fun. And he was pretty cute! It helped that I drank some jasmine tea on the plane, otherwise I'd have been braindead and cranky.

I was soooooooo excited to see my family, I jabbered nonstop at my mom (cause we were in the back seat while my dad and Steve were listening to an audiobook) for a good hour. We finally made it to Estes Park and the first thing out of Mom's mouth was that she was ready to go BAR HOPPING! ridiculous. I love it! I wish I'd brought my camera, but it's not like we did anything that interesting. We played a long, not keeping score game of bar shuffleboard that Steve clearly dominated. Dad and I fought it out for last place.

We went to 2 bars - I had a Fat Tire (yum) and a Moose Drool (fun just for the name, but a little thick for my fatigue level tonight) I definitely was a cheap drunk after so little sleep and am going to be proud if I can stay up until 8pm tonight (only another 1.5 hours!)

I'm hoping to have pics starting tomorrow!

BBQ at the Erin/Aren's

2009-05-27T10:40:00.003-10:00

Erin and Aren had a Memorial Day BBQ and lots of us headed over to join in the festivities. Everyone brought something delicious and we all had a really good time. Ian, Liz, and George came with me - we played pool and darts.

and made Leila cry by trying to give her some of Angelica's hair

but she liked being bounced!

Weeee!

It's Spring (Summer)

2009-05-17T17:14:00.003-10:00

and I spent the day inside organizing notes from my previous 2 semesters of school and enjoying the rain that was finally falling after what seemed like too many hot sunny days (I am one of those people who require inclement weather to feel fulfilled and happy). I've been obsessively listening to Ray Lamontagne, Dispatch, Brett Dennon, Mason Jennings, CeU, and Kings of Convenience lately. Quite enjoyable!

I got a brilliant idea and decided to play with some watercolors in the sprinkling rain this afternoon!

but unfortunately, the weather wasn't quite finished and decided to POUR, which ruined the cool things going on above... I kept at it though and made a semi-cheezy tree and a color wash.

Last night I made Calabrese Meatballs (YUM) and tonight DnA, Rahul, and I will eat them.

Posting

2009-02-09T23:56:00.001-10:00

I'm having entirely too much fun to even think about regular blog posts.

too bad for you.

good for me!

Kong Hee Fa Choy

2009-01-26T22:53:00.000-10:00

The moon passes in front of the sun, during a partial solar eclipse, as it sets over Manila Bay, in the Philippines on January 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco) #

boston.com

Having Fun

2008-12-31T05:44:00.012-10:00

When I landed, it was 2 deg out and there was LOTS of snow! I was too exhausted to play in it..

But I did help Dad shovel off the deck! That was a good time. It's been a long time since I've seen so many people wearing carharts..

I got to hang out with Ken and Jen - they even let me stick needles in them!

We had a nice dinner on Christmas Eve

with some new friends from London

We went into Detroit for Dad's birthday and saw the Monet through Dali exhibit at the DIA

I got to visit with my cousins

and I got to see Shelley and meet her new baby Analeise

she has some big blue eyes!

The sunsets have been beautiful

Yesterday I helped Steve and Hailey move from Ypsilanti to Stockbridge

It's amazing how much fun it is when it's not any of my stuff

Still Raining

2008-12-14T12:50:00.003-10:00

Yesterday we had a graduation celebration at school for all the people graduation in 2008 (spring, summer, fall) - very special occasion. We laughed, we cried, I was feeling the love ;) .

After clean up, Matt, Amanda, George, and I hung out at the temple. Amanda challenged Matt to a cookie eating contest and schooled him - it was probably the most I've laughed in a kitchen - we had a simultaneous jam session to keep the sugar moving.

At 4pm, the 4 of us headed out for our 5pm palm reading gig at the Okinawan cultural center in Waipio. That was a very interesting experience.

Then Matt, George, and I had dinner in Kaimuki and when we walked out of the restaurant it was POURING. It'd been raining all day, but at this point it had gotten absurd. I took some pictures on my walk to the car.

RAIN

2008-12-11T09:13:00.004-10:00

It is POURING on the windward side today! I haven't had this much fun since March 2006!! I got to get completely suited up to go out to Coconut today. Angelica gave me a ride - good thing - I wouldn't have been safe on my bike! It's like WHITE OUT conditions over here!! I literally can't see the the building across the lagoon sometimes!

The Punaluu rain gauge recorded 7.35" from 5am - 8am and it's still going! It's also so windy the rain is going mostly horizontal - maybe 30 deg off horizontal. It's a little worrisome that the shoddily crafted Point Lab might pop some serious leaks, but so far there's only one in the back room =)

Woo!

Now that's its noon I can say that the only irritation is that I have to walk to the bathroom...

A weekend on the north shore

2008-12-09T08:52:00.004-10:00

This past weekend, everyone in my school headed up to the north shore for a weekend long fresh herbs class. It was especially fun because we got to camp out for two nights right on the beach in Mokuleia.

We learned about the uses of 50 plants - some new, some we've been over before - and of course we all stood and presented our ideas on the origins of life. I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone geeked out in their own ways to answer this fundamental question. It was also wonderful to reestablish what a friendly, supportive, and open group of people I'm lucky enough to be in school with. I got to have some really interesting conversations about new research that's gone on which says that plants are able to connect with our emotional states and even across great distances will react if you're genuinely happy or sad. ..And now I know why my house plants die when I freak out that I'm going to accidently kill them.

Ian and Liz

Amy

Charyse

Josh

Shifu, Walker, Aadrien

Jorge and Matt

After the class was over Liz, Ian, and I had dinner at Cholo's and then Dave and Heather stopped in for a little meet and greet. I was practically falling asleep, but I could keep myself from watching sunset at Waimea - it was one of the prettiest I've seen!

Economics

2008-12-03T10:22:00.000-10:00

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

pretty pictures someone else took

2008-11-09T22:04:00.001-10:00

My postcard wall and me

2008-11-09T12:21:00.002-10:00

Getting postcards makes me really happy! I have now filled up the door to my kitchen closet and am expanding to the wall next to my stove. Thanks to everyone who's been nice enough to indulge my postcard demands!

Found!

2008-11-05T14:38:00.003-10:00

All of our stuff that was stolen (except for $ and Amy's wallet) on October 3 was found! I'm happy!

Update:

So the club we were at hadn't been open since the night our stuff got taken... So the owner was cleaning up or changing trash bags (can't imagine how great that smelled) and found our purses! He'd had us fill out an incident report so he gave me a call and we picked them up on Halloween! I got my journal back, my hoodie, purse, wallet, phone, keys, pen, chapstick... everything. And I promptly washed it of course!

Halloween!!

2008-11-01T13:23:00.005-10:00

Amy, Maka, Charyse, Matty, Bryan, and I went to Chinatown for Halloween Friday night. We had a lot of fun. We saw plenty of music on the street and then headed to Aloha Tower to see DJ Logic and Maceo Parker. I was dressed as Autumn, Amy as Winter, Bryan as Spring, Charyse as an evil pixie, Matty as Partly cloudy with a chance of rain, and Maka was a rastaman! We met up with a couple of other friends who were dressed as pirates and smurfs too fun stuff!

Bioride 2008

2008-10-27T14:26:00.000-10:00

Check out the new link to BIORIDE 2008

Politics

2008-10-22T23:18:00.002-10:00

Apparently I'm a Social Liberal - although there were a few of questions where I wasn't exactly sure what they were asking... Really, I'm just saying that because I don't like thinking I'm "mainstream" about anything.

Social Liberal

A social liberal believes in little to moderate government intervention on personal matters and moderate to high government intervention on economic matters. They tend to be opposed to war, police powers, victimless crimes, and what they may consider to be a corporate state or rogue capitalism. They generally support personal liberty and believe in a social safety net or welfare state. They support self-ownership and privacy. Social liberals are essentially the "mainstream" left and left of center.

Take The Politics Test at HelloQuizzy

Surfing Superior

2008-10-13T23:06:00.004-10:00

I have to hand it to my friend Pete here....

He excitedly emailed me the other day,

"The mid-superior buoy's are up to 8' and building, definitely a surf day!"

I'm thinking, it's October. The last time I was in Houghton for October, it was snowing. I can't even imagine the wetsuit it would take to get me in Superior in October when I'd lived and swam there for 5 years... and now I haven't been in water cooler than 75deg in another 5 years.. How long would it take me to defrost? How long would I sit and absorb the sauna? Shit, how long would I sit in the sauna now without even going in the Lake?? I have to admit it sounds pretty damn nice tonight! I mean winter's coming to Kaneohe and I was going to have a ginger foot soak tonight (until I got distracted... again)!

Our conversation continues as I comment that I don't know if I've seen 8' swell on the lake ever. I'm impressed he's going out.

"I think it might be a little scary today, I bet it's pretty big. If the wind is just right I can paddle out along the break wall and then drift into the swells away from the wall. The water's still pretty warm (warmer than the ocean was in July after Ronaldo's wedding)."

The 'water is still pretty warm' and inside I laugh at myself and how thin my blood has become. The next day I get the message

"Wow, it was big yesterday. I'm sure some of those waves measured 10' from trough to peak. I haven't been out in the Lake in waves like that before, it was really awesome. I got worked a lot but once I caught the feel of the place I got a lot of great rides. I wish it was big like that more often."

I want pictures! I want to see the waves and see the coldness of it and the crazy water, and little Petey riding the waves all by his lonesome - like a Great Lakes Jeff Clark! Awesome! I didn't have too high of hopes, but I asked anyway..

"It wouldn't have been pretty. I'm so used to Lake Cuddlebunny waves that these took some getting used to and I spent the 1st hour there pretty much getting tumbled and worked. But then I got some really fun rides (still not pretty I'm sure). It wasn't really a storm, just a strong wind right out of the west. It didn't last long but I think it was blowing at 35-40 knots for 8 hours."

But here they are: a few select nibbles of the Lake Superior surf scene... of couse " location is considered TOP SECRET"

PETE!

It's not 8-10' here, but it looks pretty cold and gnarley

Awesome

Fool me once... or is it twice now

2008-10-07T18:32:00.003-10:00

I'll have to check with bushy on that one..

I don't know how anyone could have missed hearing/reading about my 'exciting' Friday night a week ago, but I haven't had the chance to really tell the whole story to too many people.

Amy and I got our purses stolen off of the stage at Next Door. We'd originally set them down there because we were dancing directly in front of them and were constantly keeping an eye on them. Of course, dancing is not a stationary experience, and eventually we found ourselves out of line of sight from our things. That was that. Our things were gone and no one had seen anything. That was the beginning. We ran around trying to figure out what to do - asked bouncers, talked to the people around us, checked trash cans in the bathroom, and eventually wrote a statement to the owner who was kind of a jackass.

Anyway, after the adventure of getting out of Chinatown and back to Charyse's, canceling everything important, borrowing her car, breaking into my apartment, breaking into Amy's house, and sleeping for 2 hours before getting Charyse her car back so she could go to class.. began the fun of replacing everything.

The most fun was trying to sweet-talk the AT&T guy into letting me buy a phone without a state ID... ridiculous. The actual best part was the locksmith coming to get in to my car. I had to pay $200 for him to unlock my door (it actually took a WHILE), take apart my door, remove the lock that had once been drilled, take it back to his shop (he was out of toyota blanks), create a key from my busted lock, replace the busted lock, put the door back together, and saw off the Club. I was greatful. And then I went to City Mill and had 3 more sets of all my keys made.

In the end, I have [hopefully] learned my lesson and will remember in the future why I never liked carrying a purse in teh first place - they're just too easy to forget about (but so damn handy when you have a lot of crap to carry around!) and all I really need when I'm out on the town in money, keys, and an ID.. MAYBE my phone.. damnit - I just need all of my clothing to have cargo pockets!

quote

2008-10-07T14:30:00.000-10:00

''I don't know if you've paid much attention to the past eight years, but it has been a s---burger supreme. If somebody gives me an empty burger, it's better than eating s---.''

- Stephen Colbert

check out the article

5 years and counting

2008-09-26T11:46:00.008-10:00

Five years ago today I walked off an airplane in Honolulu for the first time. It seems like a lifetime ago. When I think back on everything that's happened in the last five years I feel like I'm a completely different person, and I probably am.

I picked out some pics from each of the 5 years - I tried to hit some highlights which was a pretty interesting experience in itself. SOOOO many memories! It was also funny to watch the progression of Dave's photography skills and then the sudden absence of any pics as I had to start remembering to have a camera with me all of a sudden - which was actually a pretty funny thing to realize had become such a habit!

2003

still in MI

1st apt on Coolidge with Nick

2004

trip to the big island with Jesse and Erica in June

Thanksgiving on Maui with Dave

2005

Jesse's visit in March

skydiving (in the un-intentional twins phase) with the REU's in July ..Claire!

Kolekole

Sunset Beach with Sean and Claire

December visit from Rosie and Special K

2006

Oh Anne... it begins

Hanauma - I really like this pic!

Camping at Kualoa with Dave, Cassie, DnA

Xmas on the summit

2007

Trip to the Big Island with my parents, Dave, and Nick

reconnecting with Anne

Kayaking to the Moks with Sean and Dave

August trip to Maui with Dave

Olomana hike

2008

28th birthday

Kuliouou hike with DnA, DnA, and PJ

Just in case you haven't seen it....

2008-09-24T11:52:00.000-10:00

Hanalei

2008-09-16T18:46:00.002-10:00

I'm in Hanalei! Most of the CRAMP lab is out here doing the annual survey of the coral reef in Hanalei Bay. Dan, Claire, and I have been helping Carl with sediment sampling and with experimental floating plants mats which are supposed to remove excess nutrients from the irrigation canals in the taro fields. It was a physically laborous day (much needed for me, I have to admit) but it was a lot of fun. I was lazy and didn't bring my camera (and scared of dropping it into the water, but Claire and Dan were using theirs and I'll do my best to steal theirs and post them later!

new recipe!

2008-09-10T17:59:00.001-10:00

I posted a new recipe on the foodie blog! I could use some suggestions on it so take a look if you're interested!

quote

2008-09-03T15:45:00.002-10:00

"The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection."

Bertrand Russell

Good grief

2008-09-03T14:26:00.003-10:00

It seems like nowadays everyone wants to blame their personality deficiencies and lack of self-discipline on 'diseases' (like obesity and alcoholism)... and now we can add another one to the list.. from the LA Times:

Some men carry 'commitment-phobia' gene

Forget the prenup. Couples pondering whether to tie the knot should proceed straight to gene testing.

Well, that's one conclusion you can draw from a study in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Researchers at the Karolinksa Institute in Sweden examined a gene allele 334 in people enrolled in the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden. This gene can affect the production of a hormone called vasopressin, which has been shown to influence monogamy in animals. They found that men who had two copies of allele 334 were twice as likely to have had a marital or relationship crisis in the last year compared with those who lacked the gene variant.

These men seemed less able to bond with their partners, says lead author Hasse Walum, a postgraduate student in medical epidemiology and biostatistics. "Women married to men who carry one or two copies of allele 334 were, on average, less satisfied with their relationships than women married to men who didn't carry this allele.

