Sunday + MLK

From an incredibly restful day to an extremely busy day--the past forty-eight hours have been packed.

My friend Jenn and I started off our Saturday morning with a three-mile run to a yoga studio in Brooklyn, the neighboring borough to Queens, in which we are staying. Most runners are like "ya omg three miles, what a nice warmup!!!!" and they flip their hair and saunter off with a soft glisten. I, on the other hand, was like--

I hate this, I am tired, I wanna go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was cool, though, because we actually got to see a lot of Brooklyn that we would have been unable to explore otherwise.

Luckily, Jenn and I had just arrived at a wonderful yoga class in order to stretch out and relax. Just one problem--it was hot yoga. AKA they crank up the heat to like one hundred degrees or something and just like sweat you the eff out. And, my freaking instructor was not a yoga instructor--he was like a freaking aggressive dance instructive. He kept snapping and counting off like "FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT" and clapping, and it was literally a nightmare. He was like--

And I was like--

I'd kill you if I wasn't dying of heat exhaustion

I literally like crawled out of the class afterwards, because I was so worn and dehydrated. Jenn and I wandered to a smoothie shop to refuel, showered up, then went to a diner with two more friends. We enjoyed all of our food and laughed about boys and life and fun--until I looked outside.

'

IT WAS SNOWING. It was freezing cold, and white snow was falling from the sky, and I felt like crying, but the tears would have frozen. So I did what any self-respecting Californian would have done...

I curled up in my bed and refused to leave it for the rest of the night. It was oh-so-lovely. I watched a ton of Jane the Virgin--

lol literally me, according to my sisters

and did some readings. It was a great day.

Today, we had a full day of classes--8:30 AM to 4:30 PM--and I actually managed to stay awake and present the entire time with only two cups of coffee.

this counts as one cup, right?

We heard from some very inspiring speakers. I think the most intriguing was a Department of Sanitation manager that uses his bureaucratic position to not only improve the environment and the health of those in his city but also to further social justice and advocacy in his community. It made me want to enter government work to benefit the international community, like, yesterday. It also got me so excited for my upcoming summer job with a veterans treatment court in Montana. Basically, this program is invigorating me and inspiring me and motivating me--and I'm only one week in!!!

Tomorrow will be another awesome day of site visits and speakers. I can't wait!

Stoked as heck,

Aubs

Getting to Know NYC

Honestly, these past two and a half days have felt like two years. I have learned a ridiculous amount about the city, I have made astonishingly close friends, and I've gotten even more excited for my upcoming travels!

So Thursday was Neighborhood Visit Day--a day in which we were split up into small groups of 5-6 in order to extensively explore one of the New York boroughs. I was assigned to the Staten Island group and prepared to make the hour and a half long trip to the borough from Queens by embracing the New England stereotype and chugging a large cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee. You know that scene in Legally Blonde in which Elle sheds her Californian persona and basically becomes a ~real~ Harvard student?

~studious~ and ~New England~

That's exactly how I felt clutching my Dunkin, wondering where the nearest Starbucks was. But I digress.

In order to get to Staten Island, you have to ride a ferry from Manhattan.

the view of Manhattan!

And guess what I passed--THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.

wow!!!

ME AND LADY LIBERTY

Now, I am basically the biggest American History nerd you will ever meet. I cry at the Pledge of Allegiance and the Gettysburg Address. So, seeing a beautiful statue meant to welcome the tired and weary and poor that longed to fulfill their American Dream had me like--

Upon arrival on Staten Island, we took a taxi to Port Richmond, a community with a large Hispanic immigrant population. To my absolute shock--we were able to find some real, authentic, INCREDIBLE Mexican food. LOOK AT THIS!!!

WOAH. I was like--

Super impressive.

But, if you can imagine, the food was only the beginning of what was to be a stellar, eye-opening, incredible day. 

Have you ever crossed paths with an individual for only a few months, or hours, or minutes, that changes your life? Someone whose face you can never forget and whose story imprints itself on your heart? 

