My Hawaiian adventure thus far...

Friday I was introduced to a black sand beach. It was beautiful and cocooned within some lava rock walls. There I worked really hard (on my tan) and caught up with my friend Veronika, who I am staying with.

Saturday Veronika, her husband Patrick, and her friend Venessa and I went sailing. We saw a whale shortly after leaving the harbour - it was gorgeous! I also managed to score myself a date on Thursday with a coast guard, to go swimming with dolphins. This date later became less exciting when I was able to leap off the boat into the water after some wild dolphins and hear and see them beside and below me. Woo!
That night we went to a quarterly solstice event called Artesia at a naturalist's house. There were heaps of people there all to listen, dance and showcase their respective talents in a mini outdoor festival event. It was a lovely evening.

Sunday I ran away to the other side of the Big Island with Venessa to Kalani, a health retreat. From there I hitchhiked into a Sunday afternoon drumming circle on a nearby beach with a lady who had just painted her car because she didn't want to clean it... There were a couple of hundred people at the beach and the more intense the drums became, the more wild dolphins would leap out of the ocean, it was really spectacular. I sat and chatted to an artist called Jim Franklin who is a surrealist. He told me about not taking lava away from the island and not throwing rocks out to sea because it is extremely bad luck. Good things will happen however, if you bring things to Hawaii... I walked back to Kalani after the drumming circle and that night previewed an aerial performance by a lady who teaches aerial acrobatics to Cirque du Soleil performers. She was amazing. Following her show and question time I took part in a group healing session. I don't think my energy fields became unblocked or my detached self became realigned but it was an interesting process all the same...

Monday I discovered "my happy place" in front of Kalani. It is a spot enclosed by the rainforested hinterland, on the shallow lava cliffs of the island, overlooking the sea. I called out an aloha to the sea and two seals popped their heads out of the water. It was a very calming and spiritual place to be. I sat on a swing there for a good hour or so and felt cleansed.
Later in the afternoon Venessa took me to a hot pool where we and a few shrimp and some locals chilled together. We then went into town and I met some local "Punatics" who shared their theories about weather control, bombing and other conspiracies with me. The lava then called and we had a mini adventure over what used to be a town before the Volcano goddess reclaimed the land... a relaxing and recharging stop at some natural steam vents for a natural sauna and we headed back to Honoka'a.

Yesterday I started a detox/cleanse. Veronika and I also went for an exploration of the most gorgeous valley I have ever seen. Pololu is the type of place you imagine.
Stunning, steep, lush-green lava cliffs making room for a water collective out to soft, silky black sand. A place where light hinterland and swings mean lava rock beaches and all worldly concerns are resolved.

We left late afternoon and planted a tree at the place where Artesia had been held on Saturday before watching the sun set from the harbour and a energizing lightning storm threatened to come over from Maui.

Hawaii is AWESOME!

Yes, Hawaii IS awesome!!

I recommend it but do not even think of taking any lava home with you or throwing rocks out to see unless you want some seriously bad luck... do NOT take away from the island...

This week and beyond!

This week I finally completed a Human Rights Course I have been doing online (through the International Centre for Conflict and Human Rights Analysis) for the last 10 weeks. It allowed me to learn about human right along with and from nearly a hundred participants from about 40 countries!

On Saturday I attended a Student Leadership Conference at school. It was a great chance to reevaluate my own leadership style respective of the development projects I do. One speaker in particular was really great and apparently has an regular email newsletter that is really helpful. (I recommend you sus the guy, Scott Greenberg, out).

I am sorry this email is so bland. It has been absolutely chockers this week with assessment! (I actually walked into two of my classes on Monday to discover that we had a test, Tuesday I had two assignments, Yesterday I had another one and today I had two more...)!

But tomorrow! Tomorrow I am off to Hawaii to go wallow in nature. I am meeting up with Veronika (my Hawaiian friend from the World Youth Congress) to plant trees, clean beaches, go sailing, get a massage and generally hang with her in Hawaii!

Will be back next weekend so you may not here from me for a little while.

k

I think I am falling in love...!

Oh geez.

I started seeing someone just before I left for the UAE. I decided to take the time away to think about whether or not I was willing to go there and told them to do the same thing. When I came back I negotiated a companionship that has very quickly been replaced with a love...

Wow. I would never have expected to fall in love with this person.

I am glad that I now have someone to care about, shower with attention and affection, sofocarte en besos, and get the same back!

Ha! I must be crazy.

Ha! I know I am crazy!

Orange County is my new home

Yup, it is official. Orange County is now officially my home away from home. I had to travel outside the States, connect with a lot of new and international friends, and live here 6(ish?) weeks to realise that Fullerton, Orange County is my home!

Oh yeah, the conference was great. Unfortunately, due to my flight dramas I missed the first day, but the amount of food I consumed and the people I met over the second and last day made up for that...

It was really great to hear about all the opportunities available to women in the world right now, even if they are largely tokenistic openings. Women seem to be making amazing progress for themselves in their local, national and international community, utilising all resources, positions and networks available to them!

