Katie in Kona

Okay, I lied. But I'm here now!

2009-12-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

Sunset with friends at Keei last night

I've been on the Island for nearly 3 months now, and it feels like a week and it feels like years. South Kona is such a special place, every day here continues to be happy and wonderful. I've made a great circle of friends here, specifically this amazing group of women I've come into. Some of us are visitors, some of us are locals, some of us are somewhere in between the two, but we all recognize that we're here in this beautiful place together for a reason, and the exchange between us has been more wonderful than I can explain. We have great levels of silliness, wildness, energy, love and spunk. And then there's the boys (there are always boys!). I can't possibly even try to explain these boys to you! They have a closer bond to nature than almost anyone I know, and they love their lives. I mean, how could you not? They've grown up going to the same beaches their whole lives, and still dig every single day of hanging out down at Keei, their favorite spot. Anyway, there is quite the cast of characters in my life right now.

Yesterday my new fellow intern Matt and I had kind of a lazy morning, then met up with the crew down at Keei. It was a great day of friends, beers and uke on the beach, then the girls and I had an amazing night of good food, wine and chatting. Later today Ali, one of my closest friends down here, is going to come over and we're going to make some coffee body scrub. I'm telling you, every day is wonderful.

I'm still here!

2009-11-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

Don't fret, I haven't abandoned this blog! I've been internalizing a lot lately, I want to give more to you than a detailed account on which beaches I attend with whom, because I didn't move to Hawaii to go to beaches. I mean, that was a huge reason, but in coming here I just wanted to get away from everyone I know and all of the histories and discover more about myself, the world, and how I relate to it.

Right after I turned 21 (I can't believe that was only two years ago, I feel like it was ages ago) I had just quit my job, moved back home, had a couple shattered dreams and fell deeply into the darkest depression of my life. I'm someone with a predisposition to melancholy in my life, I've gone through in the past and will go through in the future bouts of darkness, and a couple years ago was about a ninth month period of such. I was heart broken, directionless, just this raw, broken heart functioning as a human. It was the darkest winter of my life. But! Winter always ends, and spring brought new friends, new opportunities, new passions, and new hope for plans for the future. Almost exactly a year ago over martinis (always over martinis), I shyly said to my lovely friends Katie and Amy, "I think I know what my next adventure is going to be, I might go work on a coffee farm in Hawaii." I don't remember what their reaction was, and I tried to keep my plans to myself for a while because the prospect of another public heartbreak was too much to bare, but as each day passed and September got closer the move seemed more and more real.

And now here I am! I could write in this blog every day and update you on each and every adventure, tell you how happy I am, how much Kona has captured me, how hot the men are- and all of these things are true! Life down here is beautiful. Every day is wonderful and perfect and not a moment is taken for granted, but there have been equally wonderful things going on in my heart and soul, and I want to share that mostly. I have been thinking through a lot, feeling out many different emotions, and I'm going to do my best to share that here, right alongside accounts of my many adventures, and trust me, there have been many adventures!

So check back in a few days, I'll have good stuff here for you!

Aloha!

A Wonderful Weekend

2009-10-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight I found myself walking a dog against a backdrop of a picture perfect Hawaiian sunset, complete with palm tree silhouettes against an orange-pink sky. It's so strange to be here, so happy. I wish I had more time to blog every day, but it just can't be a priority when the Island is all around me. I am so completely happy and contented here. It's strange to use the word "content", because I've always thought of it was a dirty word, something I would never be. To be content was to not want anything more, and I will always want something more. But here, I still have all my dreams for the future, but I don't wish I was anywhere else in the world. In the three weeks I've been here the Island has taken over my soul, and it brings so much peace. I'm literally so happy every day I want to bottle it up and send it home. It's a nice happiness too, lower intensity and a bit less manic than I'm used to, its nice.

