Let the beauty of what you love be what you do

I've been inspired... Please help if you can

2010-12-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I'm writing from the wonderful (and cold) Seattle, Washington. I made it home safely. As I've been catching up with friends from Cyprus I couldn't help but share this story with you. My friend, Ravi, that I studied with in Cyprus and his friend, that I had the pleasure of meeting, Ian, went directly from Cyprus to Kenya to volunteer in a village in Kenya.

I just read through their blog and it's inspiring. They are staying down there for an extended amount of time doing anything and everything they can to help in the village they are stayed at. I would like to share their blog with you as it has more information and it gives you an opportunity to donate directly to their cause with everything clearly explained. They have a detailed list of what both Ian & Ravi would like to contribute to, but this list was created by the individual that is serving 30 young orphans.

Please help if you can. They are both extremely nice guys and would be more than willing to answer any questions you have, just shoot them an email. The blog is: http://ianravikenya.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!

Cheers,
Kayla

My story book ending...

2010-12-24T19:48:00.000-08:00

I'm home!!!

My flight from NY was on time and at 10:30am on Christmas Eve I was in the arms of my mom and sister. Sure enough I was headed up the stairs and there Nicole was watching everyone go by, watching for her little sister. I had so many emotions at that moment I can't even begin to explain.

I survived my flights getting cancelled Monday. Tuesday I got news British Airways couldn't get me home until December 28th and within hours I bought 3 tickets home to Seattle with EgyptAir & Delta. Tuesday night I spent 24 hours in the airport, took a 1.5 hour flight to Egypt, 14 hours in Cairo, 12 hour flight to NY, 16 hour layover & a painful 6 hour flight home to end my journey.

I didn't think I would be one to go through all this but now that it is all over, I'm proud of myself and so grateful for the people in my life. My mom was there for me when I needed there, Kameron helped me find flights when I had no help in the states because it was the middle of the night, and once I started my journey my friends were incredible. I could not have done what I did without you guys.

Although the last five days of my trip weren't in the least bit pleasant, I don't want to take away from my 4 months abroad. I will never forget my trip and surely I won't forget my struggle home. It made me realize how important family is. I love my family more than anything in the world.

So here it is, I traveled to 10 foreign countries over a period of 6 months while I was 21 and in college to arrived home on Christmas Eve in order to receive the most loving hugs I've ever felt.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a great day and a Happy New Year!

XOXO,
Kayla

PS: For everyone who was wondering, Nicole & I got our Santa picture taken for the 22nd time today. We went straight from the airport, me in my traveling clothes and without a shower in way too long, but mom got her one and only Christmas wish. Merry Christmas Mom, I love you.

I've been through hell and.... no, just hell.

2010-12-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hey family and friends, if you didn't hear all my flights home Monday (your Sunday) got cancelled. I was supposed to fly into London, Heathrow Monday night and leave Tuesday with a direct flight to Seattle. However, with only one runway open in all of Heathrow we kept getting delayed and delayed until it finally got cancelled. I'm not sure if my Seattle flight would have got out but for peace of mind I don't think I want to know.

They made us pack our stuff and go to a hotel for the night, which wasn't bad at all minus the disappointment and lack of information. We were given dinner and then rested so at 9am we could start calling British Airways, over and over with busy signals, to re-book. Hours later we finally got through and I was told I couldn't get home until December 28th and that was still traveling through Heathrow, which is obviously a death trap. They said I could cancel my flight and get a refund but couldn't offer the amount of the refund and I could only find out if I called from the USA.

Heartbroken because my sister is only in town for 4 days, I only had planned two weeks in Washington and on the 27th I'm supposed to start jury duty so there goes my life, and quite frankly after 4 months of living abroad and then watching 27 of my friends go home to their families I just wanted to go home.

My friends Kyle and Leah were on that same flight. We all started looking into other options to get home for the holidays. Leah's family got her an expensive ticket that took her east and got her home on the 22nd, so happy for her. Kyle hadn't figured anything out until Tuesday around 1:30pm they called us and said "pack your stuff, you're leaving on a bus in 20 minutes" so he got on that flight to Heathrow, which I believe left. However, they sent him there with no connection and I still don't think he is home.

I maxed out my credit cards and called an SOS to mom & booked 3 individual tickets that would get me to Seattle by Christmas Eve. Here is the rundown: supposed to leave Monday, Monday night in a hotel, Tuesday kicked out of the hotel around 5pm. Stuck in the Larnaca, Cyprus airport for 24 hours alone with all my stuff. 1 1/2 hour flight to Egypt, 14 hour layover. 10 hour flight to NY, JFK, 16 hours layover. About a 7-8 hour flight across country to Seattle and I'm there by Christmas Eve... if everything goes as planned, emphasis on if.

My time wasn't too horrible in Cyprus I suppose. Couldn't buy internet, but Monday night I treated myself to a sit down meal and the largest Carlsberg they could offer me. The flight to Egypt was horrible. First, they said "just for this flight only one small carry-on, nothing in the overhead bins" which is shady but I thought something was wrong with the storage areas, nope. So then I go through the process of trying to check my baggage, including my carry-on that had all my Seattle gifts and breakables, of course that would happen to me. And then the lady wouldn't connect my two flights, ending my baggage in NY even though it's all the same airline. The main guy stepped in and tried to help, but really all he did was not make me pay for my overweight bags. So then I go to my gate, get on the bus to go to the airplane and they tell us we have to identify our bags. All the bags were laid out next to the plane and it was ciaos. Then we walked up the stairs and everyone was getting body searched and they were going through every small carryon. As if that wasn't enough they started calling names and men were coming off one at a time and then returning. By that time I made friends with the South African couple next to me and they were just as concerned as I was. I have never feared a flight that much, nor considered getting off due to fear.

I stayed on the plane and half way through they told us why everything was so off, it was because "there was some kind of interference". UMM, sure that makes me feel real safe as we're flying over the sea with no place to go. To top it off, we land and everyone is waiting to get off, then they tell everyone to sit back down we were going somewhere else? After more confusion they end up letting us off.

I don't even want to speak about the confusion with Egypt Air in this airport but let’s just say the first 4 hours of my 14 hour layover were consumed with everything I didn't need to be a part of. First good thing to happen to me in the last 3 days = free internet in Cairo Airport. So if you want to get in contact with me I'll be on email and facebook.

Warm wishes to everyone back in the states. To Alexis and Kyle, I believe you guys are the only ones still stranded, good luck! Make it home safe. Also, thank you to everyone who took the time to write me via facebook, I love you all and hearing from you really helps. I'm hanging in there, it's been 61 hours since I left my apartment on Monday & I still have 43 hours to go. I guess you could say I'm testing myself right now, and dear "Egyptian Cop man, with a huge gun staring at me one floor up, YOU my friend are testing me".

I will try to keep you guys posted, miss and love you all. Write when you can.

XOXO,
Merry Christmas,
Kayla

This one's for me... 6 month re-cap

2010-12-19T04:02:00.000-08:00

Somehow I’ve been blessed to travel to 10 foreign countries & 5 continents in the last 6 months. (Australia, New Zealand, Germany, England, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey & Egypt) Every day I try to figure out how I got here, sure I could break it down to the logistics of timing and money and numerical figures but it’s so much more than that. My family, friends, professors and everyone I’ve been able to meet helped me to become the person I am today with the drive to travel the world, quite literally. So, to you, thank you.

Friends have already started to ask, “what was your favorite place?” and I don’t know how to handle that loaded question. Do I answer it by telling you the place I had the most fun (Spain), or where I had the best cultural experience (Egypt), the most beautiful place (Greece) or the place I truly found myself (Turkey)… & the quest goes on. So for myself I’m going to look back on each place…

“Australia: Favorite place to live.” I studied in the outback for 3 weeks and had the opportunity to chase wild kangaroos, sing camp fire songs with aboriginal people, & participate in my first international art gallery experience. After school I traveled with my best friend to 4 incredible cities where I danced with kangaroos, laughed until I cried, dove in the Great Barrier Reef, danced all night with Aussies in Cairns, climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge and gazed at the Sydney Opera House. The people were the most caring, respectable, chill people I’ve met. Each city had their own manner but as a whole they were the most entertaining and enjoyable people to grab a beer with and kick back to enjoy life for what it is.

“New Zealand: Favorite place to do something crazy” Now good old New Zealand was not so sweet to me. The weather ruined our plans to base jump and raft with glow worms in caves; however, it was a reminder to me that anything is possible (if it’s not windy and raining haha). Truly though, I was prepared to do things I never thought possible for myself. I didn’t experience nearly anything of what New Zealand had to offer, especially not going to the south island. I need to go back. But I tell you what, Tiffany and I had a blast! One of the most memorable events there was a pub crawl we took part in (an event in which you pay a fee, get a band that gets you into all the bars you go to and one free drink at each place and the entire group, 100+ people bar hop all night). I met incredible people from literally all over the world; Ireland, England, Whales, etc. and it makes you realize how alike people can be and even though it was for only one night I know I will remember some of those people late into my life.

“Germany: Favorite place to start my European journey ” Germany was incredible and special because I made the trip to stay with a friend that I grew up with. This amazing girl has been in my life for over 10 years and I got to spend time with her in her new home, with her newlywed husband and she really let me into her life. She took me out with her 2 girlfriends, also army wives, and I was given a night out to drink and enjoy myself. It was a reminder of my youth and how I’m single with endless opportunity. It let me see how the married life looks from someone outside of my family with was refreshing and I am so happy for Kristen & Ben. They took me to spectacular castles & we raced about on the autobahn. Germany was honestly too cute and Heidelberg was my favorite! Cute little cobblestone streets

“England: Favorite place to be a tourist” London was everything I thought it would be. Kristen and I didn’t have much time there but we made the best of it. I got to see every famous place you see in the movies and it was surreal. It was a place in which I couldn’t really believe I was there. The first night we were somewhat aimlessly walking along the water and then we looked up and realized both the London Eye and Ben Big were right in front of us, truly unreal. I had a blast and don’t even get me started about the art. I was a little kid in a candy shop when it came to all the remarkable art galleries there. I was also able to meet up and stay with a friend that I met studying in Australia. She was way too kind and I love that I got to see her, meet her roommate and feel so welcomed by both of them.

“Cyprus: Favorite experience” Cyprus is home. A part of me will always remain here. I have an apartment with wonderful roommates, I have my market and favorite stores, I navigate on the city busses, I’ve experienced the night life, went to school and made local friends and it’s simply become home. I sympathize toward the division of the country. I hope to spread awareness about the hostility and current divide with my photography and stories. For such a small island it can seem endless but I did make it to Aphrodite’s Rock on the south, Ayia Napa in the east (favorite place on the island) and Kerynia in the NW. I’ve come to an understanding with both the Greek and Turkish culture. I can’t say I like everything about it (cough men cough) but I understand it and there is something I really envy and I hope that certain parts of their culture travels back with me. It’s truly a beautiful place to live and visit, I love Cyprus.

“Greece: Favorite place for beauty” I made two trips to Greece, one with school & one with a friend to Rhodes. Athens was a place to experience the Acropolis and shop in Plaka but it was actually fairly dirty and rundown. However, after a crazy ferry hopping adventure I traveled with 4 good friends to a few islands outside on the mainland and also Poseidon’s temple another night and those were without a doubt some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. The islands felt untouched with minimal tourist activity and the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Porros Island was my first experience swimming in the Mediterranean and I will never forget it. Poseidon’s temple at sunset was without a doubt the most romantic and beautiful thing I’ve experienced; just stunning. Rhodes as a trip itself was so fulfilling. The people were a part of something so much bigger than themselves, so kind and helpful; a real strong sense of an island community. I rode a donkey to the acropolis of Rhodes above the beach & hiked a mountain through butterfly valley, what’s cooler than that?

“Italy: Favorite place to have seen” Italy was a whirlwind as I saw Rome, Pisa, Florence & Venice in a matter of days. I was blessed to see all the main places with my own two eyes. I was able to see art upon art that I’ve sat in a lecture room learning about for hours. My experience was a lot of getting to a place, taking it in, doing tourist pictures and getting to the next place. I feel completely blessed to see everything I did. My favorite spots were at the Trevi fountain & the Pantheon as I chose to revisit them, sit down by myself and really taken in the beauty and history. I can’t speak about Italy and not say anything about Gusto pizza because there isn’t a day that doesn’t go by that I want that pizza and it doesn’t help Tiffany lives 2 minutes from there. Pisa & Venice were just like the movies and I loved it there! Wish I had more time…

“Spain: favorite place for fun” and oh, did I have fun! I will never, ever forget my experiences in Barcelona this summer. We showed up on the Friday that La Merce celebrations began; an annual event. Our walking tour of the city was overcome by the events and people and I did not mind one bit. At night only 4 of us went out but we met up with our friend Kirby who we met in Greece and he invited us out with him since he was living in Barcelona. We quickly fell into his group of friends from all over the world and I was just one among thousands. I danced and sang during one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to as it started to pour on the thousands of people in attendance on the first night. The second night was filled with everything from a park overlooking the entire city, to fireworks on the beach to dodging fireworks during the parade. I’ve never had an experience quite like Barcelona but in constantly reminded of Barcelona and the good times I had there.

“Turkey: favorite place for self-discovery” I went to both Istanbul and Olympos Valley. Istanbul is this huge city with ancient history and an attractiveness that is undeniable. The Blue Mosque was so calming and the glass work was unbelievable. I had children that were so intrigued by my presence. They would snap pictures of me and shake my hand, refusing to let go. They asked me where I was from and their sweet little voices would reply, “ooooh! Amer-riiiii-ca!” at they would light up. I still can’t get over it. They were so innocent and curious. Olympos was nothing short from life changing. It gave me time to reflect, write and sketch for hours a day. I could break from that to swim in the crystal clear water or hike to ruins from 70 BC or head back to my tree house for tea and a nap in the hammock. Talk about complete bliss…

“Egypt: Favorite cultural experience” I went with Tiffany it was such a hoot. I remember the first night, just ten minutes after being there laughing uncontrollably until I had tears running down my face after joking with Tiffany and the hostel owner and that was just the beginning. The pyramids by camel, dinner cruise on the Nile, the Citadel, Coptic Cairo, the Bazaar, night time horseback trip into the Sahara, it was flawless. And the culture, where do I even begin. I’ve never been so self-aware, and I mean that as a positive discovery. Physically I am a 21 year old female with light skin and blue eyes and I was reminded of that every step I took. Culturally, I am a free, blessed American that has full owner ship of my body and my life. Not everyone in the world can say that, actually not many in the world can say that. I come from a very blessed and free place, sure I may not agree with a lot of things in America but I still have way more freedom than some people could ever imagine. The people there were so kind, I would walk pretty much and where and people would greet me with a big smile, “Welcome to Egypt!” You would see people riding donkeys, riding in the back of trucks on top of a full load of cargo, running through the streets on their horse… we’re all people and we’re all going somewhere in life and so long as you’re happy, what other concerns truly matter. The people seemed honestly happy. People there didn’t need much but they sure seemed to make the most of what they did have. They may envy me but you know what, there are qualities they have that I can only dream of obtaining.

The more I think about it the most I realize I was most attracted to the people I met and interacted with through my travels. Everyone is culturally different but we are all human. In Australia we gave little aboriginal girls crayons to color with and they lit up with joy, much like the children in Turkey or Egypt, just simple little things brought them so much happiness. I feel like I’ve gained such a respect for other cultures and people that have different values and standards that I. I’ve learned so much through all of my travels, I’ve become more independent and I have a broader world view.

One of my favorite quotes: “I’ve always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up”. To anyone who had any doubt I couldn’t do what I did, I hope I surpassed your expectations. I’d like to share that I only lost one tank top, never got pick-pocked, never missed a plane or means of transport, never really got lost and didn’t have any big mishaps, not too shabby if I do say so myself. I’m pretty proud of myself and how I handled all this traveling.

…I’m truly at a loss for words about this entire experience; it has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. This experience has changed my life and made me a much better person without a doubt. I can’t say it enough but I appreciate everyone who has supported me in anyway and I feel so incredibly blessed. Thank you to everyone who took the time to follow my blog, through conversations with friends and family I’m learning about many individuals that have been following my blog with me being aware. It makes me so happy to hear about this. Being able to share my experiences has helped me reflect, show my appreciation and share with the people that mean the most to me. Keep in touch & I can’t wait to give all my love when I get home, it’s been a long time coming!

XOXO,
Your world traveler headed home...
Kayla

Here goes nothing...

2010-12-19T03:58:00.000-08:00

So getting home is going to be nothing short of a task and a half. First of all the weather in London is horrible. All of my friends that left Thursday night and Friday and had a layover in London are stuck there until at least Tuesday. No flights getting in or out for a while and because their flight got cancelled they were sent to the bottom of the list to get rebooked. So let’s all hope and pray my flight doesn’t get cancelled!

What’s hilarious to me though is how I’m going to look going through this process. Let me just build you a visual… so I’m five feet two inches tall and roughly 110-115 pounds. On the contrary, my bags are ginormous and heavy. I have one rolling duffle that is probably 40 pounds, a big rolling suitcase that is at least 50 pounds, a…. special bag that is at least 50 pounds and a huge shoulder bag that is guaranteed to break my back. So about this “special bag”… everyone knows the material of reusable grocery bags, right? The plastic like material they may or may not keep out moisture. Well picture that, just plaid and on a bunch of small, poorly made wheels. As my friends have referred it to as “the plaid garbage bag” (FML). So I bought it with the intension of attaching it to my suitcase and he would just follow like a well behaved little brother to Louie; however, this mishap of a brother walks like he’s wasted. You pull him one way and he follows for one step, turns directions and proceeds to fall over. Can everyone picture this cause I’m given up hope of having a classy trip and accepted I’m going to look like the most ridiculous traveler that Cyprus, London and Seattle has ever seen.

So long story short, if anyone reading this sees a girl trying to push one suitcase, pull another while picking up my plaid garbage can of a suitcase without dropping my shoulder bag, please give a girl a hand and keep the laughter to a minimum. I can’t stop laughing, I have no other choice. It’s going to be ciaos and I might as well embrace it.

Cheeeers! Let’s hope my 38 hours of travel doesn’t turn into any longer than it already is and that all four bags get home without any…. Serious issues :D

XOXO
Kayla

Cyprus gets an A+ for winter festivities

2010-12-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

I just had the most wondeful day and it's only 4PM. I woke up and went to downtown Nicosia to do some last minute shopping with a big group of friends, the 10 or so people left. We did some walking about together and then split off and I was just with my roommates Stephanie & Shami, and my other friend Alexis.

I ran over to the supermarket before we caught the bus. It was filled with Christmas decore and music playing and then sure enough they put up a cinnabon right outside Carrefour. I was so excited, gathered up enough change and bought one. Took it to the bus stop and enjoyed my treat until my friends joined me and it was time to go.

It's the perfect weather! I can bundle up (you know wear a scarf with my tank top, and at times my northface if I'm in the shade) and it's wonderful! Everyone else is completely bundled up but it’s great because it’s cold but still sunny.

There are Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE. Its amazing and so many Santas on the streets, one Santa even gave me a chocolate bar! Couldn't read the Turkish writing but I'm excited. There are lights lining all the streets and music everywhere. Last night we watched a school group of little kids in Santa hats singing Jiggle Bells in Greek, it was way too cute. Last night was rather perfect as well, a light sprinkle of rain so the street were wet with Christmas lights everywhere with live music.

I've been taking pictures and videos but I can't upload them until later. Just wanted to share my excitement for the holidays and Cyprus. It's probably one of the most festive places I've been during the holidays. I was surprised on the North side there were even Santa’s, for a small population of Christians that’s pretty awesome.

On another note, I need everyone to pray, cross your fingers or just do what you do... I need to get home for Christmas. I'm supposed to get home on the 21st of December. However, all my friends who left and went to Heathrow, London (exactly where my layover is in three days) are stuck there for at least 1 day if not more. The weather is terrible and the snow won't stop. A lot of public transportation in general is shut down. So please, positive thoughts for all my friends stuck there and pray for me to get home before Christmas, it's going to be one long adventure to say the least!

XOXO,
Kayla

Tissue, please?

2010-12-17T03:31:00.000-08:00

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard... i will never forget you guys, thank you for some of the most amazing experiences of my life

So this has been one depressing weekend and it's just beginning. Wednesday we had our graduation ceremony with a slide show as well. It was a time to think about everything we've been through and it made me appreciate what wonderful people I met here. I will never forget them.

Later that evening we had dinner out as a group at the same restaurant we started our adventures at. It was perfect. After dinner a lot of us went out and it was one of the best nights here, before I knew it they were announcing it was closing and it was time to go home (a lot like my time here, it's gone by too fast!)

Next thing I knew I was giving hugs and watching tears drop... everyone was circulating through the apartment complex the next evening saying goodbye. About 7 people left at 5am, including my amazing roommate Kassidy. I have faith that one day I'll see her again, she is truly something special! I love her :)

Round two of goodbyes hit me in the face this afternoon. One after another came to say goodbye and then sure enough we all walked them down the street for their airport pick-up. It was sad and long drawn goodbye and for quote: "I have to go get in the bus, I'm leaking!" Tears were everywhere.

More girls leave tonight and so on. I'm basically the last one to leave. I leave Monday afternoon, but I am on the same flight as two of my friends so I'm grateful for that. I'm excited to go home and see my family but this has been horribly difficult and it will only get worse. To any of my GLS people reading, you have been truly lovely. I will never forget you, I'm so grateful to have been a part of this experience with you. All the best...

XOXO
Kayla

I want!

2010-12-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

Just a number of things I've been longing for:

- A bagel and cream cheese*
- Vietnamese food
- Arby's
- Subway!
- Taco Shop
- Inn n out
- Being able to read my groceries
- A washer and dryer
- My puppy

yeah that’s about it for right this second. I would give anything for a bagel and cream cheese right now.

Oh and - to hug my family :)

I'm going to miss so many things about being here, especially after I enjoy a short break away from it, and that break will never end. I'm going to miss my roommates like crazy, my classes (weird I know), the night life here and silly stories, swimming in the Mediterranean, spending 70 euro and being in a different country, gyros/gyromania, Brick Yard, knowing I have 29 close friends only a second away at any moment, appreciating a simple hello or a post card like it is gold, the Cypriot and other European friends I've made, crossing the border and getting a completely different culture within seconds, feeling special because I'm an American, enjoying long skype dates and having lots of extra time to do so, so much attention on my blue eyes.

Buuuut I won't miss men staring at me & making kitty cat noises so I look over at them (not on purpose), using the euro, especially paying 15 euro to go to a club, the language barrier, missing my friends and family back at home & feeling totally out of the loop of everything (you would be surprised how nice a simple hello felt, however if you're reading this you've probably been one of my friends/family to keep in touch), terrible internet & no tv.

Cyprus has been amazing to me and today I said my first real goodbyes and it hit me like a wall... let me tell you it was as painful as it sounds. I've been focused on getting done with finals and being with family for the holidays and I lost sight of what I'm leaving behind. People from all over the world have touched me in ways I could have never predicted and quite literally changed who I am. I will be forever grateful for this experience. And I want to offer a sincere thank you to everyone who kept in touch, especially during the times I was bored in my apartment or missing huge memorable college events or feeling just a tad-bit lonely. You people made a difference and a direct impact on my time abroad, some people surprised me on both ends of the spectrum. So, thank you.

10 days and counting...

2010-12-10T02:38:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! It's raining in Cyprus! I can't believe it, it’s starting to get chilly (and by chilly I mean, window open in my room and it’s still 71 degrees?) and it feels like, I almost said fall, but I guess I mean winter. REGARDLESS, it's almost Christmas and the Greeks in the south know how to celebrate! Our school has a huge tree inside, the grocery store has huge Santa’s both inside and out and the streets are covered in lights, nativity scenes and trees. It’s lovely :)

Yesterday, I went to downtown Nicosia to finish up my work for my photography project and I had the best time. I got take out lunch, sat on a curb and simply watched people come and go in passing. As a treat, a few people even made small talk with me and the little boy behind the glass window making games with me completely made my day.

After visiting both the North and the South it was time to catch the bus back home. However, it would not be a proper day out in Cyprus if something wasn't a little dysfunctional! Bus station was completely torn up and I was sent around from place to place looking for my bus and after about 30 minutes of this I gave up and went home in a taxi. My night was really nice too. Hung out with some friends and then watched The Holiday with my roommate.

I don't know what has gotten into Cyprus within the last week but so many little things have gone right and the people have been wonderful... I even think the checkout lady at the grocery store likes me! OH! Even better, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow up on Troodos Mt and we have our school trip up there tomorrow! I'm so excited and happy. Happy I'm enjoying these last few days and happy home is just around the corner.

To top it off, this morning I had art history from 9-12 and it was the best class ever. She lectured about India and explained a lot of history and theory about Buddhism. If that wasn't interesting enough we tested each other’s energy fields. It’s hard to explain on here but we tested the differences when you lie, when your thoughts change, and when the people around you have positive thoughts. Please ask me about this sometime because it really had an effect on me. It's always been said to keep positive and good people around you, but let me tell you, I've never believed it so much!

I hope you have a wonderful day, thanks for taking the time to read this. Love and miss you all.... just 10 more days until I depart!

XOXO,
Kayla

Great night...

2010-12-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

I just had the best evening tonight! For my communications 470 class we went to an art opening instead of having lecture and critique. I obviously don't have a car so I asked my friend Afet if she could take me, she's the only one who really tried talking to me outside of class. Cypriots in general are very closed off towards outsiders. I don't want to say mean, but very culturally different.

