Adventure to a Tongan Beach.

         

To go on an adventure...

I like to tell people that I love adventure because I do. I like to travel, to visit new places, to meet new people and I haven't lived anywhere for more than 9 months since I was 18. But what exactly is adventure?

In college one of my closest friends (Hey Molly B!) and I would sometimes take off after class in my 1999 Dodge Minivan - nicknamed the Silver Bullet - and drive to Whole Foods. We'd pick a new, fun and exciting treat at the store, stop at McDonalds on the way home and consider it an adventure. And it was. Maybe not everyone would find adventure in that, but Mols and I did and it was wonderful. Every time. The point was to try something new or meet someone we'd never met before.

So, in my old age (30 is just around the corner) I'm realizing that I don't think adventure needs to happen when someone goes someplace new. Adventure happens wherever you allow it to find you. Adventure isn't necessarily going to the Eiffel Tower, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro or sailing the seas of the South Pacific Ocean. A lot of the time, it's an internal journey. Henry David Thoreau wrote "Explore your own higher latitudes. Be a Columbus to whole new continents within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought."

Sometimes adventures come by accident too. They can be positive or not-so-positive. They can be huge accomplishments or found in brief moments. Regardless of the type, they teach you something. Some adventures are chosen and some adventures seem to grab hold of you, shake you up and spit you out a completely different person. I think Peace Corps (as a whole) is doing this to me.

This week wasn't easy. I wasn't sure I was capable of handling such emotional highs and lows in such a short amount of time. I'm finding that from moment to moment I can go from being on top of the world to thinking that the sky is falling. It's a weird feeling and it's has me thinking hard about choosing my attitude and what this experience is changing within me. I'm learning to treasure my worst experiences "as gripping new chapters in the epic novel that is my [your] life" (Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts). I'm maintaining a positive attitude and trying to be okay not being super busy all the time - this is so hard for me. I am looking for adventure in the little things (How will I get rid of my trash without burning it? And I'm enjoying the ride.

What adventures have you taken recently?

Images from this week.

School is winding down here. We are about to go on summer break. For all of you that live in the Northern Hemisphere, that's weird right? It feels funny to me. I'm use to getting excited for the holidays around now and getting ready for a 2-week hiatus. Not a 2-month one. Oh well. I'll enjoy it. More time to spread my yuletide cheer far and wide. Any-hoo, here are some images from the last week.

I made Dark Chocolate and Pumpkin bars. I bought the jar of pumpkin when I lived down in Tongatapu. It might have cost 2 to 3 times what I would have paid for it in America. But I needed some autumnal goodness around Thanksgiving so I gave in.

  

This is what was waiting for me when I entered my classroom.



Here is the chalkboard where my students introduced themselves to me.



A depiction of Ms. Man-DEE! I think they got my nose right.

This little girl will be in Class 3 (3rd grade) with me next year.

  

He will too.

Also, a special congratulations goes out to my friends Bud and Aly who recently got engaged. So excited for you. I can't wait to hear the story.

And Erica & Jesse, too! :)

Quotable.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be without wishing for what he has not.

- Seneca

My Christmas Tree.

Today I'm thankful for this picture I found on my computer. This was my Christmas tree last year back home in Wisconsin. Makes it seem not so far away. Hurray for Christmas!

It's That Time of Year...

It's that time of year again. Have you heard?

It's officially the Christmas Season.

[Just in case you didn't already know. No worries, that's what I'm here for.]

In lieu of sending Christmas cards out, I send a Mix-Tape CD to friends and family. I create an annual album of my favorite tunes, design the cover art, buy 100% recycled CD holders and send them right around Thanksgiving so they can be listened to throughout the Christmas season. Because really...why get a Christmas CD on Christmas? Then you have to wait 340 days until you can listen to it ... or 200, if you're me. So this year I won't be able to send them. Insert sad face. Not because I don't want to or am fakapikopiko (lazy), but because I'm poor and it costs $2.40 to send a postcard. Also, it probably wouldn't get to America until February and that just wouldn't work. Raise your hand if you enjoy Christmas music on Valentine's Day? (Oh? I'm the only one? Well, rats.)

But you know what? I still made an album this year!

So here it is...my Christmas gift to you... Mandy's Third Annual Christmas Album...

also known as...

Make the Season Bright

Here is some cover-art:



And now for some tunes:

1. Holidays are coming by coca-cola**
2. Christmas Time is Here by Vince Guaraldi Trio
3. it's beginning to look a lot like christmas by perry como
4. The Christmas Song by Mel Torme
5. away in a manger by willie nelson
6. wassail song by the canadian brass
7. The First Noel by Coop & Lee*
8. revenge of the sugar plum fairy by Transiberian Orchestra
9. run rudolph by chuck berry
10. the christmas waltz by frank sinatra
11. rockin' around the christmas tree by brenda lee
12. sleigh ride by kenny g
13. god rest ye merry gentlemen/we three kings by the barenaked ladies & Sarah mcclachlan
14. i'll be home for christmas by michael buble
15. let it snow by bing crosby, danny kaye, rosemary clooney and vera allen***

I've spent the last 8-9 months widdling down my favorites to these 15. Now let's take a listen.

