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Town Parties

2009-08-24T01:43:00.001-07:00

I often mentioned I went to town parties, but you may wonder what they exactly are.

Most villages around here were built between 700-400 year ago (there were settlements even earlier, but the structures that remains nowadays are mainly the medioeval ones), and during the town feasts there is often a revocation of medioeval life, showing traditional games, food, crafts, jobs that may have have been tramandated through time but nowadays in disuse.

I went to a nice town party last month in a village closeby, where the close relationship between a local powerful family and the the Vescoval principate of Trento was also underlined. Every year, in the main square, a representative of this family judges facts and people that have been the talk of the town. The show, in a “square-court” setting, was at the same time hilarious and informative. The square, like in the old time (and during the soccer world cup), becomes once more a meeting point where locals and “foresti” (strangers), youths and elders, meet to share experiences and talk about hot topics.

All accompained, in honor of the best italian tradition, by abundance of tasty food and wine!

Enjoy the pics!Pictures from the process:

I am back!

2009-08-22T01:35:00.001-07:00

I am back on the scene! Happy?

These past 2 months illuminated me with a bright new light and, even if my body often felt tired, my spirit has been strong and still adventurous.

Also, that famous tan I could not get in 3 years in Polynesian, well, I got it here in a couple of weekend in the mountains.

Renouncing to a nice job in Hawaii has been a hard choice for me, but after all, after so many years away from home, a sabbatical year taking just care of myself won’t hurt me at all. And the Alps are such a wonderful retreat!

I rented a small flat in the village where my mother was born, strategically located not too far from one of my favorite paragliding launching spots. My grandma had 12 kids in this village, and she likes coming here to go to see her merry aged friends. I just love looking at her, sitting in the kitchen after a night out, wearing her silk blue night vest with a braided dragon on it. She is so cool.

My boyfriend lives a couple of houses away from here. My grandpa and his grandpa were best friends. Like in Samoa, if you meet somebody from your same village, you may worry he is a relative. Luckily for me, my grandparents are originally from Sicily.

I met Andrea 3 months ago flying, and we totally felt for each other.

I like this village; my neighbor has a garden and gives me fresh vegetables once in a while. There is a place with cows where I can take fresh milk and cheese. There are plenty of apple trees and grapes, the houses are made of rocks and wood and marble (we are in a medieval village). For me, after so many years living as a foreigner, being in a place where everybody knows your family gives me a nice feeling of ownership.

Now that I finally “settled down” somewhere, I got internet and, in the same way as I enjoyed sharing with you my Polynesian experience, I would similarly like to learn and describe life in the Alps. Enjoy!

oohhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

2009-07-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

Given the last twists in my life, i decided to shave my head, wear orange and disappear in a cave up in the mountain. Unfortunately, I could not find any nice cave with good pizza service near by.
I therefore decided to simply backpack in the Alps for while and dedicate myself to a life of meditation and search of the truth of my real self, enjoying the local cuisine of the many Rifugios that will welcome me.
A dear friend from the Rock just arrived for a visit and tonight we will start together to hike the Alta Via of the Dolomites...
I will be away from the blog scene for a long unannounced time. I may reappear somewhere in Hawaii, in Mongolia, or on your doorsteps. Or maybe still be here.
To my dear friends, I will be randomly reachable by mail, telephone or on radio on channel 8;
to all my readers, thanks for being with me this last years and half;
to the police, "i wasn't there, and if i were i was sleeping".
In short, my dear friends, I am happy, but busy fixing old family things. August will bring few answers, in the meanwhile, I will be "ooohhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"....
Lots of hugs and love to you all!
Barbi super-estar con los ojos vierde mariujuana...

Volare oh oh

2009-06-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Few days ago I went out for dinner with 2 of the most illuminated people I know, and since they both happen to be paraglide pilots, we talked a lot of the beauty of flying. “Why do you fly?” was one of the questions. It is hard to answer in words, since it is not a rational decision that can be elaborated in your head, but it is more a strong energy wave that passes through every cell of your body telling you to go.

It has not always been like this. On my first flights I was surely scared to death and could feel the adrenaline running through me, but with time I learned to take full control of my feelings, my body and to a lower extent, of my wing. (I saw Andrea flying with my wing in strong condition, the wing seemed to be an extended part of his body, it was beautiful to see. I am not closely this expert).

Inspired by different whitewater kayakers that I met in 2008, since the start of this year I have been longing for some excitement. Returning to the sky flying was maybe a physical gesture that symbolized I am back to myself, strong and alive.

When flying I am in a zen status. Nothing exists outside that moment, there is no past and no future (interrupted by few automatic nearly unconscious calculations on where to land, the height from the ground in relation of my vertical and horizontal speed…), and at the same time I am part of the whole world, I am suspended thousand of foot above the ground by an invisible mixture of gasses. It is magical. The air plays with my wing shifting my weight, lifting me up or pulling me down, and I react to it to keep the control.

Mother nature is playing with me and I am playing back.

Maybe this is why I love and crave for flying so much. And surely there is much more, but that, you will only know when you fly!

(the pictures were taken by Andrea)

Bruises

2009-06-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

I know I disappeared from the blog scene for a while and my entries are being fewer and fewer. Truth is, it would be a sin to stay home here, and when I am home i am simply physically in need to sleep. Or, if it is raining and i need to be home, chances are that the internet connection won't work.
I have never been covered with so many bruises in my whole life like in the past month.
My knees are black from the rock climbing, my hands are blistered from the Ferrata (I should explain this tipical Alpinian activity better one day), my arms are buised by the paraglider strings (which lay there when you are taking off from the mountain), and two days ago i even got a nice well-defined black eye, while flying from one side to the other of a catamaran after being violenty hit by a wave (I was leaning out weigting the boat down).
All my relatives asked me if I am seing any violent guy while, on public transportation, the kids left me the seat (like I were an old lady!).
Soon after I left the island last febraury I recieved a nice job offer which I postponed because, after 11 years travelling like a gipsy, I truly needed to take care of some things here in Italy. With the end of June, I now start feeling pressure to get everything done soon, if by september I want to be fully funcional in (I will wait a bit longer for the scoop, do not even try to guess!). Given the dimesion of the goals I want to achieve by September, I am truly working about 30 hours a week toward them, buffering any free time with all sort of "mountain-games".
Yesterday I had a great flight (and taking off and landing! ;-)) from the mountain close to my house, I turned a little thermical, and I feel incredibly in peace with myself. A part the fact that I love my wing (which the some other pilot called "matress" because, to be honest, it is in effect a very old stlye... I bought it 11 years ago now!), I also got a nice feeling up there in the sky. I can do it, aua le popole.
The big town party of Trento is coming soon (feste vigiliane)... there will be raft races, old medioeval games, fooooooooooodddddd, tortures, music, a weekend of intense party followed by another week of activities... That makes my think i better go to sleep now to be fresh tomorrow!

Proverbio del giorno (by Ivan --mi ha fatto ridere troppo):
"Siam tutti ricchioni col culo degli altri"

il mio destriero

2009-06-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

She is definitely a female, but I do not have a name for her yet... I do not think she is coconut proof as my old truckosaurous, but runs great anyway!

friday nights at my grandma

2009-06-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

well, i wasn't there last night because i went out for a pizza with my brother, my sister in law and my cousin Lisa, but I thought about some of you which my enjoy this video... At the battery my uncle Tony and then my cousin Tommy (the guy I am living with)... This room was built in the garage beneath my grandma house... she is so cool! ;-)

About me, I have been seeing Andrea a lot, but we did not fly much due to weather (strong wind and bad clouds too lately). He did try out my wing (which other pilots call "the mattress" because, in effect, it is a bit old style and slow respect the new designs...) in strong wing, which gives me some peace of mind (not that I would be able to hold it in strong weather, but at least I know it won't break).
Turns out that Andrea's family and mine are from the same village (my granda moved to other one ~40 years ago), and consequently my grandma could tell me everything about his family history (and how Andrea's dad was hiding in her house when playing hide-and-seek), while his father was to show me the house were my mam was born. It was really in a way a return to the origin!
Since I could not fly much, I have been rock climbing a lot. Few years ago my ex and I were going mad looking for a place to climb, now I see that there are places everywhere! Most villages on the mountain side of a nice site for rock climbing withing few minutes. I have been to 3 different sites only last week. My sister-in-law organized a while ago a blind date with a guy that climbs (we meet in front of a castle... how romantic! ;-)!), and through him i met a lot of other guys to climb with...the house hunting is going slow, but i am making progress in other fields...

Island sickness, the sweet one...

2009-06-02T01:32:00.000-07:00

I bought a Banana tree today. I put it in the corner of my room. Then I bought some nice blue material and covered one of my bed room walls. Then I bought a cocunat, but it is still too watery to make some good oil out of it. I like just looking at it. It is not too green here, the Alps is just the perfect place, but wearing wool sucks on top of my samoan flip flop does not always feels right.
My friends here asked me if I miss the island... well... i do!!! The bright colors, my cats, my co-workers, my friends. Tumau! No one to braid my hair in the morning! And Josie! No one sitting next to me!
My connection with the island is still strong, cybernetical (including many religious-oriented e-mails...), spiritual and physical.
This weekend I met in Florence with a good friend I met when I was living there, Mary, and in 1 month I am recieving the visit of one of the most amazing women ever, also met there.
Three years on the Rock, what an amazing experience! I learned a lot (I do not necessarily agree with all of them), including:
1. Take it easy, enjoy the day
2. Aua le popole, things will always solve out by themself
3..... me

Sorry, I just got a call... the wind is good... need to run out in the mountain, flying time!!!
Miss you island life! But digging the mountain one too! :-)!

Baci!!!

Samudra (and Brian!)

2009-05-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

(Samudra, Brian and I at their wedding in Sri Lanka... maybe 4 years ago?)(Samudra and I at Tisa's in American Samoa, Christmas 2008)

How long does it take to make a friend? Certain people simply ought to be in your life; they may lead a path parallel to yours, or they may simply cross your life at a certain point but still leave an indelible sign.

Samudra, Paty and I were part of the same scholarship program that paid for our studies while in Oregon. We shared our knowledge about our home country (Sri Lanka, Peru’ and Italy), while learning about the funny habits of the North Americans (how wonder now if they also knew not to ask for “rubbers” around, but rather for “erasers”). Surely we had a lot of fun together! And more amazingly, even if our roads took such a different directions, we always find a way to see each other and support each other when in need.

Pure life! Samudra and her husband Brian arrived here the day after Paty and Jennifer left to continue their trip and enjoyed with me the mountains, lakes and tastes of Trentino. Here a selection of their pictures to give you a taste of the Alps from a outsider point of view. Maybe you will come and visit soon then! ;-)

So, Samudra, how is the grappa?

Going to the Dolomites!!!

Our enormous trucks! jajaja! Jokes apart, I did saw some real trucks around recently...

Got wings in the bel paese!

2009-05-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

"the landing field is about there..."

Maybe there is not such a thing as the perfect place, but the Alps get very close to this description: health care is free, so as medicines; if you want to buy a bicycle, the government will give you back 30% of the price; food is indescribably tasty, the weather is awesome…
Paty and Jennifer left last week to continue their adventures in Florence, soon replaced by Samudra and Brian which visited me for a week.
My sister-in-law set me up on a blind date with a nice guy to go rock climbing, while my cousin Tommy sent me another nice guy to go paragliding. Pure life! So, I am back on the rock, I am back in the air, I am back! It has been 3 months since I left Neverland, surely I miss it a lot, but culturally is like being back there (only that this time I am 100% involved, with families ties, village stories…) (and only that people here do not laugh using all their bodies here, shaking arms around life it was down there).
I moved in with my cousin Tommy, which is… surely the most loved man I have ever met (by all women), also spoiling me a lot. Moreover, having a bed and closet after 3 months of traveling too is wonderful!

Last Saturday somebody knocked at the door, and a smiling guy jumped in saying “Hi, I am your cousin friend, do you want to go flying?”. Everything was so immediate that soon enough I was flying way too high for my first flight, with my heart pounding loud, a guy just meet flying behind me shouting me the way (I bought radios yesterday!), some nasty electric cables underneath me… Once landed, I was totally reborn! Here a video of the area I flew.

(Andrea following me and screaming me directions... too bad I was sinking!)

At the landing field. I was reborn (Andrea and I)!

Yesterday Andrea gave an hard try to my wing with stronger wind conditions. It did not brake! yeah!

the 3 beauties pics

2009-05-11T00:46:00.000-07:00

from the most recent to the older one... Saturday, canyoning in Val di Sole!
This is soon after I "went for a swim"... I slipped on a waterfall and felt on the pool beneath it, and had to figure out the way out in bubbling water... quite hard indeed! Eventually Paty reached out for me (I felt as I was not moving much as the current was pulling me backward toward the waterfall base) and helped me to get out of it. Cold cold cold water!!!
Swing!
and cable walking, like in the circus! don't fall!
Shopping for meats and cheeses on friday...
Touristic tour: Piramidi of Segonzano Downtown Trento on Friday

the 3 beauties

2009-05-10T03:18:00.000-07:00

Pictures to come soon... I have very limited internet access these days....

Ahhhh! Feels good. I haven’t seen Paty in 3 (4?) years, but it feels like it has been only a week. The came with a friend from the US, Jenny, and they are going to stay in Italy for a week before moving on to Austria.
The day she arrived (Thursday) I bought a car, that, surely it is not as sexy has my trucktosaurous and it does not fit 8 kids on the back, but it still has its presence. Yesterday a man at the gas station, after seeing my wonderful new car with Paty, Jenny and myself inside, came to congratulate me for my car interiors. Everytime (so far) we asked for directions we got guys offering to come with us wherever we want. I love it, it makes me feel home. (my old trucktosaurous)
Trentino is THE perfect playground for anyone that loves outdoor activities. There is anything you want, from hiking to paragliding, from rock climbing to rafting… we decided to try canyoning (lowering yourself along a stream in a canyon with ropes, down waterfall, across tibetian bridges…).
A part the fact that whole experience and view were breathtaking, the company could not have been better: we had 2 sexy guides and we were also lucky enough to be paired with a group of 5 guys on their bachelor party. They were so much fun (very hilarious!), cheering and always ready if help was needed. I also experienced some bubbling water as I felt down a small waterfall (it can be very slippery!) and had to understand how to make my way to the edge of the poll, with water pulling me backward, other bubbling in front of me… can’t wait to learn more about it in June, kayaking!

Paty!!!!