But, men, if you're tempted to use genes as an excuse for bad behavior, forget about it. Walum notes that though the study may shed some light on the genetic underpinnings of human bonding, "there are, of course, many reasons why a person might have relationship problems."

Walum's research is aimed at improving the understanding of vasopressin and its role in disorders such as autism and social phobia.

The weekend

2008-09-02T10:26:00.006-10:00

..was pretty low key for me in general. i didn't really do anything other than cook and hang with Matt and Sandra, go to the garden meeting, write a paper while watching Lost, laundry, hanged with Liz and Tyler, play with the food blog, talked to my parents and taught them how to skype (it's funny that it sounds like a lot of stuff when I list it all out)... but THEN! Sunday night DnA and I played a Settlers marathon. It was good fun even though I lost every single game. We played one Settlers of Catan and two games of Settlers of the Stone Age. I really like the Stone Age game. I've gotten a little bored of regular settlers and it's been great to try and figure out this new one. The main difference is that the board is always the same. You always have to start in Africa and then try and populate the world. Overall a very fun night of getting frustrated with probability and realizing that I have no strategy.

Monday I went to NADA in the morning and then lazed around until it was time to go to the garden and do our part of the clean up. We were set with the task of removing diseased banana trees - we filled (and I mean FULL) 11 giant bags full of trees and dead fall. We're very proud of ourselves and will hopefully be returning soon to get our root veggie section ready to go. I need PARSNIPS!!

New Blog!

2008-08-27T18:11:00.001-10:00

I decided to go ahead with (mostly) Jesse's and my idea for a food blog! check it out!

http://collaborativekitchen.blogspot.com/

Gifts

2008-08-12T21:26:00.004-10:00

So I received a (slightly) random text while I was on the west coast a couple of weeks ago...

"I think I found the perfect present for you..."

I could only *hope* to guess what this meant, or imagine what was in store for me... Needless to say, I consulted with all of those people whom I thought would know what could POSSIBLY be the perfect present for me..

we decided on food. emergency food in general. something which could be accessible in a moments notice, ready on demand, satisfying but not overwhelming....

and I received...

bacon chocolate. kalamata olive white chocolate. goji chocolate with himalayan salt. hickory almond with grey sea salt chocolate.

Honestly, there really isn't much more I could ask for in terms of salty and sweet. It's funny and it's true.

I finally went gliding

2008-08-07T19:21:00.010-10:00

So I finally relented and went to the north shore to hang with dave. He's been bugging me to have a ride in the glider since he first started going, but I was always in class on the days they went. Well, we were finally both on island last thursday (the 31st) and I was able to get up there.

It was awesome. I'm sure there have been better days and worse days, but I'm very happy with what I got.

I met Dave up at his new apartment next door to Billy and we went snorkeling at 3 Tables for about an hour before heading back to the airfield to meet up with Steve who was just returning from Maui.

Off we went! Steve was taking me on a "lesson" which meant that I got to fly for a bit, but as we got close to Turtle Bay, I got nervous as we were crossing the Ko'olau and relinquished control. Steve shut off the engine (WEEEEE! That's right kids... motor-GLIDER) and soon we were circling over Sacred Falls (these could be much cooler pics - I'm sure you could find some on Dave's blog)...

It was tricky to catch, but awfully pretty! Steve and I chatted about how it's a wonderful thing that some places are just too difficult for most (if not all) people to get to..

It was so much fun when the wind would pick up as we got close to the underside of the clouds! It was like we were getting sucked up into the clouds since we were so close to the pali even though Steve was pointing the nose down, and we'd have to put on the air brakes a bit - which was good and fun too! The brakes make me have to pop my ears for some reason. Steve was explaining to me that it's only turbulent under the clouds.. that was news to me.

Coconut!

It's not moving!! I LOVED the fact that I could look out the front window at a propeller that was sitting still. I have to admit that I definitely felt some nervousness when Steve went to shut it off.. but of course, the glider stayed in the air just fine! I was really expecting the ride to be much bumpier. I was reliving all the gas runs and such I'd made as a little kid with my uncle Philip in many 2 and 4 seater planes, but we were usually flying in the summer (in my memory anyway) over lots of parking lots and lakes - my introduction to physics...
I still got exciting enough ups and downs during my glider ride to make me squeal a bit though. I'd have been disappointed if I didn't, and hopefully they make Steve chuckle.

It was fun chatting while we were flying. He's been doing this for 50 years (in Hawaii for 12) and he says he never gets tired of looking at the Pali.. I can't imagine getting bored with them either - from the air or the ground!

We glided all the way down to Makapu'u (I think we were mostly staying at 2,400 - 2,600') - I didn't take too many pictures because it was just too amazing. I knew that my camera and my sub-par (with the guys I hang with) picture taking skills just weren't going to even come close to capturing it... and like New Zealand, I'd rather have the memories through my eyes instead of missing it all through the lens. I think my favorite part was when we were hugging the Pali and Kualoa was just to my left... I can't believe how big and beautiful that valley is. I kept looking at the ridges and the tops of the mountains, trying to imagine what it would be like to be walking up there. We could see some trails, but it's difficult to say who, if anyone, has used them in the last 10, 20, or even 50 years - maybe even longer. Steve seemed to think that it was possible that no one had used some of those trails since the native Hawaiians.

Speaking of trails, here's one I've been on a couple of times... end of the Kuli'ou'ou trail. It was much higher than I was expecting! After I took this shot, it occurred to me (much like it did on the train) that maybe the best way to capture this experience was a movie... I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before! I only took two - this is the more interesting but shorter of the two. Keep in mind that I am NOT zoomed in AT ALL!!

After this, Steve tried to let me fly the glider again, but as soon as I took the stick a wild gust came and tilted the plane too far over for my taste and while he muttered something about, "... of course it was going nice and smooth for the whole time right until I handed it over..." ahhh... funny! I did fly a good ways back towards Haleiwa once we were past La'ie though!

Overall it was a great day. After Steve and I landed (total trip time = 90 mins!), Dave did some touch and go's while my stomach settled - I didn't feel like it was exactly motion sickness, but it reminded me completely of the feeling I used to get when I was a little kid on our sailboat and our parents made me and Steve sit in the cabin during storms which I associated with stagnant air and engine fumes. The air inside the glider was moving, but it was mixed with exhaust while the engine was on - which was only for the time it took to get from Dillingham -Turtle Bay and reverse.
By the time Dave was finished I was so hungry it took all my self control to be patient enough to get to Banzai Sushi (that's right! they have a no fish no nori veggie roll and I love it!) for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening catching up on all the adventures and enlightening moments I've been having, as well as all of Dave's travels and conferences.

Hopefully I can get another ride or two after Dave gets his license (and some more practice)!

Portland! ..and the end of my trip

2008-07-23T10:00:00.001-10:00

I was surprised to see that Steve looks pretty much just like he did freshman year at Tech when he picked me up outside Powell's. It was a pretty great reminder of all the silly times we had in Wads.. It was great to hear that he's still super into plants and had finished his degree in botany. He's looking to get an internship at some botanical garden in HI (maybe Ho'omaluhia will have an opening!)!

We stopped to drop off all my crap (my bag is now super weighed down by all the delicious jam I got from Erin and Elly... I can't wait to open it!!!) and then we headed out for a sunset game of frisbee golf. It had been at LEAST 5 years since I'd last played (which was maybe my 2nd time playing) behind TJ and Ira's house in Hancock, but I surprised not only myself, but also Steve by how much I'd improved by the end of the course! I had a ton of fun! We were also surprised that we managed to finish the whole course before it was too dark to play... AND we didn't lose any discs (though they did try and escape a few times).

We went back to Steve's, loaded up my flash drive with new music for me, and then headed out on the town for the best burger ever and some beers around 10pm. It was good to get a feel for Portland nightlife and to have a long walk around some part of town that I'd probably be able to find on a map, but wouldn't be able to tell you the name of. =) We saw some crazy band play at a place called Valentine's, walked past another place that was ridiculously bust for a Tuesday, and ended up at another place that had a fireplace (I was pretty happy about that cause I'd gotten a bit chilly in the wind... poor me) until they gave us the boot and we headed back to Steve's.

We got back and hung out with Steve's roommate Matt who'd accomplished painting half of his room.. while drinking a good bit of beer! Needless to say we were all very entertaining to each other. Next thing I knew I was being filmed giving drunken acupuncture (there goes my career in acupuncture politics..)! We laughed a lot and all passed out to Blue Planet.

Now it's almost time for me to head to the airport.. and I have to say I'm not super excited to get back to HI, although I do have a lot of new ideas to get myself excited about for school. I'm hoping all of my old and new friends come to visit soon! I don't know that I've ever had so much fun on a vacation as I have on this one.. although Anne and I did laugh more than I'd ever thought possible while we were road tripping around MI.. and the gas war with Brian, Dave, and Jesse through the desert was pretty great too... hmm... I guess it's all about the freshness of the memories!

Train to Portland

2008-07-22T19:00:00.002-10:00

I had quite the adventure getting to the train station this morning! I ended up missing my bus because I was screwing around trying to find something like nail clippers to attend to my bleeding stubbed toe. I was understandably irritated by the fact that I heard bus go by and had to call Chris and Elly to figure out what to do.

I felt terrible and irresponsible because Elly had to get a zipcar and come get me and drive me to the train station. I made it with 5 minutes to get to the train. Good thing trains aren't like airplanes!!

I lucked out and was seated next to an amazing grandma named Kate. She was really great and we ended up talking for most of the ride. I realized at some point that I was in the caboose and got all excited - when I was little I was crazy about cabooses! I had to call my mom and give her the trip update, complete with caboose excitement!

It was good to voice all the things that have been coming together for me. I really don't feel like I need to move now that I've seen the pacific northwest. I've been feeling drawn to this area for the last 10 years, and had even wanted to move to this area before I moved to Hawaii, but wasn't able to find a job... but I'd never actually been here. It's been great to actually get to experience it, even though it's only for a week! Nice that I'm getting to see the best weather time of year too.. I'll have to make sure to come visit Anne during the dreary rainy season!! I love big trees in the rain!! ..and eating soup!

So while I was talking to Gma Kate, we started talking about Powell's Books. Now she's the 3rd or 4th person to tell me that I HAVE to go to this place while I'm in Portland so that's it. I'm going. And she told me she'd walk me there after we got off the train since she was going there anyway.

I made arrangements with Steve to meet him there and off we went!

We walked through the Pearl district and she left me at a soup restaurant across the street from the largest bookstore in the country.

The soup was pretty delicious and fueled me for me 3 hour stint in one corner of one floor. I looked at the Chinese language section, the Taoism section, the breast cancer section, and the self-help sex section... next thing I knew it was 5:00!!

Steve came and met me and my next adventure began!!

While I was on the train, I realized that movies were the best way to capture the experience. It was just too difficult to try and take pics. So here's a movie of one of the many bridge crossings - they were my favorite!

Seattle

2008-07-22T02:02:00.000-10:00

I had a very lazy morning today. It was great to be able to sleep in finally after all the early days since Santa Cruz. I did feel kinda guilty though that Elly and Chris had to get up and go to work, but what can you do?

Anyway, so I got a note from them to call when I got downtown and we'd go to lunch. Excellent!

I eventually got myself out the door, armed with maps and bus schedules, got on the right bus and was on my way.

I had a nice little adventure finding them down in the marketplace area (it wasn't difficult - gotta love cell phones) and we had an awesome lunch at a Turkish deli - I had a borek (?) I think, chicken and it was one of the most wonderful things I've ever had. The chicken was super moist and flavorful and it was all wrapped inside of phyllo dough. yum! We also had a square each of rose flavored turkish delight which reminded me of corn based mochi. I loved it!

After lunch, I spent my time wandering around the public marketplace. I looked at everything (except the fish) and ended up buying a new toe ring. I'd lost the one I'd had since I was 15 soon after moving to HI at magic island because I forgot to take it off... stupid!

After I got through the market, I headed down to the waterfront to take some pics and head towards the sculpture park.

I ended up getting a little confused at the park and thought it was only very small. I did enjoy some of the sculptures were pretty cool - like the metal tree and the rusty waves.

Something about the sun and the nice looking grass at the park (plus this group of girls I saw sleeping) was making me very tired. I finished walking around and found myself a snuggly looking spot to write postcards before laying out my hoodie to enjoy a short nap. While I was writing the postcards, my friend Steve called from Portland! He and I hadn't spoken since 1999! Crazy! We made plans to meet up in Portland after I got off the train. I'll be crashing at his place tomorrow night. It's going to be interesting!

Here's a pic of my toe ring for Cassie.... ;) try to control yourself!

The half wakeful nap in the grass was pretty fun. It kinda felt like being at the beach because of the heat of the sun, but there were a lot of people walking by all the time (it was quitting time and people were getting some exercise) and I really enjoyed listening in to the 10-15 second snippets of conversation as they walked by.

I was just getting a little restless when Elly called saying they were going to be heading home soon and did I want to have some Thai food tonight.. it's like she read my mind! I love Thai!

I had a small adventure getting the bus back to Chris and Elly's house (missed it and didn't know I had to catch the next one in a new location!) but it was all good and they'd been considerate and had waited for me before eating.

I got to meet Chris, Elly, and Erin's friend Anne Catherine (strange to meet another anne catherine from seattle..) who's a chef - interesting stories from cruise ship living too!

The food was good and spicy and overall I'm just pumped that I got to come up here and see another wonderful possible place for me to consider living when I'm finished with school.

These are the cherries that we picked yesterday before we left Hood River for good!! I didn't want to stop picking!! They look like jewels.

Decision Time

2008-07-21T01:59:00.000-10:00

This morning we had another world class breakfast and all got going a little later. We had to decide who was going where with who - well, I had to decide where I was going. My three choices were: 1. go back and couchsurf in Portland by myself so I could get a feel for the place, maybe catch a couple herb classes at OCOM, 2. head to the coast with pete, laurie, and tony for surfing and camping, and 3. head up to Seattle with elly, chris, and erin, get to see WA and then take the train back to portland to fly out wednesday.

I decided to go with #3 for a few reasons - mainly that I didn't have any camping gear, and I wasn't sure I could get a ride back to pdx for my flight, I've always wanted to see Seattle, and the train ride sounded like more fun than I could handle. Plus, I wanted more time to hang.

We bummed for the day, I treated Elly, we headed to Ron and Meredith's to hang with them for a bit, then all caravaned into Portland for dinner before the final separation for me. Dinner was excellent and all to soon I had to say good bye to Pete, Laurie, and Tony.

The ride back to Seattle was a good time though and I got to talk a lot of story with Erin. It was interesting for me to realize on that ride that even though I'd been friends with all these people for almost 10 years, I didn't really know them all that well. We'd all been around the same people, been at the same parties, maybe even worked together, but I'd never really sat down and had a real talk with any of them. It felt really good to be getting the opportunity to do that throughout the weekend and especially on the car ride to seattle.

We didn't get in until very late and we were all pretty excited to get to sleep.

Ronaldo and Meredith's Wedding!

2008-07-20T10:18:00.001-10:00

This was the view where the ceremony and reception were held. The building was a log cabin style big fancy house that I think can be rented for vacationers and such. Whatever it was, it was beautiful.

