Oh dear.. this blog originally started as a travel blog because when I looked ahead in my immediate future, I had many a travels ahead of me.. I never expected them to really stop either but alas, the world is a crazy place and they stopped.
I moved to Salt Lake City in September of 2009. I had just graduated and had just come back from the most epic outdoor adventure of my life thus far-ALASKA. I wasn't ready to move back home and I also didn't have any other plans so I found myself moving to Utah alongside some of my dearest friends on this earth. I moved there thinking I would stay for about six months then hopefully move on to perhaps a different country, or just... something other than Utah. Basically, I had no intentions or expectations from Utah. I didn't think I'd make this place my home, find a job that I care about and definitely had no plans on finding love. Well, once again, like I said, this world is a crazy place and Salt Lake proved me to be terribly wrong. I have made this place my home, I found a job that I care about, and I have found love.
You're probably wondering why I am even writing about this.. Well, lately I have been reflecting a lot about Salt Lake and how grateful I am for what I have here. More than that though, I think this reflecting is brought up by the fact that I am feeling the itch to move onward from this place I call home..
Living in Salt Lake has been an adventure in itself but man has it been comfortable. I'm not leaving Salt Lake yet but my eyes are definitely looking towards a different direction than here. I'm hoping to settle down my restless self with a little bit of traveling.
Starting this coming Wednesday, I'll be hopping on a plane to Asia with a pack on my back and a camera around my neck. I'll be spending two weeks in Korea (the muthaaalaaand) with my family then will be meeting Hera down in Malaysia. From there on, all I know is that I need to get to Vietnam by the middle of August. Other than those set plans, my feet are free to roam to wherever my heart desires. Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam are the countries I will probably be hitting. I'm going to try to update this blog as much as possible so I could stay connected to you, my reader(s).
I can't believe this is actually happening. Finally, back aboard the traveling train where I get to experience and a part of a different world. I couldn't be happier.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Visitation hours for
1051 Fuller Ave are
Monday-Sunday: 24 hours a day
The months of June/July have been quite the eventful ones.. It all started when I got a phone call from my dad on a Monday night saying, "we're gonna be in Vegas tonight and I was wondering if we could swing over to Salt Lake on Wednesday". I blinked, smiled, and said of course!! My first family visitors!!
step mom, me, and my pops
Then the very next week I get a phone call from my brother, Alex and he says, "Hey! We're passing through Vegas and on our way to Salt Lake! See you in about 7 hours!" It's been a long time since I've received a surprise, and this was an amazing one.
me and my bro
bro and sister in law
The whole point of this blog entry is that although my travels have come to a bit of a halt, it has been incredible to be able to discover a new place outside of California where I've lived all my life. I honestly am not sure how I got here to Salt Lake, nor would I have EVER thought I'd end up here for so long or even at all... but here I am. Still here. Nevertheless, it has been a pretty fantastic experience to be able to share this world that I have been living in for the last 10 months with people I care so much about. (Mom, you're next!) It's just nice to feel a sense of pride about the life I'm living, the house I made a home, and the community I've created here.
Thank you Dad, ahjimmah, Christine, Alex, Janet, Celeste and Ryan for coming to see where I live and where I frolic. It really means the world to me..
So as you can see, summer here in SLC has been treating me well. The mountains have revealed its many hiking trails, there are free outdoor concerts all the time, and it stays light out until 9:30 PM... But I'm not going to lie- I can't wait till the powder hits again.
1051 Fuller Ave. is always open for visitation.
ps.
man its good to work full time hours in just the weekend. you could see why...
Lastly, the next week after Alex and Janet left, I got two wonderful friends from different sides of my life together under one roof! Celeste and Ryan!
The whole point of this blog entry is that although my travels have come to a bit of a halt, it has been incredible to be able to discover a new place outside of California where I've lived all my life. I honestly am not sure how I got here to Salt Lake, nor would I have EVER thought I'd end up here for so long or even at all... but here I am. Still here. Nevertheless, it has been a pretty fantastic experience to be able to share this world that I have been living in for the last 10 months with people I care so much about. (Mom, you're next!) It's just nice to feel a sense of pride about the life I'm living, the house I made a home, and the community I've created here.
Thank you Dad, ahjimmah, Christine, Alex, Janet, Celeste and Ryan for coming to see where I live and where I frolic. It really means the world to me..
So as you can see, summer here in SLC has been treating me well. The mountains have revealed its many hiking trails, there are free outdoor concerts all the time, and it stays light out until 9:30 PM... But I'm not going to lie- I can't wait till the powder hits again.
1051 Fuller Ave. is always open for visitation.
ps.
man its good to work full time hours in just the weekend. you could see why...
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
my office
"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am -- a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; you will outlive the bastards." -Edward Abbey
I'm not knockin' those of you who enjoy working in an office. I'm sure working indoors with artificial cool air blowing above you while your eyeballs burn from staring at the computer too long has its enjoyable moments. And I'm not putting down the fact that freedom comes when it's time for a lunch break or the weekends... haha I guess that was pretty harsh seeing that maybe one day, far from today, I may be doing that same thing. But today, that is the exact opposite of what I am doing and what I want to be doing to pay for my bills.
Although my travel blog has seemed to come to a traveling halt, I'd love to share with you, my faithful readers, my current job. I guess it's more or less a chance for me to brag about how rad my jay-oh-bee is.
Currently I work at a residential treatment center for teenage boys called Crossroads Academy. All of the boys that I work with are between the ages of 14-18 and they have all just come out of wilderness therapy. Crossroads is an after care for these boys. Crossroads is giving them the opportunity to continue therapy while getting their feet back into the world again, sober. They are attending school, whether it's catching up to where they are supposed to be at or even jumping ahead and graduating at early ages of 16! In other words, it's a sober house.