2009-05-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

I am not writing much because... well, let's say my liquit input winto to water has been 3 to 1. I have been hiding to drink water. The other day I said I was cold. The reply was "here, have some wine, it will warm me up". Then somebody else said "don't be silly.... give her some grappa!".Today I bought a car! A sexy silver golf! And Paty Abon arrived today with her friend Jennifer... I am going to take care of her... jijijijijijijiji.... ;-) (diabolic laugh)

Pics from the Alps

2009-05-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

My grandma feeding the side to cook the soup and heating the water for the tea. Notice the orange peel!
My brother and I do not have much in common, a part from green eyes and lots of love for the moutains! I love hiking with him!

Pergine's castle from my aunty house Sunset from my aunt Flora's house

Family picture! Zaza', Shake and me!

The colors of the flowers

There was a little cove on the side\inside the stream

The white of the streams

the painted village of Guardia

The church of Guardia

Shaky is taking a nap in the car after a day hiking...

Alps Alps Alps!!!

2009-04-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Maybe after all, I still have a home. I saw many places, but still i find the Alps one of the most beutiful places on Earth. And my grandma's house is still the same through all these years, she still heats the house with the wooden stove, which is still covered with orange peels (but the glow-in-the-dark statue of the virgin Mary in the bedroom still freak me out at night and it is going in the hall today!).
I am being 're-italianized'... I am smoking occasional sigarettes (no!!!) and drinking sparkling water.
I have very limited internet connection and my posts will be more scarse, but overall, I am happy, I am enjoying my relatives and the mountains. I am looking for a car; after that, I will look for a nest somewhere where I can open up all my boxes scattered around Italy (and Oregon... gracias Otto!).
I went downtown Rome with Valeria. I forgot how magical that city is. I went to Florence to see Claudia and her family (and ate Erithrean food thinking about Biniam! ;-)!).
Trento is entrateining and vibrant like always (on my opinion). There are shows and an adventure film festival and hikes... I ewen found a book about Samoa called 'Papalagi'.
I miss 10,000 people and 10,000 places, but I am also happy to be here.
Paty from Peru and her friend Jennifer will arrive next week...
Then Samudra from Sri Lanka and her husband Brian....
Then Mary from Samoa and her fiancee'...
May is going to pass fast, and then summer will come! I got my paraglider, next week I will check it out (I haven't flown it for a while)... Pura vida!

An inspiring man

2009-04-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

“If you can dream it, you can do it” Walt Disney

Many months ago, when I was still living in Neverland, I told a friend on our way to a hike: “Today I meet the most amazing fascinating guy of my life”. “Where!?!? Who?!?!” She replied. She lived on the island long enough to know that such an encounter is highly improbable. “Well, not here… on the internet…”.
The guy in question was Randy Pausch, a professor at the Carnegie Mellon University that diagnosed with terminal cancer, decided to share with the world (for his kids good), his life experiences.
He gave a wonderful lecture, “Really achieving your childhood dreams”, which is available on the Internet and which I highly recommend anybody to see.

Before coming to Italy I came across his book, bought it, and devoured in the last days.

The message is inspiring: you can either be Eeyore or Tigger in life (the characters from Winnie the Pooh, the first one, a donkey, is always negative, the second one, a tiger, is energetic and full of life). I met both types, and I have been both.
Randy often made a comparison between obstacles in life and brick walls. He said: “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. . .”

I love this. It gives me strengths.
As both my parents died young, I am not expecting to have a long life myself neither. And as Horatio said “put little hope in the future” (quam minimum credula postero)!
These days I am building the bases a easier future… after going through so much and after studying and working, I am so getting ready to have some serious fun!
Never underestimate the importance of laughing and having fun!

In Rome I have amazing friends (and I own them so much in life!!!! From my teenagers years to any visit I did back here in the past 10 years). But Rome is a big city…. I cannot wait to be up in the mountains with my grandma and the goats like Heidi!!! This weekend I will start making my way up…

Me having fun in Hawaii the day after I left Neverland!

Rome, caput mundi

2009-04-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Rome airport. My people (?)

Bicycles at the Frankfort airport, the she wolf with Romulus and Remo, the founders of Rome.
They could not have done it without coffee'...

I made it! The amazing race starts now for me, I probably have in front of me some of the most important, boring, en-fattening months of my life... but the company is always good! Non vedo l'ora di vedervi tutti! Enriched with visits from Paty, Samudra and Brian, Jenny... a visit to Safae...

Since I arrived I sleep, ate ("eat, eat, you need to grow!", my second mom said last night. I feel like I am not 16 anymore and I better not grow anymore!), and did some internet...

"Welcome to the city of the UEFA champion league final. Football fever: priceless"
(that was so traumatizing for me being the only italian on the island when we won the UEFA cup!!)

Rock Climbing at Smith Rock, eh

2009-04-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

After the wonderful night salsa dancing in Portland, I was questioning my original plan to spend the weekend rock climbing at Smith Rock. Should I instead plan another weekend dancing in Portland?
But I did FELT I had to go to Smith Rock, and sometimes, unexplainably, I just have to do things. I learned it from Coehlo’s “Alchemist”, and so far it has taken me far and in wonderful places.

Smith Rock was wonderful! It was great seeing Niel after so many years; he is exactly the same, more of a man, some white hairs, but brilliant and caring just like I remembered him. Niel, like Maria, Akiko and Tyson, is the product of the first magical year spent in Bangor, North Wales, the city of happiness.
Being back climbing was such a feeling too. I suck, but after so many years I am not that surprised. Luckily I have an accent and if I ask, at the start of a hard climb, “can you please help me to lift my bum, it feels so heavy today”, none objects (and I get the help I need).
I wanted to climb, I missed it, I missed the “vertical sensation”, when you feel you are just laying horizontally on the rock. Well, sometimes I though “why am I doing this again?”. My fingers bleed, my legs nervously shake like leaves in the wind, my whole body ached, but I felt so happy!
The company was wonderful. I car pooled with some people from Corvallis and meet with the rest of the Canadian crew in Smith. Niel was with them. Canadian do say “eh” at the end of each phrase, it is funny. They were all good climbers. The first day I was grateful to be able to climb a 5.9 or 5.10. The second day a 5.10b was my easiest pick. They said I had a great stamina, which is a nice way to say “I cannot believe it takes you so long to finish that route!”. But I do not like leaving things unfinished (with the exception of a 5.11, which I knew from the star I do not have the skills to finish, but it is fun to give it a try anyway).

FIRST DAY: Morning glory at Smith Rock with the canadians, eh!!

Niel and I reunited after 8 years! He is just the same!

sometimes you just think "why is it that I am doing this again?"
then you realize why mother nature gave us knuckles... it is to stick them into small cracks of the rocks to lift us up..

SECOND DAY: into the canyon

and dress up party with lasagna at night... before the hot tub!! yeah!

I wonder now if the reason was for me to go to the rock climbing gym to practice and meet somebody that at my age, did exactly what I am about to do, which is secure some financial stability and dedicate a life to a passion. He did it, I do not see why I can not do it.

One of my heroes, Randy Pausch, said: “Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”. I cannot really say “I want” something (my parents used to say “l’erba voglio non esiste neanche nel giardino del re” –“Not even in the king’s garden you can grow the grass ‘I want’”), but there are different things that “I would like”, and I do not see why I should not go for them.
It is time now for me to go for them. Right now I am flying on a winged steed called Lufthansa (fly with them! They serve Milka chocolate!!!), somewhere above Greenland, it is sunset, and I feel like I am about to fight a dragon. I escaped the castle many years ago, grew stronger with amazing friends, it is now time to go back.
And I am back taking my time, no work or home to go back to, I am foreseeing a whole summer in Italy.

Claudia, “eventually” as arrived, and do not worry, I am drawing the attach plan with you!

Corvallis and Heroes

2009-04-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Corvallis is the place where people stop me in the street and say “Barbara! You are back!”. I still wonder how can all these people still remember me (and Maria of course).
Yesterday dott K., the interim geosciences department chair, saw me walking in the corridor, ran to me, put his books on the floor, took off his shoes, and took me to tango across first foor. Then Biniam and dott. B. came, and Biniam reminded him the day I pinned him to the floor (I was just showing dott. B. an Aikido move, but it was hard to explain it to my ex when he walked in the room and saw me pinning his professor to the floor).

Corvallis is good for me. There is the Coop with natural food, fast internet, tons of meetings for coffees, teas, lunches, dinners, parties, international students get together… I love it!

I have been going to the rock climbing gym everyday to refresh my skills (getting ready for this weekend at Smith Rock), and found quite a special climbing buddy. When I asked him what he does in life, he said he was a “professional kayaker”. I though “god, they are everywhere!” and “Do they go through a special selection criteria that if they are not gorgeous enough they do not let them next to the river?”. The next day I was curious to see how a professional kayaker makes his living, and I googled him.
What an inspiration he is!
In January, I was craving for adventures after reading a book about a whitewater kayaking expedition in Tibet, I decided it was about time for me to leave the safe island nest for some adventures. Now that I am about to move back to Italy for a bit, I met this example of perfect equilibrium between intelligent investment, passion, community service, and commitment.
This guy that holds me up when I fall from the rock wall, that cheers me up on a difficult route, is a National Geographic Adventure Hero. And more. I am going to feel like such a wimp tomorrow when I see him ;-). But he is also an inspiration. I can do things, and I am going to do them better!
Tomorrow I am leaving for Smith Rock with a bunch of strangers that I haven't met yet, and meeting there with a very old friend of mine that I haven’t seen since the Polar Bear Swim, 1st January 2001 in Vancouver Canada!

wild salsa in Portland

2009-04-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Rose City… my perennial second home, that is the place where I always come back to, especially when I do not have a home! In the last 10 years I definitely spent more time in Oregon than anywhere else and most of the stuff I own is stored here too.
I arrived in Portland on Monday night, and spent the week with Elly.
I lived happily in Neverland for the first year and an half, hiding for the last year and an half. As part of the process of welcoming the new life cycle (and considering I do not have furniture to rearrange), Elly and I worked on a change of look. So I cut my hair and went blonde. Which is freaking me out because I am not used to this anymore, but after the success of last night I really cannot complain.

After a rich dinner with Liz and more friends, Elly, Kristal and I went crazy salsa dancing, like in the old good days, accompanied by a team of 3 gorgeous Argentineans… ahhh… how I missed the Latin nights!

(I did not take any picture of the argentinian Diego brought along, but Elly and I had so much fun looking at how girls were just flying to them! Really amazing!)Myself, Elly, Kristal and Diego

Kristal and Diego, Ceasar and I.... wild dancing!

Liz and Tom came back few days ago from Ethiopia as well, and they are moving to New Jersey on Monday!!!! Buuuuuuu!!!! Here another piece of heart that is moving farther away from me! I drove down to Corvallis with her this morning, and I am now ready to meet the other Beavers here!

The desert

2009-04-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that, even if the Oasis was a wonderful amazing place, the desert was quite impressive as well. During this time of the year the desert is blooming. A desert covered in flowers. Wonderful, spectacular... Enjoy the pictures!
As for me, I made it in Portland and I am in sweet company with my Oregonian family. Liz is moving on Monday to New Hampshire, I am thinking about going with her... need to chance a place ticket... we will see tomorrow...

This cute "Dude" was traveling with his huge teddy bear....

Mirek, seriously, these Joshua trees made me thing of Lucky Luke, even before I met you!

Since December, SnowDave and I met in San Francisco, American Samoa, Alaska, Las Vegas and Death Valley. He is a great traveling companion, he brings lots of good challenges and adventures! Thanks Dave, you are awesome!!!!

The Oasis

2009-03-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

“This is what I love about life” I told SnowDave as we were was driving in the desert lighting the road to a man in kilt on his bike “Its randomness. You never know what life brings you”.

That same morning we were having breakfast in Death Valley National Park, deciding on what to do for the day. A guidebook described Saline Hotspring as “one of the most isolated, unpopulated, and foreboding regions in California, a trip to the Saline Valley is an expedition”. What a bite for SnowDave. The ranger at the information desk warned us different times not to attempt the drive (but then he was also lowering his voice saying “but it would be the experience of a lifetime” as to say “it is my job to tell you not to go there, but you should”). The day before, SnowDave bought a “fix-a-tire” spray and extra chocolate in the case of a flat, or two… after all, we have been in worth, just a month ago we were hiking in extremely cold temperature, lost in a storm, in the dark, with wolves howling, this could not possibly be worth than that. Rattlesnakes, black widows and scorpions did not worry me that much; after all we would be in a car all the way. So we left the paved road…

The drive was not that bad (I think, I actually slept most of the way). The hotsprings, an oasis in the desert, were quite developed and we felt our “expedition” did not turned as adventurous as we wanted. SnowDave left for his 12 miles run, while I wondered where should I strip and with which guys should I bath.

That is where I learned of the real spell of the hotsprings. Same way as a house is just a house until you find something special that makes it a home, the hotsprings were just hotsprings, until we meet the characters that frequent this place. People like MayorTom, ScorpionCary (I gave him this camp name because he was so eager to find a scorpion to show me), the Cowboys, the other Tom and others, make this place unique and special. And these characters truly made me feel home and spoiled me. I was shown a movie about KillerCane, an usual of these hotsprings: showing lots of nudity and funny sketches, the movie introduced me to the uniqueness of this place. I felt in love for the place, the people. We discovered “the beach”, like in that movie with Leonardo Di Caprio, the ultimate place.

We originally planned to leave the next morning to hike a canyon in Death Valley, but it turned impossible to turn down an hike offer form MayorTom into his secret canyon. Turned out to be a great idea. The Canyon, away from mass tourism, was a natural chatredal, with smooth high marble walls an carpets of green musk. We, MayorTom, ScorpionCary, John the cowboys’s kid, SnowDave and I entered the canyon, climbed waterfall, gained elevation, got a good taste of a good adventure!

(well, we did started with 2 wheels off the road... we just had to built a bridge... old times!)

("easy as a piece of cake" MayorTom looks just like Shon Connery here! Not to mention the kilt!)
(That waterfall was not climbable without harnesses... what a day! My guys from left to right: MayorTom, ScorpionCary, John of the Cowboys, SnowDave)

A sand storm kept us from leaving that night too… maybe it was a sign we had to stay there longer… ScorpionCary's wife prepared a great dinner for us, and soon we headed to the springs. I will miss Marik and his sand proof goggles!

"Show your boobs!!!"

2009-03-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently this is what wild girls do during spring break. And apparently Las Vegas is a popular spot for spring break, and I happen to be in Las Vegas just right during spring break. That said, I admit I did not like this place at all when I arrived.
Slot machines welcome you as soon as you step out of the plane, or they are there to take the last change you did not spend yet.Last Vegas is the least eco-friendly place on Earth. Tons of electricity and water wasted every day and night, and people just come here to spend money and be crazy.
On my first night in Las Vegas I was asked to show my boobs and I was invited to an erotic toy conference (well, the lady told me she brings “romance” to women. I though she meant romantic books or something like that…).

