new york, paris, jeju-do, tokyo

well, not the first two, but i've lately seen some pretty cool places.  i attended a conference in jeju island, just to the south of korea (it's the pink island above).  beautiful place.  known as the hawaii of korea.  enjoyed "hwey" (회, sashimi) and other delicious foods. relaxed pace on the island.  took a day to travel around after the conference and met quite a few fun people.  some captions below...

the lighthouses at the harbors help the ships to navigate in... i wonder if this "red on your right" system is standard world-wide...

i'm posing by "dragon rock" -- it used to have a head, but that got detached by a tsunami from a few years ago.

 there are some amazing lava tubes that carve the underworld of jeju.  this is a particularly impressive stalagmite (?) that formed from lava pouring through the ceiling.  walked down 1km of this >13 km long tunnel, ceiling height ranges from 2m-30m.  quite amazing.

 took a fun early morning hike with a lodgers at a korean hostel.  someone had me pose for this neat shot.

 cute korean girls on the hike who were so friendly.  "Smees-uh! peek-tcha!?"

 chang-won loving life.

 an epic hike around hallisan mountain.  it was quite foggy and some rain, but it was beautiful being so in touch with the elements.  fire created that rock, and the lush landscape surrounded by wind and rain made it quite a surreal experience.

hae-nya are the women of jeju who dive for food in the ocean.  sadly, the may be the last generation who does this, as many of the children have moved to cities in search of a more comfortable lifestyle.

東京 (Tokyo)

visited tokyo because my friend justin was the invited speaker at a conference out there.  we had a blast, saw some cool things, met some interesting folks...

 met a really amazing human being, nabe (pronounced "nah-bay").  he befriended me at narita airport train station, and we walked around tokyo for a few hours and enjoyed being alive.  it makes me happy to know that wonderful spirits like him inhabit this planet.

this was the view from justin's sweet hotel.  i know it is totally amateur, but, pretty cool huh?  we down-graded just a little after his conference was finished :)

i took a hike around kamakura while justin was at his conference.  i had a great time visiting temples and hiking. i even went swimming at the beach!

big buddha thing.  i had a little trouble feeling the spiritual energy at this place.  perhaps this feeling was connected to the korean temple there given as a "gift" in 1924 to one of the royalty (during period of japanese occupation of korea, 1913-1945). 

justin and i took a tour with chinami.  she was our guide friday.  she took us around to so many places and helped us to get some insight about her culture.  domo arigato chinami!!!

i met with katsu one evening.  he came all the way to my neighborhood to join me for dinner.  we met the week before in jeju.  what an awesome person.

partied all night with some fun people.  visited several different clubs, danced a lot!

 the trickiest part was staying up until the trains started running again at 6am.  here's "homeless" justin with thelma (phillipine woman).  she may look more fresh than him, but we were all exhausted from the long night...

bicycling along the river... happy!

at first, i thought this would be a horrible idea, but it ended up being pretty amazing:  impressed by how the subway system seems to handle tickets inserted in any orientation, justin folded his ticket in half and pushed it through.  error.  no surprise.  yet, what ensued was cool: the patrol guy proceeds to open up the ticket-processing machine, revealing a very complex system of belts and gears and stuff.  it's interesting to imagine how much energy goes into making the system of tokyo running smoothly.

Life in Korea

I've lived in Korea for a little more than 3 months now.  It's been quite a full experience.  I am a little shy to share my impressions and feelings about my experiences, because not all of it is pretty.  I've witnessed some very challenging cultural aspects, and I've also continued to be delighted by the warm personalities of Koreans.  It is difficult to give an honest and balanced view of what I am experiencing, because the tone and circumstances are so dynamic.