I had a five day weekend last week! It was a special occasion for Elina's birthday and her sister Judy was visiting. It so amazing. We kicked it all off Thursday with margaritas with our friend Sarah, who I can tell is going to end up being one of my best friends here, at Sr Billy's, one of our places. Then we had a lovely dinner with Bob and Beryl and a couple bottles of wine, and we were off to bed for my last good sleep of the weekend. Friday we spent some time at the beach, had our weekly potluck, and then went dancing at another one of our places, Oceans. Saturday Elina, Judy, our friend Joe, a Frenchmen we picked up and I all went to Green Sands beach (see picture below) for the day. It's this amazing beach with yes, actual green sand, that you have to hike over desert to get to. It's such a beautiful hike, you have the turquoise ocean on your right and orange desert on your left for two miles, until you get to Green Sands and jump into the huge surf. Saturday night Sarah, our friend Dave and I drove up to Hawi for the Full Moon party. Then Sunday, after catching our friend Sahra sing at the green market, Elina, Judy, Dave & I drove to the volcano for camping. It's so impossible to include everything we did this weekend, but I'm trying to get to the good stuff (like how I ended up with this dog that is currently laying on my lap)! Monday, after an 8 mile hike through the rain forest, I fell in love. I was walking back to our car and all of a sudden this skinny little dog comes crawling on his belly to me. If you know me at all, I'm sure you can imagine my reaction- I fell to my knees and scooped him up and kissed his face and my eyes welled with tears because he was so skinny and could hardly stand and he was kissing my face too and the other two girls has basically the same reaction. We fed him, contacted the shelter and had him scanned for a micro chip (negative), and couldn't bare the thought of leaving him there, so for now he is living with us at the studio until we find his forever home. Judy dubbed him Ralphie right away, but he's also known as our little Starfruit. I love him, but I also know that I'm not in any place to own a dog right now, I'm a hermit crab and my future is a question mark. Hopefully we can find him a nice home here on the Island! We came home Tuesday and drove back home the North way around the Island, so I have officially been all the way around, and it so vastly different and beautiful. I think I could probably stay here for a long while.

So to summarize, life here is amazing. Some pictures!

So maybe we broke a law and did this hike even though it was closed, but I'm pleading the fifth and have no regrets. It was beautiful!

This is Akaki falls, a 420 foot rainfall we stopped by on the way home.
This is our little Starfruit. Look at that face!

And this is Green Sands, just know that the picture doesn't do it justice!

First Week-ish

2009-09-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Makalawena

I'm ten days in to this adventure, and so far I'm loving it. I arrived last Tuesday, was met by Bob (of Bob & Beryl, farm owners here at Dragon's Lair) at the airport, and after lunch and a brief and very blurry tour about town I was home on the farm. My time here was overlapped by another intern (there are typically two interns at a time here), Sean, who left on Tuesday, and the other intern is my roommate Elina. Elina is hilarious, extreme (self-described!), smart, outspoken, soooo strong and I think has a bigger heart than she realizes, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. I LOVE her. The past week and a half has absolutely flown by. Because it was my first week and Sean's last, we had a lot of fun packed into every day. We spent all weekend at the beach. My favorite one was Makalwena, a beautiful white sand beach you have to hike over lava rock to get to. Since Sean left Elina and I have been more low key, we've had a couple of nights in watching tv, but it's the weekend again so we're gearing up for another few days of adventure. Tonight we're having our weekly potluck down by the beach at Place of Refuge (more on this later!), then meeting up with our friend Sarah for a girl's night in "town", and plans for Saturday and Sunday are unconfirmed. We may head into Hilo, or we may hit up another beach.

I have the studio to myself right now, so I'm catching up on some house cleaning and getting my dish ready for tonight. I'm about to go down to the garden and pick some fresh basil and peppers, than stop by the avocado and mango trees for a stir fry. Oh, I'm also watching Top Model- I have cable here! So I got to watch Grey's Anatomy last night! I'm happy to say that the two hour season premier last night was the saddest I've been since I've been here, I loved George! And yeah, that was a Musselwhite shoutout- holla!

love love love

2009-09-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

I am here. Everything is beautiful and fun and a whirlwind and I miss Huckleberry so much I can't even say. I mean, I miss everyone else too, but I can't really talk to Huck on the phone. I'm hoping to get a blog up for real tomorrow, but I just wanted to update that I am happy and healthy here, and I see the ocean every day. I love it.

2009-09-15T01:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly the last month has flown by. I leave in 4 hours, and it is completely surreal. I'm excited, good-kind-of scared, nervous, stoked and, naturally, a little bit sad to be leaving all of the love here. I'm all packed up (a huuuuuge thank you to Amy, who somehow fit all of my clothes in one bag), I've checked in for my flight, I have my travel pillow and magazines all set to go, and I'm ready. Really. Oh my gosh, I am so ready.