Then I decided to embrace Las Vegas and go with the flow: I am having a blast!(In this pub the waitress would actually spank you after drinking...)

The first day of conference was not too exciting. A couple of speeches were interesting, but other would just make you ask yourself “why am I not at the romantic conference instead?”
The nights came and Las Vegas transformed itself. I attended a number of parties, which included free drinks, pool tables, spanking, Texans, Europeans… guys, guys, girls, girls (all geographers of some sort).
Next day, I meet lots of cool and interesting people and attended great speeches. I am happy to be here now! I also checked out the “romantic” conference… I am kind of speechless, certain things you just need to see with your own eyes. It was very intimidating when I saw a couple of very big handsome black guys checking out some toys. I ran out from the emergency exit door and returned to the better-known and safe world of geography.
Nights in Las Vegas start early and end late. Hotels are traps designed to get you lost. Floors are incredibly ugly and that is a way too to kept you from looking down… “Focus, focus, you are here to play, look up at the playing table…” everything seems to send that message. The atmosphere is cheerful. People are here to have fun, to meet people. Guys check out girls all time, girls are more discrete but efficient anyway with their tiny dresses. The only sad faces are at the hotel lobbies, those getting ready go home, usually broken, tired, and smelly of cigarette.
I got 2 wonderful body guards (SnowDave and John), partied, danced, salsa… I am exhausted, hangover, ready to hit the desert for the weekend.

Sausalito

2009-03-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

I survived my long day in a coffee shop in San Francisco. Quite well, indeed, spending all day catching up with friends, I felt like I was never alone.
Tylor worked on his boat until late, and, terrified of being alone at nigh on a city roads with my backpack, i meet with Tylor's girlfriend and hang out with her for a while. At first I knocked at the wrong door; an old lady opened up and said she knew no Elly. "Oh, sorry to disturb you so late at night, I must have gotten the wrong address". She replied "Don't worry, I am actually happy it is you, I though it was the pervert again"....
Luckly Elly was next door and I did not meet the pervert. I instead met a group of young feminists, which can be quite an experience as well. And saw many many weird people on the street walking to Elly's house. I asked a coop to walk with us for a while. I saw a different San Francisco that night. Still fashinating, but I missed the old one.
I slept in a soft pinkish and fluffy bed that kept me prisoner until late next morning, and I started my new life chapter in this way.

The weather was great, so Tylor and I ran to Sausalito, which is a nice village on the bay, and it is where Tylor lives, on his boat. Gale, that means too much wind to go sailing, but a bike ride in town was great as well.(San Francisco on the background)

(How long does it take to equilibrate rocks on top of each other? ~5 minutes for this guy!)

(Tylor paddling away from his boat)

(sailing to shore next morning. Tylor's boat on the background)

Next morning the wind died, and we just hang out on the boat, getting ready for my next flight: Las Vegas.
I fighted Vegas for my first 2 days, but I am starting embracing it and actually having lots of fun. This is going to be interesting, I assure you!!!

Beginnings in San Francisco

2009-03-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

"Beginnings are scary. Endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most".

Wow, how much I loved the middle! James Bond left this morning for one of his missions. We had a wonderful early weekend eating hiking, mountain biking and eating (one of my favorite activities with him, especially in San Francisco, where you can food from nearly all the world), but I am now all alone in a coffee shop working on my Power Point for the conference in Las Vegas next week :-(.
But, don’t worry, I am meeting with Tylor this evening.
I am laughing because I feel like one of those girls at the start of the movie in “50 first dates” with Adam Sandler. What to say? He made me so happy and brought so much sunshine in my life, what a good addiction! But addictions are always bad on the long term and time as arrived for me to quit.

I am so sad, scared, happy and excited at the same time. What a cocktail of feelings to have in a coffe shop far from… where is home now?
Good news is that coffee shops in San Francisco have wireless and that on you can still find Vasco Rossi, Battisti, Celentano and Eros, and songs like “io vaganbondo”, “Todo que eu te dou” and “So What”. All song speak of me.
And good news is that there is skype and the chats in facebook and gmail and that I am blessed with the best friends in the world and there is always somebody awake for me! Thanks Samu for the good chat!
“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” (Elisabeth Foley).

(In San Francisco banks have coffee shops (bars) inside! Here, Well Fargo and Starbucks)

(Also, hang glider occupies the same environmental niche as sparrows and have their own National Park sign)

(Also, the Golden Gate is not JUST the name of the famous bridge. More importantly THE Golden Gate is the name of the small passage that connects the Pacific Ocean with the safe San Francisco Bay. Believe it or not, it seems like the name "Golden Gate" actually was inspired by the ancient name of Istanbul in Turkey).
From Wiki:
"On 5 August 1775 Juan de Ayala and the crew of his ship the San Carlos became the first Europeans known to have passed through the strait, anchoring in a cove behind Angel Island which is now named in Ayala's honor. Until the 1840s the strait was called the "Boca del Puerto de San Francisco" (Mouth of the Port of San Francisco). On 1 July 1846, before the discovery of gold in California, the entrance acquired a new name. In his memoirs, John C. Frémont wrote, "To this Gate I gave the name of "Chrysopylae", or "Golden Gate"; for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium (now Istanbul) was called Chrysoceras, or Golden Horn."One more curiosity. The name "California" comes from a book that told stories about Amazons (I learned it from a movie called "The king of California", which I loved).

Karin

2009-03-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Today, at Alaskan time 8:31:12, Karin crossed the line indicating the end of the Iditarod trail in Nome, finishing in position 40.
It took her 12 days, 18 hours, 31 minutes and 12 seconds to cover the 1,150 miles separating Wasilla from Nome working together with a loved team of 16 dogs. She ran by herself in the Alaskan wilderness in temperatures as low as -30'F (-34.5' C, not considering the wind!), mushing along frozen rivers, frozen sea, woods.... Bears are sleeping at this time of the year, but moose and wolves are not.
She is awesome. She kicks asses!!!

Airports and thanks!

2009-03-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

I start enjoying airport waits. Airports are interesting places, people from all over going all over. I often always end up taking a drink (chocolate for me please) with a stranger, and it is always so fascinating. Schools should have field trips to airports to interview travelers and then share in the school the stories they collected.

Alaska was awesome. Even better than last time. Alaskans are within the friendliest people I ever met. The policeman that stopped 3 nights ago for speeding was friendly and showed me where I could buy ice-creams even if I did not have a valid insurance (Dave, where do you keep it???). The man at the shop used his friend’s phone number to give me a discount. The waiter at the Moose’s Tooth learned few phrases in Italian because he knew I would come back and he wanted to impress me. Not to mention the hospitality I received all these days!!!

Thanks Dave for the adventures a warm place to stay!

Thanks Dug, Rene', Zack and Sam for the fun and warm and tidy place to stay!!! ;-)!

Thanks Karin, Varan and Irene for being so cool and a warm place to stay together with the friendliest pitbull ever! ;-)!!!

You said that Alaskans are bears?

Varan, Irene, Greg, Theresa, Kristin and new comers Kassy and Arthur (he looks just like il conte Carlo!) all came with me at Moose’s Tooth for dinner. Thanks for the warm good bye! And the weekends! And thanks Greg for driving me around too!!! Alaska is cold place to live, but the atmosphere is surely always warm!

As for the Iditatod, while Lance Mackey won the gold (again!) with 15 dogs, my friend Karin is still on her way.(Karin at the Iditarod start. This picture was taken by Leanne Quirk, with sells them at http://www.onceinabluemoose.com/leanne/leanne.htm. Check the website out for more musher's pictures! They are so nice!!!! Thanks Leanne for sharing them with me and Karin!!!)

Varan and Irene kept me updated on her location and health. She is now on her way to White Mountain. One more stop in Safety, and then she will be in Nome as well. feel so proud of her, and it has been such an honor to be a little part of it… GO KARIN!!!!! (Photo by Leanne Quirk)

ready to go!

2009-03-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

The backpack looks like half the size of when I left from American Samoa. Maybe it is because I am wearing half of it...

Cozy Alaska, Wild Alaska

2009-03-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

As somewhere else in the world and in another moment in my life, Father Time seemed to have casually scrolled along my life hand in hand in Morpheus, here in Alaska He surely was in a hurry to just pass by.
My ~ 3 weeks vacation in Alaska is coming to an end, and on Wednesday I will be flying down to San Francisco to fuel on my biggest addiction: James Bond.
After Karin left on the Iditarod Trail, I moved into Doug’s home for a 4 days full immersion into wetlands ecology and policy. I had a term paper to hand in last Friday, my final exam is this Wednesday, and I have been procrastinating a bit on my on-line class with all the moving, packing and traveling I went through the last month.
Doug is the funniest Alaskan I know, and his family is not second to him. Rene, Doug’s wife, is super hospitable, and Zack (the Z-man, 4 years old) and Sam (1 year old) are just so adorable that it really makes you think that having kids can really be fun.

(I can totally do it!)

I took over Zack’s room, but after his detailed description of the nature and behavior of the monsters (mainly dinosaurs with very shiny teeth) that inhabit Zack’s room, I wondered if I should go to sleep in Sam’s room as well. Not only. Hanging from the wall behind the bed, overlooking me, there were the heads of 2 stuffed teddy bears and 1 stuffed teddy moose. Who could be so cruel to do such thing? This view would have terrified any other kids (and sensitive young women like me), but Alaskan kids grow to be rough since a young age.
Luckily Zack gave me Ally the alligator to protect me in my sleeps.

When I told about the framed teddy bear to Theresa (keep on reading) this weekend, she laughed and said “what a good idea! I could hang a teddy bear skin on my wall, it would be funny!” That gave me the chills.

I felt so cozy and happy, embraced in the warmth of such a nice family after so much moving (plus the spell of the fast internet connection that still amazes me) that when Dave phoned me to go back to Fairbanks for the weekend I truly hesitated. Sitting cross-legged in my favorite spot right next the fireplace, flashbacks of the freezing hike only 2 weeks ago ran across my mind and thousands of excuses came across my mind not to go.

But a little voice in my ears told me I should go (or maybe that was simply Dave’s voice on the phone)… Dave withdrew me on Friday afternoon from Doug’s home. Sight, sight.
Fairbanks is about 350 miles (570 km) north of Anchorage, and THE road to get there run along spectacular valleys and mountain chains, but it is also long and icy. As you get in it, a sign indicated the number of mooses killed like the billboard of a lottery “346 mooses were killed on this road since April 16”. I heard that you can put your name in a special list and every time a moose is killed the next name on the list will be called and you can go and pick up the remaining to feed the family for a while. Nothing wasted.
Many cars and trucks laid up-side-down along the street 2 weeks ago on our way back from Fairbanks, like if a bored Gozilla played with the traffic for a while… “tzzz…. People do not know how to drive with when in icy and windy” was Varon’s comment, apparently this view is common on weekends (“But how can they all land up-side-down??” was my thought). This said, I was not eager to go back into a truck for so many miles.

We were in a group this time. In addition to Dave, Suka and myself, Theresa (works with Dave), Greg (another dog handler I met during the Iditarod), Sara (fresh to Alaska as well) Kristin and Cuervo (the latter is another big dog) were following us in another car. It felt more like a road trip!!! Friday night we abused of Creg’s friend cabin, about half way between Anchorage and Fairbanks. While temperatures outside were well below zero (both F’ and C’), the cabin was warm and cozy and snacks were available. And soon enough the aurora came borealis dancing on the mountain and on the lake. Drapes of white lights were forming, shifting and disappearing to the north of the cabin, and we comfortably watched the show from the cabin couch.

Seeing the Aurora for me is a proof that “Will is power” (“Volere e’ potere”). Since I was 10 years old I knew that, one day, I will be seeing one with my own eyes, and somehow I did made my way up here to experience it.
We arrived to the cabin in full night, and waking up the next morning was another pleasant surprise, when the view of the white peaks and the frozen lake appeared to me in its entire splendor. After a rich breakfast, the group left for some backcountry skiing, while Suka and I went for a walk around the lake, chasing caribous (alas the wild reindeers; they do not fly and do not have shining red noses).

(caribous crossing the lake)(Our cabin)

(and the restroom...)

(frozen enchilada and rice and bean... the leftover from the previous dinner that I forgot in the car... frozen solid)

We arrived in Fairbanks around 8:00pm and drove straight to Chena Hot Springs for a healthy San Patrick bath. Chena Hot Spring is entirely ran on geothermal energy, which is used for the hotel electricity, to keep the ice hotel frozen even during the summer, for a greenhouse… amazing place!
I never practise a lot running half naked on slippery ice when the wind lowers the temperature to –30’F (-34’C), but I can say be pretty darn good and fast at it! Soaking in the hot springs while anything else exposed freezes (including the eye lashes) is kind of nice too.

(Theresa, Dave, Sara, Kristin, Greg)(Greg: happy Alaskan with frozen hairs in hot spring).

We soak in the very hot hot spring until the walk back to the cloths in the freezing wind actually felt nice and regenerating and then we headed to Chena’s pub where there was live music, cold beers and hot chocolates. Perfect.

(Dave, Greg, Theresa, Kristin, Me, Pete (the singer also snowmobile teachear...) and Sara)

Chena is about 60 miles away from Fairbanks, alas another long drive before getting to the hotel room. But can you imagine any better drive than under a clear starry sky while the green Northern Light are dancing all around you? This time we had to stop the cars and get out, pack together as penguins in a storm and dance a waltz together with the Aurora. No comments, just “wow, wow, WOW!” It wasn’t just over the horizon; it was all over around us! And it was big, bright, wild. We packed, hugging, sharing each other heat until the aurora disappear (“let me cover your hear, ahh.. your armpit is so warm, that is not my hand, no, I won’t put my hand into your pants ;-)”), ran to the car (correction: at this point running in not possible… it is more of a sloth run) and drove some more until the Aurora re-appeared again. Stopped the cars, opened the door. Somebody shouted “Formation!!!” and we all ran to regroup in a human ball. It was very cold even for Alaskan. What a show. The warmth of the fireplace is great, but this is even greater.

On Sunday we had a tour of the ice sculptures before driving back. In art (as in many other cases), a picture worth 1,000 words, so here you go (see next post)!