Anyway, maybe I can tell stories through pictures:

My friend Martina from Germany came to visit, and we visited a beautiful island called Ulleung-do (Hangul: 울릉도).  What a wild place! It was pretty deserted, which was a refreshing contrast to life on the mainland.  The majority of people that we saw were also tourists like ourselves.  This made it interesting for two reasons -- no one really knew how to navigate the island (I think we got an "A" in that department, almost circling the entire island), and being 2 of the 4 white people on the island, we became a sort of tourist attraction.  Koreans can be so funny by their intense curiosity of foreigners.  I woke at 4am to climb the summit of the central mountain, Seonginbong (Hangul: 성인봉), and was greeted by about 100 Koreans on my way up, "Anyong haseo..." (looking down at my feet) "oh my gosh, you are wearing sandals!!!" (in Korean)... That was so funny to me.  If you play ping-pong, you need appropriate ping-pong attire; for gardening, gardening attire; and for hiking... you definitely need hiking attire!  I was clearly unprepared by their standards, yet I summited the peak and made it back without any problem.  I'm not sure what the issue was, but some Koreans informed me that from Chinese Medicine, the health of one's feet are very important (because the feet are energetically connected to every organ in the body), and so it's important to protect those feet!  Makes sense.  Anyway, most Koreans did not think to go from the main port town to the opposite side of the island (about an hour by bus), so we bussed it around the island, stopping in every little town -- each one beautiful and charming in its own way.  We walked along the road, seeing maybe a car every 5-10 minutes.  We were started to hike along a dirt road leading back to the town we started from, but it was getting late, so we circled the island again by bus.  We stayed in a Min-bak (a family's house with some rooms open for travellers) and drank Magoli (막걸리, a milky rice wine) with the Koreans.  Overall, Ulleungdo was definitely a highlight of my time so far in Korea.

Sometimes I feel like I am living on a different planet...

It's been a while...

It's been more than a month now since I've posted.  Each day has been been very full, and often quite satisfying.  I suppose I haven't written much here because I've been processing my experiences internally.  Also the Japanese disasters have been on my mind a lot.  I've been through shock, some loneliness, frustration, exhaustedness; and also (sometimes simultaneous with the previous list) joy, curiosity, adventure, and peace.  The things I've been experiencing out here sometimes feel like they have no analogue to life in the States.  Korean culture is very interesting -- I am most fascinated by people's relationship to nature, food, and each other.  

Many Koreans love to experience nature, as evidenced by the jam-packed bus to Palgong-san (Palgong mountain) this Saturday.  It's not unusual to see large groups of people walking together on the mountain trails.  I was actually in one of them -- I joined the Yeungnam Alpine Club.  I am the first foreigner to ever have joined their group (and it's been active for several decades!).  I am very grateful to be a part of this group and to have the chance to go on adventures with others.  The students are extremely friendly and seem to share my passion for the outdoors.  What a great fortune that I met up with them.

It is no news to confess that Korean food is still AWESOME.  For instance, I had a delicious lunch today of strips of steak with mushrooms and onions grilled over coals that sit inside the table that I sit at, served with myriad side dishes: radish, kimchi (pickled cabbage), garlic, lettuce, peppers, bean sprouts, sauces, and something like cole slaw.  And as always, there's free refills on all side dishes :)  a delicious vegetable soup with rice was served to me afterwards, then a coffee and fresh strawberries.  Heaven.  And this sort of stuff is not unusual in my daily routine (!!!).

I tried to order delivery service for the first time tonight: fail.  It should usually take 30 minutes.  I figured my Korean is good enough now to order.  Below is a translation of my conversation with the restaurant guy:

Me: Hello.  I want food.
Him: Ok, what do you want?
Me: po sham jong shik (some pork and vegetable soup with rice).  I live at 501 apple one room, in shin dae ri.
Him: <stuff stuff something stuff> [I can't understand]
Me: [thinking: 'uh-oh.']  ok, so everything's good?  You understand?
Him: Yes.
Me: Ok, thank you so much!!
Him: <click>

With that I really was hoping that delivery guy would come to my door with a delicious meal, but instead, I boiled some dumplings from my freezer after waiting for an hour.  I'll try again next time.  :)


I can go on and on about my knowledge of Korean interpersonal relations, but my concepts are poorly formed and I am still learning.  The way of relating between friends, colleageus, family members, friends, etc., is no doubt dramatically different than Western styles.  But it is tough for me to concisely say how.  This is one of the points where I can't quite articulate what I am experiencing in a way that I think people will be able to grok what I'm talking about.  For one though, Koreans have a strong sense of connectedness.  Here my analogy with bees is quite a good one.  Koreans refer to each other as family members, as if they are all part of one giant family.  At the restaurant, if the server is an older woman, you would call "aunt!" to her, which feels funny to me because I am a foreigner :)  But I like to follow these customs anyway.


