Who says singles can't have fun on V-dAY?!

Roses, red, pink, white, chocolates, balloons, love... Ah Valentine's. The clever Hallmark holiday carefully crafted by some sly capitalist. Usually I would shake my angry fist at this dreaded February 14th, but this year was a bit different. This year my heart felt filled to the brim because of a wonderful surprise. 

My dear, dear friends Phil, Willett, Dre, Peter, and Grant (and much more) came and kept me company this Valentine's. 

Their company was enough but what I'm really getting at is my Valentine's outing. It's not the typical dinner and a movie nor was it mushy and gushy... but it sure as hell was fun and some may say stress relieving...........

Shakey, scared, and unsteady to say the least... but man am I glad I did it. whoa mama. 

Que romantico, no?

There really is nothing like shooting shotguns and dancing all night long to Black Light Soul with your best friends on Valentine's day. 

Dear Neal

It's been good to be back watching the NBA again. Being in college, access to a tv has been difficult, but those times that I do get a chance to watch are glorious... especially when one of your best friends is a Boston Celtics fan. And especially when the Lakers have been doing some serious damage. 

There's nothing like kicking back with your friends, drinking a brew (or shots of rum...either or) and watching a fantastic and epic battle between two of the best teams in the nation. 

Its even better when you make a competitive but senseless deal with your buddy that you wouldn't eat until your team won. 

So we sat next to each other without food in our bellys since about the last 27 hours yet the craziness of the game made us forget our hunger... well until the time outs when those Outback steakhouse and pizza hut commercials would come out.. then thoughts of sushi, indian food, thai food, and everything else kept seeping in. 

So after a great overtime game and after Neal shed some tears. We hugged it out and made up with a SERIOUS feast at Tokyo Sushi. 6 rolls, assorted tempura, miso soup, and salad later... it was back to lovin again. Until the Finals that is. 

Moral of the story is: Competition is great, food is better, friends are the best. 

WAHOOO LAKERS!!

My body aches for it. 

Like physically aches for it. 

I get that swirling in my stomach.

I just read some blogs that 

my friends wrote during our stay in India. 

I felt such a strong pull to be back there again in that space. 

I miss it so much. It's already only become a memory. I'm not living it

anymore. It's just a memory. I hate saying that. 

Although it was challenging, looking back on it I couldn't have asked for

anything more. 

I know I need to move forward from this experience, but it has been a 

lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Although this nostalgic moment 

made me take a couple steps back, I'm

 ready to move forward. Be patient

with me, it will be a slow process but I know I need to take my experience

and continue to grow here. 

THE question

So I'm back from my travels. *waah waah boo hoo* I've been in school for the last two weeks and all I could think about is getting out of here as fast as possible. I'm trying to plot a way to make money and travel at the same time. Impossible? I will find a way. Anyway, apparently while I was abroad I was able to escape reality for a good number of months but when I came back, it punched me right in the face. I was faced with questions like, "are you working on your capstone?", "are you all set to graduate?" and of course... THE question, "so... what are your plans for after graduation?" 

If you don't know me by now, I will tell you that I am a girl that is not excited about hitting the "real world".  I don't want no stinkin' desk job. I don't want no stinkin boring job. I don't want no job that will restrict me. So basically.. what I've come to terms with is that I will just push this "real world" thing as far away as possible. 

So here's the tentative plan:

I'm going to take a year off between undergrad and grad. 

June-August: work for arcc.. hopefully go to some sweet place and get paid for it again. 

August-October: Get a temporary job for 3 months. Make some dough, put some greens in my pocket sort of speak. This job is up in the air. At the same time, I will be taking tests and filling out applications for going back to school again. 

October-December: Work for Asian Pacific Adventures over in southeast asia leading hikes, sea kayaking and what not. 

December+(hopefully till I need to go to school again): Travel. Take the little money that I have and go to places like Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal. Do the whole Asia thing. Maybe if I have enough money I will be able to skip over to South America. But like I said. It's tentative. 

So there it is. THE answer to THE question. Sure it's not getting an internship that will lead into a serious job or going to grad school right away... But i'm okay with that. I'd rather see the world. Wanna join me?

i'm living in a tree house.

It's true.

I'm living in a tree house. I climb up a tall, rickity ladder multiple times a day to my home sweet home (or as we say here in India, OM sweet OM). I'm sharing this open tree house with a keet roof with my dear friend Marisa. It's seriously one of my favorite places that I have every rested my little asian head. 