Afet was worried about getting lost so we ended up joining two other from class and all three of them totally surprised me tonight. They tried really hard to speak only in English and if they spoke in Greek to others they wouldn't leave me out. They all knew my name (which surprised me) and asked about Seattle and America, shoot I even promised them a snowman which was hilarious. So there we were; two Greek Cypriots, one Turkish Cypriot and me... riding in the car blasting her favorite music (all American) and singing together.

The art gallery was nice, we hung out there for a short while and made small talk, joking and having a good time. The ride back was just as eventful and they were so sweet, dropped me off right in front of my apartment. It's really too bad I couldn't have an experience like this sooner, but hey... tonight made me school experience. They made sure I would be there next week and I assured them I would, last class! Hopefully we will find each other on facebook like we talked about, but regardless it was a night to remember for me, even if it was nothing to them.

Thanks for the evening Cyprus, our time is coming to a close and everything around me is making this a bitter sweet experience...

XOXO,
~12 days and counting~
Kayla

Less than 2 weeks left...

2010-12-07T04:07:00.000-08:00

Our advisor just sent us all a message about how we might feel returning to the US, or how I'm used to saying it, "America" (then small children repeat, A-meriiiii-ca!). I thought I would share it because I know it won't be easy for me to return, as silly as that sounds. I can't wait to hug my friends and family yet at the same time I know I've adjusted to the way of life here... It's been home for the last 4 months. My head has already started spinning with the thoughts of what I'm going to miss and things I'm excited to get away from, however I find these things intertwining... after all, you can find good in anything.

[Aphrodite's Rock, Goddess of Love. South Cyprus]

I. You, The Experienced Sojourner
II. Ask Yourself These Questions
III. Coping with Re-entry
IV. Suggestions for Significant Others

I. You, The Experienced Sojourner

Sojourner: a person who travels and stays at a place temporarily

- You have matured more than you realize as a result of adapting to another culture; participating in another social structure; observing foreign systems of government; adjusting to a different educational system; practicing foreign languages, slang, greetings, and interactions; and appreciating other peoples and other places.

- You now have a better perception of what culture is: values, behaviors, customs, food, and language learned and esteemed within a specific group of people.

- Acknowledging cultural differences is extremely important, and you may feel impatient or angry with people who do not respect cultural differences.

- You have increased your global perspective of our interdependent world: economics, social issues, politics, education, and environmental issues.

- You have practiced more independence, initiative, and responsibility while being immersed in another culture.

- You have had opportunity to view the United States from another perspective.

- You have practiced a great deal of flexibility and intense adjustment skills.

- You have been stretched to build relationships (hopefully positive) outside your comfort zone.

- Hopefully, you have gained an empathy for Internationals in the U.S.

- You will be less afraid of diversity (social, religious, ethnic, racial).

- You may have experienced being a minority for the first time while abroad.

- You are more familiar with the complexities and the inter-relatedness of the modern world. You have been exposed to the fundamental similarities in humankind.

II. Ask Yourself These Questions:

1. In what ways have my values, opinions, goals, and lifestyle changed since I left "home"? Have people at "home" changed as much as I have? How will these changes affect my responses?

2. Do I expect people at "home" to hold similar viewpoints and opinions as I do now?

3. Should I expect friends and family to understand what I have seen and done during my time abroad? Will they relate to the "life changing" experiences that are so profound to me (without having experienced the same type of changes themselves)?

4. How will I respond to others? Will others' indifference or lack of understanding lead me to withdraw, or feel bitter or hurt, or will I start feeling superior because of my experience abroad?

5. What changes in styles, morals, music, cost of living, current events, and relationships will affect me?

6. Will I be recognized, accepted, and welcomed in my former residence, social hang-outs, and work?

7. What do I have to contribute to others because of my experience abroad?

8. Who and what will be my resources for support, encouragement, and understanding?

III. Coping With Re-Entry

Re-entry: entering original culture after being in a foreign culture

“Re-entry has sometimes been called "reverse culture shock". While culture shock is associated with a sense of disorientation brought on by a new and unfamiliar environment, re-entry is the inevitable adjustment period when returning to your "home" setting. You presume that once you get “home” everything will be familiar again -- but in reality it may no longer be the same.

It is the unexpected subtlety of such changes that will cause stress for you returning from abroad. Your once familiar and comfortable environment may not feel the same. Something has definitely changed. Yet, you may not quickly recognize just what it is that is different.

Suddenly you find yourself out-of-sync with "your own culture." A very common reaction to this subtle disorientation may come in the form of confusion, anxiety, disillusionment, depression, and perhaps even irritation or anger. You may hear yourself saying "things are just not the way they used to be...", "nobody seems to care...", "nobody really understands."

Take notice of these valuable suggestions posed by Cynthia Hockman in her booklet, Returning Home.

- Expect things to be different.

- Continue keeping a journal (include feelings that you are experiencing).

- Cook a typical meal from your host country.

- Remember how hard it was to enter a new culture, and use that sensitivity to assist internationals in your community.

- Talk with others who have been to your host country.

- Recognize and get to know people in your community who are from your host country.

- Consider taking classes related to your international experience, such as: cultural anthropology, cross-cultural communications, international development, cultural sociology, international health, international business, etc.

- Read international press.

- Join, or form a discussion group.

- Talk with someone you can feel vulnerable and honest with, someone with successful experience abroad, to help sort out your feelings.

- Remember... that re-entry shock fades, but your new perspective of the world will last a lifetime!

IV. Suggestions for Significant Others

Here are a few suggestions adapted from Craig Sorti's The Art of Coming Home. You might want to copy this and give it to people.

1. Show interest. Returnees very much need to share their experiences with you. It may feel like they are overdoing it: too many pictures, slides, stories... but, try to be patient. They need to feel validation from others that what they experienced was valuable.

2. Don't expect them to be the same. They will have undoubtedly changed in unexpected ways because of their experience abroad. Talk to them about the changes you see and the changes they feel, and find ways to support those changes.

3. Don't be offended when they criticize their home country and constantly compare it unfavorably with their host country overseas. They don’t mean to judge you in their sweeping generalizations. This is a phase they are going through.

4. Don't make them feel defensive. Sometimes we don’t really understand how hard re-entry can be. We think they shouldn't have any problems now that they are home. Try to understand the transition process and allow them time to adapt.

5. Don't pressure them to visit all the time. Give them enough space until they want to visit with others in their own time.

6. Don't spring problems and responsibilities on them too soon. Give them time to readjust and get their balance.

7. Above all, be patient and aware! They are going through a transition process. Emotional struggles are to be expected during this time. They will not be like this forever. If you are still concerned about them after a few months, talk to them gently about getting some help from someone who understands cross-cultural re-entry.

Egypt!

2010-12-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

Egypt was by far one of my favorite trips of all time. It was the most culturally different for me than any other place. Between Tiffany's blonde hair and my blue eyes, plus being from America, we were like celebrities always getting our picture taken by every Egyptian. My favorite case of this was Friday at the Giza Pyramids. I was on my camel and my guide came to a stop as a woman hoisted her baby girl up to me, totally caught off guard I grabbed the tiny little girl and held on for her life, camels are not steady and are incredibly tall! The mom stepped back as dad and other pulled out their phones to snap as many pictures as they could. I embraced the situation, held the little girl and gave a smile for the cameras. It was so sweet, I loved the little girl. My guide saw my confusion and told me, "your eyes, she picked you because she saw your eyes".

Cairo itself is an extremely dirty and poor place. It was one of my few encounters with real poverty. I don't want to go into detail as I feel like it’s only exploiting the people and places I'll never forget. The men were also.... um, culturally different. Like an Australian girl I met said, "if I'm ever feeling down and need a compliment I'm coming to Egypt!" it's so true, every man you pass will say something; anything from "Do you have a husband? I will be your Egyptian husband" to "Hello J-Lo, beautiful come back! Gorgeous...." I think you get the picture. Only gave into one lover though... the Sphinx!

Arriving into the airport was NUTS! I got through customs and walked out the exit to a walkway surrounded by hundreds of people and I got stared at like I was a freak of natural with my light skin & hair & of course my eyes!

Once I finally found Tiffany in the crowd we didn't stop talking for the entire weekend. I'm so glad I did this trip with her, I had tears running down my face from laughter and we made moments to last a lifetime.

I'll keep this blog “short” (to me not detailed) as in less than a month I'll be back and able to explain in person, but basically Friday we woke up and headed to the Giza Pyramids. We adventured on our camels, Mickey Mouse & Ali Baba, for about 2-3 hours. Our guide taught us how to make our camels run and as expected I couldn't help myself but make them run way too much! "YA-LA! YA-LA Ali Baba!"

We saw all the Pyramids at Giza, touched one of them and had time on foot by the Sphinx. All of which was INCREDIBLE!

While still on our camels our guide led us into a village type area, tied up his horse and our camels and said he’d be right back, he had to pray. So as he ran into the mosque we sat on our rather high camels while we watch women sort veggies in the back of a truck, men dicker for fruit and children begged us for money. Soon enough he came back out and we had to navigate through the market area and out past the mosque where everyone was filtering out. Quite the experience to say the least.

After the Pyramids, Mohamed (our driver from the hostel) took us to a papyrus museum and then to Imhotep & Saqqara. (see below)

We had a short break for food (totally got American fast food for ease and hope not to get sick) and then after some window shopping, Mohamed (not the same Mohamed as before) took us to our dinner cruise on the Nile. (*side note, check it off the bucket list, I’ve been to both the rivers on the world that flow north) It was a HOOT! There was a male dancer and he was so skilled and entertaining. Then the female belly dancer came out, put on a show and then while walking around pulled me up to dance with her! You should have seen Tiffany's face, her jaw was on the ground and I'm sure mine was as well! It's worth a story and bought the picture of us from the photographer on the boat. SO funny!

The next day we went to the Citadel of Salah Al-Din. It was beautiful, looked like a castle from the outside and inside there were a lot of old mosques and museums. I really enjoyed going into the mosques. We sat for a bit in one of them.

We were such celebrities here, boys got pictures with us and one sneaky little bugger snuck kisses to the cheek for Tif and I. Another funny story with that was when these two guys asked for pictures with us. One got his and then it was the second guy's turn and the children, like school group children, saw and came running over! They were squealing and giggling as they piled in to get close. It was hilarious and the poor guys couldn't stop saying sorry. We were kind Americans and said its okay and agreed to a picture with the children. They were too cute.

We then visited the old Christian area of Cairo, which was neat. Next stop was the Egyptian Museum which holds some of the most amazing artifacts. We paid to go into the Royal Mummies Hall and it was totally worth it. These mummies had their skin, their teeth, their nails, etc... unreal and at times, creepy. They even had tools on display explaining which ones take out the brain and how, same with the organs, minus the heart because that stays. Such interesting displays!

By that time we needed lunch and a short nap/break before we hit the bazaar and then left to go horseback riding through the Sahara Desert at night!

After much joking and good times with our friends, we were off. Tiffany got a big black horse and I got asshole. (bahaha) Yes, I asked, what is my horse's name? And he replied, "ass-hole" I giggled and tried to keep it in, "Hey Tif! Did you hear? My horse's name is Asshole!!" We laughed and kept making jokes to each other... Sneaky Egyptians, about an hour later they catch on and say, "NO! (laughing) it's not ASLLHOLE! It's Ash-four, it means flower in English" Wonderful, now its flower the asshole, no way we'll ever forget my horse!

We had such a good time out there though. We went with our guide (and friend) and his son which they were the ones leading our horses and then Mahmoud & Muhamed from our hostel also came. We would ride for a bit, walking and running, then stop on top of a dune, have a beer and kick back looking at the Pyramids and then do it all over again.

I loved riding my horse, my guide was great and kept offering for us to gallop and I always took him up on it. Sad to say, I'm still sore from it though! I was holding on for dear life! He would yell ya-la and whip our horses and we were off, only instruction... "relax your body!" I was freaking out in the beginning, rather convinced I might fall off and die but by the end it was peaceful and I got a, "there you go! You got it!"

Sunday morning we got up early, skipped breakfast and headed back to the bazaar to get ripped off my small children! :)

It was good though; I got some souvenirs and got my last compliments in! It was way different than Turkey's bazaar. Not to mention everything that came home with me reeeeked so bad.

This blog doesn't do justice to Egypt, but ask me about it sometime. I'd love to share with you. I do believe we had a flawless trip: camels at the Pyramids, all the best museums, dinner cruise on the Nile, battling in the bazaar, discovering history through religion and monuments, night time horseback ride into the Sahara & enough little moments to last a life time. As always, I couldn't be more grateful for this experience, just another building block to making a more experienced, educated & well rounded Kayla Dawn : )

Love & miss you all!

PS: I'm still walking like an Egyptian, it hurts!!!

Thanksgiving & Prayers, Please

2010-11-25T02:45:00.000-08:00

Well if this isn't just the strangest Thanksgiving I've ever had. Woke up this morning, ran errands and then ate left over pizza. Now I have to throw a few more things in my bag and it's off to the airport I go... to fly to Egypt. Is it just me or is this one weird *ss Thanksgiving?

I miss my family and it sucks I couldn't skype them, they're busy busy though, can't blame them, still Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in AZ! Dad Happy Thanksgiving, I haven't heard from you but hopefully you have been getting your postcards I've been sending. Steph, Kevin and G, please tell me you're frying a turkey on the beach or something epic of sorts. Boyd I hope you're not freezing up in WA in the snow and speaking of snow and cold, Nicole, wish you were here! I hope you got the chance to cook yourself and turkey or get together with friends. Love and miss ya sister. To my friends in WA & AZ I expect you're with loved ones, friends or family, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Now about this Egypt thing, I can't be back in the states with family so I might as well be with my other family, Miss Tiffany. This girl has been through thick and thin with me, we've traveled to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and many other places together, not to mention I went to her place in Italy and she came to Cyprus, so you know what, today I'm off to see family and I couldn't be happier. It's not the first thanksgiving we've had together, but for some reason I don't think this year we'll be getting close to almost burning down the apartment baking apple pie, hehe. Okay so I don't get Turkey, I'll live. Instead I hope I get food to sustain my body and hopefully not make me sick (not drinking the water!).

I'm thankful for all my loving family and friends. I've got family all over the United States supporting me and sending words of advice and warmth. I have friends literally all over the world and although some of you don't celebrate thanksgiving I wanted to let you know I'm thinking about you! I'm thankful for everything I've got to see and experience this year.... Australia, North America, Europe, Asia & Africa; not too shabby for a 21 year old, single girl from a little suburb in Washington. I hope I'm making you proud and I love you all.

My last wish is for everyone to pray for my friend Liz here in Cyprus. Last Friday she fell into a fire on the northern tip of the island and she is currently suffering from 2nd degree burns over a large portion of her body. After multiple hospitals she is settled at a nearby hospital in the south near our apartments. She is confined to a small room in a foreign hospital without family. We've done a great job visiting her, but as her release date keeps getting pushed back it's extremely hard for her to bare. We all pitched in and got her an internet stick so she can skype her family on Thanksgiving, one small thing that I hope makes a big difference. Please pray for Liz and quick recovery, this has been nothing but difficult for her.

59 seconds of BABY MONKEY!

2010-11-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Oh, yoga

2010-11-23T03:04:00.000-08:00

My yoga class is something else... last week I thought my teacher wanted to kill me because I missed the midterm and then I was late to class (little did I know, due to my art history teacher letting me out late). It was horrible and she was telling me about this paper I had to get signed by a bunch of people a pay 40 euro (60 USD) to makeup my midterm (um, no.)

So today I come to class and my teacher is speaking Greek to the other girl and then says to me, oh did I tell you? I talked to many other people and it's okay, your marks are one of the best in the class. Do not worry about midterm, I do want you to read, read a lot because you are good. Don't do it for me, do it for you.... I want you to learn much and then still practice when you go home (US)... and on and on she went. Then as if that wasn't compliment enough, she proceeded to invite me to attend her other classes that she teaches at some center that are much more in depth than my school class. I guess she is bringing me the schedule next week, pretty awesome in a weird way if you ask me!

So as if all of that is not enough, during class today when I am trying to stand on one leg and keep my hands straight up above me and balance she decides to tell me, "nice trousers" and asks if I got them in Cyprus, I lied and said yes in fear of saying I got them in Turkey, didn't need another reason for my Greek Cypriot teacher to frown on me. So then she decided to ask me where they were from, uuuuuh, downtown, and then the store name, aye aye aye, "I'm not sure", ok you let me know when you find out, I want some.

It's such a weird relationship with this teacher, probably mostly because of the language and culture barrier but hey, I guess she still thinks I can do yoga pretty well. Today there were only 5 people in class and my friend from Finland wasn't there so that means 90% Greek & only 10% English.... pretty awkward when they're going off in Greek and then point to me and keep chatting away. Oh well, I've learned to accept that, I am in Cyprus but yet again I am in a English university. Oh well, I love yoga :)

Let me introduce you to my hero...

2010-11-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

Copy and paste this link below, and watch the top video... "2008". Look around his website, I love the concept of his video... interesting way of life if you read the "about me" If you have no interest, do yourself a favor and at least watch the video... its inspiring. He's danced his way all over the world...

a href="http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/videos.shtml

This is another great video of his. Click or copy and paste this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4&feature=channel

and of course you could just go to youtube.com and search where the hell is matt 2008.

Sorry I couldn't post the videos directly on here, but I HAD to share them. PLEASE watch at least one

One month left in Cyprus

2010-11-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe I only have a month left here. I feel like everything is still starting, and I'm not ready to watch things start to end. I just walked into our grocery store and there is a huge Santa outside and all kinds of lights and decor inside; so festive. I shop like a Greek, eat like a Greek and it feels like home. It's truly a bitter sweet feeling knowing I'll be leaving soon.

Today was a wonderful day though. I woke up, recovered all my Spain and Venice pictures that were corrupted. Did some house hold stuff and then caught the bus into the city. I took pictures for my photography class and enjoyed the alone time walking through the streets. I walked into a souvenir shop and started talking to the guy working there and he couldn't believe I was here by myself and for so long. We chatted for a while and they both offered me a drink... coffee, tea, orange juice. They are so kind and it's horrible how as am American; I don't know how to read or understand that genuine offer. I questioned why, I questioned do I pay, I questioned if it’s bad (two men & me by myself) when walking away I realized it was just that, a genuine offer.

I continued on my journey, showed my passport & got a stamp to cross the green line to the North side (occupied Turkey). I was searching for some warm boots for the winter because my roommate found some nice little boots and I don't feel like freezing this winter, although there is no way around that (side note: today's high was in the 80's and it's snowing in WA). So I wondered and went to a local bakery for a helumi pitta boat and got it to go. I'll admit I was cracking up on the walk back... here I am so excited about this food, walking with my headphones in, shoving strip after strip of pitta down my throat as Turkish men were oooogaling me in passing, I honestly start cracking up. I couldn't stop laughing because they stare so intensely. I had to stop myself and I was going to sit on the curb and eat, but I didn't make it that far.

Two guys stopped me and asked me to take a survey. Long story short I took it and no way can they use it for what they needed but they did end up with some contact details, haha. Only one of the guys could speak poor English. It was hilarious; he couldn't quite understand what I was doing over there. He said, "you on a walk?" -yes "you come across boarder just for sigimi (place I had food from) and a walk" -I giggle, no I was shopping and got hungry (totally not true, I wanted my boat!) "Be careful, that makes you fat" -I almost lost it! He was so serious and like honestly saying that food makes you fat as if I had no idea and AS IF it was okay for a man to say that to a woman! Silly Turkish friend. After asking 5 times if they could walk with me to the boarder and making sure I was okay with it and it didn't make me uncomfortable, we headed towards the boarder together. My friend, Boran, wanted to make sure he wasn't being anything I didn't want him to be and clearly stated, "I only like you because you are American, you understand?" haha, poor guy. He had visited San Diego for 3 months and got to see LA and go to six flags; he misses the US and wanted to go back one day. He said I was the first American he had ever talked to/seen on the North side. I'll probably get lunch with him sometime, nice guy.

So then I headed back, crossed the border and walked down Ledra street to the bus station to head home. I made some Turkish tea that I bought in the North, hung out, went grocery shopping and here I am... So content and happy with everything.

I did get some AWESOME henna done last night, by the way! One of my friends got the stuff to do it and my roommate gave me a few henna tattoos (if you don't know what it is, it's basically a ink you put on your skin, it dries and cracks off and leaves a beautiful red/brown stain in the design you made) My Turkish friends liked it and so did everyone else in the stores.

To be more random, Turkish men > Greek men. I honestly crossed the border today, back to the south, and got so disgusted by the Greek men! They think it’s okay to get super close in passing and look you up and down and stare in your eyes if that’s all even possible. Sure Turkish men do the same but some resist a little more and they are friendly and more open to speaking with you. It’s going to be weird back in the states, I’ll feel invisible! Don’t think I’ll miss that part of life though!

Thanks for keeping up on my blog. One month and counting… I have Egypt awaiting me and then a long series of tests and projects. Cheers,
Kayla Dawn

Olympos, Turkey

2010-11-16T12:16:00.001-08:00

"I sought love, I found independence. I sought direction, I found freedom. I sought wisdom, I found uncertainty. I guess in the end you may not find what you're looking for, but you find what you really need." -From the beach of Olympos

If there is a single place I will never forget its Olympos, Turkey. We got there at night, took a 2 hour taxi winding through the mts in the dark to pull up to “Bayrams Treehouse Pension”… we step out of the van having no idea what to expect, walk to the bar to grab our key, pass the campfire and get warmly greeted by about 7 people having a beer in the warmth of the fire. We dodge the oranges hanging on the trees to get to our treehouse dorm, set our bags down, the host closes the door behind us and we all stamper our feet, squeal and doing a little dance in celebration and excitement! So you want to talk about that little kid excitement? Yes!

(our tree house)

Our host asks if we’re hungry and we admit we were, sure enough as we get some hot apple tea (available 24/7) he heats up soup & a dinner plate with a basket of bread. It was such ‘poor people’s’ (cheaply made) food and we ate like we were starving children alright. We kept laughing at ourselves and once we could get our breath back we’d start discussing how lucky we felt. Out of all the people in the world, why us? Out of all the places in the world, how here? We felt so incredibly lucky and I still do.

I want to appropriately thank my Uncle Eric and family friend Dale who told us about this place and encouraged me to visit. They were so right, it was the perfect place for me to visit… thank you guys!

This is another experience I don’t want to explain for everyone get drastically different opinions and images, after all I say a tree house community and people think of huge trees with a little hut you climb into via a tall wooden latter, which it wasn’t the case. Sure there were some models like that but they were homey little cabin type places made of just wood on stilts.

(inside view of home)

So to give some kind of visual, I stayed in a valley with one dirt road leading into the community. There are multiple treehouse pensions and even treehouse restaurants. We were towards the end of the road, which was great. That meant that we were a 2 minute walk from the gate to get into the old ruins and only 8-10mins from the water. The ruins in Olympos were my favorite even after traveling through Europe, especially Greece and Italy. These were so natural, so untouched and respected. There wasn’t construction going on like everywhere else and the ruins were through a vast amount of space. So each day we would pick a few things to hike to ranging from tombs, old roman bathes, old churches and even an old castle… which brings me to a funny story…

(bathing in the old roman bath)

(huge tomb)

So Kassidy is the one I room with back in Cyprus and she is a hoot! This girl is the most outgoing and adventurous person I know. So sure enough I’m journaling on the beach and she goes I think I’m just going to swim over to that point out there! I kind of turn my head and say okay, this point was years away and she wanted to swim there! Well she’s a big girl so I sit and watch her swim for 10-15 minutes and finally I can’t watch anymore, pack up my things and start hiking to the castle built up on the hill. Huffing and puffing I got to the top and the view took my breath away (ha). You could see the entire beach from a bird’s eye view. Standing there taking pictures I all of a sudden hear the bushes crackle and it startles me, I have no idea why or how I thought this but I instantly yelled out “KASSIDY!” and sure enough I hear “YEAAAH!”. I start cracking up because I couldn’t believe it, I hiked the side of the mt, through the ruins like any other person would, but nope, not Kassidy! That girl swam for a solid 20+ minutes and then climbed up a cliff side to get to the castle. She is hilarious and we couldn’t believe it… not to mention she totally thought I swam after her and climbed up with her, HA! Adopting her spirit in calmer terms, we kept hiking higher and higher. The views were incredible.

(view from castle and near by hiking areas)

Kassidy and I could not come to terms with leaving Olympos so early. Never have a cancelled a flight but before dinner Friday evening my plane ticket back to Cyprus was no longer! Best choice I’ve made in a long time… I was in Olympos for 5 days and 5 nights.

Basically our days consisted of waking up around 9:30, eating community breakfast, taking a few minutes to digest in the hammocks, picking an orange for the road, enjoying the sunshine at the beach (swimming, tanning, journaling, etc) and then around 3 the direct sun would fall behind the mts which made it perfect for hiking and looking at the ruins. In the evening we ate at 6pm and by that time we were starving (yes there were places to buy food but we were saving money and enjoying the simple living). We ate with our friends and then we might send an email or two, read a school book, go for a run, hangout by the fire, adventure to the beach or the internal flames… all which were accomplished.

(hammock)

(beach)

(swimming)

(hiking)

(sunset)

(internal flames)

We made good friends with a lot of the people there. It was funny, the last few days Kassidy and I were making the most of the days and we would get back at 5:59pm right before dinner still wearing just our swimsuits and the hosts would laugh and crack jokes as everyone has all their layers of clothing on, gathered around the fire with tea. We were close to two Swedish guys (one born in Turkey), a couple from Australia & two female travelers from Australia. They were great, sadly they left and then we met two single American travelers and I did not enjoy their presence (one was 60, called himself a photographer and was an *ss when we were talking about the art, Americans…) but I also met a girl from Vancouver, Canada which was so refreshing and I loved her outlook on life. She took a semester off from school and she was traveling all through Turkey, looking to go back to Istanbul to teach English. The other guy I liked to chill with was an Iranian just traveling by himself. Good times with some incredible and inspiring people.