So, if you have any questions for me about life in Korea, please ask me!  I am excited to share my experiences and what I am learning, but I'm not sure about the best way to go about it.  Sometimes I think that one just needs to come to Korea to understand this culture.

Pictures are worth a thousand words each, right?  Here are a few that capture a narrow range of my recent experiences:

 Me with my boss, Jong Su Kim.  In the background in the famous Gyeongsan bridge in Busan.  We visited Busan in late Feb for a weekend conference on solar cells.

Me with Domenico--a graduate of Georgia Tech, now working as a post-doc in Busan.  Busan is at the far south of Korea, about 1.5 hours by train from Daegu, where I live.  Domenico and I walked around and played ping-pong in the evening at a ping-pong club.  He played for the NCAA at Tech.

[image removed so I don't get body-snatched]
 I remember the slogan "don't leave home without it." In this case, "don't start living in Korea until you have it."   Alien Registration Card.  Waited for weeks for this card. Then,within an hour of receiving it, I opened a bank account and got a cell phone.  It felt like my Korean life officially started when I got this card.

Some of the Yeungnam Alpine Club.  I am the first foreigner to ever join this club.  I didn't mean to be crushing Tae-un -- I just thought we needed to get close for the photo :)

Spring is here!  I took this today when I was sitting outside my apartment studying Korean.  

On the hike with the Alpine Club, we came across a beautiful Buddhist temple.  If you zoom in, you can barely see that there was some kind of ceremony happening inside.  There are many in the mountain areas.  I hope to visit one soon.

Stone Buddha statue, about 3 meters high.  This was quite impressive.

A couple more short comments:

--

I walk down the streets past a group of Korean military soldiers in their eary 20s.  It appears that they don't have any deeper understanding than I do about why they are wearing those uniforms.

--

I've been failing at my attempt to take a step back from research.  I find that I am interested more and more in all kinds of physical phenomena.  I stayed up with my colleague past midnight on Friday trying to chase down a calculation for an optics problem.  It's fun to be doing physics again :)

--

Inside the beehive

Well, I've arrived in Korea.  A flurry of organized activity here, just like bees.  I feel sometimes like another insect who has been welcomed into the hive.  It's a great experience for me so far.  I committed for one year, and I already have an apartment that I'll move into tomorrow.  People have been extremely friendly, the food is aMAZing (i'll try to not talk only about the food in future posts, but I have to say, I really love Korean food!!!), and I'm getting over the culture shock (maybe slowly).  I'll be instructing a graduate course in the physics department on technical writing.  I look forward to that.  I may also have the chance to teach some undergraduates in intro-level physics also, which would be very fun, but we're still negotiating that.  I'm signing up for a 1 hr/day Korean class so I can better communicate with people.  I will also be getting involved with some research projects.  I'll definitely have my hands full with lots of activity, but I somehow also feel a spaciousness and calmness around all this activity.  

I have lots more to say, but I'll keep it short for now.   It's funny how both complicated and easy all the red tape stuff is.  I'm working my way through it all... I need to get a bank account, cell phone, and then I'll pretty much be set to live in Korea.  How easy, right?  I need to have an Alien Registration number to use a cell phone or get a bank account (even Koreans need their SSN to do anything, feels sort of funny).  And I need to have a residence address to apply for the Registration number.  It would be great if I could call the Registration office, but... oooh, I need to have a cell phone -- and also their line in perpetually busy :) This sort of "Brazil" (the movie, not the country) style... It's not so bad, but it is sort of funny.  I got glasses today too.  Basically if I didn't have the help of my colleagues, I would be totally lost for a lot of this stuff.

On the way to lunch with my new colleagues.  We actually ate at the Chinese restaurant on the right (red banner).