So you're probably wondering what the heck I'm doing there. No, I'm not a therapist nor am I their teacher in school. The thing that makes Crossroads unique is that they have special focus on board sports. Mainly snowboarding, wakeboarding and skateboarding, depending on the season of course. This is where I come in. They "force" the boys to get involved in recreational things such as these board sports in hopes that they are able to find a different kind of "high". So that is where I come in. I do the recreational part! I put in 40 hours a weekend and go with these boys to do these things. We rode and shredded all winter and now we're moving onto a lot of skating and soon wakeboarding. We do other things too like flow riding (indoor wave surfing), paintballing, community service, and hopefully this summer, rafting and camping.
And I know what you're thinking, and yes, this is the most fun job a girl could have...except it does get pretty tough and it has presented many challenges that I never thought I'd have to face. It's not always kicks and giggles at the house (i mean... most of the time it is... but not all the time) My main challenge has been about confrontation and dealing with it. I realized when I first step foot in that house that I am and still kind of am terrible at confrontation. I avoid it and hunker down when it happens. I'm terrible at sticking up for myself when I feel the least bit of weakness. But at this job, in order to not get stepped on by 15 teenage boys and 3 male staff (yes, I'm the only female) I have to puff up my chest a little and be a bit of a, pardon me, a bitch at times. Which is very, very new to me. I'm learning to be assertive and hold boundaries while still creating these amazing connections with these awesome boys! Balance.
This job is perfect for me right now. I am really happy with it and never, ever dread going to work. It is seriously a joy working there.
And although my travels have come to a slight halt, this job keeps me outside, active, and around people and so I can't really complain much. But don't get me wrong. I am itching to get out of the states, bad. So sooner than you know, I'll be jetting off to another place...but I think I'll save that for the next blog because it has been on my mind a lot lately.
Thanks for letting me brag about my job.... Please ask me more about the boys and more about the job. I will talk your ear off I promise!
I'll leave you with a couple videos of my boys doing some pretty cool things:
Although my travel blog has seemed to come to a traveling halt, I'd love to share with you, my faithful readers, my current job. I guess it's more or less a chance for me to brag about how rad my jay-oh-bee is.
Currently I work at a residential treatment center for teenage boys called Crossroads Academy. All of the boys that I work with are between the ages of 14-18 and they have all just come out of wilderness therapy. Crossroads is an after care for these boys. Crossroads is giving them the opportunity to continue therapy while getting their feet back into the world again, sober. They are attending school, whether it's catching up to where they are supposed to be at or even jumping ahead and graduating at early ages of 16! In other words, it's a sober house.
So you're probably wondering what the heck I'm doing there. No, I'm not a therapist nor am I their teacher in school. The thing that makes Crossroads unique is that they have special focus on board sports. Mainly snowboarding, wakeboarding and skateboarding, depending on the season of course. This is where I come in. They "force" the boys to get involved in recreational things such as these board sports in hopes that they are able to find a different kind of "high". So that is where I come in. I do the recreational part! I put in 40 hours a weekend and go with these boys to do these things. We rode and shredded all winter and now we're moving onto a lot of skating and soon wakeboarding. We do other things too like flow riding (indoor wave surfing), paintballing, community service, and hopefully this summer, rafting and camping.
And I know what you're thinking, and yes, this is the most fun job a girl could have...except it does get pretty tough and it has presented many challenges that I never thought I'd have to face. It's not always kicks and giggles at the house (i mean... most of the time it is... but not all the time) My main challenge has been about confrontation and dealing with it. I realized when I first step foot in that house that I am and still kind of am terrible at confrontation. I avoid it and hunker down when it happens. I'm terrible at sticking up for myself when I feel the least bit of weakness. But at this job, in order to not get stepped on by 15 teenage boys and 3 male staff (yes, I'm the only female) I have to puff up my chest a little and be a bit of a, pardon me, a bitch at times. Which is very, very new to me. I'm learning to be assertive and hold boundaries while still creating these amazing connections with these awesome boys! Balance.
This job is perfect for me right now. I am really happy with it and never, ever dread going to work. It is seriously a joy working there.
And although my travels have come to a slight halt, this job keeps me outside, active, and around people and so I can't really complain much. But don't get me wrong. I am itching to get out of the states, bad. So sooner than you know, I'll be jetting off to another place...but I think I'll save that for the next blog because it has been on my mind a lot lately.
Thanks for letting me brag about my job.... Please ask me more about the boys and more about the job. I will talk your ear off I promise!
I'll leave you with a couple videos of my boys doing some pretty cool things:
I hope you readers didn't get too BOARD with this post. heh heh heh heh
I leave you all with a souvenir i took from this epic snowboarding season.
I leave you all with a souvenir i took from this epic snowboarding season.
goggle tan............ 
until next time.. my heart,
crystal
until next time.. my heart,crystal
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
speechless
In all honesty, I have opened up this blog page about ten times and stared blankly at that stupid blinking vertical line that screams "WRITE!"
But no words or thoughts really come to mind. This blog was meant to connect me to those that aren't able to be around me but I apologize for the fact that I can't seem to do that at this time. Right now, my life doesn't seem worth recording. Or maybe it's not about worth, but the fact that I just don't want to outwardly express how I feel... because then, it will be too real. And to tell you the truth, I don't want this to be real-
...even though it's one of the realest things I have encountered.
So instead of being a downer, I'll leave you with a few videos that make me happy-
Sorry Celeste (not really though)
Here is teacher Celeste at her best:
and me and my friends skiing- This was my first time skiing since.... forever.
This video is rated PG-13 for language, brief nudity, and some serious shredding in onesies/wigs
until next time.
my heart,
crystal
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