We'd all gotten snazzed up for the event (I actually wore my big-ass heels that I got with Jesse, but forgot to ask anyone to get a picture of me), so I made sure to get some really good pics of people... looking into the sun. Special K made my favorite face =)

A lot of my pics aren't perfect lighting masterpieces - I wanted to get both the mountain and the people which isn't really possible. I'm too lazy to spend the time figuring out the gimp so until I do, I have to deal.

Rose, K, and Chris are looking pretty!

As are Pete and Laurie.. (thanks Chris)

So the ceremony was super cute, our hearts were all swollen and we were teary eyed by the end, but the huge smiles all around told the real story.
Ron and Meredith are organic basil farmers, so instead of flower girls, they had basil kiddies spreading fresh basil in front of the bride. I have to say it was the most fragrant wedding I've been to.

Speaking of fragrant, I don't know if I've ever stuffed myself so completely at a wedding. The food was fantastic. It was partially catered and partially potluck style. I couldn't get enough!

In the end, the band was energetic and fun and lots of people were dancing around. Ron's parents stole the show as they were doing their best Fred and Ginger impressions, entertaining all of the guests with their energy and obvious joy. I even got to see some older people doing the twist! I had so much fun - especially cause I got to wear my new hoodie!!

I will say that this was one of the most fun weddings I've been to.

Hood River Livin

2008-07-19T17:09:00.002-10:00

After last night, I knew I had to get something warm to make sure that I was going to be able to have fun after the sun goes down tonight. We all made plans to go check out town after one of the best breakfasts EVER (I love that all my friends are foodies like me). I wanted to buy a hoodie at least and we were all interested in a little wine tasting before the wedding.

We also ended up getting to catch a little of the Gorge Games which were going on in town while we were there. We caught a slalom skateboard race or two on the way to the Full Sail brewery where I finally found the perfect hoodie! YAY!

I have to say that it's awfully nice here. I really like this town and it's whole feel. I can't help but think that this is pretty close to the kind of place that I'll be looking for some time in my future (after school and all that). I'm finding that I REALLY like Oregon.. enough that I'm feeling a strong sentiment of "fuck california!" I don't really want to live there! If I keep feeling this way, then I'm really not going to worry about switching schools or wanting to practice in cali. I think I'd want to be just a little more north.

Anyway! After town we wandered to a few wineries and enjoyed some fine samples. In the end, we all liked Wy'east the best (I think) and ended up staying for a while until it was time to get dressed and get the show on the road.

Girly Squealing Galore

2008-07-19T09:35:00.002-10:00

I met up with Petey and Laurie at PDX and we headed out to Hood River. We made our way to the Draper Girls Farm where we were all (me, pete and laurie, chris and rowzee, erin and tony, and elly and chris) going to stay for the weekend.
We all knew the farm house was on a fruit farm, but the number of cherry trees was pretty awesome - as was the view! Plus there were raspberries, blueberries, and later in the year peaches!

I always get excited to hang with friends so a gathering of this many definitely got me going!!

We all had some wine and chatted (that's Erin with me at the picnic table) until it was time to head back into town for the rehearsal dinner.

No one really knew what to expect cause Ron's quite the unique character... what kind of wedding is this going to be??

The dinner was to be held at the White Buffalo on the other side of the highway from downtown Hood River.

We got there pretty much on time. We all got ourselves some drinks and sat around meeting up with a couple of people we hadn't seen yet (like Special K!) and talking about those who were yet to show up (Chris and Elly). Most of all we were reliving Ronaldo stories and whether or not they were appropriate for a family audience... ;)

Rose, Pete, and Tony had a list going and when we sat down to eat, the games began. We had all been tending towards the idea of having to self-censor, but the moment Ron's dad got up there and started talking, we knew it was all going to be pretty much fair game.

It took a while before Rose, Tony, and Pete got a chance to take the mic, and we were all cramped with laughter by then too. I've never been to a wedding or rehearsal dinner where the story telling and toasting was all aimed at being more of a "roast" type of event (started by the parents) rather than a sentimental summation of who the two are and how they're perfect for each other. We got the same image, but mostly through mischief!

I have to say that I've never laughed so hard at anything like it. The stories were so much fun, I wish I could have recorded them.
All the silliness was especially effective at making me feel like I knew Ron and Meredith much better by the end of the night than I had when I showed up a couple of hours earlier. It's always fun to meet people's parents as well, and man, Ron's parents were hilarious!
Also, Chris and Elly finally made it in from Seattle after getting stuck in some serious traffic. Unfortunately, they missed all the stories, but were still in time for plenty of beer and pizza!

In the end, we (mostly me - I wasn't prepared for the sunset temp drop) succumbed to the cold and the wind (damn the wind!) and headed back to the farm armed with two most giant pizzas that smelled delicious. There we had a nice fire and ate loads of cherries!

I surfed his couch

2008-07-18T23:15:00.001-10:00

So when i got off the plane in Portland, I had my first adventure of traveling on my own. While I was at jesse's, I'd written down all the directions I needed to get to Mike's house in Portland using the public transit. It worked surprisingly well! Imagine that, public transit isn't frustrating places other than Hawaii...

anyway, I made it to this house and met some interesting people. as I didn't take any pictures, I think it'd be difficult to really say too much about them other than I didn't know any of them when I got there, but i soon found out that they were great and I felt very comfortable. I got out the door at this morning and made it to the open house at OCOM which was very interesting.

I was quite excited listening to OCOM's clinic guy talk about their research program until he said that most students don't have time to participate. junk. Other than that, it was good stuff overall , but while I was expecting to feel a resonance with the school or the people, I found myself getting excited thinking about changes to ask about at WMI.

after I was finished at OCOM (and after running into makin'bacon's brother - random!), I was off again to PDX to meet up with Pete and Laurie (YAY!) and off to Hood River.

Flights to Seattle and Portland

2008-07-17T23:47:00.003-10:00

Jesse dropped me off at Oakland Airport this morning for the start of the second part of my west coast adventure.
All I could see out the window of the plane were all the places in California that are on fire. I used some dave and jesse tricks on this pic to above so that all the stuff can be seen better.

For some silly reason, I had to fly to Seattle in order to get to Portland - I was slightly annoyed by this until I was actually flying over Northern California and realized that I was lined up perfectly to see many of the Cascade volcanoes.

It's so fun to have my geo-buttons tickled every once in a while!

Say, hello! to Lassen..

This one was so interesting because it looks to me like a much steeper version of Haleakala with glaciers. So interesting to see all of the vegetation stop at such a distinct line. Lassen's summit is at 10,457'. I didn't know that Lassen last erupted in 1914-1915 (after 27,000 years of dormancy!!! who thought that was even possible??!!)- if you're interested I encourage you to read about it on Wikipedia! I thought it was pretty cool.

I couldn't believe it, but i got to fly over Crater Lake too! The air was a little too hazy for me to be able to get a really good shot, but there it is!
I was surprised to see that there were places that still had snow.

Three Sisters, tallest peak is South Sister at 10,363'.

Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams

Mt. Rainer

I later found out this stuff on the water is a red tide.. I kept looking for a very silty river flowing into the Sound and imagine that, but there isn't one.

It was pretty interesting too see all the shapes the algae made. Actually red tides are caused by some kind of dinoflagellate if i remember properly from botany class freshman year (what a cool class!)

When i got into Seattle, I had enough time for a bread boule of chicken noodle soup (it was ok) and an Alaskan amber... oh man that was delicious.

It was also very interesting eavesdropping on the conversations at the bar. The bartender and one of the guys at the bar (i have to say the patrons of this particular bar were not the sharpest) kept talking about what one of the women that had been sitting at the bar would look like without her labcoat on (she was a chemist).

Anyway, the beer was good, I texted a hello to anne from her city, and I managed to make my plane to Portland with no problems.

I was on a little prop plane to Portland and I got some more cool shots of the red tide and the cuts boats made through it ...

And lastly this cool riverbed.

A Walk To the Beach

2008-07-16T07:35:00.007-10:00

Yesterday, I woke up lazily many times between 7 and 10am, but finally got myself off the futon by about 10:30. I putzed and ate breakfast, checked my email, and began again the process of festering about my future which has been plaguing me for the last 2 months. I wasn't getting very far, so I decided I needed to get out of the house and see a bit of Santa Cruz on my own. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go for a walk with the camera, or go for a short run, or try and fit in both with a shower (I'm an indecisive girl, my poor gall bladder) .. so I decided to go for a long walk after a shower since it was getting late.

So I grabbed the camera and after starting out and getting all excited by one of Jesse's neighbor's plum trees, I found that I'd forgotten the memory card in Jesse's computer and had to run back for it.
I was so amazed by peoples gardens here! They have so many fun plants! The other day I was walking to the Food Bin (while talking to Anne) and managed to stop and smell almost all the flowers. There are so many roses in this town it's ridiculous. And they all smell amazing. Anyway, back to my walk. It was also, excitingly for me, succulent garden paradise - so many cute little cacti to pinch!!

I LOVE hens and chickens (that's the name of the plant pictured above). It's a great one to pinch - although you have to be gentle! There were many more, but my pics weren't always on..

Then I found a magnolia tree. They are so amazing. The flowers are HUGE! I took a couple of scale pics, but they're not pretty.. this one is though!!

I made it to West Cliff Drive and walked along the ocean, enjoying the wind and the cool air. I watched some surfers for a while and was amazed how different surfing in Cali is compared to Hawaii. I don't know if yesterday was just an off day, but the waves move so SLOW!
I passed the statue of the surfer and stopped to watch a couple of otters play for a while. I snapped a lot of pics, but the Z1 sucks at focusing while zoomed in far, so only 2 of the 10 or so pics I took turned out. They looked like they were having fun.

Once I got down to the main area of the boardwalk, I got myself a small icecream (oh yeah) and found the best eye-candy appreciation area I've ever found. Unfortunately for me, I'm a chicken shit and was too shy to blatently take pics.. maybe I'll go back today....... hmm.... anyway! I stopped there and wrote some thoughts about my to move or not to move situation for a while before heading back to Jesse's to make some butternut squash soup. All in all it was a great day.

Shoes

2008-07-14T10:54:00.001-10:00

Yesterday, after my San Jose Five Branches visit, Jesse and I went out for Brazilian breakfast food (yes, even though it was 3pm) and it was DELICIOUS.
Across the street, was a vintage clothing shop and Jesse, always on the look-out for burning man garb was on the easily talked into being on the prowl. Little did I know that I was going to be taunted by a pair of 3 or 4" platform sandals... luckily they were only $10 and I'm hoping I can turn them into some kind of halloween nonsense. Otherwise I'll have to wear them to clean the house or something.

Anyway, they couldn't fit me better (imagine that cause they're size 6) and Jesse (always quick with the compliments) was there to remind me how good they'd look with a mini skirt (If I ever got the nerve to don that kind of outfit) for when I'm on the prowl for a man over 6' tall.. I'm down with that!

Wow.

2008-07-10T15:54:00.002-10:00

I didn't know about this, but it's hilarious and you should watch it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnZb5wi_jsU

Just another day at the office

2008-07-10T14:28:00.002-10:00

Today we had another field trip at Coconut. We took a boat out to 'Sunken City' and snorked around. It was great. The water was warm and there were lots of corals to say hello too. Visibility wasn't great, but we're in Kaneohe Bay, what do you really expect?
The Sunken City is the rusty remains of what looks like a gazebo. Years ago it sunk beneath the ocean and has since become encrusted with lots of coral and provides a fun little play land for the surrounding fishies.
We brought a waterproof camera, so I'm hoping I can steal some pics and post them later!

I really like old people

2008-07-04T23:01:00.003-10:00

For the 4th of July this evening I went over to my friend Ann's house (not Anne, but Ann whom I work with at Coconut) and had dinner with her and her parents Elin and Fred (Fred volunteers out at Coconut). It was one of the most delicious homemade pizzas I've ever had with super tasty date bars for dessert. Yum. And ginger green tea for after dessert.
It was so nice to get some surrogate grandma and grandpa time. I really miss my grandparents. They all died WAY too young for my taste (although my grandma Ross was 92, but I was only 21) and I don't feel I got enough time and stories from them. I just love listening to feisty old people telling me how it was back in the day. I can't help but think about all the things that it was expected for people to do by hand, and how things like cars weren't taken for granted, and the different ways people thought of education and what was considered valuable. It's difficult to hear their stories and not look around and feel like we, as a country, have really gone down the toilet. I love that older people, and especially the feisty ones are just as mad about everything as people my age, only I think that more of them are better educated than we young people are. Even with all of our technology, I don't feel that most people my age use it for learning about current events - myself included! I only listen to 1 news program - it's all I can handle! Much more than that and I get all depressed.

Anyway, my point was about grandparents and how hanging out with old people has always made me happy. I remember the old guy, Jack, who used to rent the upstairs of my grandma Ross's house. I used to really like to go up and hang out with him and watch tv. I don't remember what we would talk about, I just remember I liked it - probably because he liked the company and let me be myself.
Since my last grandparent died in 2004, I've distinctly felt their absence. I like that once people get over a certain age, they really don't care what the rest of the population thinks and they pretty much do what they want to do. They've (hopefully) found the things they know they really like in life and they're trying to soak up as much as they can with much enthusiasm. And they enjoy young people so much it seems, especially grandkids and anyone who's interested in the stories they have to tell.

Sitting on Elin, Fred, and Ann's lanai watching the marine corps fireworks tonight was just perfect. They live right on Kaneohe Bay and the reflections and breeze off the water was just the most pleasant thing I'd felt for a while. Something about some old people's houses is so comfortable to me. It feels like a home I guess. Not an apartment that is a transitory place. Not a new house that was just moved in to, but a real home full of lives' worth of history.

Garden!

2008-07-04T16:11:00.000-10:00

I wish I would have brought my camera to the garden with me today, but unfortunately it didn't occur to me that the before and after was going to be so AMAZING!! I kick ASS at weeding. I'd forgotten the tenacity with which I can pull unsuspecting little plants from the areas they're not supposed to be inhabiting. All the little old ladies were impressed.

So we (dna and I) now have a 7' x 14' area swath of soil waiting to be sown with all kinds of beautiful and delicious little living things for us to eat and enjoy! We will love them, tend to their every need, nourish them, and then.. then my friends, we will eat them! I imagine that's the attitude of livestock farmers (owners? ranchers? whatever they're called). Anyway, I'm very excited.

quote

2008-07-03T13:11:00.000-10:00

from Quotes of the Day

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

-Rick Cook

I love anything that says that stupid people are multiplying at a scary rate!

letter

2008-07-02T02:16:00.002-10:00

I'm getting very bored of my current situation of limbo. I don't want to think anymore about where I'm going to be living, how much it's going to cost, whether my education is good enough, how much do I like Hawaii, do I want to go somewhere else... and all the weighing and sorting of my life. Totally bored. I don't want to talk about it anymore which is making me not want to be bothered with making any decisions. Unfortunately, I've taken that road a few too many times recently and am disgusted with that as well. And all the times I have this same set of thoughts I've just laid out I'm left thinking that it's such an annoying, crazy, interesting, weird place I'm in right now. Everywhere I turn I'm confronted with things that I both don't want to look at but can't help but see the overall lesson that I could take away if I just dealt with it. It's great! but completely irritating all at once.