This was my breakfast today.  I expecting a small bowl of soup, but got this instead.  Yum!  The side dishes are [top row] kim-chi (the famous fermented spiced cabbage), bok-choi (fresh chinese cabbage), sea-weed, nori paper (also seaweed stuff), [2nd row] anchovies, boiled peanuts with a sweet sauce, then the rice and fermented bean soup.  The food here is healing and energizing and makes me a happy Ryan.

Who is that handsome guy? Enjoying the sunset while my glasses were being forged.

Through all this busy city life, there is Nature's Glorious Majesty, smiling upon us.

City view near campus

Kuala Lumpur, the world's melting pot

Batu caves north of KL.  The gold statue is Lord Marugan, who I actually had never heard of before (probably because he is popular with the Tamil Hindus, whom I have not come in contact with before). I was humbled with how little I actually know about Hindu mythology, and I'm motivated to learn more.

Enjoyed a brief stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  That place blew my mind.  I thought Fiji was a fusion of cultures, and then that idea got expanded ten-fold when I arrived in KL.  It is a hub of the world where people from all over the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and other places, converge.  Even if I spoke some Malay I wouldn't even know with whom I could speak Malay to.  Fortunately for me, most people speak at least a little English (something I feel both blessed and embarrassed about...).  

I stayed in Chinatown, which actually felt surprisingly like the chinatowns of the U.S. (SF, DC, NY). The markets around were actually similar to the Asian markets in Honolulu.  Walking around, I was surprised both by how foreign and how familiar it all felt, if that makes any sense.  I arrived pretty late at night, but still felt so curious that I had to walk around a little and enjoy a late-night (for me because NZ is 5 hours ahead) dinner, and then hit the sack.  

The next morning I met a couple from Boulder, Marian and Anthony, and they were planning to go to the same place I was, to the Batu caves.  So we spent the day together.  The caves are massive, and there are many Hindu temples inside.  We witnessed the blessing of a new child that morning, carried up the 272 stairs to the temple inside the cave to be blessed.  The ritual was profoundly touching.  We visited some of the temples and gave offerings, and were blessed by the priests.  In the picture of me and Anthony, we have some marks on our foreheads that were a part of the blessing.  The Batu caves stirred up a lot of spiritual stuff for all of us, and we enjoyed a delicious vegetarian Indian lunch afterward.  We then visited a mosque - what a contrast!  In the Hindu caves, the expressions were outward manifestations of God, but in the mosque, the architecture serves as a container for experiencing God within.  I don't judge one as being 'better' than another, but it is very interesting to witness the stark contrasts in worship.  At this point after visiting these holy places, I had imagined that stepping foot into a Christian church would have felt exotic.

We then went to get a massage, because it is so cheap in KL -- about 15 dollars each got us an hour massage, and I felt really relaxed afterward.  We rested and then went out for a nice Malay dinner at a food court.  What a full and satisfying day!

I spent today having one more Session of Beauty (sharing of spiritual wisdom, and just being wonderfully present together) with Anthony, then visited University of Malaya, where my contact that I had met on a bus, Dr. Aminul Islam, introduced me to some faculty in the physics department who were very interested in hiring me. I was planting seeds: it may be that I return to KL to work in the future.  

But right now, I am excited about going to Korea.  Even though my body is tired, and I have a cold trying to come on, I feel clear in the head and have a positive attitude about engaging with the challenges that I will be presented with.

The Colorado contingency of KL.  Me, Marian, and Anthony.  What awesome people!

Me and Anthony.

Blessing the child. The mother and father carried the child up the steps.  The child is in a hammock tied to a cane branch.  Beautiful ceremony.

Adventures in NZ

it's late at night, and my last night in NZ.  just a quick update that I'm alive and well, although a tired guy, and heading to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for a 24 hr stopover before heading to Korea.  Very excited about Korea.  Looking forward to resting on the plane :)

Here are a few pictures to summarize my last week spent with my friend Dave.  The days have been intense and maybe we did a little bit too much with the short week that we had together, but every moment sure was amazing.  We walked a lot and climbed on a lot of rocks.  That made me a happy Ryan.