Download it here.

Pretty magical right?

I suggest listening to it while: wrapping presents with double-sided Scotch tape and pretty gold ribbon, drinking hot apple cider made with mulling spices from William Sonoma, decorating the Christmas tree with those big 'ole fashioned bulbs and popcorn garland that you made yourself, hanging stockings above your red brick fireplace, baking Christmas sugar cookies in the shape of Santa Claus and his lovely reindeer, watching Christmas lights from the comfort of your own car, dancing in the middle of the mall on a Saturday with your iPod in (bonus points if you sing!), cuddling up with your crush cutie and a good fleece blanket while watching giant snowflakes fall silently outside, sipping a peppermint mocha at your favorite local coffee shop or sitting next to the South Pacific Ocean.

Or really wherever else you spread your Yuletide Cheer! Enjoy!

- - - - - - - - - - - 
*A special shot-out goes to a fellow PCV, Mark, who actually recorded one of the tracks with a friend back in college. Mark is a talented musician and I asked permission if I could use the track this year. I hope you like it as much as I do.

**Perhaps one of the greatest TV commercials of all time. Do you remember? The Coca-Cola trucks are driving bumper to bumper into a sleepy little town and they begin to light up in time with the music as the snow falls? Pure awesomeness. Way to go, Coca-Cola. I also thought it was fitting because here in Tonga they have something called Coca-Cola Light (Tonga's version of Diet Coke) and it's pure deliciousness.

***This is from the best movie of all time, White Christmas. White Christmas was the first movie filmed in Columbia-Tri-Star Technicolor. Danny Kaye reminds me of a 1950's version of Conan O'Brien. It's worth checking out if you have time. I promise.

Exploration #1

If you have followed my blog since the beginning (all 2 of you...haha), then you know that I wanted to find a super neat-o way to document my experience in the Peace Corps. My friend Emily who lives in NYC (hey em!) introduced me to a book called,
How to be an Explorer of the World: A Portable Life Museum by Keri Smith.
The book reminds us that everyone is an artist and that,

"at any given moment, no matter where you are, there are hundreds of things around you that are interesting and worth documenting".

Smith lays out a bunch of different ways to pay attention to your world - little things that you wouldn't have even thought of. So, really it's the perfect way to tell this story - my story in the Peace Corps in Tonga.
This is seriously a book I recommend checking out. I won't be using all of her ideas (or posting any more pictures of the inside of the book because that's how much I think you need to own it). Also, most of the explorations you will see on this blog are ideas that I came up with. But I figure we could start here and share ideas and that's why I'm posting this. I'll do an exploration here in the South Pacific at least once a month for the entire duration of my Peace Corps service and maybe you could try it wherever you are.

Stopped at an intersection waiting for a red light to turn green?

Standing on top of a mountain in Colorado?

Sitting in a library in England?

Living on a sailboat in Maine?

Organic farming in Tennessee?

Snow-shoeing in Canada?

Brunching in New York City?

Wherever!

Deal?

Even if you don't write it down, it's a fun thing to do. A different way of looking at your world.

So let's begin. Shall we?

(And I'd super duper love it if you left one thing you noticed in your exploration in the comments section of this post!)

  

I thought about this exploration when I was sitting and watching my students practice for Culture Day (which is the last week of school before summer break - just a few short weeks away!). They were performing the traditional Tongan War Dance or kailau (kai-lahw) as it's called here. So here are 10 things I hadn't noticed when I first sat down:

1. The way the sun casts shadows on the ground and the way the wind made the shadows seem to dance.

2. The smell of the trees and ocean mixed with the humidity. The air is thick.

3. The feel of the wooden spear I am holding in my hand while its owner is hanging from the mei tree behind me.

4. How every single little girl at school has perfect braids - complete with red ribbon - in for school. I forgot that this was a requirement.

5. The dirt on my toe nails. Don't worry. I have since scrubbed them. I live in flip flops now. What do you expect?

6. That I am the only one with blond hair and blue eyes in this entire crowd.

7. The rumble of a truck as it passes by with 8 people in the back. It's white paint chipped and there is no back window.

8. The way the sticks hitting the corrugated metal sound like an awesome (and quite loud) drum.

9. The little boy who is not doing the Tongan War Dance at all, but instead something Britney Spear's might have done in 1999.

10. Atu's face (the principal) light up as the Class 1 - the littlest ones - complete their dance without hitting each other with the wooden spears.