So a friend wrote me the other day asking how everything was going for me and I was surprised at what came out of me just a few minutes ago and I decided it captured a vantage point that I hadn't seen before and I wanted to share it:

It's been so interesting the last couple of months. really quite ridiculous, as no other description works for me. Everything in my life continues to behave in a sort of suspended, oscillating reality waiting for me to choose my own adventure and I'm finding that I've been trying very hard to worm out of the choice for a long time. Only now I'm completely cornered and it's time that I accept responsibility for my life, but I'm still looking for a way out even though I know that the only way out is to make my choice. I just wish there was some way of knowing that you made the right choice before it's too late.. but then I guess that's why there are those people out there who are always saying that it's never too late.

Couches Couches Everywhere

2008-06-29T09:12:00.006-10:00

So I'm assuming (with full knowledge of what assumptions do to you and me) that some people out there aren't fully knowledgeable about this phenomenon called couch surfing. It seems that recently any kind of 'surfing' is considered (to borrow from David) the cat's pajamas - you know, the ocean, the web, and now couches.
So last week-week and a half ago, I picked up my first 'real' couch surfer (the first first one was Jon, a friend of my brothers and because I kind of knew him already, I'm not counting him) Amenala. She was coming from Australia (originally from MD, but had been living in OZ for the last 3 years or something) and was an interesting girl. She taught me about WWOOFing which I find very exciting.

Friday evening, Ayumi found her way to my road. She is GREAT! She's Japanese, but spent the last 4 years in New Paltz, NY (?) learning print making.. I had one of the most fun days ever with her yesterday. It was so easy to hang out with her that it felt like we'd been friends for long time. We snorkeled all over Sunset beach - I was surprised how much there was to see - and 3 Tables (although there were so many little kids around it was definitely a Rubber Ducks day). I was hoping there would be some turtles out since she was so excited to see one, but no such luck. We figured out that it's much more fun to try and take bad pictures than good pictures.

I couldn't let go of the turtles though so we had to head to Laniakea. I was about to show her how to feed the turtles when these bitchy highschool girls came and STOLE them from us. I couldn't believe how rude they were... oh well.

Then we headed into Haleiwa and had the best dinner at Banzai Sushi.. I'm totally in love with their no nori veggie roll. I think I could eat 3 or 4 of them. We had a contest to see who could get the most mosquito bites after putting on the restaurants bug spray - Ayumi won (10-7) and was quite proud of how much healthier she was.
We had a nice sunset at Waimea where I got to teach her what 'ripped' meant. I was sad to drop her at the Pupukea hostel, but I"m hoping that wherever I find myself at the end of this year, she'll come visit again! And maybe, just maybe, I might find myself saying one day.. Hmm! I think it's time to check out Japan.

Anyway, yesterday was just the kind of easy fun-ness that I've been needing to get me out of my apartment and into the ocean! It was also wonderful to meet another young woman who is so comfortable with herself and her own ideas (like my chumbapie!), I've definitely been learning how rare the opportunities are to really get to share myself and my accumulated wisdom and get to peek into someone else's too. Plus, I have an odd sense of humor and finding other people who either get it, are ok with it, or just have their own odd humor is more fun than I'd ever put together before. Such a good day or laughing, playing, and learning. What more can you ask for??

Book 5

2008-06-13T01:28:00.003-10:00

So David and Jesse both told me that book 5 of Harry Potter was not their favorite... but I have to say while it went much slower than any of the other books, I felt much more connected to it. Definitely not the happiest of the books, but I thought it was really really good.

A Sweet-Ass Friend

2008-06-02T20:44:00.003-10:00

haha.. I'm so clever with my puns...

SO! last week one of Anne's best friends (get it.. sweet.. I'm so bad), Jeff, took a little stop over on Oahu to check out my school. That made for some interesting conversation as you can imagine, what with my current state of mind about everything. Anyway, he turned out to be pretty fun after a short getting acquainted period (what else would you expect after a recommendation from Anne and all...)! And even though he was only here for a short 24 hours - which we spent wisely at lanikai juice, school, and kalama beach - I felt like I made a new friend. Good shit!

Life's got something devious in mind

2008-05-31T11:11:00.006-10:00

Soooooo..... my life has been seeming to take things into it's own hands lately, and I've been scrambling to find a way to keep up while still getting my own say in! I've really been feeling like I don't know how much more change I can handle, while at the same time feeling halfway detached from it all. This last part has really thrown me, but it's kinda nice because I feel much more relaxed about everything that's been happening than I would have in the past. So I guess that's a good thing.

The newest addition to the worm-hole of my life (I'm not sure if this is a good analogy - I'm trying to invoke images of not feeling control over anything but more like just being along for the ride and things are moving really fast and changing direction whenever they feel like it - maybe the Harry Potter Knight Bus is better for those who get the reference) is that I'm seriously considering leaving Hawaii to move to Santa Cruz. I'd be leaving my school and transferring to a new one over there that I think will suit me and be more along the lines of where I want to end up with my life.

This change has many implications and complications that I'm not super excited about dealing with, but as with all the other change I've been going through, I'm finding that I'm having a pretty easy time looking at those annoyances as worthwhile lessons to learn and that those things I should know how to deal with anyway. So why not just get it over with so I can move on??

I'm seeing a lot of advantages and exciting things to moving to California - closer to family, cooler climate (yay soup!), better quality food that is cheaper, more alignment with my personal philosophies mainly environmental awareness, better quality education, get to hang with Jesse..

but also some disadvantages - cold stinky ocean that I won't be able to play in, not as pretty mountains, loss of spiritual component of school and fresh local herbs (you know, the reasons my current school is great), won't get to live next to DnA anymore, won't get to live by myself, MOVING SUCKS, having to sell all my stuff (especially all my new apartment stuff!!)...

I think the stuff on the advantages list weigh a bit more heavily. And I've found myself able to say for the second time in my life (first time was when I moved here) that if I'm not happy, I can always come back to Hawaii.. It will still be here. BUT! with the way things have been going, I might have a completely NEW new plan in a week. We'll see!

Piling it on

2008-05-24T12:33:00.002-10:00

Things at school have gotten interesting. A bunch of people, including me, have become increasingly unhappy with the way the school is being run and how it's affecting the quality of our education.

It's a long story and as soon as I feel like getting into it I'll be updating.

Oh Boy

2008-05-22T01:17:00.002-10:00

I think it's going to be a rough couple of weeks... just finished book 2... yeah...

Jesse pretty much pegged it - the first few books you can read in a night! yikes. I need to control myself so I can read on the beach!! These books are like crack!!!

I wish I hadn't heard Jess and David talking about it last week though.. of course I don't know for sure, but I feel like I've got it all figured out. Hopefully I'm wrong.

So far my favorite thing is how everyone in the books can't stand the annoying characters... it doesn't seem to get old. I might have to start asking some kiddies I know what they get out of these books. I'm curious to see how it's different (if it is) from what older kids (I don't know who we think we're kidding that we're not all still kids) get.

I might have to move to Washington

2008-05-21T14:32:00.004-10:00

Look at this!!

Potter

2008-05-20T22:32:00.003-10:00

I've been sucked in.

I got the first harry potter (which I keep spelling happry potter for some reason) book from the library sunday. I had low expectations (which is nice) but the damn book kept me up until 3am.. made monday sweet. Anyway, I finished it last night and promptly returned it and checked out the next 2 this afternoon.

I have a feeling it's going to be a brain-candy kind of summer! I have to keep Anne and Jesse's advice to pace myself in mind though. I think it will be easier when the books start getting thicker.

Lots of Learning Going On Over Here

2008-05-19T23:56:00.002-10:00

and this poem by Max Ehrmann, which I first read maybe 10 years ago, eloquently sums up a lot of things that I find all too easy to understand, but much more difficult to live by. It's interesting how many times people have to learn the same lessons over and over again, huh?

My Day With Jesse!

2008-05-13T22:28:00.010-10:00

I got the pleasure of Jesse's company the last couple of days!

We stayed up late debating the finer points of family politics and back-walking Sunday. Then after waking up, getting ready, and eating cereal, I decided that I had to skip Coconut and spend time with this fine friend that hasn't been to these parts in a long 3 years.

We got a little bit of a late start, and should have maybe consulted a map before we left, but we made it to Ho'omaluhia with no problems other than sweaty bodies. Jesse was a good sport and didn't give me a hard time about not knowing how far it was or that it wasn't going to be a lovely walk. AND! He took pretty picture of plants for me!!

That top one is the coxcomb flower which we just learned in Materia Medica a couple of weeks ago. I'm ashamed to say that I don't remember the Chinese name of it.. although I could go look it up...

Then we have the banana flower over here... I love the bananas!

I'm not sure what this one is, but after talking about how the bougainvilla is a trickster and makes you think that it's leaves are the most wonderfully colored flowers, we were ready to call this guy out for trying to be sly.... little did he know that we were wise to his tricks. It was nice that the leaves were all soft and fuzzy (like a hairy-tits we know??)

These are what I learned as 'lipstick' palms, but the botanical gardens called them something else that I've blocked out. I just love the red-orange (my current favorite color maybe) next to the yellow green. It just does it for me, I guess. Try not to be too distracted by my pasty white arm molesting the tree...

We saw some more banana flowers and got lots of mosquito bites before it started sprinkling (nice break from the noon day sun) and we moved into the next part of the garden....

I'm not sure who this flower is, but I love how Jesse got the super up-close-and personal view of it.

THIS! is my new desktop pic! I LOVE MONKEYPODS!!! I want to have one in my pocket (next to Anne - she can enjoy it in my pocket too) so I can pull it out and sit under it reading a book or take a nap whenever I want.

I mean, who could possibly get tired of that view?? Think of all the birds playing around in there and the wind moving the branches and the leaves and all the shade on a hot sunny day... *sigh*

After the monkeypod we walked through a grove of Awapuhi - the shampoo ginger and saw a couple of nutmeg trees. This was very exciting for me as nutmeg is one of my favorite spices!

Then we stumbled into an area of spiky palms - which I also read the name of and promptly forgot. Damnit! We decided it must have some delicious fruit though to have to protect it like that.

After that, we were pretty much focused on a safeway sandwich and a beer of some kind, so we headed back towards the visitors center with a stop at the thorny tree.

Jesse made friends with a giant pea pod - separated at birth - Jesse and Kokopelli...

And, of course, on the way out of the garden, we saw in someone's yard, the quintessential picture of Hawaii... the plumaria.

We had a long walk back but were rewarded with juice, sandwiches, chimay, and a ride home from the store from that sexy neighbor of mine..

It couldn'thave been a finer day - or night - especially with the nice needling Jesse got to enjoy!

An Awkward Saturday

2008-05-12T21:26:00.000-10:00

Well, I'm not going to lie, this past saturday was both a good and incredibly BAD day.

It started out good enough, I hung out with Jorge and Shane out at Shane's family's camp out by Mokulēʻia - nice day, a little windy, but we played in the sand and ate li hing fruit salad - WHICH I can't believe I never thought of!!

Then I bought my Heather Brown art , had a nice 2 hour chat with Mom and Dad, before heading up to Billy and Dawn's to wish a happy 40th to Dawn with a bottle of wine and help pick out party music.

That's pretty much when it started to get crappy for me which really sucked cause I was wanting to have a fun firetwirling party with some friends. Luckily (or not) only a couple of people from school showed up so I didn't have to feel too bad about being so anti-social and angry.

Nevertheless, it was great to catch up with Jesse and have a word or too with Brian while completely avoiding everyone else.

Angelica and Jesse also managed to get some pretty pictures which I will shamelessly post for my own enjoyment!

Saturday turned out to be a big lesson day for me and while it wasn't fun, it was necessary, and I appreciate it for that even though I wish it didn't have to be that way.

Hopefully I won't have to repeat this one too many times!

Oh Baby..

2008-05-11T22:27:00.000-10:00

I bought a massage table today!!!!

kuliou'ou pics

2008-05-11T19:03:00.001-10:00

have been uploaded and can be looked at in reverse order (no idea how to get it right on that dirty flickr) here!

Art!

2008-05-11T10:49:00.004-10:00

During my trip to the north shore yesterday, I stopped at the Heather Brown gallery and bought myself 3 prints. I love them!

movin on up

2008-05-07T20:34:00.003-10:00

Check out my new (as of this evening) living room. I'm ready for all kinds of fun.

Kuliou'ou Hike

2008-05-06T11:46:00.005-10:00

This past Saturday I went hiking with Angelica, David (shirtless sitting at the picnic table), Anita (pink shirt), Dave (shirtless directly to the right of me in the pic), and PJ (blue shirt). We went to Kuliou'ou, which I'd done one other time with Jorge, Shane and Jacob. I enjoyed this hike much more the second time (for a number of reasons!) and was really glad I got out of the house and enjoyed myself.

It was also great getting to know Anita and Dave. I'd heard a lot about them through Rahul and DnA, and knowing that Subrat is Anita's brother made me very curious about them.

The giant banyan tree ~ halfway up the hike is my favorite part of the whole thing. We stopped on the way up AND on the way down and had good climbing sessions - you can play 'find the people' in the assorted pictures.

It was also fun noticing how much the Coconut Island stairs helped my hiking skills. Having to walk up so many stairs to go home every day really helped me learn the many ways to stair climb. That was very useful towards the end of the hike when it gets all steep and steppy.

The view at the top was quite beautiful as usual, as well as windy. I got pretty cold and was happy I had my raincoat. I have to say that one of the best things about hiking with DnA is that they lov to eat just as much as I do. There was a plethora of snacks to be had at the top of the mountain which meant I didn't have to be stingy and territorial out of fear of hunger. I know I'm pretty ridiculous for that, but I must have some kind of ingrained fear of starvation or something. I'm not quite sure, but I get pretty fierce!

At the top, we met a man who apparently hikes Kuliou'ou every week or something; he told us a story about being up at the top, enjoying the cloudy, misty day when all of a sudden flock of PARROTS started flying past him. he said each bird was a different color. It sounded like quite the magical moment. I think that now every time I hike somewhere in the Ko'olaus I'm going to be hoping to see this elusive flock of parrots.

I have to say that I've been continually surprised how much my attitude during activities is different depending on who I'm activity-ing with. It's nice to feel that I can most likely enjoy pretty much any activity as long as I have the correct company. This realization has put a few things into perspective for me, including the rejection of the idea of anyone saying that they know for sure that they don't like something when they've only tried it once or even a couple of times, or always with the same people. Yes, this is one more area where the entire landscape of experience is important, not just what the picture is of on first glance.

Here's the photo shoot of our downhill climbing session.

I love this picture of David. He's just got the best look on his face!

Here's Angelica and Dave.. aren't they cute little monkeys!

The next one is the 'Where's Waldo' challenge... can you find everyone??

And the final picture of the hike is just how I like it - nice and ridiculous!

2008-05-05T14:43:00.003-10:00

I can NOT even believe this!!

2008-04-28T09:15:00.003-10:00

I can't believe that these police officers got acquitted. It's completely infuriating. If you don't know about this case you should check it out.