Random Stories!
• Our first real view of Olympos was Saturday morning when we got up at 9am, put on our running clothes and just started running towards the water. We ran through the old ruins, down the trail with trees changing colors, reflective fresh water to our right and it lead us to one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. The morning sun felt so good, we walked on the rocky beach and following Shami’s lead, we stripped off our clothes and dove right in. Those 45 minutes are still my favorite out of the entire week, it was fantastic.
• After dinner one night I hopped in a hammock to chill and this little guy, about 18 months walked over to me. The family was from Moscow and didn’t speak English but that didn’t matter. He waddled over, grabbed my hammock and started to swing it… he thought it was hilarious! I was panicked thinking he might fall but sure enough he kept doing and kept laughing harder and harder. We had his entire family’s attention as well as everyone else eating their dinner… no one could resist his giggle!
• Hiker puppy! The animals are so funny there. A few examples, Kassidy and I hiked the furthest mt side and half way up we saw a dog and sure enough he hiked with us all through the mts and valleys, we called him hiker puppy and even took his picture at the last outlook. I also had Milo and Mouse (we named them) and they were adorable cats that wanted food during meals but were so loving during the evenings, one night Milo kept me warm as he took a long snooze on me as we enjoyed some wine with friends. The best story came from 20 minutes before I left though. I was walking by myself and found a kitten the size of my hand. I pet him and made friends and then I went to walk away, but he wouldn’t leave me! Every step I took he’d take four quick leaps to catch up and then stop cause that foot would be stationary, until I took another step and it was 4-5 huge leaps for him again. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone passing me couldn’t believe it and kept asking how long he had been following me, about 10 minutes in total, minus the Turkish men who stopped to take a picture with me (white girl with blue eyes, how different! Haha). I have a video of the kitty following me, I’ll have to post sometime : )

(hiker puppy)

(kitty)

(This is a story by itself, cheers to everyone who knows the story!)

Without getting into too much detail I just want to share what a healing experience this was. Sure I did a lot while I was there, but it was all on a much slower, simple pace of life. It provided me time to reflect, think and appreciate everything and everyone in my life. I’ve never felt so at peace with all aspects of my life. I’m quite honestly rather proud of myself and all I can do is hope that I’ve made you proud, it doesn’t matter if you’re parents, my distant friend or a friend of a family friend… I hope I make you proud and I hope at least one small part of my life journey touches you, inspires you or makes you appreciate something in your life.

So thank you all from deep down in my heart…. Thank you.

Istanbul, Turkey

2010-11-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

Istanbul wasn’t the normal big city for me, it was so much more. The history is so ancient, the beauty is indescribable and the people are wonderful.

Taxi Cab: On the way to the airport at 2am or so, we get a Pakistani driver in the north that was absolutely hilarious. This man spoke seven different languages, grew up in Germany, was half Cypriot, half Pakistani and what a character he was! He went off on how we couldn’t fall in love with a Turkish men because all they think about is bad things and they don’t respect woman… he went on and on and told us respect is number one, then love, then….. us three girls were in the back were cracking up. Next thing we know he is belting out Celion Dion with Kassidy! As if that wasn’t enough he found out Shami was born in Zimbabwe and so he goes, “now I have some music for you!” We were all a little unsure about what was about to be played and then Bob Marley started to play. Everyone starting singing and we even stayed in the car to listen to more music once we got there, after all “there was no hurry!” Way to eventful for a late night ride to the airport!

Our hotel: was perfect. We ate breakfast overlooking the water and then we were able to walk five minutes to the Blue Mosque and everything from there. They gave us slippers (still stoked about that) and helped us book our Turkish bath and all airport connections. Pretty cozy!

Adventures of day one! We walked out of our hotel with a loose idea of where we were going and then all of a sudden we were smack-dab in the middle between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (Sultanahmet Square). We were in complete awe!

We took our pictures and then started walking towards the Grand Bazaar, but not before Shami and I made our first purchase. I was SO proud of myself! It was just a little dinky Istanbul booklet with pictures and info and Shami haggled it down from 37 TY to 15ty, but guess how much I got it for? Yes, that’s right… 5TY! I felt so accomplished!

So we finally got to the Grand Bazaar and it was insane! It was so visually and mentally overwhelming, never ending. I bought so much there and felt really good about all of my purchases except for when I tried using my American money I kind of got screwed. The men workers there were ridiculous! I took some videos but their sayings to try to get you were hilarious, “where you from?... paradise?” or when you’d blow someone off the next guy would say, “I think you dropped your heart back there” and of course I would be the one to start laughing.

We dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed to the Blue Mosque. We made it in just before closing which means we didn’t get too much time in there. It was such a peaceful place to be, I wish I could have just sat down and soaked it in more than I did but I kept busy looking at all the beautiful glass work and the size of the mosque, it was massive yet had a really intimate feeling. I’ve enjoyed all the mosques I’ve had the chance to visit, but this one is my favorite.

NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT! My Turkish Bath!

Part of me doesn’t even want to write about this experience because there is no way it would properly translate with only words, for example, “half naked men bathing people” – now how many interpretations does that give off! We get checked in and sent up to our changing hut, oh but can I mention everyone working in the lobby looked like little genie guys and it was AWESOME! So in our excited, childish excitement we had a ball in our changing room.

After too long in the room we were lead through a series of rooms, each one getting hotter and hotter. Next thing I know I can barely breathe and I’m in the hottest sauna I’ve ever been in. we sit there sweating and then finally someone else in our group turns on a sink and starts cooling themselves off and you better believe I was quick to follow and it felt so refreshing. OH! And did I mention we had little clicky wooden sandles, they were hilarious and sooo hard to walk in, they literally go “click, click, click” on the marble floors. Now for a lack of detail not to ruin it, we got a washing, peeling (scrubbing) and a full body soap massage. It was the most incredible and relaxing thing I’ve ever experienced. I’d love to tell you more in person : )

We cooled down in a normal temperature room with a cold water and it felt so good, of course we had to document the process! I don’t even know what to say about it but it makes me happy just looking back on it.

Day 2 Istanbul! We enjoyed breakfast and then headed to the Topkapi Palace, recommendations from Jenn. Constructed in 1460 it is full of history and so stunning.

(gate of palace)

But you know what, it’s not the palace I’ll remember the longest but the children we met. We were walking down one of the beautiful walk ways with colorful trees on both sides and all of a sudden we come across groups of children having a field trip. Gaining courage they started to say hello and as more children greeted us Shami turned back to me and asked if we should stop and say hello, and instantly said yes. These kids had such an innocent curiosity. Of course it was Shami that was born in Africa and then moved to the United States, and then me and Kassidy; all of us with very different appearances. Some could only say hello in English and then they would speak to me in Turkish but even so I could tell what they were asking. I would say, “Hello, I’m from America” and I’d get this innocent, lively “OOOOH, Amer-I-ca!!!” with such enthusiasm. They all had their little digital cameras and so we took pictures with them, shook their hands and bid our goodbyes as the teachers tried to get the children back into their lines. We saw these kids multiple times in the palace and they’d always talk to us and one kid didn’t not want to let go of my hand, expressing he loooooved me! So adorable.

I’ve always said I wish I could have the enthusiasm, excitement & innocence of a child and this trip and these children helped me getting pretty close to understanding that feeling years later. These children were awesome, not to mention the older Turkish family that insisted on having pictures with us three as well; 30 seconds of our time made their day.

The rest of the palace was great. We rented little headsets (how responsible) to hear about the palace and each room we went into. They have some of the oldest and most influential relics in all of Turkey, if not the world. However, I couldn’t take pictures of those so here is a keeper:

I wanted to go to the Spice Bazaar but we ran out of time because we wanted to pick up a few more things from the Grand Bazaar. My time was up in Istanbul… but first I must make note of the CRAZY driving in Istanbul! Well Turkey and Cyprus and many places around here. So in the city the roads are only big enough for one car so therefore its always best to go as fast as you can, get within inches of every car and wall and make sure when backing up to let a car go by, do it in style “gas! Break! Gas! Break!” it will passengers like me feel wonderful at the end of the ride! Now for driving on multiple lane roads, I took note of some important rules:
1. Your horn is your most important part of your car
2. When turning left across traffic it’s always best to be in the far right lane and then cut off everyone next to you and barely doge on-coming traffic without getting t-boned
3. Everyone is a race driver, that’s why the lights go, “red, yellow, GREEN!”
4. Additionally, you can’t be slow-joe so as soon as the light turns yellow its best to hit the gas as hard as you can in order to massage you’re passengers neck muscles
5. When going on huge roundabouts it best to be on the inside lane when exiting that way you can make sure everyone else’s horn works when you cross 2-4 lanes of circular traffic, especially if you’re a huge bus, that’s ideal!

Love you all, don’t ever worry about me running off mts, hiding in treehouse communities or traveling the world…. Worry about me every time I have to take a taxi ride! Haha, my life is never uneventful to say the least : )

PS: if you want a good story in person, remember to ask me about the Istanbul airport… first times for everything!

Back from Turkey!!!

2010-11-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I'm safe and sound after a full week in Turkey. I can't even begin to express how much I loved Turkey; it took me by surprise to say the least! The beauty and history in Turkey is incredible. I booked my trip with two of my roommates (both ended up going) from early Thursday (started the journey Wed night) to late Monday night with Thursday-Friday even in Istanbul and Friday night to Monday afternoon is Olympos Valley on the south coast of Turkey.

I got to the tree house community in Olympos Valley and I couldn't leave. I NEVER miss class (didn't miss one class last semester) and I skipped out on an ENTIRE week of class, cancelled my flight back and bought a new ticket home for Thursday morning with Kassidy. I guess there is a first time for everything; you just have to find what’s most important to you. I won't say more now because I'll blog later but let’s just say after 5 days in Olympos I feel so at peace with my life and I'm so grateful for what I've been able to see and do, not to mention the incredible people I have in my life.

As for now, I'm in the process of getting going again after 18 hours of travel last night. Took a nap and heated up some dinner but I still have to wash all my campfire clothes and then get packed for a weekend trip with the school tomorrow, 8am departure! We're going to the southern part of Cyprus, I've copied the informational email below (extracted times) so you can see what I'll have the chance to see and do.

Love and miss you all, I'll be blogging about Turkey asap with pictures and stories galore but for now back to this silly fast pace life ;)

"Starting from Nicosia we will drive to Limassol and visit Limassol’s Byzantine Castle (http://www.cyprus.com/limassol-castle.html ), while on our way to Paphos we will see the Kolossi Castle (http://www.cyprus.com/kolossi-castle.html ) which is said to be the best-preserved medieval castle in Cyprus.
After the Colossi Castle, we will drive to Kourion, the magnificent Greco-Roman theatre, one of the most spectacular archaeological sites of the island (http://www.cyprus.com/theatre-of-kourion.html ).
Last, but not least, before arriving to Paphos, we’ll go to Petra tou Romiou (“The Rock of the Greek”- which is the birthplace of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty). (http://www.cyprus.com/petra-tou-romiou.html )

When we arrive in Paphos we’ll have lunch and some free time at the harbor. After that, we continue our tour to the mosaics http://www.cyprus.com/pafos-mosaics.html

In the afternoon we will return to Limassol and go to our hotel.

Saturday the 13th you’ll have a free day and in the afternoon of Sunday 14th ,we will be back to Nicosia with a stop for a visit at Lefkara village,famous for its art of needlework (embroidery). http://www.cyprus.com/church-in-lefkara-village.html "

Turkey tomorrow...

2010-11-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hello familia & friends, the time has come for me to journey to Turkey and I couldn't be more excited. However, I'll admit to my frustrations at the moment, my roommate just bailed less than 24 before the trip, I've had to look up names and numbers for her to call and change reservations, make new reservations... after I did all the work and its rather draining and not to mention more expensive now. Plus our internet at home has been down which doesn't help! Oh well what can you do!

Tomorrow my flight leaves at 7am so we'll prob cross the city boarder this evening just to be safe and then be in Istanbul by 9am sharp! I can't wait to get there and explore for the 2 days we have in the city.

~If you didn't hear about the bombing in Istanbul a few days ago it would be worth looking up, your thoughts and prayers would be highly thought of during my travel~

Theeeen what I'm really excited about is my 4 days in Olympos tree house community. Uncle Eric and Dale told me about this place... tree houses, hiking, cliff jumping, swimming, anything you could imagine. I will be with my roommate Kassidy and she is the perfect partner in crime for this adventure... free spirit, fun, outdoorsy adventurous type!

This is the link to where I'm staying and the ones below it are other hosts/pictures in the same area... should be AWESOME!

http://www.bayrams.com/

http://www.olympostreehouses.com/kadirstreehouses/kadirs/olympos_adventure/index_en.htm

http://www.google.com/images?q=olympos+tree+house&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=P1DRTIrbGNCB4Qbo3syhDA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDUQsAQwAw&biw=1419&bih=715

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, I'll be home late Monday night my time (now 9 hours ahead of westcoast/Arizona)

Cheers,
Kayla

Visitor on my island!

2010-11-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

My best friend took two trains, two planes, a shuttle and a taxi in order to visit me for 4 days, pretty incredible friend if you ask me. After 24 hours of travel (Italy-Greece-Cyprus) and little to no contact she walked into my apartment door Tuesday evening after my 6-9pm class got out.

We quickly planned out the few days we had together in Cyprus, tue-sat, and made the most of it; however, it really wasn’t about what we did and saw but more about the moments where we would tell stories and laugh so hard we cried, or being exhausted and thinking it was hilarious to wear certain attire around the city and even funnier when we ran into people we knew, ha! Shoot, traveling an hour to the beach to get out in the cold rain wearing our swimsuits was pretty entertaining as well. So here goes nothing…

Wednesday we got up and took a bus into city center and being typical Cyprus of course the bus was late, after all they just started a city bus system within the last six months. A group of about 10 of us went cinnabon, what we have in the states, so that was our first stop in city center. After that the other girls wanted to go shop and we’re not too keen on shopping so we took off by ourselves. We journeyed across the green line into the north, The Occupied Republic of Turkey, and I got so excited I said, lets travel to Kyrenia! So we sat at the little service taxi station waiting for enough people to fill a van and realized we really didn’t have enough time (class from 4-9pm), the workers were inside so we just made a quick 1-2-3 plan and made a break for it (totally unnecessary but hilarious) so within a second the Turkish men we’re yelling at us but there was no turning back, until the next day when we wanted to travel to Kyrenia! We got a real good laugh anyways, but I think the next day they were the ones really laughing.

We got in the service taxi (taxi that makes many stops and picks up others) and we were with the cutest, oldest, most wrinkly Turkish man with a little hat I’ve ever seen and a few other men. We kept stopping as bus stations, laying on the horn until someone joined… long story short this drive that took us 20mins with 7 Americans going directly to Kyrenia turned into a goose chance into the sketchiest areas of the north I’ve ever seen. Two young females in a rickity old van with 7 Turkish men winding up a one way road, passing Turkish army signs & army guys with guns, then no one at all and after an hour of this Tiffany turned to me and whispered, “are we going to die?” without hesitation I replied, “Yes.” Don’t be alarmed, we didn’t die. However by the time we made it we were both about to vomit within seconds. Guess the joke was on us after all! ; )

Once we were safely in Kyrenia, I took Tiff to my favorite and cutest little shop for some local bakeries. We got hallumi pitta boats, so delicious with freshly squeezed lemonade... all consumed overlooking the water from the third story of course. Then we adventured along the harbor were we heard the typical “gorgeous girls!!” “beautiful girls!” “come for a drink! You thirsty?” “Germany? Sweden?... ooooh Americaaaa.” you get the picture, it was quite funny. But it gets better, one came over to take our picture after he saw us struggling (which was really Tiffany trying to take a nice picture of us and me making a funny face in the background and almost peeing myself laughing). He took our picture and invited us for a drink on him and then he said in his broken English, last weekend you here? So embarrassing he recognized me and then I recognized I was wearing the same exact clothing! Called it time to go and told Tif and of course that lead to tears of laughter.

We explored the Kyrenia castle… skirt flew up in the wind flashing Tiffany, always an eventful time with us. It was nice though, we had the same interests and both agreed an ice cream stop was necessary. The dungeon was pretty cool. Then we took a taxi to a monastery overlooking the city, the same one I went to the weekend before. I wanted to buy some beautiful Turkish bowls and by the time I took 9359 years to do that the other place had just closed. We sat on a bench waiting for a taxi to drop someone off but instead I asked if she just wanted to walk down, she shrugged her shoulders and said sure, why not. So off we went on this walk, that I thought was about 4k’s (so not, more like 6 or 7) but it was eventful. First we passed a parked taxi, dogs scared the sh*t out of me (never been scared of a dog but if it would have got out it would not have been ok) saw a Turkish army guy holding a gun (also scared me) saw a dead cat…. Ok this walk sounds horrible but it really wasn’t! Beautiful view, exercise, free and constant conversation. But can I say the cat was in a ditch hard as a rock, all four legs sticking out, puffy and surrounded by flies, Tif thought I saw a dead body or something by reaction! We made it home(barely) and we were starving, went out for gyros for the second night in a row from the local place next to my apartments and it was sooooo good, Tiffany loved them!

Anyways to cut back to Wednesday when we ditched the taxi, we wondered the streets of the North. It was crazy, you could be walking down a road without any problems and then you’d make another turn and realize that was not the best choice. However, we did end up in a mosque. Going to a mosque with school friends vs. with Tiffany is quite different, we… ok maybe mostly me, think we’re pretty funny and it gets us into shenanigans. We put on the full dress and took off our shoes, I liked it to say the least – check out the pictures!

Friday we knew we had to make time for Halloween costume making so we took a short day trip to Larnaca beach. We found two friends at the bus stop doing the same thing and that’s when we got there in the rain. I thought it was hilarious, a “that would happen to me” moment but we really didn’t care, it’s always eventful regardless. So we walked the beach walk and decided KFC sounded and looked delicious! We basically made a trip for KFC, keeping Cyprus classy people : )

We got back and it was nap time, food time and costume time! I posted about Halloween so I won’t say too much but we had such an incredible time. Everyone was dressed up and the process of getting ready is always fun. However, the next morning came early and Tiffany had to leave me, sniffle sniffle. It’s okay though, in a few weeks we’re exploring Egypt together! Pretty incredible “friend” for a lack of better words, about 8 years and counting…

Feel free to click on pictures for a better look or view all... hope you enjoyed the pictures, they took forever to post! :D

Mom would be so proud!

2010-11-01T03:36:00.000-07:00

Well, both mom and grandma, probably even Eric and Steph.... regardless I just made the most delicious, amazing, incredible, yummy & enjoyable spaghetti sauce ever! I asked mom for a basic recipe on how she makes hers and today after pilates I stopped at the grocery store, grabbed a few extra things, put everything together and I’ve let it sit for over 2 hours. It’s now noon and I’m eating it like I’ts soup! And being a typical Aspelund I’ve made enough for an army! Spaghetti for weeks! And cole, it made me think of you when I was dipping bread into the pan, mom always used to let us do that… well she still does! Haha.

Just a small little side story, but one that made my day that much better… I’ve had a lot of that recently. If I’ve learned nothing more throughout my life it’s that the little things bring me the most joy, you don’t have to do much to make a person’s day a little bit better. Lately all it’s taken is a quick email, an unexpected skype call, shoot even two nights ago I was running our trail and a group of old Greek men were walking along in their cute little hats and suits and I got a quick thumbs up with a “bravo!!!” from the one closest to me. So to everyone who has contributed to a small moment of happiness that in turn creates a lifetime of happiness, thank you : )

Do yourself a favor.... watch this.

2010-11-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Don't tell me anything is not possible

It's a Cyprus Halloween this year!

2010-10-31T05:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

So on Friday the school put on a Halloween event for all the study abroad kids, both US and Europe. They had a pre-party event at the school with costume contests and events. There weren’t too many people at this part but it was still fun. Then we all got on the bus and they took us to Nuovo, the venue for the Halloween party. It was a great time and everyone was grateful for a Halloween party across the world! “The scarier the better”

Today we're making all kinds of Halloween treats, and a few girls found a pumpkin out in the mountains, I didn't have the time to make it out there, kind of sad. Grandma can you email me how to make caramel corn please?

Trick or treat....

These are the little cookies guys I made for our get together (1 of 2 plates)! Everyone is making something and we ordered pizza.... so exciting and fun! Treats and movies all night long! YEY! Happy Halloweeeeeeeen! :)

Updates & the 411 on "The North Side"

2010-10-26T03:31:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! I just thought I'd give you a general update as I'm already half way done with this program, sniffle sniffle.

I absolutely love my classes. The education systems are quite different over here and there is a real emphasis on learning (weird, right?) and not just covering check points of what must be said whether students are understanding or not.

One of my favorite classes is my cultural anthropology class (m/w nights). Anthropology is really interesting to me and hearing an anthropologist's theory on major discussion topics such as race is quite interesting and rather eye-opening to say the least.

I'm also really enjoying my figure drawing class. My teacher is from the US (grew up in Philly) and she is incredible. She doesn't care if you are the best or worst artist but rather she teaches you from where you're at and all she cares about is you improving. She, unlike all other foundation art teachers I've ever had, teaches you different ways to approach the art of drawing. It may sound silly but when other teachers just set up a still life and say draw and you've never drawn in your life it is quite daunting. So every class we draw for 3 hours straight, typically about 100 faster drawings and one long drawing.

By far my favorite "class", yes a class for one elective credit, is my yoga class. It is a small class with about 6 students and the teacher is so well rounded and knowledgeable about the philosophy of yoga. She wants us to learn and understand everything about yoga, not just the asanas (the positions you hold and what most people think of when they hear the world yoga). We also do relaxation and meditation and I know it makes a difference in my day to day life, both physically and mentally. I bought my own yoga mat and I've been practicing, I plan to practice yoga for quite some time!

My photography class is daunting. I'm pretty overwhelmed but I know I can do it. It's a premaster’s class (400 level Comm class) that incorporates both photography history/theory and a practical assignment as well. For our assignment it is a documentary project that addresses a particular cultural or social issue with a final portfolio of 25 prints. I'm wanting to address the Cyprus problem as it would be an relevant topic back in the states, more so than any other smaller scale issue that Americans would have no background context. However the language and access barriers are proving to be rather difficult to overcome. I have another work of research before I go out into the field, so regardless wish me luck, I'll need it.

Art history and Pilates are good too, helps when you only have a Monday-Wednesday class week! (haha technically have one Friday class but we only have 3 students in that class so it’s not held all the time)

Other than that I finally went to the North side this past weekend, that’s actually where I went paragliding. It was a really interesting experience for me. The politics of the Cyprus problem actually remind me a lot of many of the world views of America. For example, when I say I'm from the US many people instantly reference our politics and what our government is doing. That’s how I felt when I went to the North, I looked at all the Turkish people living there, living in the old homes of Greek families working at their old shops and living their old lives. At times I looked at them like they were the ones who took over but they weren't, it was their government and army that invaded in 1974, much like I don't tell our army where to go and what to do. It's sad too because there were Turkish families in the south that made to move to the north because of the invasion as well... the fact of the matter everyone was affected.

Also, since all the lectures I listened to I've gained a more rounded opinion of the situation and found that the Greeks actually somewhat blame the US. The US supports Turkey and funds a lot of what they do because of their geopolitical situation and therefore many think the US supported the invasion of 1974, whether that can be proven or not, I don't think I'll ever know. It was definitely interesting though and that’s one of the main reasons I'd like to make a body of work about the situation to share with my peers and the communities back at home in the states.

So if you're wondering how you get to the North and all the details about that, let me fill you in because it is odd! So basically you have the city of Nicosia and I live about ten minutes out of the city. So you drive into the city and first you see the south city fill with Greeks and normal shops and such. Then you enter the old walled city where the old moats are now parks and ball fields. Just inside the walled city you get a strong sense of old city life, small walk ways, shop after shop, gyro stands, etc. If you walk far enough north you get to the buffer zone and eventually the green line. What happens at the border crossing (acknowledged only by the Turkish) you hand over your passport, they take your details, stamp an external piece of paper with your details that you hand write just before and then you can enter the Turkish occupied north. So you continue to walk past flower bucket after flower bucket next to destroyed and tarped buildings. I wish I could photograph or video how odd this process is but there is no photography what so ever. So just like that you're in the North using Turkish Lira, listening to Turkish music, eating (delicious) Turkish food and hearing their language.

Also worth noting, the Turkish only opened up this footpath crossing and a few others over the island in 2003. They started by only letting Greeks cross for the day but then later that year they allowed them a longer time frame to visit which allowed them to return to their old homes, which were sometimes still abandoned while others had large Turkish families living in their old quarters. The boarder is highly protected and you can sense it as soon as you reach the buffer zone.

So anyways, once I got across I really started to enjoy this new culture. We took a "bus", well the closest thing they have to bus - aka a van, to Kyrenia. Kyrenia is a beautiful harbor town on the north coast of the island. We drove over the mountain range and the road winded right down into the heart of the city passing many old castles and monuments on the way. One castle sits right next to the harbor and it’s beautiful.

So that’s when we were walked along the (small) harbor to the hostel when I saw the paragliding stand, so you know where I was for the next 3 hours! After paragliding Kate and I got lunch on the water and met up with the group. We ended up climbing onto a ledge overlooking the harbor and just watched the sunset and enjoyed good company. After that is was time for dinner, chatting and watching live Turkish music.