Ice sculptures

2009-03-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Slippery, really?
The princess warrior (her nipples froze off! jajajaja!!!)
Aassss...Fidanken!!!
Hang on on that wing!
My favorite: Moonlight Senerata
There were many people from other countries, like China, Japan and... Mauritius!!!
My other favorite: Evolution, the wolf woman
Sea turtle... the Swimming Lesson
Pandora's box.

the Iditarod

2009-03-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

There she goes. Standing on her sled pulled by 16 dogs, Karin moves across the cheering crowd, weaving and smiling. She is just starting one of the toughest races in the world, the Iditarod. 1150 miles toward Nome from Willow, alone with her dogs, through the Alaskan wilderness, though storms, cold dark nights. I felt such a wimp seeing her leaving, and felt so proud to have such a friend.

The Iditarod trail was one of the main trails the first settlers using to enter in deeper Alaska. It was used by explorers, priests, judges, hunters, to transport mail and supplies to remote villages.
In the 1920’s the era of the plane came, and this trail that played such an important role in Alaskan history was almost forgotten. Then one woman, Dorothy G. Page, thought that it would be a good idea (and would bring the historical role of the Iditarod into a new light) to organize every year a dog sled race along the trail. Imagine somebody saying (anywhere else in the world): “ehi, why don’t we make a 1150 miles race in a freezing country, just you and your dogs, no hotels….”. People would probably laugh at it and not take you seriously. But not in Alaska. Alaskans are though people, and their answer would be: “oh yeah! This is a great idea!!!”. Soon enough, in 1973, the first 22 mushers finished the first ever Iditarod race (and I met one of them yesterday at lunch and I told him I would advertise his new book “Trail breakers”, so please check it out at this link!). To date, fewer people finished the Iditarod trail then climb Mt. Everest!!!

I returned to Anchorage with Dave after the backpack trip to Talovana hotspring, in time for his birthday, and then I moved to Karin’s house to help her out with anything I could (mainly house things, because I know nothing about dogs!).
I met her at the musher’s banquet downtown Anchorage, where the mushers (now real celebrities!) meet with the public and extract the number that will tell them in which order they would be leaving the trail. There are 68 teams running this year. Karin will be number 29.

(Karin signing autographs, and Karin on a wine bottle. The musher banquet is also a big fund raising event)

On Saturday there was a ceremonial race start in Anchorage downtown. I took a dog handler class the day before and I was able to hang out with the teams. It seems like the whole race is ran by volunteers, and lots of them are from the lower States, but there were also people from other improbable places, like Paris or me, American Samoa.

The atmosphere was vibrant in Anchorage. There were masses of people from all over, media, helicopters. During the same week, the Rondy festival also took place, a reconstruction of the fur trade festival which included reindeer sausage eating contest, softball on snowshoes, the run of the reindeer (like the run of the bulls in Pamplona… only that the reindeer must have been terrified “Oh my, we are surrounded by a herd of human!”).

This first day only covered few miles (20?), and I was also able to cover my second job as trail guard in the part, and got nice pics. It felt cold, colder than I would have expected for 4 degrees. Then I realized that it was 4’F and not Celsius, which would translate in –15’C. I was so glad I could borrow Varon’s parka!!

(cute noses!!!)

(Irene, Karin's absolute #1 dog handler)

(me, Karin and Shannon... don't you love her sunglasses!?!? ;-)!!!)

(yes, I was cold...)

(I stole this picture from Karin's blog. Here, shining at the starting line)

(mushing in Anchorage's park. This place must be wonderful in summer)

Saturday evening... party at Karin's!!!

(Alaskan fridge. Varon put the beer in with an attention... it seemed he was dealing with kriptonite)

Sunday we went to official start in Willow, farther north. Karin had her last warm and cozy good night sleep after making sure all the latest details were taken care of. On her side, her husband, Varon, and her dog handler, Irene, did all was possible to support her. And family and friends also came all the way from California to support her. Fans crowed along the fence to wish the mushers good luck, while the kids played in the park, next to the hanging wolf’s skins.(I loved that they stationed the "yellow snow" team next to the restroom)

(Last last preparation, and down here, getting ready to leave!)

(this guy kept 2 dogs in a little dog bag behind in, to have 2 fresh dogs on rotation every day)

GO! 1150 miles left!

On Sunday night I felt exhausted. While Irene was shoveling ice-cream in her mouth (apparently Alaska is the biggest consumer of ice-cream. Incredible), I went down hard on chocolate. I guess I have been on the go for the past month, packing, mailing, cleaning, working, paragliding, hiking… it is now time to rest!

On Monday I went downtown to work on a internet café’, but I ended up spending all day with Damon, a guy that I fed for a year in Oregon, about 8 years ago. The world is small indeed. And I did indded cook for many many people…I think one I will just open a restaurant and retire.

This week, I am planning zero excitement and a 100% focus on my on-line class.
This I can do comfortably from Doug’s house, wearing my pajama all day long, sipping a tea while outside is snowing. This is another aspect of winter that I love.

To read more about the Iditarod: www.iditarod.com
and to follow Karin on her adventure, or to see how you can sponsor her, check out her site! (Irene just posted a cool picture from the trail! She lost one dog already (they had to ship her back home, but being very strong on the trail!)

Backpacking in Alaska

2009-03-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

There is a major different when you hike with a boyfriend or just a friend. If you were hiking with your boyfriend and said “I do not think we really have time to have breakfast at the bar, we should get going”, your boyfriend would know automatically that what it really means is: “if we do not leave right now, you are not getting laid for the next 2 weeks”. But when you hike with a friend that already knows that he is not getting laid what-so-ever, his reaction would be “Oh well, I may as well have breakfast anyway”.So SnowDave and I left for the trail quite late. After Dave’s breakfast, naturally.I hiked 11 miles in a day different times, but this time I did not consider how the cold and the snow could really slow us down. Or the tear of a muscle. My constant re-hydratation plans failed after 2 minutes on the trail, when all our water froze solid. Great.

SnowDave and I have been backpacking buddies for the past 6 years. In 3 years in Alaska, Dave grew a winter-bear belly, a 1-week old bear, and strong resistance to cold temperatures. In 3 years in the South Pacific, I grew very long hair, a tan, and a strong resistance to warm temperature. I started in disadvantage.

1^st thoughts: “uh, I am having such a work out, feels good to feel the body this way. I love Akiko and the chemical warmers from Japan she presented me last Xmas. I love JB and the super tech shirt he presented me last Xmas”.

2^nd thoughts (after, at mile 6, I tore my leg muscle and could barely move my leg forward): “I still love Akiko and JB… (other thoughts are censured). We are never going to make it before dark. Stupid Dave’s breakfast. And doesn’t he know that chocolate and bear spray would always be ready available when hiking?”

3^rd thoughts (as I hear wolves howling on the other side of the hill. Just after sunset. I feel like the hurt animal of a pack, the one that the wolves usually go after): “I am not scared of wolves. I dealt with samoan dogs for 3 years and got no bites. Let me just collect… no… no rocks around… would snow balls work against wolves?” … “Plus I am wearing so much plastic, who would ever want to eat me?”…

4^th thoughts (we are on the top of the hill, it is stormy, we lost the trail and we are wondering in hip deep snow. It is REALLY cold, and I am in pain): “This is so funny. I still have the Hawaiian airline premier tag attached to my backpack. Whoever finds my body will have a laugh!”.

5^th thoughts (it is dark already, but from now on it is all downhill, the storm ended as fast as it started, I feel much warmer too): “there is a warm cabin at the end of the road, and hot springs… think positive, think positive… after all it is so beautiful here”.

I am way out my zone of comfort, but Dave still feel comfortable with it and that makes me feel better. Plus he tells me that our cabin is the one closest to the trail. I am glad we planned 2 days in the cabin instead than hiking out the next day. I can still love him now.
The cabin felt like a 5 stars resort, after the wood stove was turned on. Somebody left some body butter behind. 5 stars SPA. We ate 1 kg of pasta Barilla, and then ran to soak on the hot spring. Stars all around us. Magical. Warm. Priceless. I am glad I made it.

On the second day I discovered I can make quite a good snow soup with 1 potato, 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 safeway sandwich. I showered the snow outside from the cabin, I felt like an Alaska woman.
The outhouse, a way down the trail from the cabin, was incredibly nice as well. The styrofoam seat was not cold at all. The view on the burch wood and Raven’s visit made the experience nice. I now understand why there are so many poetry about Alaskan outhouses in the university in Fairbanks.
Temperatures got as low as –20’F (-29’C) (note the minus sign -only last week i was living in a tropical island, Life does change very fast sometimes...). Dave checked the thermometer continually; there is some kind of Alaskan sadism in enjoying being (and surviving) in the coldest temperature ever.
A day of no walk, rest and hot food at springs felt like the most beautiful thing on earth.

The third day we hiked back to the truck. I walked no-stop for the whole 11-miles. I was way too scared about stopping, freezing and tearing my muscle even more. I wobbled like an injured penguin all the way, proceeding less than 10 centimeters each step. But I did not despair: deep inside me, I knew that prince charming would appear with the equivalent of a Mercedes snowmobile or with a team of 10 wonderful sled dogs and give me a ride. Dave suggested that prince charming only works on weekends. He may have been right. 1 mile away from the truck, I swore that if prince charming would appear, I would kick his snowmobile into pieces.(on the way back the weather was very nice over the pass. But very very cold)

But I still loved Akiko and JB for the chemical warmers and the shirt. Especially when the cold really got me and I started shaking like a leaf, unable to move my hands (the only moment when I saw Dave really worrying –but we did have enough gear to survive a night out, if really needed).
At 0.5 miles away from the car, Dave decided to put me out of my misery and told me to drop my backpack, he would go back to pick it up later. I was truly in deep pain. I tried hard not to cry for 2 main reasons: crying is worthless anyway, it won’t help; the tears will freeze straight into your eyelashes making the walk even more uncomfortable. But I did cry out loud once I climbed into the truck (the biggest and more painful step of the hike!) but the chocolate soon comforted me. Honestly, it was a great hike and I would do it again, but with a sled this time (there was a lot of elevation gain and lost). I think if I would have not tear my muscle it would have been simply wonderful.

We were about 2 hours northwest from Fairbanks, on the road that takes you to the artic circle. We stopped in a brewery on the way and dragged ourselves in for a warm dinner. It was –15’F (-26’C) outside.
The waitress promptly brought us 2 glasses of water. I looked at the glass closely. It was filled with ice cubes.
Alaska. No comment.

survived. barely

2009-03-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

Usually when i go for adventure, i always think "ehhh, I have been in worst situations, i can do this".
But I have to admit that in these past 3 days backpacking near Fairbanks, Alaska, I did pass my "zone of confort" line more of a couple of times. Especially when I tore a muscle and could barely walk, with temperatures -25'C (-13'F), or when we lost the trail at sunset of top of a mountain and the snow storm came (for very little, but it was psycologically proving), or when with wolves start hauling and we were still walking, at night...
Although I have to admit that soaking in hot spring after such a day, the stars, and the snow stew I made in the warmth of a log cabin are all priceless.
I would definitly do it again, but with a sled this time!!!
I am safe in Fairbanks now, last night SnowDave and I slept in a hotel with inside restroom, warm running water and centrilized heating system. Got internet too! This world is amazing.
We are now getting ready to drive back to Anchorage. The Idiratod will start soon and there is a nice party atmosphere in the air. Last weekend we missed the run of the raindeers, an Alaskan version of the run of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. I am so glad to be here during these days. I cannot wait to meet with the Clan again too.
A better description of the hike to come soon...

Hawai'i

2009-02-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

There I go! LOST, I am off, I am in the land of ghost, and my picture populates the cemetery.

Since I left I slept: 1 day on the plane, 1 day on the beach, 2 days in a car and tonight I am expecting another day on the plane, on my way to Alaska.

Monday
As soon as I arrived in Honolulu, I took another flight for the big island of Hawai’i.
The big island of Hawai’i is, indeed, big. Apparently it has 13 out of 18 climatic zones, and I chose to hang out in the colder ones.
Achim, the paraglider pilot I contacted before coming here, came to pick me up Monday morning at the airport in Kona (west side) to go and set camp at Hooneka beach, a short stretch of white sand beach, surrounded by cliffs, where you can often swim with a group of resident dolphins.
The beach is nice, but I am not used anymore to see so many palagi and woman in bikini. Mostly hippies, wearing the best yoga pants ever.
There weren’t many people over all, but it felt crowed.
Achim pulled out an inflatable tender from his truck and we paddle away looking for dolphins. Instead we meet a very interesting “dolphin-man” that appeared from nowhere, telling us how magical the dolphins were and how they bring messages and changes. He shared with us a couple of prophecies, which surprised both Achim and I.

In the evening, I dove with Jack Diving Locker, I wanted to experience being in the water with the giant manta rays. It was amazing. The dive masters were very professional but at the same time very good in creating an engaging atmosphere between the 10 divers on the boat. We first did a very shallow dive along a volcanic lava cliff looking for big fish (the highlight was the passage inside a lava tube!) and then we moved on to the manta rays favorite feeding spot and waited for dusk. Describing the feelings of diving with the giant manta rays is impossible; you just need to do yourself. Do it. These animals are indeed giants. And flirty. A couple would constantly come to me, check me out, open their huge mouth right in front of me and then glide up caressing my forehead. I felt cuddled. But also cold and nearly out of oxygen. The warm shower on the back on the boat is also something indescribable, also a must do after the dive! ;-)

“No, I have a ride, thanks, I am camping tonight” ”No, it is a guy that I meet this morning at the airport”. I told to the dive master when he asked me what I was going to do after the dive. I would not usually just take off with a guy like that, but Achim and I have been in contact while I was planning this trip, I was going to get lost on top of a mountain with him anyway, I figure if he was going to kill me he could do it anytime. Plus a man talking about the weather for so long can only be a pilot or very British.

Tuesday
The next day, we drove to the top of Pu’u Loa and I got a couple of flights in. I was nervous at first, but once in the air, a natural. I still have it. I can still fill the wing and the wind, pick the right places to be. I was so happy. It is me!
We set camp for the night and we went to see the observatory to return and find the tend and sleeping bags totally wet! Aua le popole (no problem), these are not really the problems of life. Luckily Achim’s car fit 2 people very confortably, and slepping wrap up to my wing is not really something new to me. Wings will keep you warm at night.

Wednesday
The next day I woke up with the sound of strong wind. “Can I kite?” was my first though… way to strong. We moved into a valley close by, but the wing there was so mellow that I could only flight few meters above the ground. No fun. Achim, let’s go flying somewhere else or let’s go sight seeing.
(The first sight was Freddy, 85 years old, that, coming with his truck from the opposite side of the dirt road at Pu’u Loa stopped me and told me “I knew a wonderful woman was going to cross my path today, and here you are! What can I do for you?”).

