Winter slowly ceases

Good Earth tea warms me up as my Brazilian brown fades to a more appropriate shade for a Swede this time of year.

February is gone! Where did it go? I lost it in a blur of envelope stuffing mailing parties at work, uber hip weeknights in the city, and crunchy wool sweater trips to the freezing incredible Washington coast on the weekends. V-day was surfing at sunset on Vancouver Island. I might have to live in Victoria some day.

To do list:
1. Leave current job
2. Find new job
3. Plan epic birthday party at Lake Ozette in the Olympics
4. Find balance, peace and harmony in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual realms
5. Taxes?

Okay, I had my reservations but I have to admit, Bainbridge Island has been good to me. These past 7 months I've lived in a rainbow colored cabin on the beach, worked with incredibly articulate and creative thought leaders and made some kickass friends. I will not leave with dry eyes.

But leave I will. My bank account says the unpaid internship gig is up. Time to jump back into pay stubs and federal withholdings. Health insurance? That would be nice, but I won't hold my breath.

I'm thinking a little PT, a little AK, a little DC (why not?) and maybe some WWOOFing and language study abroad. I am absolutely desperate to be fluent in Spanish, with Portuguese and others hopefully to follow. Brazil was a welcome reminder that monolingualism serves no one and no cause.

Read YES! it is good for you.
K.

Also, I keep getting teased at work for eating burritos so often. If they only knew!

Salvador

Okay. Now THIS is what I thought Brazil would be like. I finally get why I was so confused in Rio, Arraial, Itacare and Boipeba. They weren´t Salvador!

Salvador, the gorgeous tumbling city of crumbling pastel façades and music pouring out of antique windows and people literally dancing in the cobblestone streets. It met all my happy expectations and surpassed them! Afro-brazilian and samba dance and music schools are practicing for Carnaval right now and we were the lucky recipients of their free, public rehearsals. And I found dance classes I could take! A lovely girl from Brooklyn staying at our hostel that Aleah told us about, Nega Maluca, (thanks Lee Lee!) told me about the Escola de Dança. I was able to take a samba class and attend an Orixa workshop, which is dance of the deities of the Candomblé religion brought over by the slaves from West Africa. It was a little different than Monday nights at the Rec Center in PT. Mainly because there were about 40 men and women representing a multitude of races and it was about 100 million degrees and of course, it was all in Portuguese. I loved it.

Salvador is also notorious for petty crimes against tourists so we put on our Rio faces and made careful decisions about where to go, especially at night. We had no problems. We ate at a fancy Churrascaria by the sea and rode the ridiculously tall elevators that connect Cuidade Alto to Cuidade Barra and we drank a bunch more coconuts and I ate a small city´s worth of mango and papaya. It was bliss.

Then we flew to Natal! Domestic flying in foreign countries is new for me, I like it. Now we are in Pipa, another tourist hole but has great surfing a long beach that looks like Oregon/Maui/Half Moon Bay, Ca. Tall red cliffs and nice peeling waves. Today we´re driving to a smaller, quieter spot that is NOT in Lonely Planet. Gasp! We will confirm if it truly does exist but if it´s nice, we´ll keep it´s identity a blessed secret. Let the locals have one pocket of peace.

We´re home in about a week! Yikes and yahoo!

Muito amor.

Balsas and such

Well, we dragged ourselves away from the bright lights and nice surf of Itacaré to maroon ourselves on this gorgeous little island they call "flat snake" or Boipeba. So named because it is shaped like a turtle, of course. Yesterday we did somthing really incredible, after we recovered from the three bus rides and one really hilarious balsa (ferry) ride it took to get here, in which our colorful old wooden vessel stranded itself on multiple river mudflats surrounded by mangroves, much to our delight. We are such suckers for anything nautical. Anyway, the highlight of yesterday was we went snorkeling! On a reef that must have a major beef with the world for causing global warming and ocean pollution because it was all brown with algae. There were some pretty fish I recognized from my Maui days (Fish Tour anyone?) but mainly I loved the experience because it just felt so incredibly good to cruise around in four feet of warm water with not a single place we had to be. My To Do list was empty. Glorious. I think we´re finally getting the hang of this.