Here I come, Korea!

 

fun repel at wye creek outside queenstown

me with my compadre dave.  outside queenstown.

walking the Routeburn track.... more pictures of that later... it was so cool to experience tropical forests mixed with epic alpine landscapes...

it looks at first like i'm climbing without a rope here.  be assured that i DID use a rope on every climb! :)

Beauty and wonder in New Zealand

10:53 PM 2/5/2011

I sit in my tent in the Abel Tasman national park as I end my day, and I realize that after a little more than a week, I've written nothing so far about my experiences in NZ.  Every day has been a full experience, rich with adventures, colorful people, epic scenery, and moments of stillness and peace.

After landing in Auckland with some GI problems, I stayed at a hostel for a night to get my bearings.  Skipped dinner and slept for 15 hours or so.  Took the bus to the town National Park in the morning, where I hitched into Whakapapa, trailhead for the Tongariro Northern Circuit.  This is one of the "great walks" of NZ, and setting out that same afternoon, I quickly realized why it is named that.  For 4 days, I walked through stunning wilderness areas with stark contrasts: lush forests, wide-open grasslands, heaps of lava rocks that felt like the surface of the moon, sulfer vents and emerald lakes.  After summiting Mt. Tongariro (across the way from Mt. Ngaurahoe, aka Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings film), I scrambled down the back side off-trail and finished late in the evening at my place of origin.  I had met a guide, Bruce, on the track who invited me to stay at his place and join him for a beer, but I accidentally went to the wrong meeting place, too far away to connect.  So I had a burger alone and a couple beers, then crashed in the woods before continuing in the morning.  Caught a ride with a French traveller, then got picked up by a very kind French couple whom I had met on the track (Bruce was their guide).  We travelled together to Wellington, stopping for a picnic along the way.  Very pleasant day.

In Wellington, I visited *the* museum, called Te Papa - very well-done place.  It covered natural and human history in many facets.  My favorite part was going inside a re-creation of a Maori temple, where I sat and meditated in the dark room and let the faces and images on the wall move me with their ancient stories.

The next morning I took the ferry to the South Island -- considered by some to be the most beautiful ferry ride in the world.  It was easy to see why.  I spent the entire 3 hours absorbed in the scenery, as the North Island faded away and we entered the luscious sounds of the south island, full of mountains and trees and breathtaking cliffs in the bays.  Arriving in Picton, I caught a bus to Nelson, where I proceeded to make my way to Marahau, the trailhead for the Abel Tasman hike.  I only made it half-way, and so as dusk came and I wasn't able to hitch a ride, I visited a nearby farm to see if I could pitch my tent on their land.  The older Kiwi couple, Brian and Hillary, were very warm and even offered me a room in their home.  They are cow-milk farmers.  I enjoyed chatting with them over a cup of delicious home-made apple juice before turning in to my tent.

In the morning, I went out to the road in effort to make it to Tasman, and an Austrian man, Toby, stopped his van to give me a ride.  We were going the same way.  We're the same age, and have lots in common, including that we're both beekeepers.  Toby works as a goldsmith half the year and a shepard in the summers in Austria.  We decided to be companions for this walk, and I'm so grateful to share time with him.  We also met a young German woman, Anne, who is traveling NZ by bicycle.  Toby caught red snapper fish and we had an excellent breakfast of that this morning.  And today we crossed paths with another young German, Paul, and so the four of us walked today and enjoyed a delicious meal of mussels (found on our crossing of the bay at low-tide) along with rice and lentils in a delicious curry sauce.  I feel so rich to receive such gifts from the sea.  Tomorrow we'll head a bit further north, and take a day to rest -- we've been walking quite a lot, and need to remember that we're on vacation :)  It'll be nice to take the day tomorrow to read and stretch and slow down.  In the rush of new experiences, it's quite easy to forget the wisdom I learned in Fiji about slowing down and experiencing "Fiji-time."