So we went to Hilo, where Achim lives, and I had the change to finally take a warm shower and check the e-mail. That is when the world stopped for a moment, because in between the e-mail, one was a very nice job offer hard to say no to. That flatters me, I have been in the market for less than 3 days, I have not advertised at all, and my good star is already shining light on me. I set an unofficial lunch-meeting in Honolulu the next day (call it Serendipity! I do not happen to be in Hawai’i that often usually…!!!), and then Achim and I got ready to go to see the lava flowing into the sea, creating bright red clouds of smoke. There wasn’t any activity when we got there, but few minutes before we got to the cliff, the lava started flowing again. Thank you Pele, the lava goodness, which has the power to create new land.
We drove back to Kona, slept in the airport in the truck again and I left early the next day.

Thursday
One of the most beautiful things of Thursday was to have Marsik to pick me up at the airport in Honolulu. I really missed him! Honolulu is so vibrant, energetic compared with the big island. Tourists are everywhere and yen are accepted as a currency in many shops. After my “interview”, Marsik took me to a bar where wonderful women with incredibly short skirts were serving at the table. I am sure Jeremy could comment on them. I wondered how I could fit leaving here. I cannot wear such a short skirt. It is tropical, sure, but very crowed. But I have to admit, I was also noticed many nice guys. Plenty of opportunities! In Neverland, in 3 years, I must have met no more than 20 single guys… I bet I saw at least 500 in few hours in Honolulu. ;-)
We (Marisk, me, and Marsik’s girlfriend which is wonderful!!!) went for dinner at an Egyptian restaurant. I am moved!

Friday
I made it to Alaska… brrrrrrrrr!!!!!! I did not like the flight attendant saying to run to buckle up to the seats because we were going to have very dangerous conditions. I drugged myself and happily woke up once in Anchorage. Snow Dave and I are now getting ready to drive to Fairbanks and go for a little freezing adventure to Tolovana hotspring… We should be back by Tuesday-Wednesday.

the best job in the world

2009-02-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Hi all, today just do something for me, please…

As I mention before (plan D), I applied for the best job in the world, the islands care-taker in the Great Barrier Reef. I now need you to vote for me! All you need to do it is to go to my site, before this sunday, watch my movie, have a laugh and give me 5 stars! Then, forward the links to all your friends and ask them to do the same.

go to: www.island reefjob.com

select "all applicatant" and then select "American Samoa"... I am the only one there... or go to: http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/most-recent/watch/oxWOFP8azmc?ob=creation_date&desc=1&c=AS&as=25&s=0 or http://www.islandreefjob.com/watch/oxWOFP8azmc?ob=creation_date&desc=1&c=AS&as=25&s=0

If you forward the link to:

1-5 friends, Bill Gates will send you a check for $100 within a week.
5-10 friends, you will win a new car within a month and have a loved one cook your favorite meal
10-50 friends, you will find a bag full of money on the closest beach next to you and/or you will find something you though it was lost forever a long time ago.
50-… friends, you will become the next president of any country of your choice and/or a chance to come and visit the Great Barrier Reef and crash on my couch (or guess room).

A friend of mine did not check the link, and the next day he lost his car keys.
Another friend of mine sent the link to 33 persons, and soon enough he found a fat wallet in his garden (it was his, which he lost a loooong time ago).

Remember (if you know me you already know...) I bring good luck!!!

PS: and for the news... Plan E also phoned me last night and I may be considering it too. Plan E is in Honolulu.

a good pilot....

2009-02-24T12:09:00.001-08:00

... always sleeps with her wing! Anyway, explanation later, now I have to run to see the lava falling into the sea.
in short, the dive with giant manta rays was AWESOME and a must do. Truly. The mantas are very flirty amazing animals. Achim, the pilot I contacted to fly in Hawai'i is a wonderful person and even spoiled me with chocolate! Thanks!
Flying was great. I still have it. I can feel the wing, the wind... the ground as well... ;-)!
Tomorrow morning I am flying to HNL, tomorrow night to Alaska....

I want to live, I want to die

2009-02-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

As I am walking across the airport to board on my plane… leaving Neverland…
Me: “Sara, is that a cat that just crossed the landing strip?”
Sara: “A cat, you are kidding right?”
Me: “Oh no! They are going to shot at him! Poor cat!” (see reference)
Sara: “I just saw a monster quest marathon on tv about a cat-man in Guatemala, spotted in the airport”.
Sara and I are sitting on the Hawaiian airline flight in Pago Pago international airport. This time the restrooms are not working, but they are working on it.

I cannot believe it happened to me. You see people coming and leaving, but somehow it is hard to imagine the day in which you will be leaving too. You are speechless. So much to say, so many hugs, and tears hold behind your eyes.
At my tofa party at work there were two pigs size-2 cooked for me (pigs only come in size 2. That is when they are still young and good for cooking). 3 years ago when I first landed on this island, at the view of the 2 dead pigs on my lunch table I would have though “ohhhh poor babies!”. Now I just feel so honored by it. I got 2 pigs: cool.
The palagi group organized another tofa party for Liz and I (Liz is leaving next week). The theme was LOST (from an American TV series about a plane crash in a deserted mysterious and illogical tropical island – mainly, a place like this). I never saw the series, but I loved all the preparation behind it, from the matching t-shirts, dharma beers, dharmahol, fish cookies… and an amazing cake representing Tutuila with a Hawaiian airline plane crashed on it… Thanks you all for organizing it!!!

It is hard to leave the island. It is a (very relatively!) safe and known nest, but it is time for me to move on. I want to live, I want to die. I want to die knowing that I truly lived my life to my best (with occasionally relaxing breaks of course, hopefully at Gio’s SPA). I arrived at a stall on Neverland. I could not grow professionally anymore; personally, well, I cannot be 26 for the rest of my life. Or I will end up being a very old 26 years old woman with many cats.
It is time to stop being one of the lost kids of Neverland, to go back to the world and to grow just a little bit older (WOW! As soon as I am touching ground in Honolulu I will be 3 years older! How did it happened?). I will be LOST out there; a ghost in a crowed world where people do not acknowledge your presence with smiles or raised highbrows when you walk or drive along THE road, but where fresh vegetable are available to you anytime. What is it really REAL? The rock or the world out there? Is it us, the lost kids of Neverland, or is it them –the wondering ghosts of the cemetery (these are the ones that left the rock). I am going trough some sort of metamorphosis on this flight…

This week has been very busy packing, mailing (where? I am so homeless! Thanks Otto for welcoming all my packs!), cleaning… my fairy ladies once again ran to help me out. Thanks girls!!!!
I also saw “walking man” actually speaking and smiling and I took a bus with one of the most famous person on the island, “bee-beep” guy at the airport. What an unusual week.
All my stars seem to be at the right spot at the right time for me. I cannot wait to have a chance to meet with them all.

“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance;
they make the latitudes and longitudes”

It is 1:30am and I am ready to nap a bit, tomorrow is going to be an exciting day. I will fly to the big island, go diving with the giant manta rays, camp at a beach, and go up the mountain for the next 2 days paragliding. If I survive to this all I will write a line on the blog on Thursday for you to know that I am ok (when I fly back to Honolulu to catch the next fly to Alaska). If you do not hear from me or from Marsik –which I am going to meet in HNL- call the Hawaiian police. ;-)

Friday morning I will arrive in Anchorage, Snow Dave is picking me up and we are going to Fairbanks to get ready for a 11 miles hike to a hot spring out there. We should be back to civilization by Tuesday. Again if you do not hear from me by Tuesday… send somebody to look for us! I hope it won’t be too cold! ;-)!After that, I will be busy with the Iditarod…

I am living, I am living!

last weekend in Savai'i

2009-02-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

First stop: Manaia SPA... divine! not to mention how great it is to be with Gio' again. Lucy was my Valentine this year... awesome! ;-)I though i could not possibly leave this archipelago without visiting the very last, and oldest, island, Savai'i (from which the name Hawai'i comes from). How can you tell it is sunday in Samoa?Outriggers, fales, white sand beaches, coconuts... This church had quite a lava flow entering from the main door... don't forget that, like Hawaii, these islands were formed by an hotspot... which means lots of volcanoes....I love this sign too!Like in Rome... churches everywhere!
Finding bird nests in the lava tunnels...Sleeping on one of the most majestic trees in the world! A 30m high banyan tree. Unique. Must do.

The rental car was one of the high light as well... inefficient brakes, volatile roof, hand written license plate, cat pee? we loved it!
This church was destroyed by the waves of an hurricane. It is scaring to think about the power of the sea. Apparently the inhabitant of the village swam to the next village for more protection, while many others hided in the lava tubes.
This is the westernmost place on Earth (or the one closer to the day zone line). Tomorrow is just a sight away...
And here we have an old man having fun trowing cuconuts in the blow hole. It was just a show watching him laughing and saying "come on wave..." But the coconut did go flying out at least 20 meters! very impressing!!! It will be hard not to miss this place... tomorrow I am leaving...
Thanks Lucy for the great weekend!!! I will miss you!! Maybe see you in Bangor, city of happiness, next!

oh my!

2009-02-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

I slept on the top of a banyan tree 30 meters high well above any other tree
I said good bye to very good friends
I packed, packed, packed
I did not remember moving was so time-consuming
But I am nearly there... Last day at work today, another run to the post office to mail stuff to a friend's house (I am sooo homeless! what country should I mail my stuff to?)... then cleaning, packing, donations... I am trying to leave with just a backpack, it is easier hitch hiking that way! ;-)
i guess my next update is going to be written on sunday on the plane... my first time free before EXCITEMENT in HAWAII! big island to start.
Diving with giant manta rays, and the camping under the stars on top a mountain to be ready for 2 days of paragliding! Then Alaska....

some other days...

2009-02-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

Today I just feel like this. I want an hug. But tomorrow I am going to spoil myself at Gio's place. Italians, tropical rainforest, candles and cocunat oil.... And then explore a new place with Lucy. Few more hours...

Usually Jeremy is very good describing the absurdity or idiocrazy of Neverland (le mafuaga we also love it so much sometimes), but sometimes you are just not in the mood for it.

Lunch:

-“ok, so you pay $1 for the water, $1 for the juice, $4.50 for the sandwich, $6.00 for the burger…”. The waitress says as she looks blankly to me. Oh yes, she wants me to do the math: “so… I own you, let me see, $ 12.50, right?” “Right”, she says, taking the bills.

Paying a traffic ticket (the light of my truck was off one night):

“Did you fix the light”, the… I do not know what her job is… but you pay tickets to her… says.

“Yes, I did”. My proud answer (I changed it myself).

“is the car outside for me to check?”

“Yes”

“Uhmm.. is it hot outside?” (with a look like: "please tell me it is hot and that i should not go out for health reasons..")

“Well, yes, it is not like here in the A/C”.

“Yeah… It is ok (alas "I trust you, i won't go out to check on your truck..."). Just pay me the ticket… $10”. ($10 like anything else on this island: medicines? $10. Teeth work? $10. Doctor visit? $10. Blood analysis? $10.)

Paying bills:

No, actually, I cannot describe this. I still have to understand what happened there. I think most people all they know is that they need to be in the office sometimes in the day to enjoy the A/C. They have no idea of the kind of work they are doing. They all send you to see somebody else, unless you just stand there and say “No, thank, I will do it here, fa’mole mole”. Then explain step by step what they are supposed to do, where to click on the mouse…

10 more days... can’t wait to be homeless!

the new math

2009-02-12T01:39:00.000-08:00

I never liked mathematics as much as now.
Today I did this math:

+
1

=
2

+
2

I am exchanging my values… I like the idea of owning very little, but being able to experience life to the fullest. I am coming back to me! It was about time! ;-)!!!

Today I just realized that my washing machine can keep me flying for a couple of days… I always looked at it as an ugly white mysterious thing that washes cloths, but not today…
Today, as I was selling it, my washing machine was flying in the sky like a helium balloon, hundreds of tiny ropes hanging from the sides holding up one of the chair from my living room… and happily I was sitting in it, flying, enjoying the best thermals ever on top of Canco hill. I never though that a washing machine could have such a power!

Add my bed to the formula, I have enough for 4 days in Hawaii diving on the reef with giant manta rays at sunset, food, gas, sleep, plane to move from island to island... WOW! why did it take me so long to do this math?

Everything around me is slowly moving into a new dimension, nothing feels so solid anymore… chairs and tables are bubbling away, changing consistency and shape… they may be transformed into a piece of plane ticket to Ecuador… who knows… exciting! less than 2 weeks to go!

I feel this way

2009-02-10T01:56:00.000-08:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain

Heroes, Treasure Hunters, Italians and Latinos

2009-02-09T04:16:00.000-08:00

How could these past 5 days suddenly be so meaningful and inspiring?
Is it just I, or the island is changing?

Wednesday: diving.
There is really another world down there, so silent, peaceful, blue. Seeing a snail moving across a coral, or a lion fish standing on the reef takes you to another dimension.

(from http://www.followsabine.com/tvproject/uploaded_images/lion-fish-739346.jpg)

Thursday: I am a beautiful sexy hero.
Thursday I felt a hero. A beautiful sexy hero. The scientists from Ofu (Tom, Sea, Tylor and Carlo) needed a couple of instruments from Hawaii (since theirs broke) and I was able to get them in record time. Like in the Amaro Montenegro advertisement:

“The scientists were in difficulty. The thermoregulator in their wetlab broke and the corals where bleaching, one by one. Only a new thermoregular could save the experiment that would reveal so much about the corals genetics and resistance to climate warning. The closer new thermoregulator available was located thousands of kilomenters away in Hawaii, and the communication ways were very limited. “But I did it”. Through my doctor’s son (I meet the doctor in the morning, he was mentioning his son to me), I was able to get the new instrument to the scientists. Amaro Montenegro, sapore vero.”

Friday: fishermen and treasure hunters.
As I was at the airport picking up the thermoregulator and a couple of more things, I could not help but noticing a big oceanographers crew coming off the plane (you can recognize oceanographers at a distance, same way as you could recognize archeologists). I am curious about them, and –serendipity- one of the crew invites me on board after work.

But order, first there is lunch on Lui’s boat. The best food on island is served on these fishermen’s boat. A small San Diego “little Italy” crew is with us for lunch: Angelo is an American-italian (ok, I have to admit it now, such a thing can truly exist). He has never been in Italy in his life, but he is fluent in Genovese. Not even the people from Genova speak Genovese so well anymore. Italian took over the local languages a bit everywhere, contaminating them. But not in Little Italys abroad; I find this amazing. Lui and Angelo tell me fascinating stories of growing up in Little Italy in San Diego. I wanted to go there now and see the roads where they grow up with my own eyes, and see the shops they talk about. Little Italy changed, they say, but it still has a little bit of that flavor. I want to go there before Genovese would be forgotten or mixed there too. Am I like them? I left Italy 10 years ago, I have no home to go now that I am leaving the island. I am shipping my boxes to a friend in Oregon. Am I becoming some sort of “Italian-???world immigrant?????
Lui will be leaving during the night. I won’t be here when he comes back. But I am definitely going after his son again next time I am in Portland.
WOW, I am going to miss this happy crew!!!!