Following Acquittal of NYPD Officers in Sean Bell Killing, Advocates Call for Special Prosecutor in Police Brutality Cases

In New York, a coalition of civil rights advocates are calling for a permanent state-level special prosecutor to handle police brutality cases following the acquittal of three NYPD detectives in the killing of Sean Bell. The twenty-three-year-old Bell died in a hail of fifty police bullets on the morning of what would have been his wedding day in November 2006. Two of his friends were also injured in the shooting. All three men were unarmed.

Bye Bye Jeremy

2008-04-22T13:48:00.002-10:00

Our friend from Belgium has left the islands. I guess we'll just have to drown our sorrows in Chimay...

Kokua!

2008-04-20T01:27:00.007-10:00

Today was the first day of Kokua Fest! David, Angelica, Jeremy, and I headed down and met up with Tony who was our awesomest parking angel ever.
The afternoon started with bocce ball. I'd never played before, but I was pretty sure from the beginning that my favorite part would be throwing the target ball and standing as the location flag. Of course I was right!

It was especially fun to make all kinds of faces while they threw the ball.

As for me, I have less and less of a problem with the fact that I am easily entertained (for the most part). It seriously could not have been a more perfect afternoon. The temperature was perfect, there was a great breeze, the music was great, people were wonderful... what more could you ask for??

oh yeah, you could ask for Angelica's cookies and a kava smoothie... check!

We played more bocce (a boys game and a boys vs. girls game) At first, David couldn't be stopped, then Andy and Rahul came in and cleaned up. Gotta love the shit talk. I actually played for real once and it was fun, but I still prefer being the target thrower and human flag.

And even though there was rain and rainbow's all day long, we only got actually rained on once - lucky for us the Erin/Aren's were there (prepared as usual) with a big green fort for all of us to fit under.

We even got the treat of the moon rising from out of diamond head.. sweet. We almost had Tanner convinced that it was going to erupt before the moon actually popped out... there was quite a glow.

After the concert was over, the cops came by scattering the trouble makers, but since we were clearly a well-behaved family group, we were left un-molested. Everyone checked out pretty early, but DnA and I stayed for late spooning followed by a nice full moon rock formations stop. Best Kokua so far!! can't wait for next year!!!

Volcano!

2008-04-10T08:28:00.002-10:00

Kilauea is brewing!!! If I get to see either Kilauea or Mauna Loa erupt while I live here, I will feel like my study of geology will have been justified.

check out the observatory.. AND the webcam they put up at Halema'uma'u - it's especially cool at night.

Lilikoi!

2008-04-08T17:45:00.001-10:00

I found this on my stairs when I cam home today! I love LILIKOI!!! They just might be my favorite tropical fruit.

just when I thought the obesity stat was crazy..

2008-04-08T11:34:00.003-10:00

David sent me this link ...

Baby with 2 faces born in north India

Doctors say infant with rare condition is doing well

SAINI SUNPURA, India - A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated — she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

"My daughter is fine — like any other child," said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker.

Lali has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini Sunpura, 25 miles east of New Delhi. When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers, said Sabir Ali, the director of Saifi Hospital.

"She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time," Ali said.

Rural India is deeply superstitious and the little girl is being hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess of valor, Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms.

'Leading a normal life'
Up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings, Singh told The Associated Press.

"Lali is God's gift to us," said Jaipal Singh, a member of the local village council. "She has brought fame to our village."

Village chief Daulat Ram said he planned to build a temple to Durga in the village.

"I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter," Ram said.

Lali's condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well.

"She is leading a normal life with no breathing difficulties," said Ali, adding that he saw no need for surgery.

Lali's parents were married in February 2007. Lali is their first child.

Singh said he took his daughter to a hospital in New Delhi where doctors suggested a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal, but Singh said he felt it was unnecessary.

"I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems," he said.

Maybe I should have a better attitude about exercise..

2008-04-08T09:44:00.003-10:00

I just heard on Democracy Now! that only 3 out of 10 Americans are at a normal weight. They were talking about how the 1 billion obese people out number the poor people and help drive up food prices. Here's a small excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: Raj Patel, you write in the beginning of your book, “Our Big Fat Contradiction,” that “the hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical fact: that they are outnumbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight.” Talk about that contradiction.

RAJ PATEL: Yeah—well, I mean, it’s a contradiction actually that you see everywhere. I mean, you see it in the States. I mean, the US is the most obese country on the planet. There are only three in ten Americans are now at a normal body weight. And at the same time last year, about thirty-five million Americans went hungry at some point last year. So this contradiction between hunger and obesity is worldwide.

And in the past, we had a situation where the rich were fat and the poor were thin. Today, because our food comes from the sort of industrial market of highly processed food that extracts value from poor farmers and gives us processed, highly fatty food, a sort of fast food, as convenience food for people living in cities. Well, the upshot of that is that you’ve got both poor people who are going hungry and poor people who are predominantly overweight. I mean, it’s a sad contradiction that today in the United States the lower your income, the more overweight you’re likely to be.

Yikes.

Pretty

2008-04-02T19:45:00.003-10:00

When I got to work on Monday, Ann had a surprise for me! A while back I had asked her if she could make something for me out of a ring I had bought off of ebay but couldn't wear. I told her I'd trade her for treatments and here it is! I love it love it love it!! I want to war it all the time and feel so happy about myself with it on. I love having crafty friends who are better than me (doesn't take toooo much.. *grin*)!

I've been showing it off to everyone I know.

Now all I need is for her to tell me when I can poke her full of needles!

CAMPING!

2008-03-31T19:37:00.001-10:00

This past weekend we went to Kualoa and took it easy for the weekend. I brought the camera, but did not once even think about taking it out to photo-document any of the activities.. I guess I've been trained from hanging out with Dave...
If I had taken pictures, I would have recorded many people including: DnA, Sandra, Bowen and Elisia, Zach, Jessica, Matt, Dave, Isar, Jeremy, Polly and Jason, Liz Stuart (aka lizilani), Brad, Rahul, and me doing any number of things. Mostly we colored, sat in the shade (or the sun), ate mango bread and soup, drank wine, ate strawberries soaked in grand marnier,
and cookies, played one 3 hour game of Settlers (never again), swam to Chinaman's Hat and back (2 different days and 2 different groups of people), played bocce-ball, piling into DnA;s tent for various reasons, etc. The fun pretty much never ended.
One of the more exciting things that happened was that Billy and Dave flew over us in the glider on their way back from Maui. I wasn't on my shit though and missed the phone call warning us to watch out for them. We were all very disappointed that we missed it, but we're hoping that there's pictures of Angelica, Jess, and I practicing our handstands somewhere on Dave's computer that he hasn't discovered yet.
By the time the weekend was over I was thoroughly brain dead (just like I wanted, and just like every time we camp whether we end up at hannara's or not!!). It was wonderfulness. I'm now completely prepared for a firetwirling party next month (so I hope it happens!!!)

My 1st Couch Surfer

2008-03-21T19:34:00.000-10:00

Steve's friend Jon was in town for a bit and stayed with me one night - my first couch surfer! very exciting. We had a good time! We had a couple of beers at Anna's and then headed to the beachnook to watch the surf and have 1 more beer before heading home to crack still in the shell macadamias in the parking lot. good fun.

Birthday!

2008-03-13T21:46:00.003-10:00

Yesterday was quite possibly the most fun birthday I've ever had.

It started out when I opened my door and found the hyacinth and the most yummy tuber rose lei from Angelica to aromatherapy us for the day. She and I headed over to Kaimana and met up with Jorge and Shane who were waiting for us. We were late cause we had to pick up some malasadas! Soon Tammy, Jessica, and Joey showed up and then Kristin, Brad, Tyler, Madeline, Bowen, Allen, Liz, and Jon joined the party!

I laughed a ton and was so happy to finally get my work friends, school friends, a couple of astro-kids, and Angelica together on neutral ground.

It was great!

I even got phone birthday wished from Brazil and Cali!! And I got presents!!!! I haven't gotten birthday presents since I've lived here I think! It was crazy and just made me love everyone even more than I already do.

I even did some leprechaun jumping repeatedly so that Angelica could catch a pic of me in mid-air. It took forever to think that we got one and then of course I got home and the first one (of 25) was perfect..

Karaoke didn't happen, but A, Liz, and I headed over to Liz's and watched I heart Huckabees and told stories with Jessica when she got home.

I've been glowing all day I had so much fun yesterday. I have a new standard I'll be trying not to hold all coming birthdays to now.

Ku'ulei's Birthday at the Point

2008-02-28T10:59:00.003-10:00

Monday we had a surprise party for Ku'ulei out at the point.

Ku'ulei is the biggest planner of parties for other people, and she surprised Erin particularly well with a baby shower last fall. BUT! She has purposely kept the date of her birthday a well kept secret so that she couldn't come to work and befall a similar fate... well, she underestimated the skills of a couple of her employees, namely Ann and Erin.

Especially Erin.

Apparently, she was more surprised than I was aware of and as been scheming ever since to get Ku'ulei for her birthday and had been wracking her brain trying to figure out when it was.

Lucky for us, she's extremely resourceful.

Between Erin and Ann, everyone was brought on board so there was excellent turnout. I think everyone was able to make it except for Ann who was unfortunately away in New York.

The food as usual was spectacular!

We had carrot cake, pesto pasta, cucumber, kalamata olives, cilantro, tahini, adzuki bean manapua, fresh squeezed lemonade, seaweed salad, vegan curry, hummus, and pita chips.

Once again, I don't know what to say other than best. job. ever.

We're working on having a birthday at least every month!

NADA Taining!

2008-02-28T10:44:00.002-10:00

Yes, NADA in this all caps configuration doesn't mean "nothing, zilch, zero, etc" but stands for National Acupuncture Detox Association". Last weekend, about 20 of us started training in the NADA protocol which uses the ear to treat people for addiction. It has been proven since the 1970s to have great impact on the ability of people to recover from addictions as difficult as heroin, methadone, alcohol, and crystal meth. It's pretty cool stuff!

and of course, everyone who knows me knows how much I love the ear....

Cupping!!

2008-02-20T23:36:00.005-10:00

Ahhh.. it's that time of year again... time to cup. This time we didn't have any oil or lotion hanging around so all the cups were stationary... and I feel as such, they were less dramatic. You can see for yourself(ves)... to the right is a picture of my back from today... yes, I know I need to get back on the beach.... and yes, my picture quality is really missing Dave.

And here is a pic of me from mid-October.. the previous time..
(don't my shoulders look disproportionate? Camera angle can really make a huge difference, huh?)

And finally, here's a picture from about a year ago. The one in the middle of my neck was so swollen that you could actually grab it for hours. It was nuts!

I know these pictures look like I'm being abused or something, but it is very much like a massage and it feels really good. Plus it looks all crazy and in acupuncture school we get off on that kind of thing.

Moving and other excuses

2008-02-14T20:51:00.003-10:00

"At least I'm better than Sean" was my other idea for the title of this post. And since he doesn't pay any attention to his blog, I'm sure he's not reading mine so I can bitch all I want!

Anyway, I am pretty sure that Anne is the only person that looks at this page so I'll inform her that I have made time to write another extensive China post just for her. I have mountains of excuses in my head as for why I haven't been promptly updating like someone else we know, and she knows them all.
As for anyone else that may by chance peek over this way, I've just moved myself to Kaneohe and I haven't even had time to get my shit together. Maybe I will have some pics of my new place up by the time the semester is over in May. Won't my adoring public be excited?

YAY!!

2007-12-28T07:46:00.000-10:00

It's snowing!!!! I'm living it up in a hot pink fluffy soft robe clicking away at the computer getting work done while watching the snow fall. Last night I made myself a toasty fire and stuck my feet so close to it I was a little worried that I was going to melt my socks - or start them smoking or something.

Ahhh... I missed winter.

Another Midwest Adventure

2007-12-18T17:36:00.000-10:00

It's been a horrible day (I mean days) of travel for me. I got to the airport last night (the 17th) at 8:30.. I arrived into Seattle at 5:50am and found out after 2 hours that my flight was delayed for 4 HOURS. It was ridiculous. Complete lack of communication and sufficient ass-kissing for my taste. I could have been totally satisfied with a couple of vouchers for unlimited drinks on all of my following flights or my return trip... you know, anything. What I got was the run-around and a new set of flights that has me getting into Detroit at 1:30am on the 19th. .. and now that I think about it, 4 free drinks or 2 food items. I'm putting my money on the drinks for my return flight. Too bad I won't have a friend to jabber with.

Pictures!

2007-11-30T02:43:00.000-10:00

I have stubbornly stayed up to upload pictures and tap away at my blog. All my pictures have been uploaded to my Flickr site (there are 1496) and you may now look at them at your leisure. I may add other peoples pics there (as long as they are ok with it) as I obtain them (i'm excited!!) so there may be more updates.

ALSO! There are 3 more China entries to read if you keep scrolling down.

Flowery Afterthoughts

2007-11-29T11:47:00.001-10:00

The 10 (+/-) of us that came right back to Honolulu arrived yesterday at 10am. I was soooo excited to get off the plane and take a big sniff of some dank humid air that didn't have any hints of sewage in it, instead the air smelled slightly of worms as it does after a good amount of rain.

The island was dark green from all the rain recently which was great to see. The air was clear and the sky cloudy. I was so happy to go in the line marked US citizens. We were all so happy to be back, there was much hugging and smiling and plan making to spend more time together now that we're back. I hope it happens.

Dave got an ear full from the moment I saw him until the fatigue from a sleepless flight set in with the added spice of sadness from the disbanding of my family for the last month set in back at the apartment. I hadn't been expecting that feeling and was even more surprised that it hadn't changed after a nice 4 hour nap. I woke up only because I had promised myself lasagna for dinner and had to make good on it. Dave and I walked down to Arminio's (I think that's the name) in Waikiki, and although I was still stuck in that place of limbo that comes with a long trip, I had the best lasagna I've ever had. I don't know if it was the best because of the month in China or if it's just the best ever ever! It was that good. I'll know (maybe) in a few when I heat up the rest for my breakfast. Halfway through my meal I was surprised to find that I had a weird sensation of heartache or something like that - I think it was because the food was finally something that would stick to my bones and somehow that allowed this emotion to come out. It was very strange and I had some tears to deal with.

After 12 hours of sleep I feel much better although still not completely myself. Unpacking is moving along at my usual slow pace as I try to figure out where I'm going to put most of the newly accumulated stuff.

I really hope that those of us on the trip stay as close as we became during this crazy month away. I'd hate to lose those connections. So far plans are in motion for a before Christmas party at Polly's sometime around the 13th!

China Day 21

2007-11-21T23:09:00.000-10:00

Today was a wonderful day full of interesting things.

When I woke up, Bowen was still not back from Macau (although I wasn't completely sure that's where he was.. and I didn't know whether overnights were acceptable in China-non China relations, this is a crazy place) so Val and the rest of the crew headed to Qi Gong practice in the park like every other morning. Today is Master Wei's last day with us here in Hong Kong though so we had a special practice complete with healings and other interesting little treats for the senses..