I met so many of those men and women on Thursday. I met a woman who moved to the United States from Ecuador twenty-two years ago with her two children and worked as a single mother to support them. I met a man who has lived in Port Richmond for over thirty years and who works with at-risk youth of clashing ethnicities in order to promote peace and cooperation in his neighborhood. I met a librarian who has won multiple grants to revitalize and revamp her public library to serve more children and community members. And I realized in that moment, as a did in Israel, that my heart will be scattered around the world in a matter of a few short months. I leave little shards of it with every man and woman and place (and dog!) that touches my soul. My own family in California, and the Morris family in Israel hold the biggest pieces, and Boston, Jordan, Turkey, Montana, Nevada, and now New York have pieces as well. India, Brazil, and South Africa will soon hold some as well. And I will never truly be home again, with my heart scattered around the world--but oh, what a privilege and blessing it is to be broken.

We stayed in Port Richmond until about 6 or so then made our way back to Queens. 

The next day, we presented about the neighborhood we'd visited and listened to descriptions of the other four boroughs. After that, we spent the entire day learning about New York history. I was absolutely enthralled. 

After a long day of classes, a bunch of us gals got ready to go out on the own. We explored Manhattan and had a grand time. Honestly, one of the coolest experiences of my life occurred on the subway--a man walked onto the train and started singing some awesome oldies, and everyone else started to sing along!! Literally an impromptu communal karaoke on the Manhattan subway. I felt like I was in High School Musical.

It was extremely fun to get to know so many of my fellow programmers outside of an academic context and to learn that they're legit fantastic and fun and free-spirited people. I already know there's nobody I'd rather travel the world with. 

some of the coolest people you'll ever meet

It's been an amazing few days, even if they feel a little bit like decades instead of hours. Tonight, I will be relaxing in the hostel with a bunch of the girls, catching up on readings, and writing in my planner (I LOVE PLANNING!). Hopefully, I'll get a full eight hours of sleep before a day of sight-seeing tomorrow. 

But let's be real. There's no way I'm getting eight hours.

Sweet dreams, dear friends.

Much love,

Aubs

The 12-Hour Day

Okay, I know I said yesterday was the most exhausting day of my life--but I take it back. TODAY was the most exhausting day of my entire life. Twelve consecutive hours of class, meetings, and transit. That's more time than a week of classtime that I usually have in college. Is that not absurd??? So you can probably understand why I am slightly too tired to provide an intense reflection of the last twenty-four hours--but I'll give ya some of my thoughts. (This will be a v writing-intensive post, so I won't blame you if you skip this one altogether.)

First, a goal that I came up with today. We discussed the topics of travel and privilege a lot today, an intersection of which I and my classmates will have to navigate with a lot of thoughtfulness and care. We will have to remain conscious and respectful of cultural difference. As true as that is, and as much as I desire and aim to maintain that respect, I also hope to keep my sense of self, equality, values, and beliefs, even when I'm confronted by cultures and practices that may challenge them. I think there's a difference between respecting other cultures and recognizing injustice, unfairness, and inequality. However--it'll probably also be a hard terrain to navigate. So yeah, wish me luck.

Another goal--to ask meaningful questions. I LOVE getting to know people through questions that are inviting and evocative and personal. I think it'll be easy for me to get nervous and uncomfortable in situations abroad, but I'm hoping to keep my sense of inquisitiveness and interest in others. 

I'm starting to get close to a few of the girls and guys on my trip, which is so exciting and relieving. I kind of assumed I'd make some friends, but I was of course scared I'd be a total longer and that I'd have no one to take Instagram pics of me. BUT not worrying about that anymore,

Okay, I know this was probs so boring and so dry, but I need to get back to watching Top Gun and chilling out and resting after this ridiculously long day. GOOD NIGHT.

Aubs

It's Only Tuesday???!

What an exhausting day. Seriously, I have not had days this full of class-time and learning since high school. We spend about eight hours at least sitting and discussing extremely controversial, draining, and mentally-pressing issues.

But I digress. This morning, a bunch of us trekked over into Manhattan together and got to the center in time to gorge ourselves on bagels and cream cheese. Which, if you've never heard, are pretty freaking bomb in New York.