The oceanographers will be coming in and out American Samoa for the next 9 months. What???? A crew coming regularly in Samoa now that I leave? Bummer! There are 4 guys filming a video for National Geographic. There is a treasure hunter; he is the one with the shoulder-long blond hair in the recovery crew at the start of the Titanic movie. No, he is not the actor; he is the one the actor was impersonating. I talk a bit more with other crewmembers. I never meet oceanographers so vague about scientific work. Usually scientists would talk forever and ever about their projects, but this crew… nope… we are just doing some seafloor mapping. There are two kick-ass instruments from Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, accompanied by 4 guys. It is a privately founded expedition (no close shoes policy enforced). Ladies and gentlemen, the treasure hunters landed in Neverland!

Saturday: Latin night
I cannot but think why this does not happen more often. It is wonderful; it makes this island a true home. Mabel and Maliuska (the minuscule Peruvian twins) prepared a traditional dinner on Juan’s boat. From 7:00pm to 11:00pm we hang out on the boat enjoying each other company. Ivo and his 15 years old cousin or with us too (Lui said something about Ivo, now I understand, he is truly gorgeous). I get seasick after few hours. It is embarrassing as the boat is armored in the safe quite Pago Pago Harbour.
We go to dance at Avaloni down town in Pago. I usually avoid going out, I am generally scared of guys, but with this crew I feel so protected. Once in a while, the DJ puts latin music and we regularly occupy the dancing floor. God I love it! Ivo is a great dancer. I think there are plenty of guys that know how to dance out there… in the world. I start thinking about spending April in Ecuador… The Police appear at the door. “Ops… hide Ivo’s cousin, he is underage! Where did they go?” The Policeman is dancing on the floor with a lady….
A guy I meet a while ago tells me that he heard I am leaving and “please, please, don’t go; really, please, don’t go”. Of course I melt, but I do want to go. I want to go to Ecuador and dance salsa and merengue EVERY night.

Really, what is happening to this island? Is it changing or it is just me?

Johnny walks in later in the night. I am so incredibly happy to see him, I was so afraid I would have to leave the island without having a chance to tell him good bye. Johnny, Lui, Juan… I felt like they always treated me like a daughter. Johnny tells me “Now, how can we approve the guy you are going out with, if you leave the island?”. I hug him. He is a great man.
I met Johnny about 2 years ago, maybe more. He passed on a “island-tour” by my house and I invited him for dinner. Good olive oil for him. He then introduced me to Lui. I met Juan randomly one night I went out for dinner with James Bond.
Maybe it is that they are Italians, or Latin… like me they laugh and enjoy the vino; like me they brake glasses with their hands while talking; they listen and share and teach me. God, I am going to miss these guys!!!
It 3:30 am when I finally go to bed.

Sunday: “La sera leoni, la mattina coglioni”
(“Like lions in the night, like stupids in the morning”).
The 2 weeks mark. Three more flights, on the forth one I will be leaving the island for (relatively) good. I spend the day packing, sleeping, studying, working on my video application…I want to see the Latin crew again, but I still have so much work. I wish last night would had never have ended. I want to dance more, being hold between strong arms, my eyes closed and my nostrils filled with perfume, feeling my partner’ body next to mine and follow his movements. There is nothing like a good merengue or a good salsa, and the effects do last for a while…

fish and bicycle?

2009-02-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

As I am running through my stuff, I suddenly realized how many uncompleted things I will leave behind. Creams half used, books half read (I always read different books at the same time, depending on the mood), Italian goodies half eaten…

I got so many visits this month that I got enough chocolate to last 6 months (even though I have to admit I am hitting hard on my addiction these days).

I always like saving the good things for last… I think it is generally human nature.

But sometimes the end arrives earlier than you planned, and you realize you won’t have time to enjoy it all.

It happened to my parents. It happened to me too. When I was about 8, my mom prepared a mozzarella in carrozza (a kind of tastier, healthier, Italian version of cheese sandwich), my favorite dish. I left the cheese center as a last bite, so that my last bite would be the tastier of all, and I could walk away from the table with the higher degree of satisfaction. BUT, suddenly, my brother appeared behind my shoulders, grabbed it and ate it. Finished! Uma! The last tastier bit of mozzarella in carrozza was gone forever. I saved it last, and never had a chance to taste it. Worthless.

It was an eye opening experience, but even so, I still have the tendency of saving the best for the end.

Now I want to leave Carpe Diem, or to be more precise, the verse that come before that: “sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi spem longam reseces” “be smart, drink you wine (-Maria!!! Mil gracias por el vino Chianti!! Lo tome’ con amigos…uhmm… rico!!-), and rescale the hopes you had for a far away future with the ones that will happen soon”.

Moral of the story: I am trying to enjoy all I have at the best these days!

I am sick (uff… again) and today I took the day off to rest. I decided to pick up one of the half-read book, to see if I can finish it. It is called “Kiss my tiara”. It is a feministic book. We do not really have feminism in Italy, so I was curious to read about it. But sometime you need to know so much about American culture that I really get totally lost.

Can somebody please explain me what does this mean?

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle”. I really do not get it. It is not on wikipedia.

This book won’t make it off-island (although it has great phrases like “every time I break up with a boyfriend I think: this is one less jerk I may end up marrying!”).

Life is...

2009-02-01T11:21:00.000-08:00

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans"Every morning, when I wake up, I feel very sad about leaving.

Every evening, when I go to bed, I feel very excited about my next adventure.
During the day, I am crossed by a rainbow of feelings, triggered by my six senses: the view of a flower, a dog… the smell of BBQ along the road or of the tuna canneries… the laughter of a group of people, an acid remark at work or a nice one…
Everything is at its extremes. It is either “I am going to miss this so much”, or “I can’t wait not to have to deal with this anymore”.

This week has been a good one. SnowDave came down from (now cold and dark) Alaska to get a full recharge of vitamin D and it is great to have a piece from the past here right now. I have been busy and sickish, so I did not have a chance to take him out walking, but he was still able to enjoy lots of peace and sleep.

The highlights for him were (alas “what to do here for a week, if you are visiting”):

traditional umu at Tisa’s,
snorkeling,
coastal tour,
hike to Mt. Alava,
gnocchi night (29 of the month only)
Palagi Olympics.

The highlights for me were (“what to do here for a week, if you live here”):

3 hours in the ER waiting room to get tetanus shot (then I entered in the room and I said that if they can give me the drugs, I could do the injection myself. That worked, because within 2 minutes I had my shot).
Resignation letter
More medicines for throat and ear pain
Gnocchi night (the 29 of the month)
Scuba diving
Palagi Olympics

Lucy and I

The rest of the world

2009-01-29T09:32:00.001-08:00

“Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is mystery,
Today is a gift,
This is why it is called
PRESENT”

-The Kung Fu Panda-

It is 5:30 in the morning and outside the rooster are given their daily “chicchirichi” opera (if you were earing with an English ear, that this would be “kukurudoooluu” or something like that…). I am NOT going to miss this.
But I am going to miss all the rest. The music in the aiga buses, the blue of the coral waters, the bright colors of sunrises and sunsets, my neighbors singing on Sundays, the palagi e-mails, my office mate, my castle, wearing flip flop everyday…. This and more, I am going to miss….

I am getting ready to leave the island.

The decision was a bit immediate, at the same time well planned. It was not worth for me to stay here any longer if I would not have a possibility to grow professionally, and it seemed like all the new agency policies were made against my own interested. I am going to miss them, but it is their loss! I got the rest of the world!!!

Take Plan A out of the list, plan B, C, D and E are still quite valid!

I am leaving late February. The plan so far is quite exciting:

3 days paragliding on the big island of Hawai’I (I had to do it, I need to go back on the wing!)
3 weeks in Alaska backpacking, helping out a friend running the Iditarod, snowboarding, exploring, maybe paragliding more?
4 days in San Francisco paragliding (well, if James Bond is there I may spend a couple of days with him as well…;-) )
1 week in Las Vegas for a conference and for some backpacking in the desert
???? so far my ticket ends in San Francisco…

I will have to come back on island eventually to finish collecting my data, sort my staff, and hike to the top of Mt. Silisili in Savai’I in Western Samoa and do a head stand there with Lisa, which is still on my “to do” list.

Italy is also waiting for me, it would be nice maybe to be there without pending tragedies. I could see my grandma and family, paraglide some more, cross the Alps east to west (any taker?). I am due for a visit with friends in Spain. Morocco and Egypt… I may as well go there for a while, since I will be on that side of the globe…

It is so exciting, it is all about me. It is sad, this place has been my home for 3 years now.
Stay tuned, because my blog is soon going to be “My life on the globe, sidetracked by few trips to American Samoa...”

...There is light outside now… I need to get ready for a day out on a boat on the north shore… can’t complain, can’t complain… ;-)

Sharks or Barracudas?

2009-01-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

(sorry, no pictures.... my underwater camera apparently drowned...)

Would you rather face a shark or a barracuda? I asked myself this question yesterday while snorkeling at airport beach. But to go in order, let’s go back in time to about a week ago, at the hospital.

Me: “Hi, I am looking for doctor B., is she here?”
Nurse: “yes, she is the one in that office”. I walked to the office and waited at the door.
Me: “Doct. B.? Hi, I am Barbara, I was wondering how are you enjoying our beautiful island” (I knew she arrived few weeks ago).
Dott. B: “Hum, yes, it is wonderful”
Me (taking out of my bag an homemade jam, a box of chocolate and a card): “Well, here I have a special present for you to make your permanence sweeter”.
She took the package, looked at me perplex, looked behind my shoulders, either to see if I came with somebody else (“is this a kind of reality show?”) or maybe she was just planning an escape route in the case I turned out to be a crazy woman.
Me: “please, read the card, it is a surprise!” (all excited).
She read the card, looked even more carefully behind my shoulders and asked me if she is in a reality show. Then she hugged me and thanked me. I felt like a very good person… and then I asked her to give a look at my open feet (still bleeding from the glass cut).

Few weeks ago, while a was in Oregon, a friend told me that her aunt was coming to American Samoa to work at the hospital. Well, let’s surprise her! I think there is nothing in the world as receiving a hand-delivered unexpected package. Especially if you are in a small island in the South Pacific and it is homemade jam and chocolate from a relative living far away.

Yesterday I took Dott. B. snorkeling at airport beach. I like this place particularly because it has deep pools and is well protected from breaking waves. Lucy, Oscar and another visiting guy, Ben, joined us.
The snorkeling was great, until Lucy shouted “Shark!”. She was farther out than us. I got to Oscar as a iron nail to a magnet.
Me: ”Did she say ‘shark’?”
Oscar: “Yes”
Me: “Did she say what kind?”
Oscar: “No”
Me: “Did she say how big?”
Oscar: “No”
Me: “Do you want to get out?”
Oscar: “uhm… Yes”.

Very bravely, we stayed on our spot for a little bit to make sure Lucy was fine (and that the shark was not coming for us). “It must be just a friendly reef shark anyway… Lucy knows how to deal with it… yeah, yeah…” Then, all close up together we started swimming to the shore. Until a massive fat silver thing separated Dott. B and me from Oscar…

Me: “Oscar! Barracuda, Barracuda! She is coming for you!”

It was the biggest barracuda I ever saw in my life. My first thoughts were a mental scan of anything silver that I may be wearning… the ring! Covered! The camera? No, I left on the shore, it broke. The earring? Covered! A barracuda bite must not be pleasant, and they go for silver things. Considering the size of the barracuda… (why do they do silver underwater cameras? They should be orange or red or something like that! Don’t they know that there are barracudas out there?).
Barracudas just have that decided predatory look that does not make you think anything like “uh! What a cute fish!”. Plus, let’s face it, I was born and raised in Rome. The bigger alive fish I ever saw in my life were those huge fat red fishes that the Chinese restaurants keep in their aquarium. Barracuda and sharks are definitely still very exciting for me.

I though of the soft sensitive nose that sharks have. I imagined Lucy swimming with a soft cute teddy-bear shark. I missed her, I wanted to be with her…
Sharks or barracudas? If it has to be, sharks please…

Vets in Neverland

2009-01-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

Time is flying! … and I am digging it! Stay tuned, because there is air of big changes!

Last week I had the greatest pleasure to host 3 vets in my house. As I mentioned before in my blog, from a western point of view, we have a stray dog problem on this island. From a western point of view, I call my cats “the lucky winners of the pet lottery” but, from a local point of view, they are “my pests control and security system”.

There are many stray dogs around that sometime makes walking challenging, unless you learn to walk with a golf club and few stones in your pocket (not to mention the challenges of planes landing...)

The Vets, like “vets without borders” came here to evaluate the island situation before their return toward the end of this year .With others, they are my heroes, and I was delighted hosting them for few nights.

“I know you!” Byron and I said uni-sound as we were introduced to each other. Byron worked here with another group of vets a couple of years ago; it was great to see people coming back to the rock. And great to have vets looking at my cats and dogs (I definitely learned a lot from them, including that Silvyax is not a permanently pregnant female as we though, but a big fat male... that kind of shocked me as I would have to change her, err, his name to Silvio, which would make me think to much about Berlusconi... not good. Sea proposed Sylvan instead).

(Emma and I after Nala's operation, enjoying her deep sleep to clean her very well...)

On Wednesday they left to check out Western Samoa as well, and I got another full load of guests with Tom and Sea (and later on Tylor as well). Tom (my right) and Sea (your right) always bring positive changes in my life, another exciting story soon to be told…

On Saturday, Tom, Sea and I (after killing ourselves with paragliding video… yes, yes… it is time for me to get back on the air…) went to the beach to soak a little bit, and escape the heat of this warm summer. A killer glass on the coral reef was waiting for me, to prey on my foot. Soon after, the killer glass also got Tom’s finger. Horrified with blood pouring out of our bodies, we decided we needed some medical attention. The idea of long hours waiting in the hospital ER made us tremble… but, ehi! “The Vets and fully functional today!”. I phoned to the clinic to ask if they had time to see us “we have 2 cuts”. Turns out they understood we have “2 cats”. I insist I do not speak with an accent, other people that listen with an accent…Anyway, we made it patient number 34 and 35 of the day, the last ones after 33 between dogs and cats visited, spared and neutered… Thanks Byron, Larry and Emma!!!("Cut, cut! no cat!".
"DOA" on the chair stands for "Department of Agriculture" and not for "Dead On Arrival" as most people may think...)