The next day we had take away breakfast (cheap and SO good!) and ate along the water. We then took taxis up to an old Temple turned monastery overlooking the sea. The views were stunning and the old ruins themselves were stunning... we need stuff like this in the US! But anyways, there was a really neat shop with hand crafted bowls that were hand painted ceramic... I really wanted some but I'm going to wait until my next trip and to check my budget, I could have bought them all if I was rich! Just beautiful and reminded me of miss Hannah Rasker :)

It was warm and I was roasting in my conservative clothing (ha) so a friend and I went swimming just below Kyrenia Castle. Never thought I'd be able to say I was swimming in beautiful teal water just below a gorgeous castle, but I guess I've had a lot of those moments lately! It was such a good trip with a great group of friends, 7 in total.

slideshow | Viewer

(Another slide show! Easier this way, click viewer to view one at a time. All pictures are from this weekend in Kyrenia)

Other updates, I’m really enjoying both Greek and Turkish food! I think I will actually miss it when I leave. Gyros, doners, greek salads, etc etc, mhmmm! The weather is still amazing, and I must say I have a lovely tan! Still low to mid 80's during the day and lows at night are around 62-65. The men here still drive me nuts sometimes. I really don’t think it’s necessary for them to stop or slow their cars to get a better look of me walking down the street but I have no control over that, so I deal… sometimes better than others. The people in my GLS group are awesome, everyone is so different yet we all have something in common, after all out of the hundreds of study abroad programs we did seek out this Cyprus one with many travel opportunities in a very alternative location. Everyone loves to travel and experience as much as possible, never a dull moment over here. However, some sad news. My returning flight from Jordan got cancelled so I had to cancel that flight all together. Like anyother situation though, that just meant something else good would come of it... I think I'll be traveling to Turkey first weekend of December for a lower cost! Yey!

At times it isn’t too rewarding just writing and not hearing from all my friends and family, so if you get a chance write me! kihrig@email.arizona.edu or snail mail is always adored (My name - c/o GLI Global Learning Institute - PO Box 24842 - CY 1304 Nicosia). Also I’ll use this as an opportunity to thank all my friends and family who have taken the opportunity to keep in touch. Every time we talk I get a little piece of home when I’m on the other side of the world and it’s really nice; after all, “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” Thank you to everyone who is supporting me, I hope that one day I can do the same for you. The other day a friend told me I inspired him to sign up for a summer program helping families in Africa… I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Time to do some laundry (for 8 euro, aka 12 usd! Grossss, sink laundry most of the time though) Gotta get everything together before miss Tiffany Brown gets here tonight! Cheers and an early happy halloween!

XOXO,
Kayla

A few good quotes to share

2010-10-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result”

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates."

"Never mind searching for who you are. Search for the person you aspire to be."

"If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found."

"Judge me all you want, but keep the verdict to yourself."

"whoever said nothing is impossible, never tried slamming a revolving door...."

"life isnt a garden ........ so stop being a hoe."

"Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

"A good traveler has no fixed plan, and is not intent on arriving."

:)

You'll never guess what I just did...

2010-10-24T11:00:00.001-07:00

Here goes the story!!! So basically when I was kicked back on Friday reading on the beach, I read that a couple from New Zealand had a paragliding stand in Kyrenia... the city I was going to visit Sat-Sun. So we finally got to the harbor Saturday afternoon around 12:30pm and walking to the hostel I just happened to see their stand (it was destiny I tell you) and I couldn't help but to walk in...

An hour later I had my tennis shoes on and I was on my way to run off the mountain side in style.

I asked the group I was with, 6 others, if anyone was game to go and sure enough one other friend was up for it. So, we hopped in the little van that could barely make it up the mountains, drove by the a Turkish army camp, past a huge castle built into the cliff side, around a few bends and we found our cliff side, I mean our runway!
It was hilarious, we went to the back of the van, put on his suit/gear in a matter of 1.5mins, came out and gave me my suit, said “I see you’re not nervous!”, told me to run until he said stop on the count of three….. 1, 2, 3! And that was it! 2500ft above the water and I was flying… from parking to take off it was probably 8-10 minutes. I love it.

So if you didn’t know my first trip paragliding was when I turned 18 and I fell in love and since then I’ve wanted to go again. I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to go and I knew I had found it; I’m 21, on the north side of an island in the Mediterranean on a beautiful sunny day with a group of wonderful friends… Perfection

: )

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Enjoy the slide show, let me know if you have any troubles viewing it. Also you can click the "Viewer" link and click through the pictures.

Rhodes, Greece

2010-10-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

So Wednesday to Sunday I was in Rhodes! I couldn't justify living in the Mediterranean and not exploring some more of the islands, so a friend and I booked tickets to Rhodes the night before we left for our ten day trip and left it at that. We arrived (after late taxis and delayed airplanes) late Wednesday night with no place to stay. We take a taxi to the city next to the ferry port, so he drops us off next to one of the entrances to the old city. Literally two huge, round pillars with the castle looking tops and a walk through gate, the ground made of rocks stuck into cement basically… even more intense than Italy! Baby Louie and I did not like the old city grounds but we managed.

(Neighbors)

We walked in, “ thud thud thud thud!” with baby Louie, but we get to the little square and our jaws just drop; the old city was incredible and our first view of the place was at night with everything lit up. One of my favorite memories comes from this night. We had nowhere to stay and one guy points us to a place but it was full. When then ask a guy closing up at his restaurant to point us in the right direction but being a typical Greek from Rhodes that just wouldn’t do, he had a sit down while he finished up so he could personally show us. It grabbed his bicycle, put my bag on it and off we went down the rocky little alley ways. We had no luck at about 3 places, then he asked a guy just getting home from directions but he insisted and joined out group. No luck turned into more people…. We had restaurant guy in full dress and bike, neighbor guy, two guys drinking beer and the bartender all helping us find a place to stay for the night. Long story shorter, bartender ensures us they will work it out because everyone knows everyone and they all help each other, so beer guy calls friend, we sit and have a beer and ten minutes later an older Greek lady comes to pick us up and take us to her hotel tucked into the old city. It was pretty incredible.

So next day we woke up early to check into ferries to Santorini but it was 13 hours each way = so not happening. No big, but my cold was killing me so I napped with the shutters open and the rain pouring down. That night we went out, found a travel agent and got the hook up. Friday = day trip via city bus to Lindos. Sat = ferry trip to Symi, a small island about 2 hrs away. Sun = bus trip to Valley of the Butterflies. She also suggested the old palace which was incredible and quite creepy on that dark, rainy & windy night. I took some great videos I’ll have to share later.

(Palace at night)

(Boat shop)

Lindos was incredible, sandy beach cove with white houses built into the hillside and Lindos’s acropolis overlooking the entire city. I swam, napped and chilled on the beach, then took an EPIC donkey ride up to the top of the acropolis, walked around there and saw some of the most stunning views and then headed back down into the city to catch a bus. The donkey ride was hilarious, for the first few minutes I couldn’t stop laughing. The streets were so small I was so concerned he was going to slam my knee into the walls but sure enough he knew what to do and it was awesome… One of my favorite days for sure.

(do I even have to say I was excited? on my donkey!)

(Bahahaha, aren't they cute!)

(Beach with the acropolis behind me)

(One of the many kitty cats!)

(Mom would have killed me if she knew what was to my right)

Symi was beautiful. So much of the small island was untouched. Wild goats everywhere! First port I saw a man “gut” an octopus for a lack of better word. It was CRAZY!!! I couldn’t pick up my jaw. He grabbed it and the octopus tried grabbing back, quickly cut out his eyes, sliced the head skin back and cut it off exposing just the white underneath and then threw the octopus as hard as possible against a rock. He kept hurling the octopus at the rock, over and over and over. 10 times was not enough, more like 40-50 with all his might. I was stunned and couldn’t move. It went from a curled up feisty little thing to a stretched out, dead limp dangly thing. I will not forget watching that!

(Awesome fisherman)

(Wild goat!)

At our second port it was typical Greece; white houses built into the hillside, boats of all shapes and sizes docked and restaurants playing typical Greek music. We basically walked around the entire city that consisted of one cove, ate lunch, walked, I almost stole a kitten! They were SO tiny, I’ve seen some of the cutest kittens ever on my trips and back in Cyprus. Then we had dessert, two bugs included! I was not going to be “that American” so I took them out, set them aside and enjoyed my banana split. Had a lot of those moments, which reminds me, I totally forgot to buy anti-itch medicine today! I’m covered in bug bits!

That night we went to a “fast food” gyro stand and it ended up being the best choice. We ordered, sat at their little bar that fits about 6 people in total and watched (America’s) Top Model, Greece with a local Greek! He was so cute, Josh and I were trying to figure out what was going on and he’s try to fill us in as we kept making comments about the show. We ended up coming back to this same place the next day before we flew out, I loved the couple working there and the food was great. I only ordered fries and Josh got a chicken gyros and then all of a sudden I saw the guy cutting pork… he had remembered us and he gave me a small plate a pork to eat while we waited for our food. The gesture was SO sweet and the pork was the best I’ve ever had.

(View from our place, our shutters to the left)

The last morning we checked out of our hostel and left our bags for the day. As we walked away a/their dog decided to join us on our walk to the bus stop, he even hung out as we got our morning sandwich. He just sat outside waiting for his buds. We crossed 5 lanes of traffic; he saw, yielded to oncoming traffic and then crossed to meet up with us. It was adorable. We then took a bus up into the mountains to hike around in the trees and along the stream running down the hillside. The best part was when we got to the top though. We got to the monastery and there were rolling hills covered in tall trees, then a valley with little white houses, the beach, the sea with ships and small islands a ways out. It was honestly breathtaking and I didn’t want to leave.

(Our puppy!)

(Hiking around)

(So beautiful)

I had such a great trip; this blog really doesn’t cover it. For me this trip wasn’t as much about the things I did and the places I saw but rather about the people, their way of living and connecting on a much smaller scale. For example, Sunday afternoon we were leaving with our bags in tow along the same walk way and all the restaurant workers were saying goodbye and waving and beyond that even the guests eating were waving saying bye. It was just incredible, every night we got the same treatment too. We went to Romeo’s the first night at midnight and shared a plate of tradition Greek food and from then on we were friends passing bye, always saying hello and goodnight. Rhodes and the old city of Rodos in particular were so delightful.

What a girl will do for a package...

2010-10-18T09:01:00.001-07:00

So I was just going to email my mom this story but I think its kind of hilarious and hopefully not a "you had to be there" moment....

So mom couldn't help but tell me she sent me a package and I got home from Rhodes late last night, got 4 hours of sleep, went to pilates and then it was time to get stuff done. I walked over to the GLS office where my package was sent to find out I had to go to the post office (main one) near downtown to pick it up. He said it was about a 45-50 min walk. Being my stubborn self and wanting my package SOOOO bag, I went straight home, put my running shoes one, made a terrible map with the Greek street names (as if they ever have street signs!) and set out for a midday trek with my id and papers in hand.

So I start running down one of our main roads in the dead of the desert heat... first guy I see tries talking to me as I pass making a jogging motion speaking to me in Greek, couldn't hear him because of my ipod but it was cute. Kept running, TOTALLY almost got hit by a car, but I saved myself. So I keep running, dodging crazy Cypriot drivers, low cut trees and dripping sweat. There was soooo much construction, which caused me to have to cross more streets without crossing signs to streets that had no street signs. I finally got to where I thought I was supposed to turn and asked a lady, showing her my paper in full Greek and she goes I'm sorry I don't read Greek (what!) but she knew where the post office was and I ran right there. By that time I had been running for thrity mins and I was dripping sweat, no one said a word one english to me in the post office until "passport number & sign" with a motion to my papers. Totally didn't have my passport but the other guy pointed at my drivers license and so I put that down and crossed my fingers.

Package was in my hands! Being stubborn and testing myself I chose not to get a taxi and run home. Like I hope you can picture this, white girl, bright pink running shorts, ipod, package in hand running through the streets of Nicosia sprinting to dodge cars.... any idea how much I value a package from home?

I totally felt like forest gump by the way. It cracked me up and gave me the power to keep running. Ran one hour and three mins in the heat; 85 degrees plus there wasn't a cloud in the sky to shade me... my papers were soaked from sweat and the package was relayed home like a precious little baby and finally I got to open my package! Thank you mom for everything! I will treat everything like gold and I'm so not sharing lol made johnny's fried potatoes tonight and they were SO good! I'm going to try to make it last until December. Oh and my Grayson drawings, which I got from you and directly from "him" are already on my walls! LOVE THEM!

Love you all!
XOXO
Kayla

Ayia Napa for the weekend!

2010-10-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

So have you ever had a moment where you stop and question if a particular moment in life is actually real? This weekend I stood on top of a ridge overlooking miles of sandy beaches, listening to the waves smash into the rocky cliff sides below me and swam in the most beautiful teal colored water I’ve ever seen in my life. My weekend in Ayia Napa was truly unreal.

We left Friday early morning and we stopped by some holy sites. First we stopped at a famous mosque which was very interesting to me. It was my first time inside one and this one in particular was extremely famous. Next we went to a church where the tomb of St. Lazarus was located.

After these stops we went to a lookout point with a view of Famagouste. This part really had an impact on me. Famagouste used to be one of Cyprus’s most thriving cities with new hotels and the most beautiful beaches on the entire island. However, during the Turkish invasion in 1974 they invaded Famagouste and to this day the Turkish won’t give back the city to the Greek Cypriots. The city is completely empty, dinner plates still on the tables, drawers opened, later homes looted; but after the invasion it’s been a ghost town. No one is allowed to enter the city; it’s completely blocked off to everyone. So you meet people, such as the kind lady who lectured us, that stands at the buffer zone and looks into her empty, ransacked home but she’s isn’t allowed to go into her old home and every day she sees the devastated and empty city that she once called home.

I met a lot of people in Ayia Napa that were in the same situation. Ayia Napa was a small village south of Famagouste that housed farms and agriculture with a few locals living happily together. After the invasion all the cities in the south were affected and all the refugees from the north had to completely start over. So, for example, my waiter/owner of the restaurant we went to Friday night had lived in Ayia Napa all his life. He knew the location before the invasion and before the transformation of the city. Today Ayia Napa is known as a prime destination spot with beautiful white sand beaches, stunning weather, sports and activities, and of course the best night life around. People come from all over the world to vacation there, yet back in 1973 no one even knew of Ayia Napa. Cyprus is such a young country, yet throughout history it’s always been of value to Europe, the Middle East, & Africa for its strategic location on the Mediterranean.

By afternoon time we arrived in paradise. Our hotel was gorgeous and of course somehow I lucked out getting a corner room with a view of the beach and the pool resort area and the sunset every night from our balcony. We hit the beach right away. The water was perfect and it was awesome to be swimming around with a huge group of friends.

My favorite adventure though was to Cape Greko. Our taxi driver dropped us off at the base of the cliff and we climbed up to the top. The wind was so strong it almost blew me over and it definitely blew my skirt all the way up. We were all cracking up. Mom and Boyd it reminded me of the badlands or wherever we were! Basically from top of the cliffs you could turn right and left and see beaches, completely surrounded by water. Then straight down were a bunch of cliffs and the water was banging into the cliffs. It was truly breathtaking.

We made our way down the cliffs to a location that was behind part of a small peninsula where the waves were breaking (not to mention accidentally going through an old Greek Army training center). We finally got to this cove and it’s honestly one of my favorite places so far. We walked along the rocks out to a spot of jump into the water. The water is so incredible salty you could just lay there and float forever. Of course the water was teal, clear and so warm. We had about 14 friends there and it was such a great afternoon.

We headed back for a huge meal and more beach time, this time at our sandy beaches next to the hotel. Of course it was followed by the pool and the hot tub. Both nights we went out in big groups and enjoyed the night life. Everywhere we went was so much fun and I really really enjoyed myself. It was a great weekend with a great group of friends.

Hope you enjoyed the updates :)

So immature sometimes :)

2010-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Mom & TIffany I’ve been forgetting to tell you these stories and anyone else that understands my sense of humor; keep reading! So the other day in cultural anthropology I almost lost it. Background info: professor is a Greek Cypriot and he also he some studies in the UK. He’s a shorter guy and when he speaks… uh he speaks very intensely and almost waits for us to question what he is saying and puts his eyebrows up real high (think of Jeff Dunham’s terrorist doll lol) while spitting at times. So anyways! The other day he was talking about particular factors during the lecture, however “factors” sounded more like FUCK-tors! I almost lost it in class, I was trying so hard not to laugh but then 2 minutes later he’d say something else and emphasis the word by saying it louder with raised eyes, fucktors!!!

The other story is from Barcelona. Our city tour guy was talking about a religion because we were at a church. With his accent he kept saying Jesus’s sheit. I instantly cracked up and had to turn away. Jesus’s shit! (honestly could not figure out what he was saying!) and I look back at a friend and of course she was trying not to laugh either. So I should probably look into the fucktors that indicated the tour guy was talking about Jesus’s sheet, not his sheit.

I hope you can picture these situations with a light sense of humor and no judgment! :)

Greece

2010-10-06T03:26:00.000-07:00

So, I finally found some time to transfer some journal stories onto my blog about my trip. It’s in a way depressing to me because I know there is no way I could ever replay my trip well enough to ever explain how life changing it was but I’ll give you some insight to my trip.

So first stop was Greece! Athens to be exact. My very first view of Athens was breathtaking, we were in our huge bus (20 students plus 2 directors) and all of a sudden we came out of a tunnel and we could see the entire city. It was little white building after little white building, just like I’ve always pictured it. I didn’t realize how big the city was though, nor did I realize the acropolis was smack-dab in the middle of the city, above everything.

We checked into the hotel and it was a free day. So with about 6 friends we set out to adventure and walk the city. We walked to the plata, basically a flee market type place below the acropolis. If fact, it was funny when we were walking around we finally cleared some taller buildings and came to this beautiful square with fruit stands and entry ways to the markets and a perfect view of the acropolis. It was kind of a shock because we were wondering city streets like any other street and then we were met with some of the most well-known assets of Athens. I loved it! Not to mention the nectarine I bought, best one ever!

After we ate and shopped we met up with more of the group and left for the Temple of Poseidon , which was all too funny in itself. We trek across Athens with twenty people, navigating the metro (underground) and get to the bus station to find we missed the last but there by 10 minutes. I couldn’t help but laugh and say of course that would happen to us. But like anything else on my trip it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to us. The next day after visiting the acropolis we decided to retry this trip, this time I didn’t just sit back and go along for the ride, I made sure we timed it correctly and didn’t plan to take the last bus, but rather the second to last bus. So we get everyone together and make it to the bus just fine. The guy friend, Josh who was coordinating this little trip thought it was an hour long drive, correction is was 2 hours!!! However, it was worth every minute on the smelly nasty bus. We get there just before sunset (note the last bus we considered taking gets there just after sunset in order to pick everyone up- and please note the guys thanked me after for my wonderful timing and persistence with a huge group hehe).

Basically we followed the water forever and it took us to the most secluded little peninsula with cliffs straight down to the water. You walk up to the ruins and like any of the history in Athens it is just incredible. So you have ancient ruins, your own little island type space with water all around you and the sun is setting over the water and scattered islands. I was in heaven and the pictures there were to die for. It’s amazing how everything keeps working out for the better, even if at first it seems everything had gone wrong.

Also worth noting at the Temple of Poseidon our friend Ravi met a guy from the US that lives in Barcelona. He was a super friendly guy, grabbed a beer with everyone after the bus ride back and invited us to come out with him in Barcelona to show us around.

So back to when we were left sitting curb side at the bus station. We ended up walking around the north side of Athens because we didn’t see that part yet. It wasn’t the best part of the city but we did get exposure to the protests going on there and all the graffiti. Oh and one other thing, this is the night we all dressed up since we WERE going to go to the temple so I’m out wondering around in my little black dress and that’s when the “mama mia!!” story comes in. It was in an older blog but basically this very Italian guy came right into my face as I was leading our group and yells, “mama miaaa!” with the hand gesture and everything. My friends and I laughed so hard. And from now on we have Kayla Moments. We all had dinner out together and we even got free dessert : )

So the next day we had so much exposure to the acropolis. First of all we go to the tenth floor of our hotel for breakfast and the acropolis is staring right at us! Then we meet our tour guide and she takes us to the National Archeological Museum and then to the Acropolis! I loved walking up there, it was completely unreal. Every three steps I felt like I had to stop and take pictures, it just kept getting better and better. It also kind of goes back to the “holy crap, I really here” feeling; I’ve studied the Parthenon since day one in art school but I never had a visual context or a real grasp for a sense of scale. Nor did I realize the importance of all of the other great works all around the acropolis. If Greece has one thing going for it (especially Athens) it is the history there. It’s inconceivable.

Heading back down into the city (which we got to see so well from above) a small group of us walked over to the new Acropolis Museum. We didn’t have time to go in but outside they made a huge glass floor section overlooking the old city that they recently excavated. I really enjoyed this part, it’s crazy to think that is what’s below most of the city… a whole other city that once was everything to the people of that time. The museum also had a section open from glass and completely exposed.

That evening was the Temple of Poseidon and drinks out with everyone plus Kirby (guy Ravi met). So the next day was one of my favorites of the entire trip. It was one of those humbling, “everything works out for the best” type of days. First of all everyone was a mess in the morning and only me and my roommate, two other girls and one guy got up and made the most of our free day in Athens. We were planning to go to Hydra, a close and beautiful island that everyone recommended for day travel out of Athens. So we take the metro (underground train) to the ferry terminal – totally met a guy who grew up in Enumclaw and now works in Greece by the way. So we get there and get to the right terminal area for Hydra and so I say, “Hydra?” to the nice ticket man in the booth and he quickly points at a huge ferry undocking, I didn’t understand his Greek but his gestures were enough to tell us to run!!! It’s undocking, as it clearly was at they were throwing the ropes over. So we start sprinting and BARELY make it. Everyone was huffing and puffing trying to catch our breath. Finally we can breathe again and so we say, this is going to Hydra right? The ferry guy and all the Greeks around us looked concerned with big eyes and say no, no… Poros! Our eyes must have gotten bigger than theirs because instantly they started trying to comfort us by saying in broken English, beautiful island! Beautiful beaches! Some of the girls were like can we jump off! I wanna get off, I give them a crazy look and we go on with life. Buy our cheap ticket for a three hour ferry to Poros Island and we even stopped at a few other island ports… soooo our ‘whoopsies ferry ride’ turned into a first class island cruise in my eyes.

After standing in the sea breeze for a few hours, we came up to our port and it was everything I’ve ever imaged Greece should be. Little white house stacked one after another on a hill side overlooking the water. It was beautiful. We got off the boat and it was mini coopers and mopeds everywhere. Small streets, tiny shops and very Greek people. We walked to the closest beach and of course the first thing we saw was some old ladies nude chest. We kept walking along the cove and picked a spot to lay our stuff down and we went right into the water. The Mediterranean is warm, very salty, clear and the beaches are very shallow for a long time. We “picked” the best island and beach. Everyone was local except maybe 6-8 other people and this area was very authentic. The little beach shack we ate at had a Greek mom, and two sons (about 20 & 9 yrs) working the place. The kids spoke really good English and basically served us the entire time. Just like everywhere else in Greece there were cats everywhere meowing for food and attention. After we ate, it was back to tanning, napping and swimming; pretty incredible day. We packed up our stuff to get back onto our multi-island sunset cruise.

It was hilarious the sun would set and we’d take a bunch of pictures and enjoy it and then off of a sudden we’d pass that island and the sun was back! This happened three times, three sunsets! I couldn’t be more grateful for how that day worked out.

If anything these trips always leave me feeling so blessed. I know I can’t even comprehend how lucky I am to be where I’m at in life… I’m quite literally traveling the world, making new international friends while I have the comfort and support from friends and family back at home. Ευχαριστούμε everyone!

Edge of the Outback... Video!

2010-10-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

here so you can just watch it! No tricky business for those wonderful family members that aren't so talented with the computer ;)

LOVE YOU!

A real look into my Australia trip

2010-10-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

So exciting! La Trobe University finally finished the video they were working on during our trip. They wanted to make a video for promotion purposes and they just happened to pick our group this past July.

Just to refresh your memory I took a 3 week photography course in Mildura, Australia with La Trobe University and absolutely loved it. Here is the link to the video.... copy/paste and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/latrobemarketing?ref=nf

I'm even the first to talk, hehe! Oh how I miss Australia.....

Sunday afternoon at the beach

2010-10-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

Limassol, Cyprus Maggie, Me & Rose Maggie, Me, Rose & Josh Who wouldn't want to spend their sunday afternoon like this? Excited about everything! Rose and I being goofy and excited :)
I tried putting a video on here but I don't think it worked? Anyways, traveled to Limassol today. It's a beach about an hour away (service taxi there, bus/taxi back) and it's an awesome little hangout. Like Larnaca the beach was wonderful... lots of warm sunshine, clear water and of course a good nap waiting for me. There was also a fundraiser for autism today so we bought lunch from their tents and took part in the events they had. (thats what the video was) I really enjoyed going to the fundraiser and being a part of it. All six of us headed back to Nicosia around 6pm, I went for a run and made such a good dinner! Garlic shrimp, broccoli & rice with a cold soda... mhmmmm so perfect! Overall, it was such a wonderful day and I'm so ready for bed. Class in the morning... you know pilates followed by cultural anthropolgy in the evening, no big deal. haha. Love you all, Kayla

Guess where I'm going!!!

2010-10-02T15:22:00.001-07:00

Just booked a flight to Amman, Jordan. Found a well priced ticket and asked my roommates if they wanted to go.... long story short an hour later we had tickets to Jordan!!