Maple walnut cream cheese AND chive cream cheese??!

At one point, I was going back for seconds (okay fine, thirds) and one of the faculty members tried to warn me to save some room for the upcoming lunch.

I laughed in her face.

my stomach is a vast void

We spent four hours of the afternoon studying in an anti-oppression workshop that, as you might imagine, left us all a bit shell-shocked. It was emotionally draining and kind of depressing, honestly. We were all ready for some relief after literal hours of discussion about heavy subjects.

SO, a few of us headed over to a free art gallery exhibit by Yoko Ono!!!

It was a fascinating interactive piece that allowed viewers to actually participate in creating the art. I felt very sophisticated and worldly, but all of my insight probably sounded like--

It was really cool, though, to get a taste of the readily available culture here in New York. Seriously, there are at least three art galleries on every block!

We then climbed up to the High Rise, which used to be an old train track that meandered above the Manhattan borough but has been converted into a hipster walkway with tons of nature, artwork, and sitting space. It allowed for a beautiful view of the city and more feelings of sophistication. 

After meeting up with some other students in the swanky, edgy Chelsea Market, which is a cute marketplace with independently-owned fusion and organic food places, we headed back to the hostel. A few girls and I actually went on a run (WOO) which not only completely refreshed and rejuvenated us after a long day inside but also vindicated my inhalation of a tub of cream cheese this morning.

I know this was pretty brief, but I just wanted to give some info on my day. Looking forward to a packed day tomorrow--will be in the classroom from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM! 

Being reminded that studying abroad is not a vacation,

Tired Aubs

Orientation

The past thirty-six hours have been an exhausting, exhilarating, educational whirlwind fraught with introductions, introspection, and inspiration.

I started my last morning of winter break with a trek into Times Square to watch the movie The Big Short. The movie was on the 7th floor of the theater, and by the time I flopped into my chair, I was like-

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it. It tells the narrative of the financial and mortgage crises through numerous perspectives in a really accessible way. By the end, I was actually kind of teary-eyed.

hi, 84-year-old's at a 10 AM movie showing, don't mind me

The film's message about the participation in and facilitation of the corruption and greed that spurred the crisis forced me to evaluate my own priorities and goals. I re-realized that to abstain from performing "bad" is not nearly adequate; one must work towards the positive good in order to improve the world and make one's life meaningful. It reaffirmed my dedication to law and to certain government careers in an effort to make the world a better place--so basically, the perfect way to prime myself for a four-month-long program focused on justice, equality, and development.

By the time I returned to my hostel, numerous other students had started to move in, and I was able to meet my three awesome roommates

My program officially began today, and I think I'm about to keel over from exhaustion. We were then directed to take a walk to our initial meeting place which was a "short" mile-long walk.

when somebody calls a mile "short"

But the time actually did fly by, as I chatted with the other participants on the program. 

We did short introductions once arriving at our space with fun facts. Instead of my go-to YouTube celebdom or my game show victory, I settled on the fact that I own four dogs. Pretty sure I'll be known as "crazy dog lady" for the rest of the trip. (Probably only reaffirmed this assumption when I complimented a lady on her dogs on the way to eat/asked to pet more dogs on the way home).

The orientation was quite a few hours long and was pretty overwhelming, but the beautiful view of the New York skyline definitely helped to assuage our exhaustion.

woah.

We were alerted that our community dinner for the night would include some incredible food--Thai to be exact. 

when u hate Thai food

But, in an effort to begin my trip with openmindedness and adventurousness, I decided to embrace the Thai. And guess what--I kind of even liked it! WOW. So, good beginning.

We woke up pretty early this morning in order to make it to our classroom space in Manhattan on time. Although my roommate and I got slightly lost on the subway, we still managed to be the first people to the classroom at the Centre for Social Innovation. I actually learned about CSI in Boston, in which there is another CSI. CSI can be conceptualized as an office building space in a way--but one that incredibly flexible and centered on creativity and collaboration. With its open floor plan, gigantic glass windows, and flexible seating arrangements, the space really promotes innovation. It's a super cool environment!