Bowen showed up in time to also enjoy these things, and I couldn't help but wonder where he'd been hiding himself away. I knew that Chris had gone with him, but Chris didn't show up this morning (which I thought was unlike him - and since I like to make up fantastic stories in my head of running from Chinese spies and whatnot, I enjoyed my little imagination adventure to myself until I got the real story) so I wasn't sure if he stayed.

After our interesting morning of getting all of our problems fixed (Thanks to Master Wei) and all the interesting inner thoughts that come with those experiences, we headed back to the hotel and eventually made plans to go to this beach that Zach had been after us to go to for a couple of days. The bus ride turned out to head right past all the places I had gone yesterday on the tour (minus the giant buddha) and was very pretty and fun. We didn't make it to the beach until about 2 or 3pm and it was only warm enough to disrobe for Hong Kongs entertainment for about an hour.

We must have made a pretty interesting sight sitting in our little Hawaii circle, complete with open mostly empty Pizza Hut box, ipod with speakers blaring, scantily clad women (well, really just me), tattooed men (once again, really just Zach), and complete lack of racial homogeneity (my favorite). As such, we were getting lots of blatant stares, which I find highly amusing. I eventually figured out that the Chinese find it inappropriate to lounge on the beach in a bikini and a long sleeve shirt. I kept having older women walk past me staring at my ass - I was sitting down so it was even more conspicuous than it would have been, but since they were stopping and staring right in front of me it was pretty easy to notice. I mean, I WAS wearing a bathing suit!! It's not like a brazilian bikini or anything!!! The ass is plenty big to cover all controversial areas!!

I shouldn't be surprised though since they didn't even take their shoes off on the beach, walked up to the water and seemed surprised that it was wet, and that it moved on it's own. They stayed completely covered up and thought that we were quite possibly the strangest group of people they'd ever seen. Kinda like every other place we go.
It's good stuff.
So to make our guilty consciouses feel better about skipping out on the Taoist festival, we headed over to the Kuan Yin temple on the far side of the beach - a nice blond woman had scolded us on the bus saying that we'd "better get some culture while we're here.." Look lady (rook rayree). I think we've had more culture in 3 weeks than you've probably had for the whole time you've lived here. I think we can handle a few hours on the beach without having to learn something.

But yeah, we were feeling guilty and headed over squealing about extra-credit.. we're easily amused.

The temple was pretty cool, but was definitely over shadowed by the fact that it was getting mighty cold to our Hawaiian blood pretty quick. We all took many pictures to prove we were there, along with pretty sunset pics and me doing some ear nibbling (love those big lobes! How appropriate that she's the Goddess of Happiness..) before we headed back up to catch the bus back.
On the way back we stopped in and had a hot chocolate/coffee in Hong Kong proper and I bought a wrap for Hailey. We were doing lots of talking about tomorrow night being Thanksgiving and scheming about having dinner and going to some Jazz club that Zach and Val had found the other night. Apparently Val has some special surprise for us that she's going to unveil tomorrow night, too bad I'm horribly impatient with surprises! I love them and hate them completely.

We finally made it back to L'Hotel and proceeded to have bubble bath theater and leg shaving night. It was a ridiculously good time int he purest sense of the phrase. Probably of the the funniest things I've ever seen is Bowen showing Val how to properly take a bubble bath. It was great.
My legs were unfortunately anti-climatic for everyone but me. Nothing like a constantly clogged razor to dampen everyone's fun. Also, it just took forever... BUT my legs have never felt so silky smooth ever. I quite enjoyed myself and took a celebratory bubble bath myself (plus I had to finish the job). I wonder how long I'll think it feels nice before it gets too scratchy or itchy. It's been a long time!

update

2007-11-21T22:49:00.000-10:00

Pictures are quickly being uploaded to Flickr..(click on the China set) I'm almost done! The amount of pictures drops off sharply at the end on the trip in Hong Kong - I just didn't want anything to do with the camera anymore and I got a little more nervous bring it with me around town. Sorry about this (mostly to myself since that was the best part of the trip), but I'm very excited to snag everyone elses pics and consolidate!!

Posts are also getting updated although slower. It takes a long time to upload the pics to the blog and I have a lot to say (surprise).. I'm learning patience.

China Day 20

2007-11-20T23:59:00.000-10:00

I took an ass-load of pictures today! Overall, the day was exhausting and had many highs and lows. The day started early (many times with early morning/late night phone calls.. including one from Rhonda and Polly blaming Bowen for something I don't really understand. All I knew was that I was trying to sleep and all the interruptions weren't appreciated. ESPECIALLY since we were all supposedly REQUIRED to attend a tour put on by the Taoist Association of Hong Kong today so we could take advantage of hospitality and get shown around Hong Kong for free. Of course Val, Bowen, and I got put in charge of talking everyone into going when we were initially told it was optional and then at the last minute told it was mandatory. Due to our previous experience with group tours, no one wanted to go, and unfortunately for me, some ridiculous sense of responsibility kicked in and made me feel like I should and that I might miss something cool if I didn't.

Now, this being the trip that it has been, the morning didn't go smoothly. In fact it was a disaster just like everything else we do. Four or five of us showed up to try out the tour with Master Wei and Ming, only to start freaking out about how long the tour was, not wanting to be out all day, and worrying about whether or not we'd be back in time to prepare ourselves to attend the concert that we were all supposed to go to tonight, dressed in style (or our Taoist outfits) - we all know that requires a certain prep time. SO. It turned out that Matt, Drew, and I got duped into going. Ming was yelling and pulling arms, Master Wei was giving the puppy dog face, and then we got told that we'd be back and finished with the tour by 3pm (insert laughter here).

So yeah, it was a day of broken promises, but it did have some high points... First of which was the Giant Buddha! This was exactly what I needed for the last couple of days, and completely made me feel like it was worth going on the tour for. I can't remember the name of the temple, but they have the largest buddha in Hong Kong (maybe China, I don't know) and all I wanted to do was climb up and sit in his palm.. How much fun would that have been?!! Unfortuately for me, it's not socially acceptable to do such things (I would have also wanted to sit on his shoulders in devil and angel poses) and all access was strictly denied through use of ropes and chains.
The other wonderful things about this place were the lunch (YAY shiitakes and baby bok choy! I could have kept eating it til it was gone but we had to leave - I think all the chinese people thought I was nuts) and the Walk to Wisdom.
The Wisdom Walk definitely made me want to run away from the group and climb the mountain which I did in small scale by climbing the little hill at the end of the walk. I disappeared for a while and had to get reined back in. AND too bad for Drew and Matt cause they missed it when they explored on their own..

Another great thing about today was learning that Drew plays guitar! I had no idea. I knew that Matt could (obviously) not go a month without his guitar (since he bought one the other day and now carries it with him at all times), but I didn't know that Drew has been playing for over 10 years! It was great to be tooling around on a bus full of Chinese people through Hong Kong while listening to "Another Brick On The Wall" being strummed next to me.
While walking back to the bus from the Wisdom Walk I decided to play a song for Ming. He has a long standing (for us) joke with Chris about "moneymoneymoney" recordings that they play at the street market stalls that is supposed to draw you in to spend I guess.. so I have this Brazilian song from Anne that has a section in it that goes "a-ch-ch money money.. a-ch-ch moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney.." in the background. I LOVE this song and thought it'd be fun to test one of the few words Ming knows in English (and see what his taste in music is). It went AWESOMELY. I was anxiously awaiting the moment when that part of the song would play and as I fidgeted and sang it to Master Wei and finally Ming looked over at me and said, "moneymoneymoney!" I died laughing and squealed loudly on the inside. I was very excited.. we communicated!!! Then it was even better cause I taught Master Wei and Ming the "universal" sign for money (you know - when you rub your fingers with your thumb palm up) which somehow transitioned into teaching Master Wei the words "fat" and "skinny" which had great physical expression and different voices to go with them while Ming kept listening to my ipod... It was all around a great morning.

I didn't want to leave the nice mountains and hiking trails to go back to the city and the crowds, but when the us is leaving the bus is leaving. What can you do? AND since it was only 1pm or something, Drew, Matt, and I all thought we were going to go back to L'Hotel so we could shower and dress for the concert tonight. As we were to soon find out, we were misinformed.

The next stop on the bus tour was the Madame Troussard's Wax Museum at The Peak (shopping mall)...

I could have totally skipped this as I don't give 2 shits about wax celebrities or important Chinese people in wax, BUT Master Wei is excited about everything (it's cute, like he's a little kid on recess) so I tried to just enjoy him wanting his picture taken with wax Bruce Lee and wax Michael Jackson, as well as wax Mao and the Chinese president and some other important figures that I don't know. It was amusing, but overall boring.

After the wax museum we looked out at the overlook and got ice cream. I then got to mess with Master Wei a bit by sitting next to Ming on the bus. This make him squeak a little which was unexpected, but highly amusing.

After The Peak we were taken somewhere down by the water to see some iconic gold statue of Hong Kong - looked like a torch or something. By this time Drew had informed us that he didn't even have his ticket to the concert with him since he thought we were going to be dropped off back at the hotel first. We weren't quite sure what this meant for us, but we thought it might be a problem.

The water front was ok, but whenever I look into the water I really want to look down into the water and see some huge kind of sea monster writhing about (especially when I have no intention of ever going into the water there) like a 30 foot shark or a giant squid or something. But of course there wasn't anything of interest anywhere. I did get to embarrass myself when 2 Chinese guys were asking me to get out of the way so they could take picture of each other, but I thought they wanted to take pictures WITH me.. you know it happens once at Hanauma Bay with some Japanese guys and you're spoiled for life I think. I'm in CHINA... not JAPAN! geez..

After the waterfront they attempted to make us shop (but only for 20 mins) and then we were taken to a crappy dinner before being dropped off at the Taoist Association Concert. We were poorly dressed, exhausted, and stinky (I can speak for myself and Matt). We didn't want to be there (none of us, even Ming since he fell asleep after he looked bored as hell for a while, although Master Wei seemed to enjoy it) and were annoyed but not surprised when the concert turned out to be about 3 times as long as it was supposed to be. The music was ok, there were a couple of really cool performances, but I was ready to go after about an hour. The coolest was the Wudan Mountain Kung Fu guys.

Of course, even getting back to the hotel didn't go as planned and Drew and I regretted not getting on the bus with the couple of other people we knew and instead going back to the bus we came on and took what felt like 2 hours to get home.

Interestingly, our bus got filled up with performers from the Taoist temples around China since we were the las bus to leave the concert hall. Drew and I were completely snubbed and no one would even look at us or sit next to us. It was incredible.

Apparently all the "real" Taoists think we're phoney posers and to a certain extent they're right, but when they behave in such an unfriendly way, that makes them no better than any of the other religions.

Anyway, I have never been so excite to get "home" and try out some silky bubble bath. Bowen had gone off to Macau so I had the place all to myself. It was a little lonely, but I slept very well.

China Day 19

2007-11-19T16:30:00.000-10:00

Today we met Master Wei in the lobby at 10am and went to our first Qi Gong class in Hong Kong. We walked to this little park that's about 15 minutes away from our hotel. It was pretty nice. I have been having a horrible time getting distracted by the littlest things during the QiGong sessions lately. I start obsessing about how tired my arms are going to be and then of course they start to hurt.. then I try and relax about it, but the damage has already been done.

Anyway, today my problem was my lower back. It was all crampy and wouldn't let go. It was irritating during the morning and pretty much stayed like that all day.

After Qi Gong, we went back to the hotel and I don't actually remember, but I'm pretty sure I did nothing all day. Maybe Bowen and I chatted in the room and ate pastry while Val and Zach came in and out.. I'm not quite sure.

What I do know is that later that night, I showed Master Wei Google Earth. It was pretty fun. I've never seen him quite as excited. He really wanted me to be able to open up the doors to the temple and show him around, but I could only show him the roof. Then Bowen got back and we showed Master Wei all the Chinny-Chin theater movies we thought he'd like. I hadn't thought he'd like it but he laughed so hard I thought he was gonna cry. And he didn't even understand what was being said! ..and then we got him to do one. He was so into it he wanted to draw his own eyes and nose. It was pretty great.

After that, Bowen, Master Wei and I went out for hot pot - we were only a slightly strange thing for the other people to see at the restaurant. I think I'm done with hot pot for a while.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and I got one of the best massages I've ever received (even though it wasn't focused - I'm told). I'm still glowing!

I asked my friend Jessica to translate what she could for me - this is what she came up with:

Huanying dao Zhonguo lai (I welcome you (to come) to China)....
wo he nimen shi hao penyou (I and you (plural) are good friends).....
wo gei dajia gei xiao gushi (I give the crowd (audience) a little story)....
zhe shi women... neige... (this is our... um..)
yi shujia (summer vacation)...
Jian de yi ge xiao pin (? a little ?)....
Xiao pin, zhe shi shuo shi gong pin yi yuan jiao a... fa bei fa yi a (laughs) (Xiao Pin (Little So&so... name?), this is [said] to be fair ????.... ????? )
Gan bei a... (Cheers, eh! literally "dry cup")
ba bai ba yi a (8 hundred 8 1...)

I guess this is a joke with a pun? maybe cuz the fa bai fa yi , then ba bai ba yi...

zhe jiu shi... gui, a (this is, I mean, expensive)

I forgot a word... back in "fa bai fa yi... bei" (the bei = cup) so, I think they are trying to buy a cup of liquor? and it is costing too much?
then.... ba bai yi wei, a (I don't know what the extra 'wei' means)

women mei ren lai yi bei, a, gan bei (we don't have anyone that came for one cup (shot?)... Cheers!)

wait... fa = pay, fei = fee... so maybe fa bai fei yi = pay Y100 each

China Day 18

2007-11-18T04:51:00.000-10:00

Understandably, this morning was rough. I had WAY too much to drink last night, but I had soooo much fun. It was definitely worth it. BUT. My head was quite painful this morning - not as bad as it could have been if we'd had anything to do other than sleep until 10am - but lucky for me that's all I had to do!

We were all ferried over to the L'Hotel at 11 (check out time) which is our new hotel - they have an hourly shuttle to the temple where the festival is going on and all of the other Taoist participants are staying here too. I was still a little drunk by the time we got to L'Hotel and was not too happy to find out that to eat lunch we had to go to the temple.

It turned out well though, the food made me feel a little better and Bowen showed me a wonderful spot next to a big Banyan tree that I could have stayed at all day, especially with the kind of story telling that was going on - I'll never look at birds the same again.

But I was fiending for a mountain top SOOOOO badly today. I just can't stand any more racket (taoist music) or crowds. All I could think about all day was getting myself to a place like the top of Haleakala or Yosemite or Zion or something... Canyon Falls! Good grief. Not that China has been so incredibly crowded. I've actually been really surprised about that. I was expecting crowds like you see on tv when they show Manhattan or something to that effect at least and it's not at all like that. The only place that there's been so many people that it was difficult to navigate yourself through the crowds was the Forbidden City... the tourist meccas.. that kind.

It was also nice to see how good of a mood Shifu was in today. She was maybe the happiest I've ever seen her and it was nice to be around that. Especially with how rotten we've been on this trip. I've been wondering (and I'm sure other people have too) if she'll ever want to do something like this again. I'll be shocked if she does...