Don't worry I will be very safe and I will continue to watch travel allerts. Nov 18-23 I'll be in Jordan, come back for a few classes and then on the 25th (Thanksgiving) I leave for Egypt! What a crazy concept, but I know this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm trying to make the most of it.

If you have any travel advice, safety or things to go see or do, please write me!!!

XOXO
Kayla

Ευχαριστούμε

2010-10-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

What do you think of my backyard here in Cyprus? hehe. This is Larnaca beach, closest beach on the Greek side. The water is warm, shallow forever and napping on the beach is heaven. It takes about 45mins in a car/bus to get to the beach. We figured out a bus that leaves city center and drives to Larnaca for 5 euro round trip, plus the bus to the city... so for 7 euro its a day at the beach for me!

Yesterday 9 of us went to the beach for the day and it was so relaxing and beautiful. You can walk at least 150 yards into the water before the water is up to your chest and once you're in it's so warm you could just stay forever. We also found a great lunch spot thats really good and cheap. I got a meze pita, they put everything in a pita (including fish and chips believe it or not haha). My pita had everything they serve when you order meze, basically 7 different meats, hallumi cheese, cucumber, sauce, etc etc. Pretty yummy :)

Last night was a big night out that they do every year. Everyone buys tickets and with that they bus all the GLS (my program) kids and all the other international study abroad students to a popular club in town. So I hung out with people from all over Europe and it was such a good time! Made friends with a girl thats in my yoga and pilates class from Finland which was exciting, although she's really hard to understand!

Anyways, I must be getting better at fitting in around here. I'll say hello at a store or out and about and people will go on and on replying in Greek and thats when it goes down hill. Still pretty exciting to know, well I can't say that I don't look like an outsider because my blue eyes = she's not from here!!! but it's a start. "Ευχαριστούμε" for example means hello!

So I have a task for everyone who reads this, especially mom & grandma. I need some new food/meal options cooking with minimal ingredients and on a budget. Staples always in my kitchen = cheese, ham, eggs, rice, pasta, garlic salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar & fresh fruit. I did make tacos 2 nights ago which were amazing, not that Greek influenced tacos are delicious but rather it was close enough! I'm also eating from the butcher now too, its a little weird as some animal is staring at me as I order but I do it... not to mention the smell and the guts hanging. Anyways, email me or somehow contact me!

Hope all is well in the states! I'll be thinking about you all as I sit on the beach tomorrow hehe. I've heard the west coast is actually having good weather though so thats exciting.

XOXO
Kay

Real School.... WHAT!

2010-09-29T14:49:00.001-07:00

So I just finished my first week of classes and I absolutely love my classes. I'm taking Cultural Anthropology, Pilates, Yoga, Figure Drawing, Photography as a document & History of Art.

Cultural Anthropology is SO interesting. It's twice a week (1.5 hrs each class) and my roommate is actually in the class too. About 25 students and already with today's lecture I can't wait to learn more. We learn what anthropology is in detail and then move onto other topics.

Pilates and Yoga are both one credit courses listed under the dance department. Pilates is Monday morning for an hour with about 12 people, one GLS (my study abroad group) girl is in it too. That was actually the first class I went to and it was so funny. There you have Jade and I, light hair and super blue eyes speaking English.... we were such outsiders! Lucky for us our teacher speaks really good English. Yoga was a little more intense. Two hours every Tuesday and its only 6 people, located in the dance studio with all dance majors. The teacher had to teach in both English and Greek but my body felt so good after that two hour session... not to mention today as I can feel every muscle just a little bit sore. Both these classes we're also learning theory and history which I'm pretty excited about.

Figure Drawing.... oh drawing. So if you didn't know, I have a history of HATING drawing classes. Well my getting my Bachelor of Fine Arts, not a photography major so I learn all the arts. It's difficult to get dropped into a drawing class with drawing majors that don't need to be taught how to draw and have skills I can only dream about. But hey, according to everyone, I guess I have to graduate. SOOOOO, here I am signed up for an advanced drawing class. I actually have really high hopes for this class. The teacher clearly has some connection to the US, which is nice because not everyone is so open to Americans, and she also grades off of just your improvement within your portfolio, unlike at UA. Every class, 3hrs long one a week, we'll have a live model. She said it will be pretty exhausting and I don't question that, but if all goes well I'll be drawing nude people no problem by December!

Photography as a document: might be the most important class I take here. I didn't know anything about the class besides its title when I signed up. This class is a lot of photography history & theory (which I love, and totally wish the average non-art student could observe) and then there is also a practical part of it as well. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed by the practical part and producing work. It will be more documentary than fine art which means a lot of research and interviewing.... hints where I get stuck, I don't speak Greek! But this will be a great class, its the last class their seniors take and a pre-masters class. The professor is finishing his PhD and is incredibly knowledgeable. I'm very excited! Oh and we meet once a week for 3 hrs.

History of Art: is a little up in the air. During orientation we listened to an art history professor and she spoke really well so I wanted to take her course. However, there are university courses and GLS courses. I'm in all university courses with local students, except I just traded my 8am** university course for the GLS section and now I have Friday class (dun dun dun) but there are only 2 kids in the GLS class so it might turn into an independent study type of class. Who knows, but I don't so I'll address that later!

To say the least, I love my classes and I have high hopes for this semester. It is a nice change of pace from the US too... less stress on grades and getting a certain certification but rather a strong interest in education as absurd as that sounds. I hope to gain a lot from these classes and I’m really excited.

Also, tomorrow I’m going to look into clubs and possible an on campus job. They have fitness clubs such as yoga, dance, basketball and outdoor club free of charge. I could use some extra food money and such so I’m going to see if it’s possible to get a job as well.

So that’s what is new at the moment. I’m still catching up on all kinds of stuff (scholarship apps, letters to UA, email, UA classes for the spring, photos, etc) but I will write about my trip in detail as soon as I get the time, I promise!

Love and miss you all! And by miss I mean you come here cause I'm not leaving until I have to! ;)

XOXO
Kayla

ps: If anyone out there loves me please send me a box of Kraft mac & cheese.... Simple pleasures <3

A glimpse into the life I've been living... Greece, Italy & Spain

2010-09-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family! I'm alive and happier than ever...

Sorry I haven't been blogging, I was in Greece, Italy and Spain the last 10 days. I don't even know how to describe my trip because I know there is no way I can possibly describe what I felt, how I was treated, what I saw and experienced... but I'll try my best. I also want to thank everyone again for all their support, this trip was so humbling and I'm so grateful for everything.

10 memorable moments… make it 11:

* Tent shopping in Pissa: I was picking up some gifts and such and I asked a vender how much for a shirt and he told me, I said I might be back for it. Everyone had the same stuff so I went back like I said I would and the other guy was helping me, but I saw the original guy and said, I'm back! And kept going with my purchase, then the original guy said something and I thought he asked where I was from and I said, from the US and his friend goes no, no... he said you're beautiful... ciao bella, so cute! So doesn't like getting told you're beautiful in 4 different languages in a matter of 10 days

* Island Hop: SOOOOO, after a long night in Athens we had a free day so we drug ourselves out of bed (only 5 people total made it) and we went to the ferry terminal to go to Hydra Island. Sure enough I walk up to the ticket office and said Hydra Island? The guy pointed and shook his hand quickly toward the ferry undocking... we literally run as fast as we can, bags in hand and we were the last 5 to sprint on with no tickets, no nothing as the huge ferry was completely untied. We were standing there panting with about 8 Greeks and finally when we were able to breathe, we go this is going to Hydra right? The worker taking ticket had big eyes and goes, no! Porros Island! Our jaws dropped because we had no idea where or what that island was but everyone laughed and the Greeks in broken English comforted us saying, beautiful island! Beautiful island! So priceless

* Hello Nude Greeks: Getting to the first beach on Porros Island the first thing we saw was old lady boobs! So not attractive!!! We all got a good laugh though, but we picked such a beautiful and local beach. The water was warm, the people were as Greek as possible and that day was one of my favorites. Moment in particular: last swim… two steps into the water and diving into the warm Mediterranean water, swimming forever because its stays so shallow. I went out all by myself and it was something I’ll never forget.

* Sunset at the Temple of Poseidon... 2 hours out of Athens on a hillside we walked up to the ruins and it was so romantic and beautiful. Huge sail boat going by, a few islands in sight, a magical and colorful sunset

* "MaMa Miaaaa!" Walking around in Athens, yes wearing the magical little black dress with friends, this VERY Italian guy came out of nowhere and got super close to my face and exclaimed, mama mia! with the typical hand gesture of an Italian... the three girls behind me and I died laughing, tears in our eyes. Something we joke about all the time… we call particular moments, Kayla Moments!

* Heart Pizza: after 8 hours on the bus traveling from Rome to Pissa to Florence, Tiffany picks me up and we walk to a local pizza joint, all the cooks are from Naples and Tiffany ordered for us in Italian. We sit down, number is called and she walks back with HUGE pizzas in the shape of a heart. She's been there about 6 times, with 2-6 girlfriends and has never seen a heart shaped pizza, I was SO impressed and happy. Not to mention it was the best pizza I've ever had in my entire life and the guys didn't charge us nearly as much as it was, "for you, only 5 euro!" :)

* Sightseeing extravaganza! All the places we visited, all the monuments and classical tourist places were breathtaking. It’s such a weird experience to study these places, hear stories and looks at pictures and then finally be standing there in person. Pretty hard to describe, but so hard to forget; I hope that everyone is able to understand that feeling one time or another during their life

* Rain storm in Rome! We were finishing a 5 hour walking tour in Rome, approaching the Trevi Fountain and it started to sprinkle… lesson learned: a sprinkle turns into a downpour in about 3.5 seconds in Italy! We threw our coins and ran through the streets of Rome, locals hiding under the store coverings we cheering on our group of about 20 dancing through the streets, people had see through clothes, running makeup, puddles in our shoes and we couldn’t have been happier.

* Venice with the girls: We took a boat into Venice and after doing so much tourist stuff we decided to get lost… “you must get lost in order to find yourself” after all. We ate pizza and drank wine sitting on a dusty little alley way for about 4 euro each, followed by a huge double stack scoop of gelato (white chocolate on top of caramel) and more wine.

* Oh Barcelona… you deserve your own page of amazing moments; by far one of the best weekends of my life, if not the very best. We just happened to be there during the La Merce Festival. Do yourself a favor and look at this for more info. I can’t even begin to start talking about this place or I won’t stop, so when I do my city to city blogs I’ll fill you in but this is a good starter…. http://www.barcelonayellow.com/pointer-articles/145-merce-festival-barcelona

* The people, the people, the people: I’ve met so many incredible, and scummy people on my trip… lucky for me more amazing people than scummy ones. Traveling through 6 countries in one month really makes to appreciate meeting people from all over the world. I experienced different cultures, picked up enough of each language to communicate and met wonderful people. You don’t need to know a language to understand someone trying to help you out or show appreciation. I understand we all come from really different places but we’re not that different.

(Florence at sunset)

Well I hope you got an idea of the fairytail life I've been living, wish I had better ways of sharing, aka you being here! But this will have to do.

Love and miss you all,
and you're little world traveler will be staying in one place for the next 2 weeks, well at least in the same country, then off to Greece again with a friend! Started school today, more blogs to follow! :)

XOXO,
Kay

We're going to conquer the world

2010-09-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

you better believe it!

(outside the school gym, one of the stops)

These are the wonderful girls I went on the scavenger hunt with! If you don't know anything about this, basically the last 5 days we've been learning about Cyprus in various ways and today we were dropped off in the middle of downtown Nicosia to complete a scavenger hunt and find our way back home on our own... really to test how much we know with a goal of us becoming completely independant in our new home city.

In groups of four we had to visit certain places, photograph it, translate text, give prices of things, find current exchange rates, list common phone numbers, etc. We felt like we were in the amazing race! Even in our taxi, we explained the game to him and he was racing over to the church we had to take a picture in front of. He was included in our picture! haha. I think we did really well, but my feet were crying and I was so hot and sweaty after running around for about 3 hours! Winner, with the most tasks and questions completed wins a free dinner at a traditional greek place.

Now that you conquered the city of Nicosia, we're off to Greece, Italy and Spain! Louie and I will be back home in 10 days :)

Welcome to my home! Pictures :)

2010-09-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

My apartments in Nicosia, Cyprus. 4 roommates, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and I'm loving everything about it!

View to the left, looking north to the Turkish side

Before leaving Seattle with mom :)

So bad news, I have a memory card problem. Something is wrong and I can't get my pictures off my camera from Germany, London and my nice pictures of my apartment from day one. I'm working on the problem but right now these are the only two pictures I have from Germany. Keep your fingers crossed about my situation, please!

My travel to Greece, Italy and Spain.

2010-09-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday we travel to Athens and by noon we’ll be all checked in and the rest of the day is free to do whatever we want.

Friday, morning tour of the Acropolis and the Athens Museum. Free evening

Saturday, completely free day! We plan on taking a day trip to one of the nearby islands as this provides a perfect opportunity. (Aegina, Poros, Hypdra, Spatses and Angistri were all recommended islands)

Sunday we travel to Rome! Midday we’ll be touring the Colosseum followed by a 3 hour walking tour of Rome. By 17:00 the evening will be free to do whatever we want.

Monday we stay in Rome and get a 2 hour guided tour of the Vatican Museums and a chance to see the Sistine Chapel with headsets in English included (Yey for amazing art!) By 13:30 we’re free again.

Tuesday is our opportunity to see the Pisa Tower! How cool, didn’t know about this excursion. We’ll make a stop to see David (not the real one, but one of the many replicas, this one overlooking the city). By early evening we will be in Florence with a free evening hopefully to spend with miss Tiffany Brown!

Wednesday we tour the Uffizi Gallery with our guide for two hours, but by 12:30 I’ll be free and I’d like to once again spend my time with Tiffany!

Thursday we drive to Venice! We’ll get to St. Marcos where we’ll be free to explore Venice on our own. Something about some ferries and then getting back to St. Marcos Square.

Friday, we check out and leave for Barcelona. This is when some of our group from school will go back to Cyprus. There are multiple programs with Global Semesters Abroad, so for example SIM (semester in the Mediterranean, my group) SIE (s.in Europe) and one other program. So all of these programs are going to Italy and Greece, but only my program will go to Spain; so about 18 people at first, then 9 people in just my program. So anyway, once we’re in Spain we’ll take a guided tour of Barcelona which is expected to be 3-4 hours with a free evening.

Saturday is completely free! I need to figure out what I might do… any ideas?

Sunday we travel back home!

Monday morning it’s off to CLASS! (what a concept hehe) I plan to take cultural anthropology, figure drawing, photography as a document, Greek language and culture, Pilates, and Dancer’s Body: Healthy Habits. Note, I am a genius at working my magic, 4 day weekends every weekend : ) Class only Mon-Wed. I’m considering changing out my Greek class for the History of Art or geography of europe, but we’ll see…

If you have been to these places please write me with suggestions on what to do and where to go with my free time. I’d love to hear anything you can think of… anything from a particular food to try, a club to go to, a gallery I can’t miss, etc. Email or facebook asap as I leave real soon : )

Αυτή είναι η ζωή

2010-09-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, the Mediterranean people know how to eat! I’ve eaten some of the best foods in the past few days, it’s unreal. Global semesters abroad even arranged a cooking class for us to learn how to prepare some traditional Cypriot food on our own. Chef Charis Heracleous, who has worked at some of the best restaurants in Boston and now has his own cooking show in Cyprus, gave us endless recipes and served stuffed cheese ravioli, traditional meat balls (nothing like Italian meatballs) and pita with grilled halloumi cheese and fresh tomato. In theory, I’m prepared to make any of these dishes. Halloumi cheese is by far my favorite and it is a staple in Cypriot cuisine.

It’s neither a soft or hard cheese, but somewhere in the middle. You can bake it, grill it, cook with it, or eat it straight out of the package. However, it’s trouble! Heracleous warned us students have gained 20-30 pounds in ONE semester from this cheese! Lucky for me, my roommate runs track for her college back at home and we’ve already been running together and I plan to take Pilates, as well as regularly attend the gym to hopefully avoid that situation! HA!
Last night we had our welcoming dinner at a beautiful Greek restaurant where we ate out in the patio in perfect weather. Dinner time around here is between 9pm-11pm, coffee from 11pm-12am, clubs 12 until late, late into the morning. Something that has been an interesting change after being told in the US to not eat late and getting kicked out of bars at 2am.

Speaking of which, a group of us (including a girl from Capital Hill in Seattle, working at the Seahawks main bar just outside of Seahawk stadium… small word!) went over to a sports bar not 5 minutes from our apartments to watch the Seahawks game Sunday night/Monday morning. I couldn’t believe I could watch the game over here, but I guess when you got so many Americans buying drink after drink, anything is possible! It’s funny because they have multiple tv stations but each one owns different rights to different sporting events, so if you buy one package you only get certain sports/games. However, if you’re like this kind, older, very traditionally Cypriot bar owner you somehow can get anything you could ever want to watch with some crazy secret satellites. It was funny to hear our advisors talk about this guy because they honestly don’t know how he does it, but sure enough Americans have even watched the superbowl there. It’s a great little set up too, he put our game on outside in a side patio with a huge projector screen. We played pool and darts and really enjoyed the night out.

Other than that, I’ve been really enjoying my time here. Everyone has been great, the staff, the students, etc. Our days have been full of history classes, art history classes, and various lectures to get us acclimatized to living here and ready for our upcoming travels. Thursday as 5:30am I’m leaving home to start my 10 day international travel.

I tested out two very important things tonight!

2010-09-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Couch napping and night time running....

I took the most wonderful and relaxing nap on my couch tonight. Huge fuffy pillows covering my entire body cooled by the ac. After my nap I went for a run... don't worry mom I survived :)

It seems pretty safe around here, it doesn't matter if I'm walking, running, standing, doing whatever the Greek men will stare so I'm trying not to worry about that and I just stay in areas that have lights. However, I did see the tiniest, cutest, most adorable kitty-cat ever. I ran past two Greek men sitting at a table outside and then stumbled upon this kitten, it was mostly white and brown and I think she was sniffing for food. I wanted to scoop her up and take her home as she made me stop in my tracks. Poor kitty cat... she was only the first one I saw though :/

North Nicosia and the Turkish occupied Cyprus. If you click the picture and make it bigger you will see a huge building in the mid/upper right with Turkish flags. It was probably one of the many churches they took over. Also on the hill side you will see the flag and some writing declaring that part of Cyprus their land. The land at the bottom of the picture is before you get to the buffer zone and green line.

South Cyprus/Nicosia

One of the many streets lined with clothing and older buildings

Warning sign as we were coming up to a buffer zone

The buffer zone, Turkish flag in the back

Today I visited the city of Nicosia as we are staying west of downtown. It’s really interesting to hear the history of this city. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean and Achaean Greeks during the 1st and 2nd millennium BC. It then became a province of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire. 1571-1878 it was under the Ottoman rule and in 1878 Cyprus leased by the Ottoman Empire to Britain. 1914 Cyprus was annexed by Britain following Turkey's alignment with Germany in WW1. 1923 under the Treaty of Lausanne Turkey relinquishes all rights to Cyprus and in 1925 Cyprus declared a British crown colony. 1954 Greece brings the issue of self-determination for Cyprus to the UN and in 1959 Cyprus was granted independence. 1964 UNFICYP arrives. Turkey bombs and threatens to invade Cyprus, which US president Johnson's intervention halts the threatened invasion. 1974 Turkey finally invades Cyprus in a two-phase operation and occupies 36.2% of the Republic killing many and leaving even more homeless. 1983 Turkish Cypriot leadership declares the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" in the area of the occupied Republic. 2003 the Turkish occupation regime announces partial lifting of restrictions it imposed since 1974 on the movement of people across the ceasefire line. 2004 the Republic of Cyprus joins the EU and in 2008 they join the eurozone changing their currency to the euro. Pretty interesting and current history, yet at the same time the old city has so much rich history.

This is one of the three entry way to the walled city, 150 feet long. The Turks would have to make it through here, being attacked from both sides and above to make it in. Instead, they finally just went over the walls. This walk way is now used for art gallerlies and information.

Look what was on display in the museum! BAM! MY CAMERA!

Anyways now that you got your history lesson, we drove into the city by bus and they took us around the Venetian Walls surrounding the old city. The walls are in a very particular design around the city, resembling a crown or something… hard to explain. But below the 40ft walls there used to be a moat that is now used for public parks, soccer fields, etc. There are only 3 entrances into the city and the dividing line is in the middle of the city. It amazing, you’ll be walking around and then all of a sudden come up on the buffer zone with a ton of barbed wire and signs, so you look up and sure enough you see the Turkish flag not far off. Quite interesting to say the least! We did not go to the Turkish side, but I’ll let you know if we do.
After our extensive tour our group broke up and about 15 of us sat down at a restaurant in the old Nicosia to try meze, a meal where they serve you course after course and everyone shares the small plates of food. I’ve never had anything like this but it was such an experience and let me just say, the Mediterranean people know how to eat! I had salad with the freshest everything and yummy oils, so much pita bread, grilled cheese (GRILLED CHEESE, SALTY YUMMY CHEESE = amazing) every kind of animal in every form (probably 6 different meat dishes)… I can’t even remember all the food but all I know is I didn’t need to eat for a long while and it took about, oh and hour/hour and a half for all of this. It set me back about 16 euro, so 20 bucks. Won’t be doing it very often but I needed to experience it!

See all the plates and left over food!

Meet one of my roomies!

at the market, I bought some fruit and it was good :)

Welcome to Cyprus... also in the grocery store you learn to stay away from the meat/fish section if at all possible, it smells horrible... maybe even worse than this!

Just the start to my journey... about half the group. Global Learning Semesters, Fall 2010 :)

Little Red Phone Booths

2010-09-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

~Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the change of guards, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, St. Peter’s Cathedral… it’s amazing what you can see and experience in just two days~

So London decided to hate us upon landing. The tubes, which are basically unground railways all over the entire city, were closed due to a strike the day we landed. This never happens and the entire city was crazy. Cops were everywhere, people were shoulder to shoulder, busses and cars could hardly move and everyline was miles long. We landed at 8:10am and didn't arrive to Hysung's flat until about 1pm via a train and a bus and some serious walking with Louie. The normal commute would be 30mins-1 hour not 5 hours. Oh well!

So Hysung (a schoolmate turned friend from Australia this summer) took us to her place and it was so cute! Kristen and I left and walked forever... no way I was attempting any more public transportation that day. We were starving and stopped in at a little Italian shop and got the best salami, tomato and cheese sandwich ever! After that we kept walking and walked across the London Bridge (does any one know where that song comes from? London bridge is falling down, falling down?) and went over to the Tate Modern. The art in London deserves it's own blog, stay posted but basically I was in my little kid in tha candy shop state of mind. It was everything i've ever studied in one place... who needs a college class when you have the Tate! It closed at six, like everything does in the city, so Hysung met us there.

We walked along the water to the London Eye, across the river to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. All of this was during sunset so beyond seeing all of this is real life it was even more unreal. I never really thought I’d be standing on a bridge looking at Big Ben or the next day watching the change of guards… truly unreal and I feel so blessed. Hysung took us to a bus that took us back to Angel Station (right next to her place) and we met her roommate and he was very kind to us. We all went out to dinner and again I got the best food! She took us to an Italian pizza and pasta restaurant and I got stuffed pasta… mmmm!

The next morning we got up and guess what was running!!! THE TUBES! We traveled all over London by tube on our second day and after seeing everyone using them and people getting squished into the doors to barely fit I don’t know how anything functioned the day before! During this day I got to “see” the change of guards at Buckingham Palace. There was hundreds and hundreds of people everywhere. It’s astounding that this big of an event happens every single day. Sure enough it was just like in the pictures; yet, add hundreds of people, the noise of the band, the horse hooves on the ground, policemen yelling and shutters clicking in every direction.

We made our way from the palace down the main roadway next to the stunning gardens and wah-la! National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery! Now this gallery had every painting I had ever studied! I kept telling Kristen oh, I wrote my final paper on this painting! See those curtains drawn in that painting, that means…. Etc. etc. Oh the art and history London has.We went to Tate Britain next, another incredible art gallery. (see next blog) Next stop, Tate Modern for souvenirs and one last look. We went to a few more shops but even just walking around the city is an event. Double decker busses everywhere, rain storms on the drop of a dime (although we had very nice weather most of the time) and people speaking in their British accent (it was so hard to take them seriously, especially the little kids because of their accent! I loved it).

Our last stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral and we arrived right after a rain storm with a perfect rainbow right behind it. We sat on a bench outside the cathedral just enjoying the weather, the people, the city and everything around us. It was dreamlike really. After commuting back north to Angel station Hysung and Quin met us for dinner at an Irish pub. By that time we felt SO poor because the pound just eats huge amount of money, enough to make me sick! So they took us here for a “cheap” meal haha. It was really good too. By the time we got back to the flat, we packed up and jumped on a series of tubes to get to the airport and that was home for the next 9 hours until I flew to Cyprus looking like a zombie. Oh well, I made it and made the most of every waking moment.

Autobahn, Castles & Ausfarht... all things Germany!

2010-09-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

So I flew into Frankfurt Germany to visit Kristen and meet her husband and they showed me around in Germany.

The autobahn... is incredible, overwhelming, terrifying, wild, breathtaking. All highways there are autobahns with parts of the roadway having speed limits and other parts it’s a free for all. Ben (Kristen’s husband) has a big truck and let me tell you, Germany is not made for big cars or trucks! Haha the streets and lanes are so tiny. In fact, we rented a car to drive to Koln my last day there. The car was super fast; I think we went over 230 kph, about 150 mph!