As required when traveling, we both ate something funny and are now feeling less than spectacular. But that´s what books and hammocks are for, right? Hopefully, we´ll both be feeling on top of our game by this afternoon, when another balsa carries us North to Salvador. I´m so excited to see what this legendary city is all about! I want to dancedancedance.

Last night we met someone from Indonesia who lives on this island and teaches Thai boxing while also running a restaurant. (Not at the same time.) He had heard of the World Social Forum and had lots of things to share about the Brazilian government and coporate influence (which is strong, boo) and support for the arts (which is also relatively strong, halleluiah). We lent him our only copy of YES! magazine- the Democracy in Latin America issue- for the night. This morning while I was eating watermelon and a mysterious pastry (I know, I know) he returned the issue, having read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. He said he´d check out the website and hopefully subscribe. It was one of my favorite interactions thus far. The other was fulfilling a request to edit an article about Israel´s current response to the Hamas, writen by a fellow traveler who was Israeli. That sparked some great conversations as well.

Okay! I´m back on the travel train. It rocks.

Thanks for reading and commenting, it makes my day!

Ate laogo,
K.M.W.

ps Cities here are planning big goodbye parties for Bush. Is that happening in the US also?

Beach Towns = Chill Time, Also

Sooooooooo, we are still in Itacaré. After all that smack I talked about guidebooks lying to us and shallow party tourists and overcrowded beaches we fell for the place in spite of ourselves. Maybe it was meeting a woman who runs a multi-lingual book shop and volunteers for an enviro non-profit. Maybe it was finding winding paths through dripping jungles that led to less crowded surf spots. Maybe it was laziness. Whatever it was, here we are, nearly a week later in the little town south of Salvador de Bahia on the Atlantic Coast in the Southern Hemisphere. And we like it. A lot.

Part of the change of heart came when we found a less expensive pousada at the far end of town where people actually stop and chat and the vibe is more local and mellow. Last night we happened upon an amazing traveler find: while trying to escape the millions of Brazilians on vacation we wandered off the strip into a neighborhood and heard drumming and singing. Score! Some sort of celebration was parading itself through the streets, complete with dancing children and scary people dressed up in hairy devil-looking costumes. We had a great time fruitlessly guessing the meaning behind it all and felt especially privileged because we were the only white faces in the crowd.

Took an amazing yoga class and a kick-butt beautiful and moving capoiera class and now can´t walk. Fell ill because of dehydration but feel fantastic now. Looking at maps and talking to travelers to figure out where we want to go next. We keep hearing "This place or that place is the Prettiest Beach or the Best Town or the Nicest Reef ever." I find I´m inclined to go where ever people DON`T mention. What are we all looking for anyway? What do travelers hope to find besides themselves, every time?

Still seeking answers on that.

k.

Beach Towns = Tourist Party

Heyhey,

Home sweet home in Itacarè, in the state of Bahìa. It´s a surfing town that has long since been "discovered." Slowly we learn the language of the guidebooks. Quaint fishing village w/ surf and good night life means Watch Out. We blanched when we saw the strip of tourist shops and glammy restaurants and surfer dudes and noise. Town was literally full when we arrived, as in, no pousada had room for us except one super fancy one up on the hill. We split the suite with three awesome British girls and are enjoying the pool and evening yoga classes so really, we can´t complain. Rob found surf and I found a book store that is carbon neutral (unheard of down here!) so little by little we are carving a niche for ourselves.

Things I like: Açai, palm trees, impromptu Portuguese lessons from kind strangers, brightly painted houses and stores, making people laugh when I try to buy agua mineral, being a traveler again. Things I dislike: watching poor people serve rich people, smelling burning trash and sewage and knowing it´s what people breathe and live with on a daily basis, sunburns.

The reggae show down the street has started so the internet shop is closing. Time to wash the sand off our feet and hit the sheets for some sweet Latin American dreams.

The world is so big and so small, all at once.

love, kai

Abroad Once More- Brazil!

Ola, bom dia!