The panel session I was presenting in (during the last session of the last day) didn't go as I had anticipated because a lot of the ideas I had to bring to the session had already been discussed in prior sessions. However, I was able to facilitate an open dialogue between the people that came to my session and we explored how to implement and/or improve our individual projects for change in our respective countries. I found it to be a fulfilling session.

I was also offered a few jobs while at the conference; one doing marketing for Red Bull in the UAE, one doing corporate social responsibility work with Oracle in Saudi Arabia, and one in media and/or advertising with friends in Pakistan. Woo!

Got home safely after managing a little bit of shopping and dinner with my cousin Anna in London before coming home extremely jet lagged (and glad to be home in the OC).

Some days you win and loose!

Yesterday was nuts.

Yesterday's plan went like this:
Pack for the Women as Global Leaders Conference in Abu Dhabi (UAE).
Complete all work for classes I will miss this week.
Go to work.
Pick up business cards sponsored by my school.
Go to airport.
Fly to London and meet up with pregnant extended family member (Anna) for an early dinner and many hugs.
Fly onto Dubai.
Catch taxi to Abu Dhabi.

Yesterday actually went like this:
Woke up next to 'star shine'.
Threw stuff in suitcase and resolved to sort it out later.
Completed all work for classes to be missed but missed class in the process.
Went to work.
Discovered that business cards had not been printed. Cursed.
Went to airport and discovered missing wallet.
Hunted, stressed and reported missing wallet.
Missed flight.
Started having a fit.
Was rescheduled to new flight that leaves 24 hours after original flight for free by amazing British Airways lady (called Nina) who took pitty on me. (By some miracle I will also not miss any of the conference).
Duscovered that police officer who filed report for missing wallet lives a mile away from me (an hours drive), and offered a lift home which I gratefully accepted.
Learnt that wallet had been abducted by housemate who was minding it.
Fell asleep next to my 'star shine' again. Yay...

This blog does not do justice to the extremes of emotion that were experienced yesterday. I am so glad that everything has been resolved.

I leave in an hour and a half for the train (hopefully with business cards in my bag. I leave in a couple of hours for my flight. I arrive in the UAE on Sunday morning and will be back in Orange County on Wednesday afternoon with many stories to share, I am sure.

Wish me luck today, this week I've had my bad-event fill!

Buggar!

It was a beautiful (rainy, cold and overcast) winter's day. After a long (attempt at) sleep I slowly awoke (because I was in pain and feeling a cold coming on) and got ready early for school (so I could do some homework that I didn't get finished yesterday). After getting ready (and deciding to skip a shower because the room was just too cold) I made my way out the front of the apartment (the same complex that houses the underwear thief and the same complex where I was stood up on Saturday,) to learn that my (Aunt's) bicycle had been freed (not by me).

I now have the bike chain's keys in my pocket (and am willing to use them to key the car of the self centered jerk that stole my only form of transport!).

Gah!

Some days you win and some days you loose.

k

Clubbing, Casting and Getting Stood Up!

Yay for gay kids!

The friends I have made from the LGBA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance) took me out clubbing in West Hollywood on Thursday and Friday night.

Thursday night we went to a nightclub called "Here". It was hot. Gay girls here are so much more feminine and prettier than home... sorry. I was being friendly to one girl who looked like she was by herself when I learnt that she wasn't there to party, she was casting people for an MTV show called "Date My Mom". She got my contact details so maybe I'll be on TV here... yay!

Friday night we went partying again in Hollywood at a gay event that only happens once a month. There I was harassed by a married lesbian. I kept on telling her that I wasn’t comfortable with her attention towards me with her wife there but I guess it must be hard resisting my allusive Aussie charm… ha!

Speaking of allusive Aussie charm that people can’t resist…. Saturday night I was stood up! Never in my life have I been stood up! I was so upset! I was even more upset than when my bra got stolen last week! Does this guy not realize how irresistible I am (at least to the lesbian folk)?!?!? Gah!

Sunday night was the Oscars or Academy Awards… Whatever…. It is so not a big deal here. It is really weird. At home the show is a big deal and here I am, with the ceremony happening where I was out clubbing a couple of nights ago, and it’s all ‘whatever’.

This Thursday I am flying away. I go to the United Arab Emirates for the Women as Global Leaders Conference – mua ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Will be back on the 15th. Love you!

k

Underwear Thief!

I am so pissed off!

I put my clothes in the communal laundry, as you do when you are in a small apartment complex, and when I came back, someone had stolen my bra! They did not steal any other clothes (that I've noticed) and even left my matching undies but, gah!

I found out it had actually been stolen rather than me having lost it when I went back to the laundry to look for it and a girl who was there minding her washing (and hissing "my precious, my precious"*) told me that her and her housemate had both had their underwear stolen in the past!

I went back to my room and wrote up a huge sign that said, "To the underwear thief, I want my purple bra back! Please hand it into the office. P.s. I am angry!" and posted it up in the laundry. At least future laundry users can be warned of the resident creep...

Meanwhile, if you would like to sponsor me underwear, let me know...

*The aforementioned girl wasn't hissing or repeating "my precious, my precious". She was however drawing really cool little animations for her animations class that she was behind in...