Castles! Kristen lives on post just outside of Heidelberg and the actual city of Heidelberg is so adorable and “so Germany”… tiny cobblestone streets filled with people with an occasional Volkswagen trying to squeeze through, huge castle on the hillside, and much more. Heidelberg was by far my favorite place. I will for sure post pictures from here because words don't do justice. We also drove to another castle about 10 minutes away and it wasn’t the like the other one built into the hillside, but rather a free standing huge castle with gardens. There was a car show there that day and we got to see all sorts of cars. Everything from tiny little cars that didn’t even have room for doors (the front just opened up) to the most expensive cars I’ve ever seen in my life and they were all on display in the gardens. Just beautiful !

Ausfarht…. A German word that I found funny for obvious reasons (if you know me at all). I totally thought it was a place until I kept seeing that sign over and over… it means exit haha. But I enjoyed having the experience of being somewhere that spoke a different language. I learned my pleases and thank yous very quickly and learned how to say, do you speak English, please. It was funny, out at a bar air force guys came up to us and said in German, do you speak English? We look at them all funny and say yesss? Nice guys and I had a great night out with Kristen and her two girlfriends that are also married to guys in the army.

Oh and the foods I ate out there, I had Turkish, Greek and German food! Turkish was so delicious! I had some sandwich type thing with the meat I always see turning on a huge rod… wow I need to learn more about this, but hopefully you can picture it. Then I had Greek with Kristen and Ben’s friend from the army and his local girlfriend and she was so kind. I had meat again there and it was fairly good. Then my German food was nasty! Had a German schnitzel… let me tell you, it’s nothing like the Australian schnitzel! I didn’t even eat it all haha it was pretty nasty, like a breaded piece of pork. Regardless, I’m glad I tried different things and I was never starving!

Overall, I am SO happy I got to see Germany and visit Kristen! Then Kristen and I hopped on a plane to London together….. : )

Είμαι σε Κύπρος! (I'm in Cyprus!)

2010-09-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!! Thanks for reading my blog and I'm back to it until December, 2010. So I made it to Nicosia, Cyprus yesterday and I'm pretty convinced this is the closest thing to heaven on earth.

If you don't know where or what Cyprus is let me give you some quick facts. Cyprus is a island that rose out of ocean and the entire island is the country of Cyprus. The island is located off the Greek islands, south of Turkey and north of Egypt. To Europe this island is basically their vacation paradise get-a-way. I live in Nicosia, which is the last divided capital in the world. It is divided by the Greek and Turkish. There is literally a huge wall dividing the city and within the last 10 years they opened some walking gates to allowed people to travel north or south for the day and must return by night. Since then, they have opened it up to a visiting period of 3 months. The city basically has three main sections, the modern Greek Cypriot city, the old city that is also fenced in full with culture and history and the northern side that is Turkish. I will post more information on Cyprus later once I read more books and actually visit the city in the next few days. Don't expect many pictures as the guards watch for cameras and will destroy any camera and the film if they see it.

Here is a website with more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus
and here are (web) pictures: http://www.google.com/images?q=cyprus&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7SMSN&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

So yesterday I flew in from a 2 day trip in London. We flew over Turkey and soon enough it was all teal blue water and then my island! The plane went over the island and did a teardrop turn over the coast exposing the white sandy beaches just outside of the city. It was absolutely gorgeous and I cannot wait to visit the beaches. We took a bus into the city and the land is fairly desolate and desert like. In ways it reminds me of eastern Washington or Arizona, yet not at all at the same time. The buildings remind me of pictures of Greece and Egypt but still its unique.

We pulled up to our apartments and they are stunning. For anyone who visited my house last year my apartment is as big as that house was. These apartments were built in 2006 and are very modern, clean, and classy. We have huge white tiles for our flooring, big fluffy couches, glass tables, and a huge balcony with a drying rack for clothes and a 4 person glass table with chairs. Pictures to come :)

I was first to arrive so I got first pick at my room and bed which is always nice. Two of my three roommates showed up last night and they are both wonderful. I'm rooming with a girl named Kassidy and she is great! She's from a small school in Missouri and she runs track for them. My other roommate grew up in California (Bay area) and Zimbabwe and now goes to school outside of California.

I got all unpacked and put some pictures up... this is home until December 20, 2010!

Oh some other funny quick stories... I NEED TO LEARN GREEK! Good thing food lables have pictures cause shopping is quite difficult. Also, I saw the most attractive man I've ever seen today, his eyes glowed! Blue, blue, BLUE eyes with tan olive skin... how lovely! haha. However, nasty old greek men = another story. It must not be odd for them to be talking, see you, stop mid sentence and just stare (yes, quite literally up and down), then once I walk past the conversation continues because this has happened multiple times! I have so many more stories but thats enough for now!

(I'll post about Germany and London shorty, sorry its out of order)

Guess where I'm off to next! Deutschland wird die Liebe Kayla Dawn

2010-09-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Thanks for following my blog, I'll keep it updated until December, 2010. It's time again for me to leave... this time to Europe!

After I got back to Australia and New Zealand it was pretty tough on me. I couldn't get caught up on sleep and getting used to be in the US was difficult as silly as that seems. But 4 days later I got on a plane and went to AZ with my mom and it was awesome. I spent the weekend in Tucson and enjoyed seeing as many friends as possible. I definitely felt different being in Tucson after my travels and nothing had seemed to change, yet I felt so different. Coming back this spring will be real interesting. I then headed back up to Scottsdale for some R&R with my family and even some old college friends. After a few days back in the northwest I'm now ready to head to Europe.

First I travel to Frankfurt, Germany via flights from Seattle to London to Frankfurt. Kristen, a friend from as far back as I can remember, will pick me up Friday afternoon and we'll explore and make our way to her home in Heidelberg, Germany. She has some wonderful plans for me while I'm there including a day trip to Koln, time downtown and some night time fun. I'm so excited to see Kristen and see as much as Germany as possible. I'll have Friday-Tue morning there and then both of us are going to London!

Once in London we'll take a tube to my friend Hyesung's flat that is close to downtown. I met Hyesung at school in Australia and I can't wait to meet up with her again! I also have plans to meet up with a fellow UA Alum! She graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts and is starting grad school in London this semester. While in London I want to go to a lot of different art galleries; Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the National Gallery and the Natural History Museum if time and money are still available. I'd also like to check out the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral and anything else I can get to. As you can see I have a lot of plans for my short 2 1/2 day visit.

On Thursday the 9th I will finally make it to my home in Cyprus!!! I honestly can not wait to be there and have a home!

To break down my program: I study at The University of Nicosia in Cyprus. I will be staying in an apartment with 4-6 other girls just outside of campus (details to come later on). I will get checked in and the next week we take 10 days to travel. I will go to Greece (Athens- 3 days total), Italy (Rome, Florence & Venice- 5 days), and Spain (Barcelona- 2 days). Also worked into my semester in Cyprus we will take weekend trips to Troodos, Ayia Napa, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos, popular beaches around the island of Cyprus. I also hope to have classes only Mon-Wed or Mon-Thurs (depending on what classes are available) so I can do some independent travel.

Wish me luck and keep in touch! I'll have skype, email and hopefully facebook... I'd love to hear from everyone at home (wa & az). Also send me your address if you like a special something in the mail!

Ich bin dann mal in Deutschland sehen! Wünscht mir Glück und gutes Trinken!
Ich liebe dich alle :)

“Change is inevitable, growth is intentional.”

2010-08-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

(This one is more for me, but I'm happy to share it if you're interested)

July 7 – August 15
• 39 days
• 2 countries & 4 Australian states
• 10 different airports & 11 flights
• 10 different hostels/accommodations
• Traveled by bus, train, shuttle, van, taxi, boat, car and foot

It’s pretty incredible to look back on a series of events that lead me to this point in my life and this trip in particular. I studied hard in high school, ranked in the top 15 of 365 in my graduating class and graduated with honors. I went to community college simultaneously and graduated high school with almost a two year college degree. From there I got into every college I applied to and chose my top choice, The University of Arizona. I was only able to study there because I had earned a generous scholarship and with the funds my mom and dad were able to provide, which I thank both of them, I was confident in my capabilities to go to school, perform well and make enough money working to pay for school and live.

I ended up loving my university and excelled in my program of choice. Working towards my Bachelors of Fine Art, I quickly fell right into the pace of college life and academics. I’ve earned multiple scholarship awards from the school of art as well as independent families that chose to support me. It’s because of the support I’ve received, both finically and mentally, that any of this has become possible.

Last fall, a month or two into classes, I got an email congratulating me on another scholarship (yes, I apply to scholarships like it’s my job). I had already paid my tuition fees and had a budget set out for the fall and was not expecting these extra funds. I had been researching study abroad options because I’ve always wanted to have that experience but it was difficult to find art programs through the UA that weren’t tens of thousands of dollars. I had found a photography program in the outback that was $3,500 and a short course, allowing me to work part of the summer and study a full semester in the fall. At that time it was only a dream, but when I got notice of this scholarship and the financial amounts almost matched perfectly I knew that was a big enough motivation and indication to go for it.

Months later, packets and packets of applications and paperwork later, I was accepted into the Edge of the Outback Photography Course for July 10-Aug 1, 2010. Of course I was ecstatic! At that point I couldn’t believe how everything fell into place, although at times it took some serious work especially dealing with the UA and financial aid, but those are dirty details I don’t want to dwell on.

Paying for my airfare wasn’t easy and I couldn’t justify paying that much money and not seeing the coast, especially the Great Barrier Reef. I talked to a few friends about coming down to travel with me. I talked to Matt, a good friend from UA because he wanted to study down there and then travel which sounded amazing but our timing didn’t match up (don’t worry he still went and had the time of his life!) So I talked to Tiffany about the idea of traveling Australia together towards the end of summer. With budgeting, time management and everything worked out, we booked our flights from LAX to Melbourne, Sydney to Auckland, Auckland to LAX. After more thought and ruling out hiring a camper van and traveling by train, we decided to buy cheap domestic flights and travel that way. As you can see, everything fell into place there.

So you might be questioning how my fall study abroad program came to be? If you didn’t know, I’m participating in a Semester in the Mediterranean program. It’s based out of Cyprus and we travel as a group to Italy, Spain and Greece.

After getting the details settled for this summer it made me want to see what else was out there. My UA credits weren’t lining up perfectly because I couldn’t get particular classes so I was looking at graduating Spring 11, instead of Fall 10. The UA has a great art program in Italy so I was seriously considering that option until I found out they don’t offer studio art classes. I kept looking and looking, was a few days away from signing up for a different Italy program and then I found the one I committed to. This program was way cheaper, offered loan options, I would get to see so much more and study in a different location from most study abroad students.

UA still can’t figure out their details for me and I’ve struggled throughout the entire process of getting this program approved. I refuse to give up and I know I’ll make it happen. With the academic scholarship I was granted from the study abroad program it actually made the cost of UA and abroad the same, the only problem was not all my financial aid could be applied. That’s were more loans came in, but I know this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I’m not going to pass up, even if I’m paying off student loans until I’m 50!

Kristen, a good friend from, oh, 3rd grade just moved to Germany with her husband and I figured she would like to see an old friend! I wrote her and asked about visiting and she welcomed me instantly! I was looking at plane tickets and I was about to have a 16 hour layover in London which seemed like yet another opportunity to capitalize on. I altered my plans and invited Kristen along and now I’m visiting Kristen in Germany for about 4-5 days and then we’re spending a few days in London together before I fly to school.

Even more exciting, a girl from my program in Australia will be living in London when I visit and she invited me to stay with her. I’m so happy I can keep in touch with her and extend our relationship across the world! So I’ll be staying with Kristen in Germany and then my schoolmate in London and then off to school until December 20, 2010.

I just keep going in circles unable to completely comprehend everything I’ve done and where I’m at. I just spent roughly 6 weeks abroad when I never thought that would happen. I spent my first day completely by myself which was so empowering; it allowed time for reflection and made no distractions from everything that was in front of me. I then met the other 19 students and multiple professors, artists and faculty that I would spend the next 3 weeks with. I travelled hours and hours away from any big cities into the middle of nowhere where the kangaroos outnumber the people. I spent days and nights away from white culture and lived in an aboriginal community with a good friend, Peter Peterson showing us around, leading us in songs around the fire and teaching us lifelong lessons. I then worked with some incredible artists and photographers who recognized where I’m at with photography and where I’m at conceptually with my art which was such a compliment if nothing else. I ended my study abroad experience in the best of light and wouldn’t trade it for anything different. Tiffany met me and I got a taste of real traveling. No one picking me up at the airport, no calling friends or family, just us making our way from place to place. We took advantage of what every city had to offer; Adelaide had an amazing wildlife park, Cairns had everything incredible including diving, snorkeling and the best nightlife, Sydney had their classic Opera House and the bridge climb and just a big city attitude. New Zealand wasn’t so nice, the weather hated us and cancelled our Sky Jump and black water rafting in caves, but we were grateful for the money back in our pocket and the experience of diving down south even if it was to eat lunch and turn around.

More than anything else I hope to remember the people. You can visit a city anytime, you can pay to go out in a boat and you can buy a drink in any bar around the world but I can’t replace the people I met. They’ve inspired me to travel as much as possible. They’ve taught me to relax, there is a reason Australia produces so many “No Worries” tee-shirts and New Zealand so many “Sweet As.” products. I hope to hold onto a bit of their relaxed mentality. Meeting people like Peter, you realize there are in fact some people you’ll never forget for the rest of your life. I’ve also realized I will forget some people’s names, but there is no way I will forget the way they made me feel and the impact they’ve made on my life. I’ve met people from literally all over the world traveling these few weeks with Tiffany. I had lined out all the places I wanted to travel realistically for a while but now I know I need to travel to Ireland one day and see much more of the world in general.

I’m so grateful for everything and everyone in my life right now. I fly to the states in about 12 hours after weeks of being gone without a cell phone, little internet connection, a lot of quiet time and it’s made me realize a lot. Thanks to everyone who has supported me in any sort of way. I realize this is an end to one journey but the start of so many more.

Love always and forever,
Me, Myself and I <3

2:45am wake up call, Hello New Zealand!

2010-08-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

After still going to bed early, 2:45am still came way too early. We caught a cab and headed out to the airport with Louie and everything else. It was weird actually leaving Australia, pretty sad but I don’t think it really hit me because we were jumping right over to New Zealand. I should have slept on my flight but for some reason I chose to stay up, watch a movie and eat the free breakfast they served us. I watched Chloe, which was kind of a weird movie, and then some of Exit Through the Gift Shop.

I don’t think I wrote about this movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop, A Bansky Film, was a movie we went to in Mildura and I loved it! If you didn’t know, Bansky is a street artist that hides his identity and is known for some pretty outrageous stuff such as hanging his own art in the Louvre and illegal street art all over the world. It’s a completely ridiculous movie and not what I was expecting but I loved it and recommend it to everyone.

Anyways, should have slept and I didn’t… whoops! We got into the city via the bus right before a parade started. We got checked in and our place which is pretty nice (for a hostel of course). Hot shower and warm room, not too much to complain about minus the fact the light doesn’t work in the shower… thanks for that flash light grandparents! Haha

We dropped off our stuff and hit the streets on foot by 11:30am or so. We walked all over the city and into some shops. Auckland is much smaller than the other cities have been and it didn’t take long for me to wish I had more time here and more time to travel to the south island. New Zealand has so much to offer outside of its cities, so much adventure and outdoors stuff. By oh, 3pm we were wondering if it was acceptable to go to bed yet. Instead we walked a little more, did our grocery shopping (meals are way too expensive out) and took our showers… I’ve officially made it to 8pm! However now that I’ve written my last three blogs it’s time for me to sleep! Goodnight everyone, see you soon enough ; )

No longer our Aussie traveler (sniffle sniffle),
XOXO
Kayla

Art! Art! Art! Art! And nick?

2010-08-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

So Tuesday morning started off horribly. I wanted to stomp all the way back to Arizona to yell at the University of Arizona for being absolutely horrible at everything they do. Well not everything, just their office of financial aid and registration. Long story short, they keep giving me false information about this fall, important dates and many other things that it making my life very difficult while I’m trying to figure out my study abroad details for this Fall while I’m abroad. It didn’t help the people in this ‘Free WiFi McDonalds’ were not of best health, again to say the least. It was a long quiet walk back to our place to drop off my netbook but our next stop was the Art Gallery of NSW (New South Wales).

Within 5 minutes of being in the art gallery I was so happy to be there I let everything else go and just focused on everything around me which was stories and room after room of art! They had 4 levels with all kinds of art such as: contemporary, aboriginal, 15-19th c European, 19-20 c Australian along with many more, but mostly importantly the Alfred Stieglitz and the Abstraction exhibitions! Tiffany was a sport and wandered through all the free areas with me and then I headed into the Abstraction, Paths to Abstraction 1867-1917exhibition alone.

I saw some of the first purely abstracted works that were exhibited in Paris at the Salon d’ Automne exhibition in 1912; James Abbot, McNeil Whistler, Walter Greares. I saw many pieces from the Nocturne series including Black and Gold – the Fire Wheel, 1875. All these painting were extremely abstract and singular toned. These artists were drawing attention to aspects that were typically overlooked such as color (or colour as they spell it), tone, shape and composition. Picasso’s work was also on display in this area. It was his early works such as Seascape 1896. Others that accompanied this work were Piet Mondrian, Georges Seurat and Alvin Langdon. I even got to see an Edward Steichen photogravure from Camera Work (a popular journal back then) Arp/July 1911; I was excited even though I still had his show to see upstairs!

The next part was work from the impressionists. They were the first to reject the absolute value of painting and no longer saw the relationship of objects but simplified it to the relationship of tones. Claude Monet, Sailboats on the Seiner, 1874, was the first painting I saw in the room. There was a lot of Monet and Cezanne works, as well as works by Denis and Vullard. They all had beautiful tones and a lot of color. Some were oil paintings and others were color lithographs.

Nabis, started around 1888 Paris, was next on display. These works had a frank use of non-naturalistic color, emphasis on design and the picture plane. This was where everyday scenes were becoming harder to extract but you could still makes sense of what the artist of portraying, such as “The Convalescent Women”, Henri Matisse, 1899. Kandinsky, Picasso, Mondrian and others spent time working in such a style, although it was ever changing.
They had an interesting section of woodcuts as well. Paul Gauguin did some primitive woodcuts that he showed saying they were rough, rudimentary but interesting and sure enough many other artists took interest and began expanding.

The fauvism section was interesting. “Fauves loves of color”; all the paintings were so bright and full of color. I got to see a lot of Matisse’s and Derain’s work. Others working during this time, early 1900’s, were also on display.

One of my favorite works was in the cubist section; Woman with a Mandolin, 1910, Picasso. It was so beautiful in real life. At times the cubist works are so abstracted that some people disregard or view it as controversial art, as if this entire movement as a whole wasn’t, but seeing it in real life made me appreciate the work so much more than I ever had. There were other artists, more contemporary, working in the same style and it doesn’t compare.

This exhibition ended with “1912-1917 Limits of Abstraction”. It listed information about the 1917 publication of De Stijl in a Dutch Magazine and in March the first Dada exhibition, both important events for abstract art. Hey, I even got to see a Duchamp ready made! It wasn’t The Fountain (which I plan to see in London in less than a month) but it was his “Bicycle Wheel” 1913.

This exhibit was such a good one for me to see in person. I got a chance to see a lot of the art I study and the information presented was at par with a college art history class, imagine that (HA!). I met poor Tiffany at the café on that floor as she was watching a movie and waiting for a hot sandwich, quite the trooper. Since she was waiting for food I went to the other paid entry exhibition….

Alfred Stieglitz! For those who don’t know he is one of the first American photographers and worked since the 1890’s to further the cause of photography as an art form. There were 4 huge rooms dedicated to photograph after photograph of his work. One of the highlights was definitely The Steerage, 1907, photogravure on Japanese vellum.

I saw some of his earliest works up into some of his lasts when he just decided to stop photographing. I saw photogravures, platinum prints, gelatin silver prints, palladium prints, toned prints and even actual Camera Work journals. I was such an excited person, it was kind of ridiculous. I found it really funny though, most (if not all) of the works were from all of our, meaning the US, main photography institutions such at MoMA, the George Eastman House, the Getty, the National Gallery of Art and so on. It’s pretty amazing an Australia museum was able to show these works and even more ridiculous I was actually here!

Something I didn’t realize and I wonder if my peers back in AZ do, Stieglitz and Georgia O’ Keeffe were great friends. They met in 1916, shared a studio starting in 1918 and it was in 1917 he started photographing her. The portraits were absolutely stunning and ranged everywhere from a standard close up to more abstracted close up of her hands to nude photography.

The 4 main grouping of his work was his earliest works, portraits of mainly O ’Keeffee, Clouds and Lake George. He was a pretty amazing person it seems and he no doubt did a lot for photography. Oh! And there was even a blurb about his using his 4x5, yey for 4x5 photography! : )

After keeping Tiffany waiting long enough, I left the exhibit to find her movie almost over and we were ready to go, after oh 4-5 hours there! We went a found a chicken parm in a very safe pub by the bridge climb, which was delicious, and then met Nick (same friend from Cairns). We adventured all over Sydney by foot in the pouring rain. Nick bought a cheap umbrella and explained how he was having a tough day and then the crappy umbrella he bought kept flipping inside out as he tried to walk and right as he was explaining it did it and I was laughing so find I couldn’t even stand up. I think we all know what those moments are like and it was hilarious…. For us!

He took us over to Darling Harbor and we got some last minute souvenirs, which I might add I did a good job on not over purchasing nicknacks and things I don’t have room for but a few special things were a nice addition. We said see ya later to Nick as we’ll probably see him in Auckland again and headed back ‘home’.

“I could be naked under this suit and you wouldn’t knoooow it!”

2010-08-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

So Monday was our day to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge! That wasn’t until noon so we took the morning to walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens. It’s remarkable the amount of space they have put aside for these gardens, you could get lost in them. Besides all the trees and gardens, we saw the Conservatorium of Music (what we called the castle house) and the Government house. On a time crunch because we had difficulties getting out of the gardens, laughing at ourselves, we headed out and down to the Opera house.

We made sure to walk all the way around the opera house and it looked completely different from all the sides. At times it was almost hard to recognize because we are so used to viewing it in one particular way in photographs.

We traveled over to the bridge climb building. After a quick sandwich we headed up stairs, watched an instruction video and signed our life away (weird not the first time I’ve done that on this trip!). We introduced ourselves in a little circle while staff picked out our jump suits. We had a dad and mother from Melbourne and mom was 76, 3 siblings from Holland, the couple from northern Australia, the honeymooners from London, and a dad with 2 sons from somewhere in Europe. It was quite the group to say the least, but everyone was really friendly and I enjoyed my time with them.

We put on our flattering suits, and before we even got to strapping in Tiffany and I got to making friends and laughing with our guide to say the least… he had to be thinking “oh, American girls…..” haha. More stories later. We got strapped in and everything was strapped on, went through a practice course and hello ground way below me! Mom I think I understand your fear of heights more than I thought I did.

They take you out through a tunnel and you go directly onto two wooden panels that were incredibly skinny! Your harness has a strap that has a ball at the end and that’s what clicks onto a wired path the entire way but other than that you have nothing! So regardless to say my heart was going a little faster than normal. I finally gained some composure as we got closer to the main pillar where the arch started; but before we could start walking on that part they took us out onto a see through wire mesh thing that extended out from the bridge… if that doesn’t make sense just know I felt like I was going to die! You could see straight down but I didn’t choose that option and instead I looked out at the opera house, the docking stations and the harbor.

It gets better; I had to climb up the huge pillar to get to the arc. There were four latters in which you started from below traffic, came right next to them, went a little higher as the wind blew and the cars clicked along the highway and then you went even farther up to the arc. Once I was up it was completely and totally worth the sweaty palms and the skip in my heart. You could see everything.

The poor instructor knew I was terrified, probably because he asked how I was when I reached the top of the ladders and I just reply, “that was terrifying!” haha, see mom! He snapped our picture and we got to start climbing on the top of the arc. It wasn’t scary at all. We walked on stairs built into the main arc structure so I felt safe and you could see everything. The view just kept getting better and better. Before I knew it we were to the top! We got a group shot and I got to take it home for “free”!

The entire time we were climbing we had a headset on and about half the time our guide was talking to us. He would tell us about the course and things to watch for but mostly it was information about the bridge, the harbor and anything else we wanted to know about. It was a pretty awesome experience to say the least.

I took about 9468698 minutes to get down the 4 latters and 3 hours in total, but I made it and you better believe I bought a picture and I shirt to prove I did it! Go me : )

After the climb we stopped by the Museum of Contemporary Art but most of the galleries were closed because they were in between exhibitions. However, I did see a Cindy Sherman piece alongside a lot of Australian art which was pretty cool.

After our long day out we headed back to our side of town to find a pub for a chicken parm, a well-known dish in Australia made up of fries (hot chips),topped with breaded chicken, red sauce and cheese. We quickly found out that wasn’t going to happen there for more than one reason, so we resorted to an American pizza joint and quickly made it back ‘home’ safely. Quite the busy yet eventful day!

Pictures!!! Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Bondi, Woolloomooloo, & Sydney

2010-08-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

SYDNEY & WOOLLOOMOOLOO

Sydney Harbor Bridge, climbing it tomorrow

Woolloomooloo Warf

Town signs

Opera house!

In Hyde Park

BONDI BEACH

The cliffs at Bondi

The beach!

The marathon the next day

CAIRNS

In line for my sunset cruise! HEEEEEY ;)

Before heading out for the night, loved sunset

Cairns croc sign, no swimming!

Beautiful sunset

The lagoon just outside our place that meets the waterfront

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

Our ship

Meet Wally! He's wayyy bigger than me, but he still let me pet him!