Useful links:

http://www.samoanewsonline.com (Article about this visit on the local newspaper)
http://www.ashumanesociety.org/ (American Samoa Humane Society)
http://www.animalbalance.net/ (Emma is with them, they are organizing the next group down)
http://www.veterinaryventures.com/ (the group that was on island 2 years ago. Byron with them)
http://www.veterinaryventures.com/images/VetVentures_AmSam.mov (I slide show from 2 years ago)

Serendipity

2009-01-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

Serendipity: “the gift of making fortunate discoveries by accident”.

My life is truly filled with serendipity, but what I am really a master in is “passive serendipity”. People or events discover me just when I need them. I call it “my good star”, and I have faith in it.

This week has been a perfect example of serendipity:

My dog, Nala, was bitten and had a big cut on her leg: I had 3 veterinary sleeping in my house (the table is transformed into vet clinics, 3 stitches and 1 glass of wine);
I am having a bad time at work: 2 angles (Sea and Tom) that I love so much came down with Thursday flight and moved in with me to give me support and good advices;
I had a stressful week and I am low in chocolate: another friend write me an e-mail that is coming down to Pago on Sunday and he is bringing chocolate and good Latin music for me.
The last week of February is going to be a big confrontational week and will prematurely set the direction of my life: SnowDave chose this week to come down from Alaska and visit me!
I step on a very sharp glass and deeply cut my foot (and I do not want to go to the hospital and loose 4 hours to have it look at): ehi! The vets are in town! I get a full visit and medicine from them in 10 minutes.

How do I do it, I do not know; maybe it is just a positive way to look at life that makes me believe that things and people will work out in the best of the way. I won’t try to scientifically explain it, I just digging it!

plan D.... & E

2009-01-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

Last week, I though I had my next year well figure it out (for the first time in my life I had a plan!). There were 3 possible outcomes, depending on how other people stars would align with mine (I will announce the lucky winner at the end of march, when I am back from the Idiratod in Alaska):

Plan A: go back to school through EPA. In this case, I would start taking classes on-line while finishing collecting data, and move to Oregon next year at the end of my contract;
Plan B: go back to school without EPA. In this case I will have to move to Oregon in fall to get a T.A. or G.R.A. to pay my tuition fees;
Plan C: do not go back to school, quit my job, and travel around the world for a year or so...

Then, 2 days ago, I received 3 e-mails, one from Spain, one from the States, one from Japan, all about the same job position. Effectively, the job seems perfect for me. So, I decided to add a Plan D:

Plan D: be a caretaker of the islands of the Great Barrier.

I would suggest you to apply as well! You can read everything about it at: www.islandreefjob.com
That said, if I make it to the top 50, you will have to vote for me! ;-)
And, why not, let me add plan E, just in case:

Plan E: you never know!!!

my new roommate

2009-01-11T15:39:00.001-08:00

By the way, I got a new roommate Kayla… As you can probably sense, she is fanatical about jigsaw puzzles...

I still have one guest room open and the greenish gecko lodge is still full operational…booked full this month!

craving for adventures

2009-01-10T01:57:00.000-08:00

I am craving for adventures; I am craving for new experiences. I am missing that “controlled” adrenaline boosts that make you feel so… present, existing?
The bus in front of me this morning told me not to worry, be happy. I won’t worry, I am feeling positive.

When in Oregon, destiny put me in front of a book called “Hell or high water”, about a whitewaterkayaking expedition on the Tsangpo river in Tibet. It captivated me. Inspired me. I honestly still believe the paddlers are crazy, risking their lives for…what?
But maybe I know what is “what” is. Or more correctly, maybe I know of that “what” feels. I can relate to them.
I never did anything that extreme, or at least not intentionally (I could claim a record flying double on the Dolomites… I was so tense that I could feel –or imagine- even my ears moving to change the body weight distributed on the wing).
But I can still remember my first take off on the Andes in Venezuela. I was 21. Twenty-one ( with 3 years of hard core flying experience). What do I do if I get a daughter like me????

(I am the pink wing in the middle)

What happened to that little girl traveling with her glider by herself, exploring new places or testing new launching places? If life wouldn’t have hit me so hard, would I have become at age 30 like one of those extreme paddlers in the book? How did I become a woman with a stable job and 3 cats? Is it too late to go back?

(my backpack -my glider- and I, hitchhiking to the top of the mountain. I did all the trip sitting on the roof of the van....)

(Turns out that launching at sunset is not a good idea. Especially if you do not know the landing place that well, and if you end up flying on top of a car driving down the mountain screaming to please stop and wait for me. Then I asked them to drive me to a pub in the first town on the way...)

I just watched a documentary ("Encounters at the end of the world") about people in Antarctica. I always dreamed to go there. I was so close to go, got my position on an scientific boat, then my dad and my brother announced their visit in the States. It was soon after my mom passed away, and this would be our first (and last) traveling trip together since. I could not say no to them. And Now I am so glad I did not.

Antarctica is apparently filled with dreamers like I used to be. There are bus drivers and blue-blooded plumbers. In summer, that said. In winter, once the plane stop flying, there is only a handful of scientists and members of the 300 degree club. Still, the Lonely Planet make a travel guide of Antarctica. I wonder if it is bigger than the guide they made for the Samoas. The base of McBurdo remind me of this island. People dreaming of the far south there, people dreaming of a tropical island here. In one of the scene of the documentary, the author was interviewing a geologist. I was surprise to see, behind the scientist on his right, an old creamy phone. I would imagine all new technology down there, rather than old 80’s surplus staff. Then I looked closely at the phone… god, it looked familiar… way too familiar… I looked at my right… ladies and gentlemen, I just discovered that Antarctica and American Samoa buy their phones from the same source (when you get the line, the local phone company informs you that you need to buy a special instrument or your line won’t work… it turns out they are talking about this phone…)!!! Check this out (can you see the phone in the documentary?)

It must be a sign...

Post Scriptum!!!!!
I just came up with a new telephone hypothesis!
A while ago, a woman here was waiting and waiting and waiting for the beds she shipped for her kids to arrive. Finally she went to the post office trying the track the parcel... after looking and looking for it, the post office tracked it down: by mistake, the beds ended up in Antarctica!
So, my new hypothesis is that the phones were indeed meant to be shipped here in American Samoa but, by mistake they were sent to Antarctica (probably together with my friend's beds). The scientists though it was cool to have something meant to be in the warm tropical south Pacific, and never returned them...
This last hypothesis seems more probably to me, as i can not possible think of somebody actually buying such a phone of his own will. Especially if you are going to Antarctica. You would probably look for some sort of North Face or Columbia style phone... If you own one, you probably either were tricked into it, or you received it for free and decided, why not, to keep it.

The wicth returned! W la Befana!

2009-01-07T23:47:00.000-08:00

I am not even sure how, but I made it, I made it back to the rock.

I am back to my cats, my castle, the school bus that I met every morning in Nu’uuli coming from the opposite direction and that smells so bad, back to stop-teenager-pregnancy advertisements (I think this is my favorite –the SEX sign was awesome too, but they put it down. This says: " You think being in school sucks? Having a baby sucks a whole lot more"),

back to corruption and unfairness, slow internet connection, work, back to blue inspiring coral waters, green steep cliff, rooster screaming (or chanting?) all night long, back to 10,000,000 starts in the sky…how can you ever describe what it means to be back to the rock?

I got frustrated on my first day to work. “Panta rei” (I really do not understand my the Greek alphabet is called “symbol” in Microsoft word??), said Heraclitus, “everything flows”…. I loved him in school, maybe because I wanted my life to change at that time and I could not wait for time to pass.

Those rivers one steps into are not the same. other and yet other waters keep flowing on.
Into the same rivers we step and yet we do not step, we exist and at the same time we do not exist.

After all, one does not step into the same river twice. waters disperse and come together again ...
they keep flowing on and flowing away

In the end, there is only flux, everything gives way

Everything is in flux and nothing abides,
everything flows and nothing stays fixed,
everything is constantly changing and nothing stays the same.

So, bad day today, a bright new day tomorrow! Panta rei!

Tuesday was a very important festivity in Italy, and one of my favorites. A witch, called Befana, flies on her broom from house to house and leaves, in socks left outside or next to the fireplace, sweets to good kids and coal to bad ones. She is a modernization of the Roman/Sabine goddess Strina… it is funny how this pagan festivity happen to be on the 12^th night, the same night the 3 kings arrived to give present to baby Jesus…

I had no gold, incense or myrrh to share with my friends, but I did bring something special from off-island… an oven full of injera, a big bag of berbere’ and another one of shiro!

Injera is a traditional fermented bread typical in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. About once a month, somebody volunteer to cook something special for everybody. Since I cook Italian every day, I decided to challenge myself with some Eritrean/Ethiopian cuisine, since I lived with Biniam for so long…

Well, on my opinion, it was good!

Today I rearranged the house. I am that kind of person. I took it from my dad. He loved rearranging furniture. But not in our house, in everybody else house. I remember going to so many dinners in which my dad would ask the hosts to move their furniture around, or just do it himself... I am too shy to do it (plus, outside of Italy it may sound like something rude to do), but I love rearranging the furniture in my place once in a while (maybe even too often)… it is my art, my form of expressing myself… I love empty rooms that I fill with staff! Maybe this is why I love moving so much!

Airports

2009-01-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

Of all the places in the world, isn't it ironic that airport are the places where it is the hardest to find a clock??
My flight to Honolulu was canceled... if my next flight to Maui is 1/2 hours more late (it is already 1 hour late), I will be stuck in Maui for the next 4 days.... life sucks sometimes.... ;-)!

welcome 2009!

2009-01-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

30 December: Fishing for Him

After 2 days of blizzard in Mt Bachelor, we came back to Portland on a perfect clear day… wish we were snowboarding, but at least Akiko finally got a view of that spectacular dormant volcano.

My girlfriends sold us (Akiko and I) this trip as a “fishing” trip. In reality, I already set my eyes on a big fish. (How does a man feel when he goes fly-fishing? I wonder). My big fish is too experienced to be catch, I know, but I still love to fish for him. It is something as mysterious as why would men ever spend hours with their legs in cold water to get a fish.

Last night, for a woman night out, we decided to go fishing… for a fishermen son!

I live on a small island, not many fish there. Many of my friends claim that they know the perfect man for me, he is somewhere off-island of course. One of the tuna fishery captain that download his catch in the American Samoa’ canneries, kept me one evening telling me everything about his son. He works in an Italian restaurant in Portland. And we decided to go for him!(I love the background picture...)

“Looking for Italian food?” “Actually, we are looking for a man” “Uhm, I hope you can find him on the menu!”. Unfortunately, he was spending Xmas with his dad in California, but we had so much fun chatting with the kitchen staff. They were very thrilled as well and had as much fun as us. The waitress took a picture of us and sent it to him “there are 4 girls looking for you: one from Italy, one from Spain, one from Japan, and one from here”. Apparently he is very handsome and everybody loves him: we will come back looking for him in March! Stay tuned! Funny evening, wonderful company and great food!

31 December: Happy New Year!

When Maria announced that she will come to Corvallis for Eve New Year I was “out of my skin” (means “very very happy”)! We met with Samudra and Brian in a Chinese restaurant to drive south together. The fortune teller cookie I chose said “Your fondest dream will come true within this year” “Uf!” I though, “I only have 11 hours to realize it?!?!?!”.

What is your most profound dream anyway? 11 hours are not enough to figure it out, less to find the steps to realize it. It is not easy to narrow dreams to only a special one. But at Eve New Year, I knew: being with my best friends, and play “do you know Peter”, of course.

The theme of the party was "shine!". We borrowed some shining dresses from Biniam. I used to own that black chinese dress, but after Biniam wore it in a Halloween Party (the dress fit much better on him than on me!"

Peter who?

We wore red underwear (Italian tradition), ate 12 grapes in 12 seconds the last 12 seconds of the year (Spanish traditions –it is great to hug people and wish them happy new year with your checks filled with juicy grapes…), and woke up in the morning to see the sunrise (Japanese tradition –ok, we tried, but we did not really wake up properly… plus it was cloudy and rainy this morning you could not really see anything…). We ate ningera (Eritrean food from Biniam), and screamed “Happy New Year” in 9 different languages.

Ready with the grapes

(I am missing the first 4 countries... it starts with "Feliz Anyo Nuevo, Carajo!")

In Italy there is a saying that sleeping with somebody on New Year eve is good luck. Well, I had a full bed!!! ;-)

Last year I was so eager to start a new life that I anticipated my own New Year eve of a couple of weeks. I did not really want this year to finish, 2008 brought me many good things. I feel like 2009 is going to be quite exciting as well! Happy New Year you all!

one day

2008-12-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

How to start a good day...
There was a blizzard, but it was impossible to stop!
Tyson, Maria, AkikoMe, Akiko, Maria Jose united

Preparing Lasagna

Merry Xmas and all the rest

2008-12-26T23:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everybody!

I am now in a wonderful warm house in Sunriver, getting ready for a full day of snow boarding in Mt Bachelor in the company of the best friends ever.

The blizzard lasted few more days; this means that I had to cancel my GRE, reschedule it, have it re-cancelled again and… well, I guess my only option now is to take it in Alaska in March…

The good thing, I got to spend a lot of time in a warm house meeting new people!

Maria and Tyson arrived from Spain the 24^th, and together we spent Xmas eve and Xmas day. It was fun watching pictures of us taken at the same house 9 years ago. Akiko made it later in the evening from Japan, after being stuck in San Francisco for ½ day. It is still snowing… it hasn’t really stop in a week… awesome… Can’t wait to be in the snow tomorrow...

2008-12-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from the past week...
Hawaii: Happy Birthday Erika!!! and Cheryl also came and meet me! How great!Different perspectives: "oh no! A boat crashed on the reef! What is terrible!"
"yes! I hope they had an insurance!"
"...I was referring to the corals..."
Hilton's pets As soon as we landed in San Francisco and I felt the cold air I though: "ok, I experienced winter, now I am ready to go back to the island". Then I felt so frisky and energetic!!! Big place!!
I won't put a picture of JB here, but I will put a picture of one of the meal I had with him! He is even better than that! ;-)
Joanna and Paulo Couchsurfing next to Sacramento!!! Making a better world, one couch at the time!

Snow Dave!!! Planning a fun weekend in Nevada desert next year! Yeah!!San Francisco from the bridge... as I was kind of lost...San Francisco from the air

A warm night of songs in Biniam's and Liz's... That is where my furniture ended up when i left! it is like being back home... no, it is home!!