Anyway, we left the temple on the 2:30 shuttle (we barely made it) and all headed to our new rooms. Bowen and I are in 1818 and I think it might have some kind of lazy curse. I sit or lay down on the bed and that's completely satisfying. I don't want to do anything else. The other funny thing of course, is that there's no wall between the shower and where the beds are. Just a big piece of glass - it's hilarious. There's a thin shower curtain to block any visitors from bathroom activities - which of course we had to test when Zach came over.. we could see his nipples only when he was completely pressed up against the glass. ...I'm so disappointed. I had SO wanted to make some friends out in Hong Kong and invite them up for a shower.

Anyway. After lazing around for a while, Polly, Rhonda, Val, Zach, Bowen, and I went on a dinner wild goose chase. It was good for walking around and getting some exercise (trying to find chinny-chin eyes and perhaps some bubble bath and a razor), but terrible for my mood (and Zach's, who's even worse than me - I didn't think that was possible) which was crashing due to extreme hunger. It took a ridiculous amount of time to find a non-chinese place to eat that didn't have a 2 hour long wait. We ended up at Outback steakhouse (my first time) which upset Bowen so much he left and ordered room service. When my burger arrived I wished I had done the same. It was not good. I shouldn't have been so cheap and ordered the mushroom filet like Zach did, but I'm a cheap-ass. Oh well. Hopefully I've learned.

It was especially frustrating to find out that the hotel was only a 5-10 minute walk from where we ate, even though it took us an hour to get there.

China Day 17

2007-11-17T22:35:00.000-10:00

Today we graced the Taoist festival in Hong Kong with our presence once again. It's definitely a little strange getting your picture taken by so many people that you don't know while getting stared at from all sides. It wasn't as noticeable as the first day we weer here right off the train from Shenzhen (the 13th)... man that feels like it was a month ago when it was only 4 days ago. China is a time warp like when I try to get in or out of Coconut Island on time.
As we walked in Master Wei saw a friend of his (no name). It was pretty cute, he was so excited.

Once again, we were in full costume (check Bowen rocking the stairs in a full length robe), prepared to spend the day sweating in attendance at the least, but hoping to sing something like Chapter 33. This was eventually made impossible as there was no way to hook up my ipod to the PA so we could have Jud to lead our tone deaf and shy group. We were instead to follow the group led by Pauline (Shifu's disciple) around to each alter and pay our respects. It would have been nice to have learned the song they sang for that, or at least to know when to bow, but hopefully we didn't look too ridiculous (or too much like fakers).

I wish I would have thought to bring a deck of cards, or maybe I could all of sudden be one of those always full of fun ideas to pass the time people, but really we ate lunch and followed Pauline and then sat around waiting for the next performance to finish. Shifu was performing in this one. She had been telling us how she wasn't exactly looking forward to it as they would be singing in Cantonese which she can converse in, but not read. I ended up taking pictures for a while and then hanging out with Master Wei and Ming trying not to laugh too hard when they started making fun of the songs and whatnot.

I got a couple of cool pics of Rhonda, Chris and Zach, Val and Josh, etc. fun stuff while trying to do my part to entertain Master Wei while he fetched me a can of coke (even though I tried to tell him I didn't want any - how much can you pantomime?) and the occasional cup of water.

Eventually Shifu started doing her thing and it was much more interesting to be on the outside looking in than the inside looking out. Plus we had to eat, so I went back down off the stage to join the masses. Speaking of masses, I was really expecting more of a crowd at this festival, but not so much. Just a handful pf people checking out the craziness going on at our little alter area. Finally, after hours and hours of sitting absorbing, we saw the finale of the performance (not for the night but the piece) and demanded leave for the night.

After a semi-nauseating display of bitchiness by most of us - it was difficult to demand passage home to a hotel that none of us had been to much less knew what part of town it was in - when Shifu was clearly exhausted from her performance and had been up since 5am like the rest of us.

We got out though on a bus and then I had my first experience on the Hong Kong subway. I was pleasantly surprised to find it clean and easy to use. We even found our hotel without too much trouble and were surprised to find Ming and Mater Wei waiting for us there. We checked in and then the craziness started. I was back to rooming with Bowen and Zach decided to kidnap Master Wei and give up his bed in the room he shares with Chris. We were thinking that this would be a no no with Ming and Shifu, but Ming actually seemed pretty stoked about it. Chris later explained that this helped them out because otherwise Master Wei would have been staying with them in Shifu's small apartment.

So we decided we'd be going out on the town. Chris said he knew where to go, and that there should be plenty of things to do in the part of Hong Kong we were in. Zach and I had already started drinking on the way to the hotel, so we were fairly confident that even though we'd been up since 530am, it'd still be a good night .. and it was.

We started off the night by introducing Master Wei to pizza. He'd never had it and it was pretty funny to see him sniff it suspiciously before he'd venture a bite. But luckily for Val, Zach went out of his way to find some for her so she's quit bitching about chinese food and how she only wanted to eat some pizza.

From there we headed out form the hotel (a boyscout hotel in the Jordan district - very strange place with tiny rooms) out to prowl the Hong Kong Streets. Before we went out, Chris let us in on an little story that had us start questioning Master Wei's innocence, and as the night went on we had a few more reasons to question who was corrupting who. We had some difficulty finding a place we would all enjoy this night, and to avoid further frustration, we stopped at one point and purchased a little mood lubricant by the names of Hennessey and Black Velvet. This definitely made things go a little easier and after Master Wei tried to take us to a men only bar with dancers we finally took Chris's advice and jumped on the tube to a part of town called Tsim Sha Tsui.

As soon as we got out of the tube station we saw an Irish pub called Murphy's. I got all nostalgic for Sean and Nuuanu Street and had to go there at least for 1 Guinness. Murphy's turned out to have a bunch of non-Chinese people in it, surprise, surprise. We all had a round of Guinness on me (holy expensive! I thought we were in China! Good thing I'd had all that Hennessey already!), except for Val who had a cider and Master Wei who didn't appreciate the fine drink placed before him and had to have something a little more golden in color.

We left Murphy's and after a little walking around found the place for the evening... Sticky Fingers. They had a live band and drinks. What more could we have asked for. We (Zach, Val, and I) danced the night away and Chris and I got more than a little drunk. It was a fine time. From what I am told and what I can see from the pictures, we made some friends - a couple from Beijing and a guy from Argentina (?), someplace like that. I'm not really sure. But really the important part was that we had so much fun together that we went back to the hotel and had a sleepover so as not to disturb Sheryl and to give Master Wei a place to sleep. This sleepover was minus Master Wei and Chris of course who went back out on the town for a little extra credit fun and had a room of their own.

China Day 16

2007-11-16T23:19:00.000-10:00

It was tricky waking up today, but I made it Qi Gong in time. My concentration is still about where it usually is (meaning I get distracted all the time, especially when my arms start getting tired) but todays Yang absorbing went well.
I actually was fidgeting a lot and then I started going like last night and felt like I had to shut it down. I spoke with Polly about that later and she was surprised it shut it off like that. Maybe it would have been fine, but it didn't feel like the right time.

Today is our last day at Lychee World.. Tomorrow we go back to Hong Kong and go to the Taoist festival til the 24th or 25th. We might be performing a song at the festival if we can get our act together. This has definitely been a point of contention the last few days between Rhonda and the rest of the group. The difficulty started in the airport in Beijing when we were waiting to fly to Shanghai. Shifu and Rhonda were talking about when we were going to have time to practice the Kong form that we had started working on before we came to China. Shifu all of a sudden started saying that that wasn't the form she had wanted us to do, but really she wanted this other, more obscure form that of all the people on the trip, only Rhonda had ever seen (2 summers ago). this was quite the upset and then Shifu refused to help Rhonda remember how the form even went. Rhonda worked on it diligently though and finally got approval for her arrangement. Of course that was only a few days ago and we are supposed to learn a long (10 minute) song in Chinese, a ridiculously complicated charm, and a walk. and put it together like we've been practicing for a year instead of 3 days.

So. It's completely understandable that people would have different opinions about the likelihood of us pulling this feat off with 3 days for practicing when we have unplanned dinners out with visits to tea houses, long-winded conferences about products that most of us aren't really able to use for a few years, and the fact that many people are sick. It's also difficult because so many of us want to learn this ritual and be able to use it ourselves, and want to make Shifu proud of us, and we know how hard Rhonda has been working on this, but we have the equivalent of a few hours to learn this. Plus, the way Shifu has been talking about it makes it sound like she doesn't even plan on letting us go up there anyway. What she's said is that we will be performing Chapter 33, which is a song that most of us have been performing for at least a year and we can't even get that right unless we can play my recording of Jud singing it and follow him. Of all of us, only Rhonda and Zach are really performers.

Anyway. That's the drama of the last few days.
the conference this morning was wrapped up semi-quickly. Before beginning this morning, Master Wei, Drew, Zach, and Ming had a nice little round of push-hands. I think everyone won at least once. It was pretty funny.
Also, I checked out Josh's knee.. that's pretty nuts. I don't know what that guy put on his psoriasis, but it does look a little better.
We had one more lecture from Master Lee and then had our usual many times over group photo-op. We also are going to have another session with later tonight.

After lunch we were given some free time so we culd check out the rest of the gardens and greenhouses. Zach, Val, Bowen, Master Wei, and I ventured off and found some giant bugs and lots of longan trees before finding out that Val is deathly afraid of butterflies. Unfortunately the small one that flew by and then the giant one in the display must have been too much for her as she took off before we even got to the greenhouses. It's definitely because of that, not because we have to be completely packed before 5:30pm.

We were informed that we are not allowed to bring all of our luggage to Hong Kong. Shifu doesn't want to have to arrange special transportation for all of our crap to make it to Hong Kong just to have to bring it back to Shenzhen for our last 3 days in the country. BUT, we're also getting more and more things added that we MUST have with us... gotta have the uniform, dress clothes, shoes, and enough stuff for the next 12 days. all in the smallest bag possible. and then we're not supposed to buy anything more until Shenzhen, when we will be staying at a place called "healthy Hospital for Healthy People".

So the cactus room was pretty cool! There were many different kinds of pinchable succulents and cacti. I was super smart and ran out of batteries right as soon as I got there (and brought no replacements with me). Then halfway through the cactus house Master Wei wanted a picture and it worked! But then I left the polarizer and lens cap there... probably won't have time to get it tomorrow morning before we leave (5:30am!)

So. We got back from sightseeing and got to packing. I got interrupted and had to take plant pics and then hurry and stuff everything into my bag so I could be ready for Master Lee's session.

Right. Master Lee's session. What a crazy experience. I didn't have anything like last night, I wasn't able to get back to anything near a calm place tonight. I was fidgeting and distracted the whole time. Then we had the rest of the people in the group diagnosed and worked on. I got told that I have some kind of female problems that apparently Shifu will be telling me about later.

The craziest thing that happened today was Rhonda's exorcism. I don't know what to say about that other than wow. All my hair still stands up just thinking about it.

After the session we went out to dinner. No one was really sure what was happening with that, but we sat around for a long time while Shifu talked story. There was another bout of push hands challenges with Master Wei before we finally were told to get walking. Cars come out of nowhere and we were shuttled off to another hot pot place after witnessing a strange, tense moment between Ming, Shifu, Master Wei, and the Lychee world guy. this on it's own was a little more than most of us could handle since we didn't get to the place to eat until 9pm (we're supposed to be up and out the door by 6am or something) and then we got dropped off at this other place where they tried to get us to drink tea and watch them roast rice or something at 11pm! This was just too much so after the photo-op, we all headed for the door and finally headed home in time to get our usual 4-5 hours of sleep.

China Day 15

2007-11-15T23:21:00.000-10:00

Today is one day past 1/2 way through the trip. We started with morning Qi Gong. The group is bigger now than just me, Zach, Drew, Matt, and Bowen (who were initiated what seems like months ago in Tianjin). Now Val, Christine, Josh, Chris, Rhonda, Charles, and Polly are in the group. Master Wei showed up and went through the whole form again and then came around to give us a little something while we were practicing. It's not really my thing to be getting up at 630 every morning, but it does feel nice to be outside (not directly in the city) around some trees getting some practice in.

After the form today, we went over to the area where the statue is that I took pictures of yesterday and did a sun salutation of sorts. We sit facing the sun and absorb the Yang. I quite liked it. Sitting for me is much easier than holding a ball of Qi between my hands with another ball inside my arms and another one under my feet while I think about nothing and breathe correctly. So far I need a lot of practice cause I am not so good at shutting off the thinking while I have so much to be paying attention to. Sitting and absorbing the Yang is much more my style!

Some of us showed up for the continuation of the "conference" today. We were told that participation was optional, so understandably some people didn't go. This is fine, except that the rest of us who were there had to wait around for a couple of hours for everything to start up because the people kept waiting for more of us to show up. We didn't know this until they finally started. Of course it was more of the same product demonstrations and not anything really interesting. One funny thing though was this guy, who makes these little bottles of apple cider vinegar plus something else that makes it better than just vinegar (enzymes or something), went off for a good 10 minutes about how doctors are killers and they get trained to point guns at you.. stuff like that. It as interesting, and extra funny because of how hard Shifu was laughing.

After the days worth of talks, we were offered a tour of the garden which I jumped on right away. I thought it was going to be different, but it turned out to just be a ride in a gold cart around a couple of the roads that gained some kind of elevation so we could see some kind of view. Not that we stopped for photo-ops.. =( I got a few on the fly shots, but there was so much vegetation that I stopped trying after a few.

After everyone got back from the tour, Shifu came over to see who was going to go to Master Lee's class. This is where everything got crazy. I heard her explaining what was being offered and I couldn't say no. She said that he was going to open our third eyes, and what this meant is that if it works (and it would work differently for different people) what we would get out of this experience is the ability to diagnose like she does. I know that saying it like that doesn't mean much, but that's the best way I have to describe it. The specifics were that we'd be able to SEE the meridians in our patients, see the flow of the qi, and consequently see where the blockages are with our eyes. We'd also be able to communicate with the spirit world, see spirits (I guess), and possibly be able to see events over long distances.
Now I would love to have these abilities, but the things that some of us were talking about before deciding to go to this class is the responsibility that a person would have to accept along with things of this sort. I think that's an important thing to think about and not actually one that I would have considered on my own. The other thing that was going through my mind is whether or not I believe that anyone can do these things. Right off the bat, I am very skeptical of anyone who makes such claims, but I've always wanted to experience and believe these things, and a few of the people on this trip know that. I just felt like this was a good chance to step out and see what would happen. I had to try.
That night I had one of the craziest (if not the most crazy) experiences of my life. The class had 2 sessions. One before dinner and one after. The first session didn't really hit me as life changing, although I did feel much more relaxed than usual and I just felt like I wanted to spend the rest of the night outside just staring at trees or the stars (if I could see any anywhere in China). This trip has had me pretty amped so that calmness was really enjoyable, and I think very necessary for the second part of the class after dinner.
I'm not sure how much of the experience I really want to write out. I'm a little worried that it will lose a lot in translation so I'm just going to say that I had an experience that I've never had before and it really shook me, mentally and physically. I was physically shaking for maybe 20-30 minutes afterwards, teeth chattering and everything. All of this from only a a few minutes of a breathing exercise followed by just sitting quietly. I was in shock for sure, especially when Master Lee said that I'd done a really good job getting to the quiet place that one needs to be in for the 3rd eye to open up. Of all people, I least expected myself to have something like that happen and I have to say that I got a little of what I asked for. So far the world looks the same and I'm glad for that. I don't think I'm really ready for too much more.
After class I sat with Chris, Kristin, Charles, and Bowen and had some lychee wine. We talked about our experiences. It really helped me to have other people hear me and bring me back to reality a bit.
I can't help but wonder what Qi Gong is going to be like now.. is it going to be any different? Will I have an easier time feeling anything there? I'll find out in the morning!