To give you an idea of its style--here's a machine they have in their lobby!

Anyway, we started off the morning with more "getting-to-know-you" activities and intros. I chugged three cups of coffee to fight off my exhaustion until an awesome city exercise in which we explored a couple of street blocks in small groups in order to experiment with ethnography and observation. I actually had the awesome opportunity of similar activity this past semester in a class that greatly prepared me for this program. Hence, I felt quite comfortable doing this kind of city field observation! 

I made sure to stop in at a liquor store on the block for a chance at 1.3 billion dollars--

--even though I'm the unluckiest person on the planet when it comes to weird chance things like lotteries and raffles. 

After a quick lunch, there were a few more hours of rules and warnings and information overload. However, we did get the opportunity to come up with some goals for ourselves, and I'll share two of my own personal goals with you right now.

My first goal is to live every moment on this trip with intention. In action, in words, in thoughts, I plan on approaching my life with intention and with dedication to making this opportunity one that I am proud of, invested in, and immersed in. 

My second goal is active joy, which I'll explain. I've always been a proponent of the fact that happiness and contentedness are extremely different from joy. I find happiness and contentedness to be quite transient and fleeting, while joy is much deeper, much more personal, and much more difficult. Joy is a deep-seated awe of, rejoicing in, and celebration of one's own life. It is a recognition of opportunity, of blessings, and of one's own strength and worth. I think it's possible to be sad in a moment or for a day while retaining joy, just as it is possible to be fleetingly happy with one's immediate surroundings or momentary experiences while remaining truly unjoyful.

I've actually been thoughtfully pursuing joy for the past eight or so months--pretty much since my arrival in Israel. I've found that being joyful tends to make me more playful, more child-like, more passionate, more confident, and more satisfied with who I am as an individual. Being joyful makes me appreciate my friends, family, and loved ones so much more deeply while rejecting the individuals that tend to sap at my joy--as well as allowing me to develop the ability to discern between the latter and former groups. 

However, joyfulness requires a great deal of investment and intention, in my opinion. It takes thoughtful commitment to maintaining joy and to creating both physical and mental states in which one can remain joyful. Therefore, my goal on this trip is to actively and passionately and whole-heartedly pursue joy, even in settings and environments that seems hopeless or angering or depressing. I will recognize that my sadness and frustration are emotions that I can and will have while clutching to and protecting my inner joy. 

As you may imagine, all of this mental activity required quite a bit of energy, so I felt almost completely justified in eating straight-up pizza dough at dinner with heaps of ricotta cheese--YUM. The delicious Italian restaurant completely filled me, and I'm feeling a bit like this right now.

I have one reading to do before I hit the sack and try to rest enough to deal with another eight-hour day tomorrow. Even though I already miss home, I'm doing my best to get excited for the AMAZING opportunities and activities I have ahead of me!!!!!

With love--and lots of joy--

Aubrey

The Beginning

It's begun--my adventure of a lifetime, my trek around the world, my fulfillment of a life-long dream. It's happening!!! It seems so surreal, partly because I have been looking forward to this experience for a full year and it's finally here, and partly because I only got an hour and a half of sleep last night due to some long goodbyes.

I flew out of Orange County (love that place), and the two flights to get to New York were comfortable enough, even with the guy sitting next to me that was whistling on the flight.

me: too early for this sh*t

Upon arriving in New York, I grabbed an Uber to the hostel I'll be living in for the next two weeks. It's a cute enough hostel, but the area around it isn't exactly... safe. There are zero streetlamps; every store and shop is completely boarded and locked up; and the streets are deserted.

me on the outside

me on the inside

However, I was in desperate pursuit of some Chinese food, and I wasn't going to let a little bit of darkness scare me off. Until I heard some man yelling to someone on the phone: "I'm not scared, I was in for ten years for nailin' a cop, that (expletive)'s nothin', you tell him that."

