WARNING: This video may induce a sudden urge to buy a one-way ticket to an exotic island, sleep around with hot foreign guys and party hardy.
…only you can set yourself free.
; )
Watch and I’m sure you won’t regret it.
3:46 is when it gets really good.
…the end is sucky, but at least she died happy…
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I can’t get over how GROOVY these guys are. Would practically die if I ever got the chance to jam with them. I bet it would be seriously uplifting and just fun.
So I have been very busy late, hence the not writing blog posts since October thing, so embarrassing, gah, also I kinda forgot my password for a while and had to re-set it. Story of my life. I actually almost wrote a blog post last night. I got really inspired after a talk with my host mother and I wanted to write about her, but then I just got to tired. I have been more tired here than I think I ever have been in my entire life. I think it is something about learning a new language, your brain is working extra hard to understand, the spanish IS starting to stick a bit though, people keep telling me my spanish is good, but I just say “what?! you’re crazy…”
Funny note before I talk about my host-mum. There are a TON of words that are very similar to english in spanish that have the same meaning, but others not so much. For example, a word similar to embarrassed in spanish is embarazada, but don’t go saying “estoy embarazada” (estoy=I am) because then you will be telling everyone you are pregnant. Yep. Made that mistake a few times in the beginning…
Another one, exitada. You might think, oh yeah that sounds like excited right? Ok, estoy exitada! Careful with that one, yes you are saying you are excited…but sexually, so right time right place eh?
Ok, so yesterday I talked my host-mother Marcela about her work. She is a psychologist primarily but also can give massage and reiki treatments. She has a cozy room for her office in our apartment with mattresses and pillows on the floor, altars with crystals and candles, a bookshelf with psychology books…anyway it’s super cozy. When someone comes to the door, she greets them warmly, like she is greeting an old friend and welcomes them into her office to sit and joins them shortly after grabbing a new mate to share with them.
(this is something else about Argentinian culture I can talk about more late, but the word “mate” actually refers to the special cup from which you drink the tea, yerba mate, but you can also use it to refer to the act of drinking tea. Whenever I get into a conversation with Argentinians and they see my mate, they say excitedy “te gusta tomar mate?! you like to drink mate!? When you say yerba you are referring to the tea itself…but you could also be referring to marijuana so be careful with that one too cause yerba really just means herb) As you can see, and as you know if you’ve read my blog before, I’m all about the tangents…
So my host mom, she is this short lively lady with shoulder-length curly black hair, a huge smile that is contageous and bright brown eyes. She is very animated and also very caring. I am always hearing lots of laughter coming from her office while she is working. I asked her about that, and she replied that it is better to get her patients to be able to laugh at their situation in life, or more importantly at their egos and be able to say, HAHAHA ego you are so silly that you did that, said that, wanted that… she says that laughter cuts through blocks people can have.
She also acted out for me how she considers that it is like she is encouraging people to pinch their egos on the butt and say hey! what do you think you are doing!? get back here you ego you! Suddenly the ego is surprised and scared and powerless. Imagine this little woman acting out being an ego and pinching her own butt, oh my god I laughed so hard. She also acted out how fear can be for some of her patients. Fear is like big ugly fat man who is eating you up. What you have to do, is turn right around, pinch that fear in the butt and eat it back! The big fat ugly man who is fear will be so surprised he won’t know what to do.
She tells her patients to keep up. Just as I have always been told by my papa, keep up, keep up, just like Yogi Bhajan used to say, she says it too. I don’t know maybe I sound closed-minded but I have to admit that growing up in a very sheltered religious and spiritual community I did sometimes get to thinking like this conscious viewpoint on life is ours.. I used to be a lot more closed to other people who didn’t have the same background as me, scared they wouldn’t understand me, wouldn’t care to, they weren’t on the same “level” as I was. I know god i sound so egotistical. I will admit it, I am, got a lot more butt-pinching-of-the-ego to do in my life. Well, studying abroad here in Argentina I am more on my own than I have ever been in my life and in a completely new culture and country, one that is very friendly and welcoming. I have met so many amazing people who I can relate to.