Ah. This life here in India has turned to be so wonderful and a blessing. 

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to give an update but I was reminded by my brother that I need to do so. First of all, I am safe and sound for those who are wondering. I am far from the attacks and will remain far for the rest of my stay here. 

During the attacks that occurred in Mumbai I was here down south in Tamil Nadu battling our own attack. A cyclone ripped through this place and ripped through with no hesitation but I might say a bit of kindness. Let me remind you all that I am a California girl. A rainstorm goes as long as a week and it is harmless. Winds don't really happen and there is typically no danger. Here, I was in my first cyclone. This was a rip roaring, full out rain storm that people in Tamil Nadu haven't seen for years. Here in Auroville, they have tried to do this great thing of planting lots and lots of beautiful trees all around. This place is heavily forested as opposed to before Auroville it was barren and pretty dry. Only problem with a lot of the trees is that they are not local. Because of this, after days and days and days of rain the soil got and remained SO wet that my of the trees started to fall over. Like... TIMBER style. Eucalyptus, Work Trees... All kinds of monstrous, large trees. At the place I am living, over half of the trees fell over. As you know, or didn't know, our roofs are made of keet. So pretty much palm leaves. If a tree were to fall on my room, the building would be history. We all had to vacate our keet houses and move into the one cement structure in our guest house. 9 girls, one room, wet, rainy, hectic... It was awesome. Although it did feel like a bit of a refugee camp, I loved every minute of it. I did have to worry about a tree falling on my head or a sharp bamboo violently hitting me as I took a wet stroll to the bathroom, but other than that.. it was just fine. One to go in the books. Although, it did make our Thanksgiving a little miserable. No power, no water means no cooking, no showers, no a lot things. But it was all good in the hood!

I will be home in t-minus 19 days. Whoa. That is not so far away huh? Oh boy. Honestly, I do not want to leave this place. I have fallen deeply in love with India, with this life, with the people.... Don't get me wrong, I miss friends and family back home, but if I could teleport you here, I definitely would not leave. 

19 days. 

geez.

okay. 

See you soon I guess. This was kind of a funny blog entry huh? I'm in a funny mood. 

blissed out

breath.
I just finished a 3 days vision quest/solo on this island in Hampi, India.
I am feeling fresh, renewed and so good.
I might never leave India.
breath.

Check your smiles at the door

i can't control the volume of my voice.

journaling, surfing, reading, the outdoors, sports, dancing and music are my therapy.

i enjoy good company.

rough housing is my guilty pleasure.

i'm competitive-and i WILL win.

chocolate ice cream is the way to my heart.

being a hopeless romantic gets the best of me. 

So about maybe six, seven years ago I joined myspace. There is profile section titled "About Me" where you are given the freedom to write whatever you wish. Above is the thing I wrote and I haven't changed it since. I read that from time to time and I still feel like it rings true to certain core parts of who I am. 

The reason why I write this is because of the first line. "I can't control the volume of my voice". If you know me at all, you know this is true, but today or maybe the past few days, I am starting to think for the first time that this is a negative trait that I possess. I actually really enjoyed that aspect about myself. It never really crossed my mind as something negative but here, in India I h

ave been running into trouble with it. I've been told that I laugh too much and too loud and in general I just make too much noise. And yes, this is very true but I have always surrounded myself with people who appreciate it, if not laugh harder, dance faster, and talk louder. 

so what if i like to dance and sing around these 

parts?

so what if i like to stay up and laugh with my friends?

so what if i enjoy great conversations till late at night?

so what if i love to blast music before dinner time for a quick dance?

so what right?

not. 

i'm feeling so contained. My wings are clipped and every time I want to spread them, someone closes the cage. I'm here in India trying to squeeze out my time and be me to the fullest but i can't. 

I feel like I can't have fun. and if any of you guys know me at all, you will know that this is a big, big problem for me. 

I'm conflicted. Do I change and become more reserved for these few boring people? or do I march to my own drum and enjoy myself with people who also enjoy the beat i make? (cause there are a handful of those, thank 

God)

Well, for now I will make noise. I will sing, I will dance, I will for sure laugh, and I will talk. But a girl could be told that she's noisy so much until she reaches breaking point. I refuse to reach breaking point. 

I'll leave you with a song that has always rang true to my heart but it's even more so now...

i wanna go where the mountains are high enough 

to echo my song

i wanna go where the rivers run deep enough

to drown my shame

i wanna go where the stars shine bright enough

to show me the way

i wanna go

where the wind 

calls my name

-india arie