Corvallis....

I rule!!

2008-12-20T22:48:00.000-08:00

We just made it through a blizzard and we are now practicing head-stands in a warm house in Portland. It is nice to look at the world from a different point of view once in while. My GRE on Monday, flights??? Depends from snow!
This week passed fast!
Sunday and Monday I had the pleasure to meet Joanna, from Poland, and Paulo, from Portugal. I found them through Couch Surfing and I decided to drive few extra miles to meet them and crash on their couch. Couchsurfing is one of the best ideas ever. It has even recently been recognized as NGO. It helps connecting travelers with travelers, sharing culture and experiences between hosts and guests, making the world a smaller and friendlier place, a couch at the time. I LOVE having guests on the rock of course, but going out and visiting new people once in a while is great. I arrived to their house after a long stressful drive (and after crashing a Japanese barbecue while looking for their flat) and I was immediately welcome in the best European fashion… cheese and wine… felt like home instantaneously!
Through Joanna and Paulo I heard stories of other fellow travelers. This one I loved, especially because it proves that woman are more rationale than men and that they would not give their passport to a rubber the day before their flight. Woman logic is so indescribably straightforward that even the rubber decided it was just better to flee.
I had 2 wonderful priceless evening in full European fashion; very healthy indeed, it slows down my Americanizing process. Like eating cold meat, or filling my plate with first, second, starter and dessert (all on the same plate); this habitat is quite common in the States, but unexpected in Italy.
Joanna was so nice to also wake me up in the morning, prepare a wonderful breakfast, and drive me to work. She also picked me up and took me shopping. I repaid preparing fresh gnocchi with my favorite sage-mushroom-walnut sauce. I am so glad I met them!
I also have to mention that the ESRI “Building a geodatabase” training I attended was G.R.E.A.T and it is highly recommended to any GIS person.
The drive from Sacramento to San Francisco was very nice, a part the fact I missed one turn and I ended up downtown SFO… nice buildings, but it was heard asking for direction (even if you knock on people’s car windows from your car they would ignore you). For dinner, I met with SnowDave, down from Alaska for the AGU meeting. The world can be small indeed. I also loved to be in JB’s arms once before until… well, who knows?
Liz and Tom came to pick me up at the Portland airport and we drove straight south to Corvallis, another couple of hours, since a blizzard was coming… apparently it hasn’t stop ever since!!!
Thursday and Friday I had meeting with different EPA folks for my project…. In 2 days I collected so much information and meet so many people that I feel I have enough work to last for the rest of the year. I really got so much momentum going on, that my project feels to me like an accelerating body in absence on any opposite force…
And finally, the big news: Jane Lubchenco was appointed the head of NOAA! (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008543057_webobamafish.html)
I feel like I have been partying since I found out. She is one of the most amazing wonderful and inspiring women I ever met in my life, and she has all my support and trust. Good hopes for the future!

Before I go

2008-12-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

Before I go (leave the class to San Francisco) I wanted to mention something.
I recently finished the class on-line I was taking. Through it, I met very nice people and I hear lots of good words of encouragement. In particular, a quote from a fellow student hit my heart:

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

Friends, sometimes I wish we would live all together, and I could see you much more often. But the precious treat I get back from you by being so scattered around the world, is that my world has no boundaries and no place without a welcoming friend (at least so far!). May you be an old friend meet many years ago, or a new one that just opened his/her door to me. I am so grateful to you all for giving my chance to see the world. And maybe the reason why I live in a tropical island it is because you always wanted to go there! Thanks for the ones that come to visit, and waiting for the ones planning on it! Thanks for the ones flying miles to meet me somewhere else, and thanks for the ones opening the doors of their home to me after I fly for miles (not to menction the airport pick-up that always rocks!) I think I can never say it too much: my heart is filled with gratitude for you all for giving me such an exciting and warm life! I love you all!!!

And just in these days…
Joanna and Paulo: thank you so much for welcoming such a random traveler like me in your home; I had such a blast with you guys!
SnowDave thanks for coming to have dinner with me in San Francisco!

JB, thanks for the sunshine... ;-)
Akiko, you are awesome flying all the way from Japan to come and see us in Oregon!
Maria Jose and Tyson, bring some good food from Spain for this Xmas in Oregon, I miss you guys so much!

Liz, Biniam, Elly... what can I say? Rob, I could not be without you neither! ;-)
Samudra, being your bride maid on your traditional wedding in Sri Lanka was just something unbelievable; I cannot wait for you to arrive in Oregon too!
Dug, how could I ever miss Karin’s Iditarod!?! Looking forward to meet all the Clan again, you guys are so special and made my staying in Alaska memorable!

ok... I won't have time to menction you all... but you know me... LOVE!!!

Off Island!!!! Life!!!

2008-12-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

It happened! Now I know, again: there is still a world out there, passed miles of blue ocean. This time the flight was not too bad. Usually i feel like cattle boarded on the plane and kept as quite as possible through semi-hibernation. This time I wore my warmest snowboarding hat and i embrace the big warm guy sitting next to me. Who said spill over is not nice? I missed him and froze my side when he left for the restroom...
Hawaii was cold, but still much warmer than Sacramento where I am now. My past few days have been wonderful:
Friday in Honolulu: shopping, friends and James Bond
Saturday in San Francisco: great food and more James Bond
Sunday to Sacramento: exciting driving and couchsurfing with Europeans!
Monday- Tuesday to Sacramento: all about geodatabases (and more couchsurfing)

Friday in Honolulu
One day lay over to a bigger island was a real pleasure. It is not too cold there, people still wear Hawaiian t-shirts and flip flops, and life is more... vibrant. There are shops, tons of shops, restaurant, safe dogless walks, fresh vegetable and fruits... all the commodities of a western world, still in a island setting. No wonder Hawaii is so dam expensive.
After 6 months of shopping deprivation I wondered and gasped in front of shops window, try any sort of fresh samples, I even had a woman flattening my horns (they are always there, right on the forehead) and hardly restrain from the need to buy anything (mostly everything) that is not readily available on island.
The only hot buy was chocolate and a pair of semi-close shoes I may need in the continent. I hang out with John and Erika all morning, and went to Erika's surprise birthday party to the Marianna, one of the last Hawaiian bar (which also has some ornaments from the bar where Magnum P.I. was filmed -I though my brother would have loved it).
Still exhausted from all the shopping and the red eye flight from Samoa, I decided to head to the Hilton and enjoy one of their couches for a nap.
James Bond was on a mission on another Pacific island and happened to be passing to Hawaii at the same time as me... what a treat... He arrived shortly after. His boss with him. My not-relationship with JB is so well known at this point that, on my side, I could say something like "I have a boyfriend but he does not know it" ;-)

Saturday flying
Saturday we all flow to San Francisco, which took most of the day anyway… JB keeps on leaving me speechless. The cold air in SFO made me frisky! I rented a car so that I could move more easily and faster around California these days and mainly because if I get too comfortable with island life and driving, in this case, I will seriously need some rehabilitation program once I decide to leave. I offered a ride to JB’s boss, but he elegantly declined. I can imagine the calculations in his mind: “Italian + woman + did not drive faster than 25m/h for the past 6 month + did not pass or was passed by a car for the past 6 month + did not see a traffic light for the past 6 month…. = danger danger… taxi is safer….”. Even JB, which lives a quite adventurous life, seemed slightly worried. For me, it was a good kick of adrenaline, getting out of that zone of comfort that is so healthy once in a while; it was life paragliding for the first time.
And finally… a road full of restaurants. Full! Mostly closed, a part from the ONE: the Italians are open for a compatriota! Pizza, Tiramisu’ JB and Italians! I got it all!

Sunday driving
(Osea: American driving –of course I am right and the rest of the country is wrong ;-) )
Lazy rainy Sunday happen in Samoa too, often. But here there is a difference: it is warm inside the house (ok, not so much in JB house, or maybe he just wants to show off his new goose jacket), and it is cold outside. That adds a bit to that nice cozy feeling…
After a tasty Indian lunch I hit the road. Driving is San Francisco was not bad at all, the roads are as smooth as baby’s asses and there isn’t any unexpected crossing. But as soon as you pass the Golden Gate things start going a bit wilder. Now, I would like to remind the reader that this comes from the point of view of somebody that is did not use the 4th gear for a while.
Well, first of all, passing the Golden Gate, having a glimpse of Alcatraz was a magic moment. It is a symbol; I came so far in life. The last time I crossed it, it was 10 years ago with Maria and Tyson (which I am going to meet soon in PDX), I had no job, I knew no JB, no island… (It must mean something a part the fact that I am 10 years older).
Then, the road started becoming bumping, it started raining and it became dark. I remember being astonished by US roads when I first moved there from Italy: they were big, fast and straight. The feeling was different now. What is big and fast now are the other cars, not the roads. I tried to stay on the slow line (supposedly the far right one), but even that is not easy, as this lane shift continuously. Sometimes I had 4 lanes on my left, some other 3 and one on my right, some other times I found myself in an exit only lane. All without changing lane.
There is more about American drivers. Let’s say there is a 4 lanes road: the 4th lane is for the drivers that go 10 m/h faster than the speed limit; the 3rd lane is for the one that follow the speed limit; the 2nd one is also for the one following the speed limit; the 1st lane is for the one that would like to go slower, but it is also for exits, entries, and sometimes it just disappears. Therefore, most of the traffic is on the left hand side of the road, not on the right as it should be. If somebody wants to go faster then 10m/h above speed limit, any line that is not the 4th one is fair game: Americans DO PASS on the RIGHT. This would drive any Italian very very mad. Italians may flash, use the horn, pass on grass… but they NEVER pass on the right. Ok, someone does, but they are only the very bad ones.
And more! There are exits on the left side of the road (that means you need to enter into the very fast lane somehow) that merge with other roads on their left! Not logical at all!
Scanning the radio for some good music, I found Ramazzotti singing in Spanish in a great latin radio station… ohi si… now I am the queen on the road!
Destination? The couch of a couple that I never met before. The couch is in Folsom, pass Sacramento, but it was totally worth to drive all the way there to meet some fellow Europeans (Portugal and Poland). I really love couchsurfing. Everything about it soon…

NOTICE: I am driving today (Tuesday) from Sacramento to San Francisco (butterflies!), beware of a small black cute car on driving in that direction.

Pictures from the week

2008-12-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

The Nu'uuli Pala Lagoon
On Wednesday afternoon I went exploring the Pala Lagoon by Kayak with my intern to get some good pictures and data for my on-line class and restoration project. Wonderful peaceful place, if it wasn't for the swimming dog chasing you, just to get a bite... paddle paddle... fast!!!

Cookie Night Sometime middle week, Sara hosted a cookie party! So fun much fun! Thanks! I made the famous chocolate salami, like my grandma used to do, but the hot item was the fa'fafine ginger cockie man... And of course, Vailama bottles make the best rollers (mattarelli) ever!

EPA Christmas Party This is the kind of very useful clothing that the goverment present to us when we have to sing for the governor every Christmas... I could not stop taking my eyes off Aaron...EPA Christmas party! I love having dinner with all the team! This year there was an incredible amount of alcohol involved, so much that everybody had to take some back home to be finished during the weekend. A guy asked me for a dance and I accepted. Of course he asked me if I would sleep with him. I think samoan guys are pretty disrespectful and direct on this matter (or maybe it is because they know I do not have a big brother here ready to protect me...). Of course i said no. Then he said how he is a nice taro plantation, and pigs... "uhm size 2?" I asked laughing. "yes, yes! and then I have bananas and rosemery..." uhmm... the magic word... images of oven potatoes with garlic and rosemery crossed my mind... I would have ever imagine i could suddenly find a guy interesting because he has rosmery... luckily, I can still keep some sanity...

Poker Night Saturday: I hosted a poker night at my place. While i keep on loosing (which, given the circonstances, was very good, as we say, in Italy: "unlucky in the game, lucky in love"... I can't wait for the second part!), Jeremy keep on winning in amazing "gypsy power" ways. He attributed his success to the new colone he just bought containing "water, alcohol, desire cocktail" (as written on the box) which would annoying spray over himself on a regular interval. But i have to admit it worked. In this picture he just got "4 of a kind"...

uhm... not so good...

2008-12-09T21:49:00.001-08:00

For the past 2 days I had a very bad bone/joints pain, I felt drowsy and continuously thirsty (any doctor out there reading this? Ideas?)… that made me think about a year ago just before I felt sick with Dengue Fever… well, if this is the case again (there is a Dengue outbreak on the island right now), this is not so good, as I am leaving the island in 2 days for holiday!
So I am trying to take these days easy, resting as much as possible, encouraging my body to fight any possible virus at the starting point!
In search for help, this morning I went to the clinic seeking advise from a “specialist”. Maybe there is come special medicine cocktail I can take, like the one they give us once a year to fight the Filarosis; everybody on island is supposed to take this cocktail (about 8 pills of different shape and color), even if not even the nurses know what they are… “the pills come from off-island” (like if any other medicine, aside from tea leaves for cold and breast milk for pink eye disease, would be produced here), but this statement is good enough for most people to think “ahh, well then, they must be good…”.
Taking the cocktail is for me always a transcended experience as they always make me very sick and I soon collapse: it is like being in the movie “the matrix” just before taking the famous pill…
Anyway, I usually do not like taking medicines, neither going to hospitals (unless I am going to the hospital cafeteria, which serves one of the best food on island), so for me to go and consult a doctor about taking medicines was quite a step (well, last year when I had dengue, I hoped I could see a doctor, but I was way too much in a comatose status to walk by myself to the restroom, the idea to have to be in a car and then in a waiting room in the hospital was tiring enough to pass to the act! –thanks god I had Marine taking such a good care of me!!!).
I went to the Tafuna clinic because it is usually more quite than the hospital (no roosters, chickens or dogs), the A/C inside is not freezing and the queue is usually faster. But today, it was some special kids day, and they were everywhere. A kid about 6 decided to come and play with the Palagi (me). At first he was very cute, until he decided he was going to skin me. So as he was scraping skin off from my arm, and I was holding him head as far as possible from me, I was desperately looking around for sign of a mother. Finally she came, took him away, set him next to her and… pinched his balls! I swear!! I think the punishment worked quite well because for the next 20 minutes he did not try to attach me anymore, but… wow… that was quite impressive!
Finally the doctor saw me. He told me I look very good. “well, thanks, but… is there any medicine I can take?”. Well, apparently all you can take is Tylenol, but the doctor also stressed on the fact that if I start bleeding I would probably need a blood transfusion.
I left the hospital bleeding from my arm and feeling a bit disoriented… no, no, hospitals are not places for me… I am going to look for some tealeaves to rap around my neck now…