Snorkeling

Fishies! Videos are much better than the snapshots, but it will do!

I loved it!

Fishies!

Diving was amazing! 35-40min dive

Tiffany and I

All tuckered out after hours in the water

LOFTY MT

FOR A FEW SPECIAL PEOPLE...

you know who you are ;)

Look where I was today!

2010-08-08T03:05:00.001-07:00

Made it to Sydney!

This morning we woke up in Bondi (after sleeping for 12 hours - 9pm-9am, much needed sleep) and there was a city to sea marathon going on. There was an expected 80,000 people at Bondi Beach. We found out about it the day before and considered staying in Bondi an extra day but after thinking about it we decided to still go to the city. We spent about 20 minutes down by the marathon until we had to check out. Getting to the city was crazy, took about 2 hours on 3 different busses to complete a 20 min taxi ride, but we made it.

Our hostel is just outside of Sydney in a suburb called Woolloomooloo. Our hostel is pretty nice. They’re remodeling some areas so instead of a twin bedroom we’re staying in a four share, but they just made it private and gave us a discount. Works for us!

We walked down to the Woolloomooloo Warf and everything about it was adorable! The walk down there was gorgeous, cute antique condos with balcony’s everywhere. I stopped and had tempura shrimp out of a little corner cook, for a lack of a better word. After sitting on a park bench with my meal and talking to a local guy I guess this little hole in the wall place was pretty well known for its delicious food. I sure enjoyed it!

We got down to the Warf and it was lined with the most elegant boats paired with the best 5 star restaurants along the walkway; quite the little suburb during the day.

We meandered toward the city and I really enjoyed the walk. We passed by some beautiful cathedrals and churches and then walked into a stunning park lined with people resting in the grass and reading on the benches. It was quite apparent when we left and suburbs and parks and hit the city. Sydney is a fast paced and demanding city, like most.

We liked the window shopping but once we got to the water and the main ferry terminal is when I really got excited! It felt almost unreal to see the opera house after always seeing pictures and video of it, weird to finally be standing there myself looking across the water to see the architectural feat.

There are a lot of street performers along all the walk ways and I really enjoy and appreciate their work/efforts. I found the same thing in Cairns. In general, Sydney is an amazing place for the arts. I can’t wait to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I’m also going to try to visit as many other galleries as possible which won’t be hard because they are everywhere; in fact I had my picture taken under the Art Gallery Rd sign today!

We got so lucky today is a Sunday! There was a huge market filling street after street. I picked up some pretty good souvenirs and goods, including a small colorful duffle to start checking as a second piece of luggage. I love little markets like that; all kinds of people, fresh foods, neat homemade goods, etc etc.

Yet another good day, just living the life… Tomorrow I get to see the city from quite a different vantage point; I will be standing on top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge! I just hope the weather is as beautiful as it was today. Regardless I have another fun filled day ahead of me.

Oh side note: today a guy thought I was Irish! Maybe I’ve been spending too much time at pubs called O’Malley’s or something, regardless I got a laugh. And when I was out on the reef in Cairns a guy thought I was Aussie, I said something and he replied, “is that an Aussie accent I hear?” once again I laughed and wouldn’t stop mentioning it to Tiffany. I think I’m starting to fit in here just fine… oh and if I need work here I’ll let one of the guys know working in the market, $20 an hour. See Mom, I’ll be just fine! ; )

Boyd I meant to tell you yesterday, I was window shopping at Bondi Beach and one of the markets had a ¼ of a watermelon out for sale… I picked it up, paid for it and ate almost all of it! I’m going through watermelon withdrawals! Not too long and I’ll be home so make sure to have some in the frig!

That’s the one thing I miss, having my own frig, food and kitchen! I’m getting tired of eating out. Went to the market today and bought bananas, oranges and strawberries to help the situation. It’s a small downfall to traveling but doesn’t measure up to much in the bigger picture of everything.

Talk to you all soon!
Cheers,
Kay

Ps: mom I don’t sound so horrible on the phone anymore! Ha! My cold is getting better, not all better…. But better : )

Bondi Beach Baby!

2010-08-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

Made it safely to Bondi Beach today!

Yesterday I got a nice little tan hanging out at the lagoon for a few hours. We saw our Irish friends and a few other familiar faces and just enjoyed being in Cairns. Beautiful weather, beautiful people, fun shops and a lot to see.

In the evening we took a sunset cruise.... let's just say I thought it would be like my Key West cruise and we got quite the laugh boarding. Any guesses? ...everyone was.... older? haha we laughed pretty hard because it's not what we expected at all, but if thats the worst thing that happens to us during this trip I think we're doing pretty darn good. Regardless we enjoyed the 90 minute ride during sunset, especially because it went the other way than our reef tour.

We stopped back at the hostel to find my friend Nick waiting for us. He is a friend from school here, originally from the LA area. All three of us went out for dinner (free!), ice cream and did some wonderful people watching ;) overall, it was a great night but made for an early morning.

4:30am it was off to the airport. Our flight from Cairns to Sydney was international which ended up being on my side cause my bag that is now 8 pounds over got a heavy tag for free, just showed her my other international flights! Nick was on the same flight so we all made our way there together.

After 9458683 minutes on the city bus we finally got to Bondi and can I just say we did a wonderful job picking hostels, step out the front door and hello Bondi beach! We're the closest we could possibly be! So, we spend the day on the beach, walking around and window shopping. Again, such a beautiful place. I wish I could be here in the summer but some people still had the heart to go surfing!

Tomorrow it's off to Sydney... my time is winding down in Australia and it's sad!

Hope all is well in the states as always :)

Love,
-Kayla

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

2010-08-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

I had the most amazing day yesterday! Boat ride, snorkeling, diving, nightlife...

We had our big outing on the reef yesterday! We were on a huge boat that had a large seating area down stairs, more seating outside in the back, and a huge deck up front for tanning and enjoying the ride. After signing my life away, we were off! Took some questionable little ginger pills to prevent seasickness and I actually did pretty good, just stayed outside to get plenty of fresh air.

On the boat ride out we enjoyed the ride and learned about diving. I was pretty nervous about diving especially because the first time I ever went snorkeling it was pretty overwhelming. I got put into the fourth group of divers (4 ppl per group, 11 groups, plus ppl just snorkeling) so about two hours later we were at the first reef location and I went straight to snorkeling. A little nervous I dove right in and I will never forget my first image of the Great Barrier Reef… fish of all colors all around me, teal blue water, gorgeous coral, white sand… it was incredible.

I got about 30 minutes of snorkeling in before I got called back for my dive. They put a waistband of weights on me and my huge tank on with everything I might need; it was so heavy I needed help standing up! I’m sure you can all picture it… everyone stand up and head out, then little Kayla sitting there rocking her body trying to get up, wiggling her legs until a big Aussie grabs the back of my pack and my feet hit the ground. Oh Kayla Dawn…

So I got in off the back of the boat and met an instructor below water, trying so hard to breathe and not panic. We had to pass a few safety checks on the latter and then it was off! Tiffany couldn’t get used to the breathing piece so it was just my instructor, I, and two others on the dive. Every meter we went down was about the same pressure you feel landing in an airplane; I quickly learned how to pop my ears underwater. After all the scary details and freaking out was over, I was really diving in the Great Barrier Reef. It’s so much different than snorkeling. You’re completely surrounded by the ocean, fish swimming everywhere, the corral… ah again, I will never forget it.We dove for about 40 minutes, which seemed like no time when you’re in shock of the entire situation. No sea turtles, but a group did see a shark!

At the second location, after our Aussie BBQ with shrimp and meat and pasta and fruit (you get the picture, good lunch!) we hopped in the water to hang out with Wally! Wally is a blue and green fish that likes to act like a dog! He was longer than my body and just massive. The cruise line always feeds him and he loves people. We all pet him and at one point I was basically on top of him, unreal I tell you!

If you’re wondering, I took a lot of underwater pictures! I just couldn’t take it on my dive because we went too deep.

The cruise was such a highlight of this trip. We sunbathed and napped on the way back (2 hours ride back) and then hung out with a lot of the crew which was fun. (Matt if you’re reading, this place makes me think of you all the time and if not just the location I kept meeting guys named Matt! Two on the cruise alone… thinking of you!)

After a quick shower we went to go see what this free meal was about. It ended up being an awesome deal and a great place. We get meal cards for a free dinner at this local pub (Woolshed’s) and if you want to upgrade to steak or something more pricey you pay 5, 7, or 8 dollars to upgrade. I enjoyed my fish and chips and then we grabbed an ice cream to kill time, well and because it’s delicious, before we went out.

Thursday night = lady’s night! We quickly met some friends and joined a party at Woolsheds for free beer and pizza. We stayed with them (an Aussie, a French guy and a Canadian lady) and headed over to Gilligan’s. This place was ridiculous and I mean that in the best way. I’ve never seen a… club/pub place so huge. We kept meeting people from all over the world… guys from Ireland, a couple from Germany, and even a footie team from Sydney (and so on).
I’ve met some pretty remarkable people on my trip. The Australian hospitality is unreal. I hope to take a part of this hospitality with me to the states and a little bit of all these wonderful people as well.

Other than that, we’re just going to keep on keepin’ on. Today were hanging out by the (croc-filled) waters edge and the lagoon, hopefully getting a tan on my very white skin! Later we’re hopping on a sunset cruise around Cairns and unfortunately we have to leave tomorrow to head to Sydney. I don’t want to leave at all. If and when I get the money to travel after school and all my loans I know exactly where I’m coming.

Other than that, HAPPY BIRITHDAY TO THE MOST AMAZING AND INFLUENTAIL PERSON IN MY LIFE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM, I LOVE YOU :)

Until next time,
Cheers mate!
-Kayla

Ps: still fighting a cold! This cough won’t go away and nitequil is running low, I guess it’s off to the chemist again (aussie pharmacy!)

Sorry Mom, I’m not coming home… ever.

2010-08-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

From now on I will reside in Cairns, Australia. Anyone want to join me?

I’m currently sitting on my own personal porch overlooking the lagoon and beachside through the palm trees while listening to live music in the park after a hot shower. I don’t think it gets any better than this.

Tiffany and I got to our hostel today around 1pm. It’s located right in the heart of everything, obviously with a view. We must have some good karma right now because out of at least 75 rooms we have the ONLY room with a balcony. It was has little chairs and it’s just perfect. The road were on is the closest to the waterfront and its lined with shops, diners, cafes, and anything else you might need.

There is a lagoon (pool) right by us as well. It doesn’t even take two minutes to walk there and we can see it from our deck. The pool is big and seems to attract people of all ages. The grassy areas and the boardwalk that runs into the pool have the same type of atmosphere. I love it.

We ate at a small café today after checking out some of the city, or rather the town. After lunch we grabbed a jacket as the sun was setting and then walked the boardwalk. I enjoyed all the puppies and little kids along the way, to no surprise (Jason!). Mackenzie there was a puppy just like yours! I HAD to pet him, made me miss yours though! We even sat and watched people learn how to flip on a trapeze. And that’s where I’m at, just winding down on a beautiful evening.

Tomorrow is an early morning starting with our snorkel and dive outing! 7:30am we check in and at hour later we set to sea! I’ll obviously write more after the adventure.

Something pretty awesome is free dinner every night! Because we’re staying at this hostel we get a voucher for a local pub! We’re guessing it’s the same every night but if not we’ve already found two pubs that have a ten dollar deal – a dinner AND a drink (beer, wine or spirits) and for all you skeptics, they even list your dinner options and they sound delicious! More details on that too I’m sure!

Whoever is sending good karma my way, you’re must be doing something right! However, please send a little more my way. I’m fighting a cold and could really use the help! I’m kind of nervous how snorkeling and diving is going to go when I cough every few minutes, but I’m convinced I will get better!

Until next time,
XOXO Miss Kayla Dawn

Roo Poo Shoes

2010-08-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! :)

Tiffany and I are on the move again, currently sitting in the Adelaide airport. I didn’t write much the other day so I’ll fill the gaps. In Melbourne we stayed right by the main transport hub and at 3am we headed over there and got a shuttle to the airport. Everything went well there and we sent off Louie. After the short ride, we jumped on some public transportation into the city (Adelaide). By that time we had Louie back and we walked through the main square to get to our hostel.

This hostel (Hostel 109 in Adelaide) was the best one I’ve stayed in so far. The gentleman who owns the place was so helpful. Marked all kinds of things on a map for us, showed us to our room and gave us a tour of the place. We got settled and headed out to the market around 9am. This being Australia, people don’t work very long on Sunday’s so most everything was closed. We picked up some sandwich stuff and went back to the hostel to plan.

After lunch, it was off to Mt Lofty! We hopped on a bus that took us to a park and ride just below the summit. Being stubborn, or smart (however you want to see it) we decided not to wait an hour for the connecting bus and walk up the rest of the mountain (a little under 3km). There were some beautiful views all the way up. Mt Lofty basically overlooks the city and the water in one direction and green rolling hillsides in the other direction. We finally got to the outlook and I was amazed. You could see for days; green hills, city skyscrapers, suburbs, Kangaroo Island, and the ocean. It was stunning.

Just a few k’s down was the Cleland Wildlife Park… aka: the best place on earth. This wildlife park is a host to all of Australia’s iconic animals. It’s not designed like a zoo, but rather you are able to walk into their football field sized cages. I’m pretty convinced the 3 AUD I paid for animal food at the park is the best 3 dollars I’ve ever spent. The first kangaroo I saw I crept up to in order not to scare it away, which is hilarious looking back on. These animals are so tame and know you have food for them. Towards the end the roos were hopping to us!

I fed all three types of kangaroos and swamp wallabies. I saw a Tasmanian devil, a lot of birds, emus, “rat things” (forget their actual names cause that’s the only thing I called them), dingoes and other animals as well. I also got my picture next to a koala and pet him! It was such an adventure and I have so many other little stories from that adventure.
We called it an early night after dinner in order to have a full day yesterday. We started our day by walking the city. Took the free city bus to multiple art museums and Adelaide’s botanical gardens, grandma and Boyd would have loved both these venues.

Our next adventure was to Glenelg, which is like their seaside. We took the tram south to the beach. Because it’s winter here, there weren’t very many people but that didn’t stop us from touching the freezing cold water and walking up and down the shop alleys.

Once we got back to the city we went to a hotel/bar that was recommended to us by a local. It was such a great place to go and free entertainment to say the least. We enjoyed that and did a little research back in our room, yey for free wifi!

This morning was a trek in the rain, through the city, and onto the city bus but we made it to the airport no problem. Next stop is Cairns and I couldn’t be more excited… SUNSHINE! It should be so nice up there and finally warm!

Love,
Kayla, my roo poo shoes and Louie 

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! Playing with all sorts of Australian animals

2010-08-02T05:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Tiffany and I made it safely to Adelaide! Left Melbourne at 3am but we were ready to hit the streets by 8am in Adelaide. I love this new hostel, finally had a hot shower... like a real hot shower where I felt warm! AAHH. Louie was kind of an issue today but we managed.

I can't write much tonight because I spent all my time uploading pictures and not writing. Basically long story short, we spent our day at Mount Lofty. It was the most beautiful place I've been in awhile. We looked over all of Adelaide, including the green hillsides, the city and the water. I could have stayed there all day but we had animals to makes friends with! See pictures below... oh and thank you Cleland Wildlife Park! YEY!

So bucket list #24, make friends with a kangaroo. I think I got it covered. We danced, rubbed our armpits, made funny faces... you know, all those normal friend things ;)

Giving the joey a little push into Mum's pouch!

The baby kept trying and trying but I think he was a bit too big!

Tiffany with her Swamp Wallaby!

I was feeding my Swamp Wallaby and Tif was like he's about to kiss you! I look down at him and we were literally nose to nose, startled both of us! I couldn't stop laughing as tears ran down my face

Ok the one below this was supposed to post first but it didn't. Basically I went over to this group of roos and that one standing up wasn't sure about the situation. So I put up my boxing hands and got a little closer and all of a sudden he growled/yelled at me! (Mom and Boyd, sound like anything else I've ever done?) I got scared and ran the other way laughing!

This was the first Kangaroo I fed, as you can see by my huge grin!

Koala Sign!

Kangaroo sign with my class t-shirt on!

Sorry there isn't more info but I need some sleep! Another fun filled day tomorrow! Today was probably my favorite day so far. I've missed my Tiffany and I haven't laughed this much in awhile... let alone hugged, cuddled and played with Kangaroos, Wallabies or Koala's before! This wildlife park let you walk around with all the animals and feed most of them (G will need to do this one day!). It was amazing!

Goodnight until next time,
Kayla and Louie

My art opening, Goodbyes & Tiffany's arrival

2010-08-02T04:09:00.000-07:00

Guess who’s in town?! Miss Tiffany!!! I’ll take you back a few days not to forget anything though!

So Friday was the big day! I woke up early, turned in my journal and went to The Art Vault to help hang our show. The space itself was beautiful. The floors still had their original wooden panels and they were very modern couches in the middle of the room. We organized the layout and hung all twenty pieces. The film crew got some good footage during that part and it was nice to see them again. Midday we finally got to leave and I went with the film crew back to school for some extra footage of me doing some editing and camera work. After that though it was back to the hostel to do some final packing and get back to The Art Vault!

We arrived around 6pm and the place looked even better than when I left it midday! Everyone was excited and dressed to impress. There were multiple people serving wine and refreshments. After looking at the art work for a while and mingling, our professors started with some speeches followed by the aboriginal performances. We all were called out one at a time and presented with a gift, which was a letter, a certificate and an awesome t-shirt!

This is a small group of the girls opening night:

Darren and I in front of my work:

The venue from outside:

(*sorry I couldn't post more pictures, it keeps failing!)

After a few hours there and a lot of pictures, a group of us went with the professors and educators to the pizza café. Mom and Grandma: I had the best pizza! There were whole slices of prosciutto all over my pizza; you couldn’t even see the cheese. I was in heaven and it was a good time out to celebrate.

Some people went to bed at this point but I decided to head out to a place called The Settlers with a few good friends and to meet up with a few locals. It was a really fun time but made for an early “morning” after only sleeping 45mins.

At 3am we left the hostel, 4am got on the bus, 7am switched to a train, 11:30am struggled through Melbourne on foot and trolley. Let’s just say I was pretty exhausted when I finally got to the hostel, but not too tired to go to a heated game of footie (Australian football), then to a pub for dinner and a long walk around the city at night; definitely a great way to finish off my study abroad program in the oz. Goodbyes were tough that night and the next morning but there are some people I will definitely keep in touch with!

The next morning (Sunday) I got up, packed up and waited for Tiffany to show up! Sure enough 2 minutes before 11am she came walking up to the hostel as I had arranged an 11am ride. Darren, one of our professors and now a good friend, was kind enough to come out of his way and pick us up from one hostel and take us to the next so we didn’t have to struggle across the city with all of our stuff. We got checked into our 4 share, walked into the room and saw a girl still sleeping in her bunk and I couldn’t fit my stuff into a locker so long story short, we upgraded to a private 4 share so we should have no worries. Darren then took us to the Center for Creative Photography in Melbourne. Of course I loved this place! There was a lot of work on display and it was such a nice gesture for Darren to take us there.

We parted ways from here, getting to walk a different part of the city because the CCP is north of the downtown grid. Tif and I stopped at a cute Italian restaurant for lunch and then headed back downtown on foot. I took her down to Fed Square and by the river. We did a lot of walking and now I’m sitting in my bunk winding down for another long day ahead of me tomorrow. 6:30am we’re on a plane going to Adelaide for a few days and I couldn’t be more excited! It’s just me and my best friend traveling through a new city!
I hope all is well back in the states and everyone is enjoying their summer…. Hopefully their WARM summer that is; that’s the one thing about down here, it’s so cold! But in three days I’ll be in 80 degree weather and enjoying every bit of it!

Until next time!
XOXO Kayla

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow!

2010-07-29T02:52:00.001-07:00

In exactly 12 hours I will be hanging our show and I couldn't be more excited! The plan is for about 5 of us to help our professors tomorrow morning. We'll hang the show and talk to some local media, both the newspaper and tv crews. We'll also have our camera crew back to document this process in the morning and the opening.

It seems like the opening is going to be quite the show! All twenty students are showing one picture from the trip; mine in particular is a 16x20 (on a 20x24 canvas) B&W (4x5) digital print.

Neil, our main coordinator, will officially kick off the opening around 6pm. Peter, our aboriginal guide and dear friend, will also be in attendance to speak to the public. He will be bringing a didgeridoo player and three female aboriginal dancers to perform as well. I can't wait to see whats in store, crossing my fingers for a good turn out!

Today was so nice... Free day! We finished everything Wednesday so today turned into a free day. The weather was gorgeous so I went running by the river again, did laundry and started packing up. Such a relaxed day, the rest of my time was spend finishing my journal for the program and hanging out in the common room, I just might have taken a nap out there as well ;)

Mom and Grandma: Dinner last night was SOOO good! I wish I could have shared. Geoff, who learned to cook from Stefano di Pieri's family & who is one of our cooridnators as well, came to our hostel and cooked us homemade risotto and a meat pasta. With a delicious glass of red wine, is was perfection.

In all this excitement I'm sure I'll have some good stories soon enough; however, it might be awhile. Sat morning we're "up" at 3am, still debating whether to sleep or not. At 4 our greyhound bus leaves and drives 2 hours to the train station and we go my train the rest of the way to Mildura. We'll drop our stuff at the hotel/hostel and I get special treatment, hehe! Darren, whom I have been speaking to, will take myself and one other student to Melbourne's Center for Creative photography! YEY! Then we'll rush over to meet the group at a footie game. It's supposed to be the biggest game of the season with an estimated 80,000 people in attendance so I'm pretty excited. Sat night is up in the air, but Sunday morning rise and shine because miss Tiffany is here! Adventures I tell you, adventures!

Hope all is well in WA, AZ, FL and everywhere else you might be!
Wish me luck tomorrow, it will be a big night for me to say the least.
Cheers,
Kayla

3 days until show time!

2010-07-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I've been working hard in the lab since we got back into Mildura. There has been a lot of digital work and I also spent hours and hours of time developing 4x5 film over in the darkroom. Exciting news: 22 slides out of 22 = perfect! I was so excited and proud that I had so much success when at times I had to set up and shoot pretty quickly.

The day after the field trip was only a half day and we were all able to go to the local pub and have a great time.... yes, all 20 americans. It's pretty funny, everyone knows who we are around here. Last night a few of us went out for ice cream and we talked to the parlor and he had met all the groups and knew all about our exhibit this Friday night. Oh America :)

Thursday was our free day, which was so nice! I spent some time running along the river and hanging out with my friends. Friday-Monday was back to it. I ended up scanning my 4x5 film and thats what I'll be showing in our exhibit. If you'd like to see the venue, we're showing at The Art Vault (theartvault.com.au).

During this process, I didn't get much attention (one on one) but once I was done scanning Darren, one of our professors, sat down and looked at my work. He was really impressed to say the least, which lead into conversations about my current work and latest portfolios. Interested in my work, the next night I sat down with Darren and showed him some of my work that I luckily had on my external and got some wonderful feedback and a few names to get in touch with. He then showed me his work and I really respect him as an aritst and a teacher. He showed me some work that I'd like to work up to; a lot of installation and creating cameras.

The following night, he sat down with me for a few hours and helped me map out some plans for Tiffany and I to do after the program. Some REALLY exciting news, currently on display at Sydney's Art Gallery of NSW is an Alfred Stieglitz exhibit! Beyond that, I noted some great hikes, lake tours with crocs, camra museums and much more! All very exciting.

Yesterday was perfect! We went to Mungo National Park. (http://www.pleasetakemeto.com/australia/mungo-national-park/information) It's such a beautiful place and very sacred to the aboriginal people. It's where Mungo man and Mungo women were discovered. Based off their cremation and burial site, it's believed it shows tradition and culture that dates back 40,000 years. I just packed my 4x5 and my point and shoot camera's which was a nice break for my back!

Another one of our girls here had a birthday so it's back to O'Mally's tonight for karaoke. Then more work thursday and Friday is the show. 4am sat morning we'll be back on a bus headed to Mildura to watch some footie and celebrate our class. Sunday morning Tiffany flies in.... adventures round dos!!!

Keep in touch,
XOXO Kayla

Enough writing, time for pictures!

2010-07-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Group picture the morning we left Mutiwintji National Park

Meet Peter! Our aboriginal guide who allowed us to experience things most Australians never get to see and do, let alone a group of 20 Americans!

When I left the group, climed a mt and saw about 20 roos feeding in a field behind me, the hiking trail and water way the other way, all while the sun was setting to my right behind iconic Australia trees and more roos

Me one of the hikes with all my gear

Johnny Cakes with our roo dinner. Everything cooked over the fire using chicken wire

The group who did the optional gorge hike on the last day

Sam and I before we went through the water way, after we climbed down a rock side using a rope!

Group photo during the middle of our day hike

Smaller group picture on our day hike

After our first roo hunt! It was unreal

Interesting little guy!

Our professors shouted us for a few good drinks

Tricking the Americans at the bar in Silverton. They were told to try to balance it on their head and carefully roll it into their funnel, before they were able the bartender dumped water down their funnel which was stuck down their pants!

Mad Max car in Silverton, just outside of Broken Hill. (pretty neat huh Dale!)

These are some of the children I met while at Mutiwintji National Park

I will never forget these days....

Pretty pictures from the outback!

2010-07-22T21:09:00.001-07:00

A few quick edits... not to be used in fine art so here they are for you!

Look at my new friends! :)

2010-07-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

I love the kangaroos here!
I saw lots of wild roos, emus and wallabies :)
More pictures to come shortly

When was the last time you tried something for the first time?

