Celebrating Hapa Kids

Zara just released their October Lookbook for kids, and I immediately fell in love with this little boy.

My roommate and I decided he must have a cool, location-based name. Like London or Brooklyn. Because he probably travels around the world with his well-to-do parents. And he probably plays with toy airplanes -- never Nintendo DS. And he grew up speaking three languages, one of them being an Asian language, because he's hapa -- and ADORABLE.


There is no other reason for this this post other than to point out how handsome this little man is, and to celebrate interracial marriages! I come from a family that contains a lot of mixed marriages; it's really beautiful to be able to blend cultures, genetics, accents and languages -- and to be able call everyone 'family'.

Cheers to open mindedness and cute hapa kids!

PURA VIDA. COSTA RICA.

At the end of September 2011,  I spent 8 days in Costa Rica with one of my best friends from undergrad, Kristine.

Since the beginning of the year, K & I had been wanting to go to Latin America and, after stumbling upon their website, decided to go with Toronto-based G Adventures.

For a variety of reasons, it was one of the most life-changing trips for both of us.

The adventures while traveling were, of course, memorable, as they always are...

Like when we went rappelling down 220 ft waterfalls; cannon-balled our way into the tiniest of water holes - a mandatory to get down the mountain; and stopped the torrential down-flow of mountain water as human shields...

Or when we went on the most treacherous hike of my life, only to be given the opportunity to jump off mile-high rocks into a pool that led into another waterfall...

 

Or when we went Class IV white water rafting, my most favorite hobby in the whole world, and laughed, laughed, laughed as we were smacked by Costa Rican trees, swallowed and spit out by its murky, foaming waters, and gleefully encouraged by our mustached, Costa Rican, guide of a guide, Luis...

 Or when we danced on the ferry ride home: cumbia, salsa, merengue, atop the boat, with the locals - as if it were as normal as buying a hot dog at a baseball game (because it IS normal there!)...

 But of course, the best times were spent with friends.  All the new friends we made on our trip, with whom we bonded as we swung for hours on hammocks in the night, usually humid sky; or when we built bonfires together and swapped stories -- and how to best make s'mores...

PEOPLE are what always make the trip.  Always, hands-down.  I will venture to say that Costa Rica was not unlike any adventure I had while living in Thailand or even Australia; the beaches are surely not as impressive as Thailand, the food not as spicy or obscure; the culture not as wild different as I'd expected.

But on our trip, K and I both met people who will forever be in our lives.  Specifically, two other people who live in different countries, but share the same zest for travel, for doing better in the world, for LIVING.  Our lives are definitely better because of those 8 days and the people we met on that trip.

And we have Cacique to thank.  Just kidding!

PURA VIDA!

She's Back.

I'm back. I neglected my blog for a YEAR - a whole, bloody year, because well, I got a job. And it's kept me sort of busy. Also, the stalkers on my formerly named blog started creeping me out, but I'm over it now.

But more on all that later.

I've missed writing so very much and have a ton of insight and great news to share from this past year's hiatus. Never mind that I probably have zero followers at the moment, but hey, it just feels GOOD releasing my thoughts to the universe. Ah, free therapy.

So I shall blog again. And it will be increíble.

(Note the Spanish: I'm going to Costa Rica for vacation this Saturday -- so stay tuned!)

Connecting the Dots

Do you ever feel like there's a "theme" to your week? A message/adage that follows you around, seeps through your mind and influences your actions?

Well, this past week, my theme was "connecting the dots." It all started when one of my friends told me to watch Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement speech. I ignored it -- too long. But then another friend from a very different group of mine told me to watch it a few days later, and I thought, "Ok, two people in one week is a pretty big coincidence." It's not like his speech is a new YouTube hit -- I mean, 2005? I was still in high school.

Suffice it to say that the speech did, as most inspirational speeches tend to do, "change my life," as my latter friend promised it would (at least, I still feel the residual inspirational effects of it!). You'll have to watch it yourself, but the main point that stuck with me was that only will we be able to connect the dots of our lives when we look back on it. Basically, hindsight is 20/20. Such a great message and reminder, especially to a 21 year-old like me, who continually struggles with the purpose behind my actions, and where my future will end up.

After feeling inspired by Jobs (such an incredible man), I retired that night and decided to pick up my current literary fling, "Marco Polo Didn't Go There" by travel writer, Rolf Potts. It's a collection of witty and post-modern written travel stories by Potts. Because I haven't gotten sun in a few days thanks to my desk job (wah), I decided to read a story based on the Mediterranean area.

"Turkish Knockout" was my story of choice, which told of Potts' experience as a victim of a date-rape drug. After regaining consciousness after the ordeal, he masochistically relives the events of the day and expresses how the each little encounter he had had with various "strangers" ultimately led to his demise (there are obviously more details to the story, but that's why you should just go pick up the book and read it yourself, duhhh!).

Sure, the end of Potts' story was not successful, as Jobs' was, but Potts did emote the same message:

"A certain 101-level existentialist (Kierkegaard, I think) once suggested that life is lived forwards, but understood backwards."

Ding, ding!

So there we have it, ladies and gents. The message of my week, indirectly told to me via two different friends and a book: connecting the dots, and having faith that our actions are all part of a master plan that will all make sense one day.