In spanish I could say, they are an ” amigo mio” my friend, but meaning also like your friend that you identify with, you two have things in common, you get each other. Ahora, tengo muchos amigas mios aca en Buenos Aires. Me encantaria quedar aca por mucho tiempo, pero la vida es como asi, y todos las cosas pasan…
might slightly be showing off my spanish here, and if I make any mistakes all you native spanish speakers, porfavor tu puedes decimi como puedo hacerlo correcto…
so much more to say……………
I have literally been collapsing on my bed for the past week and getting up and going going going for the whole day with no time to write. Just felt like I should briefly mention what I’ve been up to. Well, last friday and saturday Gurubachan Singh was in town, there was a dinner for him friday and then saturday he taught an amazing meditation class in a posh yoga center in a kinda upperscale hipster neighborhood to about 70+ people. Last sunday I left for Porto Alegre, Brazil for the week with my program. We had classes on the economy, political and development history, Brazil’s involvement in MERCOSUR (the common market between Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina) and a few intro classes of Portuguese. Also got to listen to live samba music, learn how to dance samba and also other traditional brazilian dances, and ate the most amazing array of delicious fruits of my life. Friday afternoon we took an overnight bus to Foz de Iguazu in the south of Brazil on the Argentinan border. Saturday we spent the day exploring and marveling at the wonder of Iguazu Falls, you gotta look it up, it’s amazing. It was a profound experience for me, there is so much we can learn from our environment, the Earth has much wisdom that I think is often overlooked in our fast-paced city lives. This morning (sunday) our group of 22 students split and half took a bus to Paraguay and the other half took a plane back to Buenos Aires to stay with our homestays for a night. Tomorrow morning (in 7ish hours)
it seems to be consuming me lately. I think it is because I can feel time slipping through my fingers with each passing second and I’m forgetting that frantically trying to hold onto the movement of time is futile.
I am also kind of overall just frustrated with myself because I have really made procrastination an art. The unconscious avoidance of what I need to do is so great now that, oh man, it’s really starting to catch up with me. I need to get a hold on this. I need to be able to PLAN AHEAD. This would really help with my whole anxiety issue.
What the heck are we all doing here? It is so weird, I mean we all want to be loved, we all, I think, want to be good and do good but there are such varying degrees of how far someone is willing to go to do these things and how much they care. Sometimes it seems that in order for someone to really take that next step and go above and beyond something big had to happen in their life to change them and make them put in that extra effort. Is that the case? I dunno, but I guess it’s my little theory.
Ugh, another thing lately, I just feel like I’ve been acting selfish, entitled and arrogant as hell. I mean, you are probably like whoa, why is she saying this, why does she think I care to hear about her problems, whats wrong with this girl….
Well, I feel like I would like to address that. I am writing like this because it is somewhat liberating for me to be all like “splat this is my brain in words” cause i mean, we are all human, we all think weird shit but don’t say it, but if we all are so goddam weird in our heads why not be able to share it, and accept someone else like that, weird shit and all. I mean and here is this arrogance thing again, am I trying to feel accepted by writing this blog? Maybe! Who knows! I will accept that possibility. Ya know I think another big reason why I am writing this blog is because I can just imagine that some people might react to it, like “omg!”, “wtf!” or, “huh?!” and it is amusing for me to imagine your face as you read this. I will do almost anything to make myself laugh, including writing a weird ass blog with all my word vomit in it yes. I mean I think there is a lot of valuable stuff in here, meditations, inspirational things, but there is also a bunch of strange stuff…like this post right here.
So anyway, yeah been feeling like wow girlfriend, you are not better than them, get that idea outta your head right now young lady!
Many many people over the years have told me that I think too much. I guess if so many people have told me this it must be true, right? I’m def working on learning how to drown out the brain chatter and tune into my intuition and let it take over. Then my brain is like “ahhhh, silence”. 
Summer is the BEST time to be in Eugene.
Ironically it is usually the time when there are the least people here because most students have gone back home. The town feels a bit calmer, more peaceful.
The sun is a glorious sight. We don't see it much during the school year.
When it gets a bit warm, I can escape into the trees and find some solace within the leaves
I am at home in the forest
http://fateh.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/Register.nsf/CyberHukamnama
Kaanraa, Fifth Mehla:
My Friend, my Best Friend, my Lord and Master, is near.
He sees and hears everything; He is with everyone. You are here for such short time – why do you do evil? ||1||Pause||
Except for the Naam, whatever you are involved with is nothing – nothing is yours.
Hereafter, everything is revealed to your gaze; but in this world, all are enticed by the darkness of doubt. ||1||
People are caught in Maya, attached to their children and spouses. They have forgotten the Great and Generous Giver.
Says Nanak, I have one article of faith; my Guru is the One who releases me from bondage. ||2||6||25||