I´m back in the blog seat again. I spent the past year living blog-lessly, mainly because my life felt complete without a running commentary. No longer. A brief run down of 2008: I was in PT for most of it, having potlucks, going dancing and making friends. In the spring I returned to Maui and Kauai- seductive and beautiful but I´m glad I moved back. In the summer months I worked up in SE Alaska on a tender buying salmon which was a great opportunity to hang out with my Dad and brother and revisit my roots. Then in September, I had a chance to go watch Flamenco and eat paella in Barcelona. Wow! These days you´ll find me pluggin´ along at YES! magazine on Bainbridge as a crazy intern.

But now we´re in Brazil! It´s hot like Thailand, colorful like Ghana, jungly like Hawaii and nothing like Alaska, yet. It´s our goal to surf, dance, learn Portuguese (tudo bem!), meet wonderful people and attend the World Social Forum. Quite a lot to do in just one little month! Especially when the country is the size of a small planet.

We landed New Year´s Eve in time for one heck of a party. The entire city of Rio descended upon the beach of Copacabana, dressed entirely in white and carrying bottles of champagne and flowers to toss into the sea. (Most of the bottles found there way into the sea as well. Boo.) Music was pumping and people were dancing and at midnight a giant fireworks display illuminated the sky as well as the thousands of upturned faces. It was quite a night.

Now we are exploring the coast between Rio and Salvador to the North. Looking for quiet towns with nice beaches. Of course, that´s usually an oxymoron. But we´re optimists. Arraial d´Ajuda is nice, we like our poasada (guest house) Alto Mar a lot, especially our hosts. We took some pictures of monkey visitors and they posted them on their site! Pretty cool.

Time to go get a bus ticket at the rodoviaria for our next leap north. Then some horas at the praia, I hope. The water is just fine.

Mais tarde,
Kai-poeira

Winter is loooooong

I finally understand why no one wanted to commiserate with me when I lived on Maui and complained about how hot it was in February. It is so DARK and CHILLY in the Pacific Northwest! Stormy winds blow frothy white capped waves against the piers downtown and snow falls and melts and falls again. I am dreaming of warmer days...

I'm passing the time living in a colorful apartment/garage, going African and contra dancing, crashing potlucks, making batch after batch of chocolate chip cookies, listening to moody lounge music and applying to grad school. That last task has breathed much needed purpose and direction into my Life. (I've even started reading again! Haven't done much of that since college.) I'm applying to IslandWood, a one year grad residency program for environmental experiential education. The second year I'll transfer to UW and study education, behavioral conservation psychology and environmental justice. I'll finish with a M. Ed. in Science Teaching/Curriculum. And start paying off my exorbitant loans with a teacher's salary? Ha. Maybe I'll go work for the Gate's Foundation. I'll bet they offer a sweet benefits package... I sound old...

To Do List:
Take GREs
Remember how to write an essay
Buy plane ticket for Maui visit
Start planning 25th birthday bash
Learn to play the guitar
Stop complaining about job

My favorite winter moments- watching the snow fall on the sea, hearing Annie's new born baby over the phone on his first day of life, drinking gallons of tea, choosing what hat I'm going to wear from a pile of colorful woolly warmies, getting into the local pubs for free and dancing until early morning, sleeping in when I'm supposed to be at work, beach walks, weak winter sun, improv dancing on trampolines and in dry golden fields, eating too much cookie dough, going for long runs, listening to This American Life with Ira Glass, making new friends, planning one million trips to take when winter lifts, daydreaming about living on a boat, salsa dancing, making enchiladas, cooking kale, finding the perfect shampoo at the grocery store, wearing skirts over long underwear, finding the perfect sweater at the thrift store, babysitting kids who are having the same PT childhood I had, the moment direct deposit puts my paycheck in the bank and narrowly saves me from overdraft fees, political debates with my mom, making mini snowmen, that rarest moment when my laundry is clean AND my fridge is full AND I've paid my cellphone bill, sleepovers on the futon, knitting nights, driving the little blue truck to On Common Ground for a brie cheese panini, reading Op Eds in the NY Times and feeling smart, listening to friends wax poetic about Barack Obama, alternating between intense highs of manic socializing and uproarious laughter to mellow lows of hibernation and quiet introspective journaling.

Trying to love winter. It's a full time job.

My unwarranted advice: Stay warm and don't get SICK! Theraflu is for suckers.

xoxK.

postscript "I always found the flavour of the sky in the water, in the earth, and the wood and the sea burned together through the lonely winter" pablo neruda