China Day 14

2007-11-14T23:21:00.000-10:00

Today was our first day at Lychee World, the "research garden where they have only organic foods that they grow there on their 5000 acres that reach all the way to the mountains". I have to say that off the bat I'm not impressed. So far all I've seen is a lot of dragonfruit on the walk in last night and a whole lotta longan trees this morning.

We started the morning off with some delicious bread and some kind of vanilla condensed milk sauce (and juk, etc.), I'd like a vat of it outside my door later...

We were instructed to dress up today as we were to attend a special conference set up in Shifu's honor. It was interesting because instead of it being lectures like we thought it was going to be, it was like more infomercials after long gratuitous thanks. Some of the products were interesting but nothing absolutely new, just labels we can't read. The actual lecture was to be by Dr. Steven Sui Shi Wai and could have been interesting if we'd had an interpreter and actually could have had time to go through all of his research and heard his whole talk. It got cut short cause so many people were there to talk to us.

After lunch I walked around the "garden" which is more like a tourist attraction/park a little bit and took some pics.

I really like this statue and big plaque behind it. I have no idea who it is or what it's about, but it's really pretty!

Also after lunch, Rhonda had a dance party with one of the product girls, very funny, and we met Master Lee, the most expensive calligraphist ever and so far interesting guy. He says that what western people call mental illness is caused by spirits attached to people. I'm a little confused about whether he was saying that the spirits attached to the people don't know their missions or if the people they are attached to don't know their missions. Either way he says he can cure mental illness within a minute by communicating with these spirits. It was a very interesting talk and definitely caused my ears to perk up (otherwise the day had been pretty boring). The guy has eyes that go right through you for sure and the audience that wasn't us got fairly riled up during his talk.

Later Shifu told us that we could pay and sign up for a special class with Master Lee. He's saying that he will open our third eyes. He also (according to Shifu who says she's seen it) has a reputation for healing people, balancing them out and what not during these sessions.. something about people losing like 15 lbs during a session. That got a few people's attention and I have to admit that it'd be pretty impressive to see people walk out of the room with their clothes falling off cause they were all of a sudden 5 inches smaller all around.

After the talks and before dinner Shifu, Bowen, Matt, and I were sitting around talking about Master Lee and a story he was telling about Chairman Mao when Master Lee walked up. We had been wondering about how likely it was to have this experience that was being offered. Master Lee said that 30% of adults are able to get it. The price is pretty high for an experience that isn't likely to happen and that carries a heavy responsibility if it does.
As of right now, I don't think I"m going to go for it.

China Day 13

2007-11-13T22:07:00.000-10:00

Today was rough. I mean rough. First of all I got NO sleep on the train. I had a bed, I had a pillow, I had a blanket. I was lulled by the rhythm of the train... until it lurched every 10 minutes or so and shook me. I was also uncomfortably aware of the fact that my computer was just under the bunk under me and that anyone could walk by and grab it at any time. Consequently, I tensed up and opened my eyes every time someone walked by.
So understandably, morning came early. We were all excited to see Ming waiting for us at the terminal. A few of us were happy and irritated at the same time since we could have avoided all of the planning and worrying the night before, but hey at least he was there and he had a giant truck that we were to put everything in that we didn't absolutely need for the day. I could have kept a few things if I hadn't been sleep deprived, but oh well. I'll take pictures when we go back in a few days on the 17th.
We met up with the truck, unloaded, and then took taxis to the bus station at the border. The taxi rides were hilarious. The one I was in with Rhonda and Kristin and I don't remember who else was FLYING. The guy was driving like me when I get sassy! It was so fun, especially when we passed the car carrying Ming and Shifu - guess the guy knew where he was going and wanted to get the most os his payment.
The border crossing consisted of walking into the border on the China side, filling out a form, going through the passport checker, and out to a bus station. There we waited with Ming (cause Shifu had places to be she went on) for everyone, got on a bus which then took us to the Hong Kong side of the border where we again filled out a form and waited in a line to get through the passport check. Then we waited again on the other side for everyone and got on bug #14 to Tsuen Wan. This bus took us to the part of town we'll be staying in after the 17th. It was interesting looking.. not as busy as I was expecting, but I don't really know how big Hong Kong is. It was pretty funny trying to keep up with Ming. They guy must be an olympic power walker. Of course the usual people were complaining that they couldn't keep up, and were yelling and whining, but we made it to L'Hotel where we waited around for the delivery of our Taoist costumes.
After changing we hopped on the shuttle to the temple. When we arrived, Polly and Rhonda were helping each other get all the hair tucked into the hats and they were swarmed by photographers. It was more than a little disconcerting, but most likely completely due to the fact that they are both blond (and cute) as none of the rest of us were getting hassled (I was a little disappointed, I admit it). We walked in, met a few people, and then stood with a bunch of other Taoists for the opening ceremony. It took me a while to realize this, but we were able to see ANYTHING. It was so f-ing hot, especially with 4 layers on with my tank top, WMI tshirt, shirt, and robe on top and 2 pair of pants and the robe on the bottom. It was torturous having had no sleep and not having any water. After the opening was over and we were hoping we didn't look like too big of fools since we didn't know any of the songs or when we were supposed to bow, kneel, turn around, or anything like that... we had lunch (very tasty).
After lunch some of us mutinied and left to go hang out in Hong Kong for the afternoon. This was me, Chris, Polly, Zach, Bowen, Christine, and Aadrien. We walked around til we all found a place to get a massage (Chris at the first place) Zach and Bowen at the second, Polly and I at the 3rd and who knows where Aadrien and Christine went. Polly and I lucked out and get the only semi-good massages of the day. Then we had some tea before walking around to find some place to eat. We ended up with hot pot and made it back to L'Hotel in time to do the revers of this morning to end up at the garden place tonight.
Now, I must have gotten the wrong idea from Shifu cause I could have sworn that she said the words, "2.5 hours out of town", "5000 acre organic research garden", "so far away that last time we got lost", and such things. It took maybe an hour and the city bus took us there!! I couldn't believe this crap. We'll see what it looks like in the morning, but right now I'm irritated. PLUS, most of the rooms reek of mold (luckily not mine).

China Day 12

2007-11-12T22:13:00.000-10:00

Today we hopped the train from Shangahi to Shenzhen. It was an interesting morning, starting with having to bribe the train people to let us on the train early cause we ll have so much crap, we'd have no chance of getting it all in if we acted like normal people. It just never ends. Anyway, we got on no problem and then learned that Jessica (our lovely tour guide) had called up the guy that was supposed to help us out at the train station and told him not to help us out cause we're such a crowd of assholes (the word she used was cavemen though), and unfortunately I'm not feeling like I'd have a good case to argue with her (again). He finally got ahold of Shifu at the last moment and helped her with the bribe. China is ridiculous.

Anyway, the train is interesting. It's not quite as dirty as we all were told by Shifu it was (she's starting to catch on). I finally saw some country side and snapped a few pics. I like having a bed as my seat, although it'd be nice to be able to sit on them like chairs without having to be all bent. Can't have everything I guess. It was very smoky in the train at times and definitely loud. There's a guy that comes through every 20 mins selling fruit. I almost know Chinese for fruit now, although I'm sure I'll forget it soon enough.

The train ride has been good for contemplation. I can't believe we're not even 1/2 way through this trip. Not til the day after we get to Shenzhen. It's taken what seems like months just to get to this point, but I have a feeling that the second half of the trip is going to go a low faster - no more tours as far as I know. Thank god! And we're only going to be in 2 cities, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

So of course there was some drama on the train. This time it was Shifu's drama though and me, Bowen, Chris, and Zach were the ones getting sucked into it. We were getting told all about how it's going to go once we get to the train station. Apparently we're going to get off the train and then have to go straight to Hong Kong to be a part of the opening ceremony of the Taoist festival. This is problematic for a number of reasons starting with how many bags everyone has. So first, Bowen, Chris, and Zach got together and made all these lists of the order that everyone is to walk in so we don't lose anyone (it's definitely been a problem in the past). We were all paired up with our roommates and were told to memorize who was in front of us and who was behind us. If at any time we couldn't see anyone, we were to yell that persons name and they were to answer and then try and link back up. We were supposed to stay as close as possible to the people in front of us as the Chinese are very pushy and would cut in between us and separate the group.
This is all to come into play during the transit from Shenzhen across the border into Hong Kong. This was the first plan.
Then it was put on Bowen to make a schedule of the activities for the rest of the trip, including classes with Master's Wei and Xiang, eating, practicing for our performance at the festival with Rhonda which is happening the 17th, and time to enjoy the fancy 5000 acre gardens we're going to be staying at.
I was sitting there when this task got delegated and I offered to help since Bowen is always getting asked to take care of so many organizational tasks and he said at the beginning of the trip how much he hates that and didn't want anything to do with it on this trip.. of course it happens anyway. So anyway, I tried to help and it was the worst mess. There just wasn't time in the day for all of this stuff! Plus we weren't given any information on what was going to be taught or how much time we should allot for anyone (other than Rhonda who was demanding 3 hours/day). We ended up having to be up at 6am and not having any time until 9pm. It was ridiculous, especially after coming off a similar schedule with US Tours and the fact that almost everyone is sick. Shifu changed her mind on what and how the schedule should be more times than I can count. It was maddening. If she knows what she wants, why can't she just tell us??!!! ARGH!
Then, once we got it finally settled (for the moment) she started in on why we're never going to be able to get everyone to the opening ceremony without someone getting lost. Saying alternately that Ming was going to get a truck to take all of our luggage to the garden place and we'd just go into Hong Kong with nothing other than what we could run with (which for me would be nothing), change into the Taoist costumes there and go, and that Ming won't be able to get anything and that only people with small bags that REALLY want to go to the ceremony would be allowed to go and the rest of the people will have to sit around the train station for 12 hours and wait for everyone to get back before moving along to the garden.
This situation was causing all kinds of problems for everyone. Everyone wants to see the ceremony, but only maybe 2 people have small enough bags to make it there with all their crap. I offered to take one for the team (with someone else) and sit at the station with all the luggage cause I'd rather miss it than listen to everyone bitch all day.. but of course the plan was left open ended all pivoting on whether or not Ming got a truck for our stuff or not.
Bowen ended the night more pissed than I've ever seen him. He called Shifu an energy sucker and was especially annoyed by the fact that she started laughing about the whole thing at the end of the conversation. Like she was just saying it all to get us all worked up.

I guess I'll see what happens in the morning, but as of right now I just hope I can sleep.

China Day 11

2007-11-11T19:33:00.000-10:00

Today is Zach's birthday. I think he had a part in the mess last night for that reason. Many people wanted to go out and celebrate with him because it's Saturday, but it's not really possible when people have to be rested enough to go go go all day long starting at 6am.

There was also more drama (but unintentional this time) this morning when Rhonda and I were getting ready to go when we heard a crash next door. About 5-10 mins later, Polly walked in to our room in shock because her bathroom door had fallen off the hinge and shattered all over her (the bathrooms in our rooms last night were entirely glass). We had to make her take another shower because she had glass all over her. It was pretty scary for her. Luckily it was safety glass and there were no dangerous pieces. It did make us very late for the bus (not the last one's though) on a day where everyone was hoping to make up for our crazy mess last night.

Last night we had met (and frightened) our assistant guide, Ling Ling, who will be showing us around her home town of Hangzhou (Hang-joe, a like aha not apple). She is much nicer seeming
than either of the other guides we have had and luckily for us Hangzhou is beautiful! It's clean and modern looking with lots of flowers and tons of trees.

Ling Ling told us that if they were all pooled, the ratio of trees to people in Hangshou is 10:1 (there's roughly 4 million people in Hangzhou).

The first place we went was to the West Lake park. Very pretty. The lighting was kind of bad, but it was still pretty. I had missed this yesterday, but apparently Shifu grew up in Suzhou and spent a lot of time in Hangzhou playing around in that lake. It was fun to hear her stories. We took a boat ride and then walked (at a ridiculous pace since we were late this morning) through the park to meet the bus.

Unfortunately, to make an unfonfotable day even worse, Chris got separated from the group and we had to wait for an hour at least while Jessica and Tracy went back to try and find him. He was finally found in last place he had known we were and the group moved on to the tea village (not the 6 harmonious pagodas since there's not as much to buy).

The Tea Villlage was interesting because we learned all about green tea from "Dr. Tea" the government tea inspector. He was a pretty funny guy, but that didn't save us from further embarrassment when someone asked whether or not the Chinese do research on green tea enemas. He handled it well though, and of course
sold a lot of tea. I learned that green, black, and red tea all comes from the camellia (sp?) bush - green is fresh and black is fermented. I didn't really understand where red tea fit in.

After the tea house we drove by the 6 harmonious pagoda on our way to Lingyin Temple where they have the laughing buddah. This was another fiasco since we were so late getting there. People were really excited about how cool the place was and when we were only allotted 20 minutes to look around there was some uncooperative kids who didn't show up for over an hour. It was extremely inconsiderate and only served to further agitate an already bad situation. It's now even more out of hand than I ever thought it would be. As a group, we are ridiculous. Nothing happens without a whiny drama like a bunch of 12 year olds instead of adults. gross.

After the temple we had a LOOONG ride back to Shanghai and no dinner because of the people who were late. There were a lot of angry people in the bus that night. We lubricated our irritation with some wine and vodka and soon were giggling in the back of the bus about who knows what anymore. We even had one more tour of the Bund in Shanghai before they would let us into the hotel. It was ridiculous, and under different circumstances probably even interesting, but now it was just one last straw. We couldn't wait to get out of there.

When we got back to the hotel Zach, Polly, Rhonda, Val, Drew, Charles, Chris, Bowen, and I congregated in the hotel bar and decided to go out and find a place to get some good food (not Chinese, but more like pizza) in Shanghai. We spoke to Jessica (don't know if we should trust her) and the people behind the desk and got a recommendation of where to go. We hopped in 3 different cabs and sped off in 2 different directions. I wasn't amused by this at all as I watched our cab fare skyrocket. Finally after many lucky phone calls Me, Charles, and Drew finally found the rest of the group at a Brazilian restaurant.

I ordered tomato, oregano, and mozzarella pizza (which came without sauce or oregano) but ate it gladly with my papaya smoothie. I can't wait to get back and have some real (american) Italian food.

Tomorrow we take the train to Shenzhen and we're all going to be soooo happy to be done with touring. No more US Tours! Although it did make for lots of good Chinny-Chin theatre!