So that's at least a practical summary of what I've been up to in the past week.  On the 12th I'll be in Christchurch to meet up with my friend Dave and we'll travel together to the Fjordlands and maybe even climb some rocks. Then on the 19th I'll go to Korea.  It's all happening so fast, but I'm just trying to give myself permission to relax and enjoy this unique experience in life.  NZ is so full of magic and unmatched landscapes and moments.  Abel Tasman is an especially unique "great walk" because it follows the coast of the S Island.  It's incredible to look out to the ocean and see the cliffs, and islands, and the sun... I've taken a million pictures because it's so amazing.  I was worried that it would be too crowded here, but it doesn't feel that way at all.

I'm unable to do justice to explaining this place without pictures.  I'll try to put some up on the internet when I am able.  I definitely recommend this tramp - it is simply unforgettable.

I'm excited about Korea, and I've been preparing myself mentally for the roles of instructor and researcher.  It will be such a new experience for me, and I am very willing to fully embrace all the challenges and opportunities there.  I have a feeling that this is going to be an awesome experience, and possibly life-changing.  So grateful to have the opportunity to go to Korea.  I need to start gearing up my Korean phrases, and brush up on my physics as well.  Hopefully I'll have some chance to do all this once I arrive.  It will probably be some very full days out there.  But for right now, I'll be present with my experience, and joyfully await the next chapter.

Bees and fish

3:21 PM 1/26/2011
Wrapping up my trip. Sure has been awesome.  Watched dolphins swim under my nose from a boat, swam with the fish and corals again, met some kind people on the journey.  I went north and met with an American named John, a very grounded and intelligent man who helps with beekeeping development in Fiji.  We worked together with Ziyaad, who has been keeping bees for one year, to move some hives to a better location for the bees.  It was really great to be with bee people again and to have the chance to do some work with my hands and mind.  I stayed with Ziyaad's family, for two nights, and went fishing with his father.  I was so happy and grateful to have the chance to spend time with this beautiful family. I only wish that I could stay with them longer.  I felt so many peaceful moments with them, just sitting and talking, eating together on the floor, praying, or just enjoying silence.  I found myself wishing at times that my life was more simple.  The Hussein's didn't need to be entertained to be having a good time, and every moment was filled with joy.  There is some wisdom lying in there for me. 

I'll be heading to Nadi tomorrow morning, and then starting the next adventure in NZ.  I'm very happy to have the chance to visit there, and I'm excited that Dave and I will have the chance to meet up.  It turned out a good thing for me that I stayed in Fiji for a while longer.  It was a chance to have many more wonderful experiences.  I like it here, and hope to come back.

It's funny... I don't really have much else to say.  I'm still abundantly grateful to be alive. There isn't really much else.

Keep Fiji beautiful

7:31 AM 1/21/2011
I'm glad to have the chance to experience Fiji longer.  I like this place.  After getting past the heavily pushed facades and touristy images, Fiji is beautiful and authentic.  I've been learning everywhere I go. 

I spent the weekend with Jo's family in Nausori village.  He and his wife, Bale, have two sons, both around my age.  One lives at home, the other has his own family in town.  We mostly just hung out and visited different family, but it was also a big weekend (by coincidence).  The church was exchanging pastors with another village, and in honor of that a lovo was made -- a pig was slaughtered and put into a pit of hot rocks in the earth along with some vegetables (taro, breadfruit).  This was covered with taro leaves, cloth, and then dirt, and baked for an hour or so.  I was lucky to be able to participate.  Traditionally this ritual was done to give sustainence to the people traveling between villages for their journey.  Although they use mini-vans now instead of canoes, dramatically reducing the transit time, this ritual is still observed.

We attended a rugby tournament, and a banquet that followed.  That was a lot of fun.  Rugby is popular in Fiji and many of the pacific islands.  Maybe it's the warrior blood that rugby awakens.