I was pretty sure I was not the intended messenger, so I decided to run the opposite direction as quickly as I could.

bye

While my inherent instinct was to keep my eyes down and shuffle along without disturbing anyone, I tried to fight it. Instead, I channeled my SoCal sunniness and some fake confidence and have small interactions with every individual I passed. Whether it was a smile, or a greeting, or the exchange of pleasantries, I felt it was important to hold exchanges with the people in whose neighborhood I'll be living for a few weeks. I want to ingratiate myself into the environment, even in minuscule ways, and I'm hoping to combat my shyness that I usually resort to. Plus, I felt a little bit safer with every "hello." I was making friends (kinda).

I didn't dally, though, and I was back to my hostel within thirty minutes. I plan on finishing my book and getting almost 12 hours of sleep before the official beginning of my program tomorrow.

Can't believe this is real (:

Excited beyond belief,

AubStod

The Last Day

Can't believe that my time in Costa Rica has come to an end. It's been an absolutely lovely trip with my family, and today only added to the fabulousness.

We got up early this morning to drive on out to a river boat cruise. Before getting into the van, we fed some adorable birds that came to our balcony.

Ritz are their snack of choice

I felt like Snow White

Along the way, we saw some pretty hilarious sights--the kind you can only really experience outside the United States.

First, we saw numerous cars passing another car on the main highway--a police car to be exact. Can you imagine ever passing a police car back in the States!? Those cops could be going only 20 miles an hour, and we'd be like, "take your time, we are in no hurry, wow look at that view out the window!" When our van passed the police car, we were all like--

ohgodohgodohgod

Don't even worry, though--the cops actually pulled over to the side of the road for us so that we could get around. What the heck is this place?

Then, we saw a fire smolderingon the side of the road. "What is that???" we asked our guide. He looked at it nonchalantly. "Oh, somebody probably just threw their cigarette out the window."

It was absurd!!! I guess people just kind of start fires??? Craziness.

A few minutes later, we stopped for some breakfast at a bakery. 

The bakery

With our incessant questions and obnoxious American accents, we were already annoying af. Then, in trying to describe to us one of the muffins, our server pulled out a pen and a pad of paper.

OH OH OH OH!!!

We were so excited--we thought we were going to play Pictionary! We all gathered around, cheering her on as she drew on the pad. She just looked at us like we were crazy and wrote the word "vanilla" on the paper. 

Whoops. We are such aggravating Americans.

We then stopped at a small community center for some souvenirs and coffee. I enjoyed a small cup of Costa Rican espresso with Golden Cream--or what they call "Costa Rican Bailey's."

Delish morning pick-me-up

Right before we got to the river, our guide asked for our names and ages. "19, 17, 14," we rattled off. As we enumerated the last age, the guide looked to me. Nope. I'm the 19 year old.

Aubs was unamused.

Anyway, we finally got to the river and clambered aboard our boat. Though the rules about interacting with the wildlife were very clear--

Our guides chose to ignore them. They threw raw beef and chicken to all of the crocodiles that we encountered, as well as lured monkeys onto our boat with assorted snacks!! So fun.

I've also decided that crocodiles are about the scariest freaking animals on this planet. Watching a six-foot reptile eat raw meet then stare at me with scary, lethal eyes basically made me realize that I was going to die by crocodile. I just know it. IT WAS MADNESS.

We saw monkeys, crocs, a multitude of birds, itty bitty bats, iguanas, butterflies, and dragonflies. It was an absolute adventure.

We then drove to a very authentic Costa Rican place for lunch. 

Yum!!!

Our view from the restaurant that was actually a family's backyard

Then, we headed back to a town right outside the resort to look around and walk on the beach. Honestly, we were all so exhausted after this past week in the sun that we just passed out back in our house. We've been hanging out together, enjoying our last few hours of family time before we head back to California tomorrow. 

It's been an absolutely incredible trip and a wonderful way to start 2016. Couldn't be luckier to have such a loving family and the opportunity to travel to a country as stunning as Costa Rica. I can't believe this is only the beginning (:

Puda Vida (or, Pure Life/a Costa Rican saying),

Aubrey