2010-07-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the most rewarding 5 day camping trip of my life. Staying out in the bush for 5 days, hiking at night and a camp fire at night. Attempting to write about it is already difficult because I know that no matter what I say it won’t come close to describing what a life experience it was. I wish you could have been there but here’s my best attempt to describe what I’ve been up to, what I’ve seen and how I felt during this adventure.

So Friday morning we loaded up the bus, stopped at school for a quick lecture and time to meet our film crew. This is the 13th edge of the outback program and they decided to hire a camera crew to create a video for La Trobe University and youtube in general. I was picked as one of the five to be interviewed and holy cow, my first interview was in the bus (note I was the first person) and I sounded ridiculous! HA! Oh well, must not have been that bad cause they keep following me!

We finally arrived at Broken Hill, our first stop on the trip but we quickly rushed off to Silverton, a small out dated town. Side note: Mad Max was filmed in this town and they have the replica of the car there, cool if you have watched the films which we did Wed. Anyways, we photographed the old, lonely yet characteristic town as the sun went down. Our professor then shouted us at the bar; which means, he bought us rounds of drinks at the local bar. The wine was delicious and the bar tenders played a prank on five group members. They handed them all a funnel and a potato… being college kids they all got excited thinking they would be chugging beer but oh no! They were told to tuck the funnel into their pants and then they were instructed to balance the potato on their head. As soon as they all looked up to balance the potato the bartender took a bottle of water and squirted water down everyone’s pants. I honestly could not stop laughing. It was hilarious and everyone should have seen it coming. The pictures are great! After dinner we just headed home. Our “hotel” aka hostel was CRAZY! Mario’s Palace is extremely old and every wall is covered in huge murals.

The next morning, after yet another nerve racking 15 min interview, we left for Mutawintji National Park. If I didn’t tell you already we were so lucky to have Peter Peterson with us for this trip. He is an aboriginal man and because of his status he was able to take us everywhere we went. We stayed in the middle of Mutawintji National Park, somewhere most Australians never get to visit and a place where very, very few people ever get to stay the night. We were so lucky to stay there, explore the land, hear aboriginal stories and meet some locals (all of two families because it’s so remote). Our accommodation was two long buildings facing an outside common room with two picnic tables and a huge fire pit. I roomed with three other girls in a room that was probably 10x10, but we got lucky and got one of the heaters so we didn’t freeze too bad!

That night I went on my first ROO HUNT! Some people spotted some kangaroos so Maggie, Nick, Meghan and I all went out trying to find some. Next thing I remember we were chasing kangaroos up a mountain side. I was honestly like a little kid. My heart my racing and I was crazy about my blurry, far away kangaroo pictures. I hope I never forget that pure excitement. Then we had to run back to our camp because before we knew it was super dark! We came back and had a group dinner, songs by the fire, night photography and a few drinks with everyone.

Sunday was my favorite day yet! We had a full day hike, 9am-4pm at Mutawintji. The hike included lush green water ways, mountain ridges, water canyons and everything in between. I packed my four by five, including all accessories, and my digital SLR with 3 lenses… let me tell you I got a good work out! It was so difficult to carry all that (around 40 pounds) but it was so worth it. We ate lunch on one of the mountain ridges, feet dangling off with a view that overlooked a canyon as the wind rushed up the side of the ridge (mom not your ideal spot but it was beautiful!). At the base of our hike I saw some more kangaroos. This time I had my zoom lens and made friends with the roos! I got so close to the kangaroos and was surrounded by about 6 of them. They were so comfortable when we were still that they would even feed in front of us. I couldn’t be happier that night.

So any guesses what we cooked on the fire that night for dinner? Dun, dun, dun: KANGAROO! Caleb and I cut and BBQ’d all the Kangaroo for everyone! We literally cooked the thinly sliced kangaroo on chicken wire over the fire. Once it was all cooked we tried it and it was the most delicious thing I’ve had since I’ve been here and that was with nothing on the meat. That night I also tried my bubbly wine, called Passion Pop with a bright pink label and it was so good! Very girly and cute, Peter even said it was good! That night was a ton of fun and I spent some quality time talking with the camera guys, my friends and Peter.

Sunday night it rained which is terrible in the outback with all the roads. Our original plan wasn’t possible so instead we had a slow morning. I took advantage of this and got some portraits of Peter, the National Parks people and some of the children in the house next to us. The children…. They were so loving. I have nothing bad to say about them, it was such an eye-opening experience to spend some quality time with them. It’s a different way of life. There isn’t any worth for a wide expanse of clothing options, they don’t care if they don’t have shoes on, it doesn’t matter if their face is covered in dirt and grime, but hand any kid a crayon and sure enough a smile and a messy scribble is to follow. I don’t think I’ll ever forget those children.

Our next adventure was off to the” Mutawintji Cultural Centre”. This tour made me really appreciate culture, tradition and family. They opened up their land, built a cultural center and have made great efforts to inform the visitors about their land and history. Our guide was a part of the five families that owns the land and he showed up cave art (hundreds of years old) and rock engravings (thousands of years old). This was a quiet and reflective event and I’m extremely grateful for this experience.

We then crammed in one more hike, by far my favorite hike. It started with a traditional and iconic Australian landscape then we moved into green wetlands and finally got to the gorge. In ways it reminded me of seven falls in Tucson at the end, but it was even better. I loved this hike. We split into a faster group and a slower group where I fell out of the fast group about half way back went off the trail by myself and climbed to the top of the mountain on the way back. I finally got to the top, huffing and puffing from carrying my pack, and I looked out to a breathtaking view. It was nothing but me and my cameras with a 360 degree view of my surroundings. I looked back from where I came from and it was a lush waterway with a lot of green vegetation, turned over my shoulder to see a field of grass with about 20 kangaroos feeding, and one more turn I overlooked the sun setting behind Australia’s iconic stringy, bare trees. The quality of light was incredible. In a rush, I took a few pictures but more than anything I just stood there taking everything in I possibly could. I spotted the slow group and headed back down. I took some remarkable sunset pictures with of trees, grassland and kangaroos. The kangaroos in this area were not scared like all the others. I got within ten feet of some of them. This is exactly why I signed up for this program and I’m so thankful for all the experiences I’ve had at Mutawintji and Australia in general.

The weather wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The outback, especially right now, is freezing cold. The two days we went hiking the skies cleared and once we were hiking it was pretty warm. During the night we just had to stay close to the fire and bundle up, but I survived! As far as animals go, I saw many wild kangaroos, emus, and wallabies. I don’t care if I’ve seen a hundred kangaroos; I still get ‘little kid excited’ every time! Which leads me into the food I’ve tried; I’ve had kangaroo, vegemite (GROSS), a lot of lamb, curry (yuck), chicken snitchel (sp?) and lots of other things but when you’re hungry it’s a lot easier to eat just about anything.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the field trip portion of this class. I had a lot of time to take it all in and reflect on the way back to Mildura, which is about a 4-5 hour drive in our bus. I just want to thank everyone who has supported me and has a role in my life today; without you I wouldn’t be who I am today. I will write soon, sorry this one is so long! I could write forever but I hope you had picture where I’ve been!

Love you all!
XOXO Kayla

For a few special people ;)

2010-07-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

We had a great photography lecture yesterday and for my art friends who are following this I have some work you should look up. (wrote it in my journal and put your names next to each person, awhhh) First of all, mom I almost laughed out loud when he came up on the slides, guess whoooo! bud-in-skiii! Edward Burtynsky had done a good amount of work in Australia. Jason, you need to look up Murray Fredericks SALT film. Go to, http://www.saltdoco.com/movie-info/timelapse-photography.htm - I loved it! Matthew (Trowbridge) Martin Parr did a series a lot like your documentary project a few years ago with the tourist. He's asking a lot of questions like why do we have to take a picture of us at a place to prove we were there, whats the purpose ect, while depicting these people in not the most flattering way. Mr Carlos! Look up Mathieu Bernard-Reymond. He's a Swiss/French artist and does some amazing digital manipulation. He finds and creates beautiful white, silver and grey tones that are just stunning. One of our professors (Kristian Haggblom) is friend with Bernard-Reymond and told us about a few frames in complete detail. I hope you enjoy them.

Some other great artists to look up are Ricky Maynard, Petrina Hicks, Polixeni Papapetrou, David Stephenson (look up his star trails) and Siri Hayes. Also Tomoki Imai's work is pretty interesting and slightly funny. He went into Tokyo Disney with a toy camera and made landscapes/scenes that looked like real places outside of Disney. I could keep going and I have more names and info if anyone is interested. Hope you enjoy!

OXOX
Kayla

I think I figured out my my photo situation...

2010-07-13T18:03:00.001-07:00

So I'm at school right now and had to sit through part of the intro to the darkroom... Not exactly my cup of tea. After much frustration, I finally got a min to talk to the professor and figure out my schedule. The other students are printing their film today because an outlab processed their film, but I have to take up the entire lab to hand process my film, which means I have to process when no one is here. Basically I'm going to work digitally today and tomorrow and then after our 6 day backpacking trip I'll come back and be REAL BUSY! I'll have to go through all the digital classes and do my own work, while still finding time to process my sheet film. It should be interesting but at least it's more or less figured out.

Off the topic, last night was so much fun! One of the girls turned 21 and we had a little in-hostel party night. We watched a movie while working in our sketchbooks earlier in the evening. Then some of my friends started a game of Kings Cup and off we went. Two of my roommates and I watched the game with a few others but it was such a good time. We finally got to know each other really well, questionably too well. ;)

The other thing is I haven't said much about my hostel. We're the only people in the place, one long hallway with many rooms ranging from 2-4 beds, a boys and a girls bathroom with 4 showers, 2 sinks, and two toilets each. We also have a kitchen, dining room and a common room. The kitchen has about 12 gas burners (mom you need this!), two ovens, a microwave and everything else you might need. The place is pretty cold with only one heater to heat EVERYTHING (including the rooms) but that heater makes the common room the place to be!

Another side note... I'm not allowed to buy Tim-Tams anymore. These might be the most delicious, incredible, amazing, mind-blowing desserts I've ever had. I ate an entire box on my own! They are little cookies candy magical things. If I can fit any in my suitcase, I will!

Alright until next time!
XOXO from your little Aussie :)

I saw a kangaroo in the outback today! :)

2010-07-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

I finally saw a bunch of kangagroos today! Next step is just making friends with one of them :)

So today we packed up on our bus and headed out to the outback to have our first day out shooting. They gave the class two rolls of 35mm film to shoot, but I have have 4x5 and only shot a few slides.

We took our bus everywhere and the view from the bus was perfect, we were all kangaroo hunting and the entire bus would turn into small children when we'd spot one! We even saw a emu, which was huge! OH, and at one point a kangaroo was hopping along right next to us! He was only about 10 feet away and on my side, I'm sure you can imagine my smile. We visited Hattah-Kulkyne and Murray-Sunset Nation Park today. Our bus stopped every so often and we'd hop out and go shoot for an hour before we moved onto the next place.

To my art friends, believe it or not but I found death in the outback! (to everyone else this probably sounds bad) but I found some decomposing bodies and a lot of bones in a dried up waterway and it should make for a good portfolio that will go with some of my other work. I used my digital camera for this, and Pedro I used my new lens too! :)

Our day was cut short by the rain. We had to quickly get out of the national park as soon as it started to rain because the road have a lot of clay in them and once they get wet they become impassable. We got out no problem and it was back to the backpackers.

I realized a few things today, first is how much art school and my particular course work has made me into the artist I am. Its difficult to be in a basic class where the goals are different, and I can see how much conceptual focus I have after a few years of study. It will be interesting to see what I end up shooting and exhibiting in the show. The other thing is my independance. I always knew I was pretty independant but I think this course is proving that. It can be difficult for me to not have any control over my daily schedule and be around people all the time. It's quite a change and there are particular things I miss about being in control of everything I do and how I manage my time and studies (especially my photography).

Overall I'm having a great time and I hope my thoughts aren't too scattered. I had to rewrite this blog because the wifi dropped, but at least I could update you with my studies and travel! We have two days of class/lecture/darkroom then its off on our 6 day backpacking trip. The trip seems promising, especially because Peter (aka Petaaaaa) will be with us. This aboriginal man is such a character and I can't wait to share photos of him!

Tiff, I can't wait until you're here. I keep talking to locals and trying to find things we must do in every town. I talked to a kind lady today who was from Adelaide and she suggested a few things, don't worry I've been writing them down so you don't have to worry about me forgetting things! ;)

Alright love from your little Aussie!
XOXO Kayla

First day at school! Yey for La Trobe University

2010-07-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

6:30am everyone was up, which you know what that means.... I was up too! The paper thin walls don't hold heat and sure don't block out noise. We went to bed so early it wasn't too bad, and by 9am we were packed into our bus and off to school after a quick bus tour of Mildura. We got to school and the campus is tiny! Its just fine for our purpose but still quite interesting and a huge change of pace. Neil lectured about our trip for awhile and then we started our lecture about our artbooks and photography. Dun Dun Dun.... I knew way too much to be in this lecture. I feel like a lost a little bit of my life but I could help everyone else so that way nice and I know they were thankful. After many hours at school (9am-5pm), we left just in time to get ready to go out to our welcome dinner!

Stefano de Pieri, a world known chef from Australia, cooked for us. We walked into Art Gallery 25 (which he also owns in addition to his bar and restuarant) to one long table lined with beautiful wine glasses and white plates, enough for our group of 26 or so. It was all the students and Peter Peterson (an aboriginal elder who will take us on our 6 day backpacking trip), our two other main leaders and a couple other staff who are assisting us in our studie and travel. Right away Mario, who called himself an italian stallion, brought out all sorts of local wines and beer. The red wine was amazing and it was an endless supply. Mildura is known for their amazing wine which typically brings many italians to reside here. Our first course came out, spinach and ricotta creps. I couldn't believe how good it was, mom & grandma you would have loved one! The creps were followed by meatballs and pasta and then a fresh salad as well. We also had fresh bread with olive oil and local Murray River salt throughout the dinner. It was delicious and everyone, including the professors, enjoyed all the drinks as well.

As for the weather, ITS SO COLD. Mornings are unspeakable... today I wore two pairs of pants, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt and a rainjacket. I think that says enough!

Money - The Australian money is very different coming from America. So many different coins (including 1 & 2 dollar coins). Also everything is extremely expensive here. For example, my small soda at McDonalds was 3 dollars. We're all trying to save our pennies but it can be difficult!

First ROO I saw was dead.... of course that would happen to me!

2010-07-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

Alright, so Saturday we left Melbourne with our destination of Mildura in sight. We left our hotel by 9am sharp, loaded our beautiful charter bus. Everyone had their own pair of seats and an ipod plugged in. Our instructors had a surprise for us - "dogs eye for lunch!". What's dogs eye you might ask? Dogs eye = meat pie, and in this situation it meant we were having lamb sandwiches with salad for lunch. We pulled into the tiny little pub bursting with character. It was tiny and in the middle of nowhere, but the couple that ran the place we delighted we were there. Again, can't wait to post pictures of this place, there were so many random signs and things inside the pub. We were treated to our lamb sandwiches with a fresh green salad and it was delicious. I really enjoyed it. She also brought out homemade lemon bars and cookies with tea and coffee. We felt right at home in this little place, minus the spider webs everywhere but they seemed to just be part of the pub. Oh mom & dad, the place smelled just like grandpa's old farm - it was unreal. We walked the town, for a lack of a better word, to see a few homes and yet another dead ROO!

Okay, so as we left the hotel I was on a serious kangaroo watch! Sure enough I saw one..... one dead on the side of the road being eaten by two birds. I couldn't believe it. OOOH but that wasn't all, on our little walk we found another dead one. So not how I wanted to see my first kangaroos! (that was fixed today, tue, but still). We got back on the bus for another hour or two until we stopped for a bus change. I guess the last group's bus broke down and thats why we had the nice bus. They dropped us off in another small town where we went adventuring and took some fun group pictures. We had a good time and then all of a sudden "the bus" pulled in. Not sure if I should call it a downgrade or an amazing upgrade.... ;) Lets just say there wasn't a open seat in the house, we became real good friends and hold your breath if anyone hit the seat cause a dust cloud was to follow!

So we left at 9am and got to our backpacker's (aka hostel) by 7pm, a real long day again. We picked roommates in a quick shuffle and I absolutely love my roommates. I'm rooming with Ariell (from UA), Megan (who already graduated with a degree in Bio) and MollyAnn (senior just like me, very sweet!). We have two sets of bunk beds, that squeak and sway but they work. We ran off for some quick dinner, a stop at the grocery store, showers and bed by 10:30pm.

Mildura, where we're staying and studying, is a small town along the Murray River. It was founded and planned by two guys from Canada who were brought out from the California gold rush. It's rather small but with access to the river, it's still an important town. The water way was the only way people got to and from this area until the railway and later roads were built.

Our hostel is in walking distance to the main town square that is fitted with everything from cute little clothes shops, to McDonalds (Free Wifi) to the grocery store. At night we have to walk in groups for sure, which we do anyways, but its a pretty good location overall.

I <3 Mildura

Sightseeing in Melbourne & meeting my class

2010-07-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hello family & friends! I'm still alive, sorry its been awhile. We've been crazy busy and internet isn't everywhere like in the states. I'll just try to update you about what I've been up to since I last wrote on here.

So the next morning I grabbed breakfast by myself at a cute little shop and went back to check out of my (NICE) hotel room. As I was checking out my group showed up! It worked out perfectly. There are 20 people in my class (4 guys, the rest girls, ages 19-24). Our two main instructors are hilarious. Two men that never really grew up and enjoy the Aussie spirit, with a drink or 10 normally! We got checked into our room and I shared my dorm style room with Julieann and Caitie. Both of the girls were awesome, but we were only in that room for one night.

That day we went down to the lobby and enjoyed pizza and drinks while some of the La Trobe University staff talked to us about various things and then we were off to see the city. We walked down to the main quare, where the day before I listened to some great live music and relaxed in the sun. That day wasn't as nice weather wise, pretty overcast and chilly. I didn't realize how lucky I was, weather wise, my first day until now. But anyways, we went into an art gallery and saw some aboriginal art. There were many large scale paintings, and quite gorgeous at that. I really enjoyed all the art in there. Next adventure was the free trolly. Melbourne has a lot of trollys and they are huge, and seem to be a great way of transportation. However, did I mention we took the free trolly? All 20 of us packed on, standing room only. I was pretty crowded, little did I know I had a lot of space then. People kept packing on at every stop! I couldn't see a thing, well except the asian man's armpit in front of me.... long story short, I lived and we all got a giggle out of it. Next stop was an inspiring coblestone alley with some contemporary street art. I can't wait to post pictures. The walls were so colorful and filled with different subjects and interests, things aren't sensored in the same way as the states here and I love it. After a quick stop at our hotel we took a walk to the South Bank, which is along the water way and absolutely gorgeous. We ate at The Blue Train that overlooked the water. I was a really nice and upscale restuarant. After the long walk home and some pictures with the girls, we showered and hit the hay by 8:30pm!

Made it to Australia!!!! (30+ hours later)

2010-07-08T23:46:00.001-07:00

Hi friends and family, I made it to Melbourne, Australia no problems.... okay thats a lie but I made it! haha I flew seattle to salt lake to lax to Brisbane (13.5hr) to Melbourne.... over 35 hours of traveling!

Traveling was either a crazy run to try to make things happen or a boring time killer. I met an lady from Australia in Salt Lake and she was great! Gave me tips and helped me with cities names (mel-bin & cans). The two people I sat next to on my long flight were awesome! The guy to my left was a middle-aged Australian and the girl to my right was a study abroad student. The guy gave me great tips, for example, "make sure to wear a rain jacket if you hold a wide kola", I giggled and said okay, why? He just laughed and said oh, you'll find out. The girl next to me ended up being on my flight to Melbourne so we struggled through terminal changes, customs and security together. The Australians around us must have noticed we were in a hurry (our layover was way too short) because multiple Aussies helped me with my bags and I'd thank them generously and their response was always an Aussie, "No problem, just enjoy your trip!". Anyone who saw us literally running to our terminal must have laughed. Sweating and panting at our gate the gentleman taking the tickets looked me up and down and said, just come from an international flight? it was pretty funny and an adventure to say the least.

Today I spent my day sightseeing and walking the city streets for hours. It was such a eye-opening experience. No cell phone, my cameras and just me. I walked multiple "walking tours", adventured to other places, watched magic shows, listened to live music and just took in the city as much as possible.

My hotel is right in the heart of the city. I walk down to the ground floor and its shops, diners, banks, you name it. It funny, there are McDonald's, KFC, Subway and even KrispyKream (sp?) and I also could hear a lot of popular music in many of the shops (Danny Kesha was even playing for me haha).

Well I believe this post is long enough, just know I made it safe and I've already taken in so much Melbourne has to offer. OH! and I forgot, the city is SO multicultural! Its unbelievable and I love it. I don't seem like an outsider until I speak ;)

XOXO,
Kayla

Information about my study abroad program

2010-07-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

I've had some family and friends asking about my school/program so here it is!

I'll be at school for three weeks, studying at La Trobe University but the program is based around a 5 day trek in Midldura's outback. After sightseeing in Melbourne we travel to Mildura for introductions and a welcome dinner by one of Australia's top chefs! Then we have a day of classes about photography, but after that it's out of the classroom. We have an excursion to Hattah Kulkine NP, a sunset at Murry National Park and then its back to process our film. Our next excursion is our five day trek. Our itinerary is as follows: Mungo National Park, sunset and cultural night; sunrise at the walls of China, depart for Broken Hill, sunset at Silverton, film; sunrise at sculpture Hill, depart for Mutawintiji NP, Gorge Walk, film; Historic site tour, sunset visit to Split Rock, journal work; Return to Mildura via Broken Hill. We will be joined by a aboriginal guide and cultural officer Peter Peterson who will help us understand the culture and heritage of the region. All of these places are well known and easy to google, so check out where I'm headed!

We get one day off after the trek and then its to the darkroom/processing for 5 days in order to print for our gallery show, to be displayed in Gallery 25. We will be there for opening night and our work will be on display long after we leave.

We will also have the time to meet some Mildura students and June's group shared a lunch with them and had traditional indigenous foods such as Johnny cakes and kangaroo!

Should be a great time and there will be 18 students in my group including myself. They come from all over, including AK, CO, VA, TN, FL, NY,MN, and even one other student is from the UA. There are mostly other ladies on the trip and a few gentlemen as well! I can't wait to meet everyone!

3 more nights in the USA

2010-07-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I've spent my day packing, charging batteries and testing film. I only have a 3 days before I leave (icky rainy) Seattle, WA and then its off to LAX to Brisbane and down south to Melbourne. I've been pretty stressed out with packing/planning and paper work details but I just got to talk to my good friend Matt who is currently in Australia. He put all that stress in perspective and I'm so excited to get there! Matt said, "I don't want to leave.... ever!". It was cute, even though I don't doubt he was fairly serious!

We'll I hope everyone is having a great day, if you didn't see you can "follow my blog" and I believe it emails you when I post something new... might be something to consider!

Love you all and thanks for following - I'm excited to share my experiences!

My very first post!

2010-06-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hello to my wonderful friends and family!! I've been doing a lot of thinking of how I could keep in touch with everyone from Washington state, to Florida, to good old Tucson and I believe a blog will be the best :)

So if you didn't know I have a lot of adventures planned... Australia, New Zealand, Germany, England, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey & Egypt!

First, next week I'll hop on a plane to Melbourne, Australia. I'll have a day/night there by myself and then the next morning my classmates all arrive! I'll be studying at La Trobe University, Mildura campus. Mildura is out located in the outback which is perfect for my 3 week photography program. My program starts with one day of sightseeing in Melbourne and then its off an a 8 hour bus/train journey to campus. We start with classes learning about photography, hopefully not too long on the basics. From there we pack our backpacks and leave for a 5 day backpacking trip. I will have my 4x5 crown graphic, my digital SLR and prob a 35mm as well. After this exciting trip we get back and its off to the darkroom (both digital and traditional) to develop and print. The prints will be used in order to assess a grade, but more importantly we'll also get to show our work in a local art gallery! We will create the art, hang and run the show. The work will be on display for over a month which is extremely exciting, I'll officially have an international resume!

After the class is over, we return to Melbourne and my best friend, miss Tiffany, is flying to meet me! We have some awesome plans made and hopefully between two 21 year old girls we can hold our own traveling all over Australia and New Zealand. The cities we are visiting are Melbourne, Adelaide, Cairns & Sydney in Australia and Auckland in New Zealand. So far we have plans to snorkel and dive in the Great Barrier Reef, go canyoning down waterfalls, river raft in the rain forest, and base jump off the Auckland Sky Town (lord help me!)... These are just a few of our big adventure plans but we really want a chance to take in the culture and meet some amazing people. I'm so grateful to have such a great friend to share these experiences with.

In conclusion to this post, I just want to thank everyone who has supported me in any sort of way. My mom is without a doubt the most supportive person I have in my life, I couldn't ask for a better mother or best friend. A young girl coming from little Covington with no international travel experience, I am so thankful that my mom brought me up the way she did because 21 years later I have the ambition to make my dreams come true while understanding how much it took to get me to where I am now, so thank you mom. To all my other family and friends, whether you said Kayla go do it, or people like Amanda telling me where to go, or Jenn giving me important nicknacks, I thank you. I'd also like to thank STA travel and the Foundation for Asia Pacific Education for their generous scholarship and in return I will be blogging for them as well. I've also agreed to blog for Diversity Abroad.

That's all for now everyone, I will be blogging soon with more details! Follow me, keep in touch and I'll do the same!