I took a down day to bum around, then visited a village in Abaca (pronounced "am-BAH-tha"), on the northwest coast.  I took a bus to one village, Tavakubu, then walked from there about 10 km or so.  Very quickly I entered lush mountain landscapes, with pine trees (reminding me of Colorado!), coconut and banana trees, streams and bright green hills.  When I arrived it started to rain hard.  I stayed with a family - I drank the kava I brought with the men.  It's a ritual bull session.  I was grateful that they didn't feel any need to entertain me, and just carried on talking in Fijian.  Every once and a while, one of them would tell me that the topic was the unusual shape of a cassava stalk, or about a pig hunt.  So at least I got the gist.  When I went back, the kids were having their own session, albeit with copious amounts of a very sugary beverage that turned their hands and lips red.  We sang Christian songs and passed around the cup.  The whole evening was very enjoyable.  In the morning I hiked to a waterfall, and saw incredible views of the mountains and out to the ocean.  On leaving, I visited a plantation of my host family, and saw the cassava that was cut that day for our our lunch, and tasted their ginger, and saw many other crops growing.  The usual style there is somewhat haphazard (to my eyes) and on hills.  As I returned, it started to rain, and I stopped by the house of Manoa and Mela and their 12-yr-old son, Simione.  We had some food and tea, and then they invited me to stay for the night.  I wasn't in a hurry (Fiji-time), so I stayed.  I got a glimpse of a really beautiful and simple lifestyle. Manoa's work for the day was fixing a water pipe (it flows from the mountain), and planting a few things.  I planted a coconut tree.  We sat on his front porch, overlooking the most beautiful landscape: the trees he planted 10 years ago that now bear fruit, the lush mountains all around, and many islands in the ocean in the distance.  We watched the sun set over the Mamanuka islands, then ate some beans that we had shucked, along with rice, lit by a kerosene lantern.  At sunrise, I walked with Mela and Simione back to town. We noticed the trash that people throw on the sides of the roads, and agreed that it's important to "keep Fiji beautiful."

There are so many details of my experiences that are meaningful to me.It's amazing how challenging it is to choose the ones that are most important.  Manoa does not usually go to church; on Saturdays, they do not work - they sit and read the Bible and pray together.  It's very simple. They all seemed very happy people.  I was glad to receive their hospitality and the reminder to slow down.  Silly city-boy, always jumping around, just like a monkey...

In Fiji for longer...

Worse fates have tortured humans.  I'm here for 11 more days due to a mistake (mine or carrier, maybe some of both...).  More later.  I'm happy to be in Fiji longer.  I head to NZ on 28 Jan.

bula!

'Bula' means life.  Being alive is the most important: everything else comes after.  I have felt wonderfully alive these last few days.  It doesn't take anything special.  Just walking around, talking to people, being in nature, eating a papaya or a mango, feeling the rhythm and energy of the Fijians, and being a part of that dance.  I am so happy that I came here.  Here is truly a paradise.

I don't know how to begin to describe the richness and beauty that I have experienced of Fijian life, but I will say that family and community are central values.  I was delighted to hear from my new friend, Josepha, about the spirit of generosity and caring that so many people have for each other and also for people who are visiting.   I feel moved to realize that people who have not much are so willing to give of their time, energy, hospitality, to serve others.  It inspires me to give of my talents, time, energy, to others.  There does not seem to be anything complicated about it.  This is just what you do.  And yet, in the society that I have been raised, I find that we constantly erect walls and boundaries, and there is something beautiful that feels lost in these attitudes.  We are fixated on commodifying things, even our experiences, and working so hard to achieve something that we forget what that something even is.  I start to remember a simpler way of living: for many Fijians, each day is a great blessing, and there is beauty and love in every step.  There is not such a strong need for all of these things outside of ourselves (entertainment, drugs, cell phones, greediness), because there is an abundance of richness that can be experienced right now within ourselves and in our immediate surroundings.  I can certainly understand how cultivating this state of mind can be more difficult for someone like me who was working long hours in a dark basement, in comparison to walking home in the daylight down a dirt road past mango and banana trees with glowing green mountains in the distance, the smell of plants and fresh rains, and no sounds but those of a hundred birds rejoicing in paradise... This photo is from my friend's front porch...

"Fiji-time" is about slowing down and enjoying life as it unfolds.  Ironically, we actually *don't* need to be in a rush all of the time in order to be happy.

There are so many experiences I've had so far out here, and yet somehow it doesn't really feel that important to record them.  They are all small but somehow add up in a big way.  I have been smiling a lot in this lush paradise.  It is easy to laugh.  I bought my first bottle ever of Fiji bottled water.  I drank yaqona (kava) with some local guys in their shop, and felt a really funny and relaxing buzz throughout my body and mind.  I've had only one beer in three days.  I skip meals because I feel so nourished and satisfied from the fruits I'm eating.  I try to visit a house of God each day (Hindu, Muslim, Christian...) to pray and just feel sweet divine presence within myself.  I have chosen sometimes to walk long distances, and today even in the rain, just because it feels nice and I smile a lot and greet people with "Bula!"  That is enough.  I don't need to be entertained with any special contrived experiences.  My soul feels nourished.  I have a strange feeling though that when I leave this place, it might be like waking from a dream.... 'what was that dream?...what even was the feeling?'... The state of mind that I have cultivated is reverant, good-humored, gentle, loving, curious.  I want to take this state of mind with me out into the world.

Fiji has a very rich and complex history that has led to a fusion of cultures all in one place.  Some are Fijian, some Indo-Fijian (Indian indentured servants came to work the fields in the late 19th century, and many stayed), and some of other origins, such as Chinese.  Not many whites here at all - I was somewhat surprised about that since almost everyone speaks English here and this was a British colony.   But now that I think about it, the same is true for African colonies.  Culture has been preserved and has adapted to the various technologies now available.  Synthesized Indian hip-hop with reggae beats (and lots of AutoTune!) blasts on busses and through the streets.  Cars and people buzz around like bees.  The rhythm of life feels a bit like Burkina Faso (W Africa) at times, but also feels at times how I would imagine India to be like.

I met lots of cows on my walk back from the sand dunes.

sand dunes.

typical delicious lunch.

Tomorrow I'll head to Suva (capital town) to take care of visa stuff at the Korean embassy, and visit with the dean of the college of science at Fiji National University to inquire about collaboration and possibly coming here to volunteer as an instructor at some point in the future.  Then I'll travel to a village to the north (Nasauri) to stay with Josepha and his family over the weekend.  There is a rugby function happening on Saturday that should be fun.  It doesn't matter what we do, I'm just happy to be alive and to have the opportunity to engage with the Fijian people and to learn some things about life.

pura vida costa rica

Beauty pervades: dramatic landscapes down to fascinating microscopic details.  Birds flurry around this flowered tropical paradise.  Mystic clouds envelope the volcano that we climb.  We reach the top and begin a steep, muddy decent into the crater.  We arrive at a lake in the center -- the scene feels so eery with the this fog all around.  Though the water is cold, we strip and take a swim. Justin and I swim out to the center of the lake, about 50m, to where we see nothing but fog and water and each other.  A very strange feeling to experience such emptiness of space!  We continue in a line (as straight as we were able), reaching the other side.  Hiking back, we hear voices, and being naked, were a little nervous about how to maneuver.  It doesn't take long though before we realize that we have reached the place where we had started!  Good laughs, yummy lunch.  The fog lifts very suddenly, and our mysterious lake is unveiled.

On the return, we happen on some ants carrying leaves many times larger than their bodies.  There are many thousands of them, each with a piece of leaf that (he? she?) cut, and have in fact fashioned their own highways.  Their collective behaviors remind me of bees -- they are a superorganism: no ant is capable of surviving on their own, and their joint effort produces an incredible accomplishment.  Different size ants have different roles -- the big daddy ones (around 3x in size, about 1cm long) are the slave drivers; they are exempt from carrying leaves themselves.  We weren't sure what the ants actually do with all the leaves once they bring them into their underground lair.  Some leaf-cutting ants use the bacteria and fungi that grow on the leaves, according to my biologist companions.  So incredible to observe all of the complex patterns of these ants, and to wonder at how many other processes are happening unnoticed everyday.  Solid motivation to keep my eyes and ears open.

Today we will explore the forests on zip lines and maybe enjoy some hot springs!  I am so happy right now to be traveling with two wonderful people and to be having an experience that cracks my senses wide open and brings a constant smile to my face as I am delighted by this colorful paradise.