Bibliography

2009-09-03T22:59:00.001-07:00

I've found a bunch of great websites to help me out with my travels, and I'm posting them here as much for myself as for others. You can travel cheaply, you just have to want it, and these are some great resources:

attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships -A great list of work exchange style internships in the US

mokuleleairlines.com -The cheapest island hopping airline I've found, as long as you book online ahead of time.

couchsurfing.org -This website is so cool. It's exactly what it sounds like, a listing of people who let you crash on their couch (or futon or air mattress or sometimes, if you're lucky, an actual spare bed!). It's completely legit, a lot of members have been using the site for years and have "reviews" of their place up. I love that most of the people on this site listing their homes aren't super rich with amazing homes, it's all about young people connecting and helping each other out, actually connecting. I dig it.

bigislandonthecheap.com -Big Island, cheaply.

Twenty-Six Days Left.

2009-08-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Twenty-six days left to laugh with my sisters, love on my doggy, linger around the dining room table with my mom after everyone else has left, grab a drink with my friends on any given night. Twenty-six days to sell all my stuff, to pack up a handful of clothes and probably a few too many books, renew my license and get my passport (you know, just in case), come up with some more money. Twenty-six more days of answering the same questions.

"What exactly will you be doing?"
I'll be doing a work exchange program on an organic coffee farm. Basically my room and board is provided in exchange for working 30 hours a week. I'll have a part in each step of farming the coffee, and I imagine a variety of other farming chores.

"What if you hate it?"
I've never been somewhere I've hated, not even here, I really don't think I'm going to hate living in Hawaii. I love the sun. I love the sea. I love avocados. I think I'll be okay.

"How long are you going to be gone?"
I have no idea. I'm going with a wide open mind and heart. I'll probably be on the farm for at least 6 months, and God only knows after that.

"Are you scared?"
No, I'm really really not. This is so the right thing for me, I can feel it in my bones. Yeah, I'm nervous about a few things, but I'm really not scared at all. The thing is, I really feel that in the past couple of years, as best I can describe it, I've become a completely self-contained person. I mean that my home is wherever I find myself, I'm more comfortable wondering around than I am staying in the same place. The idea of staying here is scarier than the idea of moving to an island 2,600 miles away I've never laid eyes on. It's in my soul in a way that even I don't understand, most of my family has circulated around the Northwest for several generations, the source of my nomadic spirit is unaccounted for.

I don't know what my life is going to feel like down there, but I'm so excited for it. I just want to be outside, learn about the world and meet beautiful souls. Most people in my life don't really understand this adventure I'm going on, but they understand me, and I think most of them know it's right for me. It's going to be hard to leave all of this love, but I have a feeling I'm going to encounter some pretty great love in my travels, too.

Twenty-six days left.

for reals

2009-08-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

I can officially say I move in one month. About 3o minutes ago I bought my ticket to Kona, and I take off one month from tomorrow, at 8:41 in the morning! That puts me in Kona at about noon, and the adventure begins. I've now actually bought my one way ticket out of here. I'm leaving. It's surreal, and the next month my life will be on hold while I work my booty off and get ready to leave. It's funny how booking a ticket and creating a blog makes it so real.

She woke up in a town made of quick sand, gets harder to move every day she stays

2009-08-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

I leave in a month. A month-ish, I should say. I've been dreaming about it, visualizing my life in Kona for about 9 months now. I've been dreaming about the sun, the water, the smells and colors every gray day here on the outskirts of Seattle.

Ah, the Pacific Northwest. I love the gentleness of my home- all the shades of green, the hills and mountains that are all around. I love all the rivers and islands with their Native names, and more consuming than all I love how our cities revolve around the Puget Sound. It's my home here, and this region has such a firm hold of me I know it will always have a piece of my heart, but it's time to leave now. For every sunny day there are 3 darks days that I've never been able to accept as normal. Every ending summer of my life has left me short of breath and sad, I can't deal with the long, cold gloom of winter. So I'm leaving. I'm packing up a few suitcases of belongings and relocating to the Kona coast, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I've left home before, I moved from the stifling small town I still can't help but have an affection for to downtown Seattle. I loved the city, but I was still affected by the climate. I feel guilty sometimes for how badly I've always wanted to leave this region, and sometimes I want to want to stay here, but it's not in my soul. I've always felt part nomad in my heart, and now it's time to leave for real, to find myself somewhere far enough from all the ties that keep trying to hold me here. It's not a running away, it's more of a mutual parting. I can't breathe here, and it's obvious to all of the people in my life. And while the parting has some sadness around it, the future is so bright I can hardly think about it without giggling.

I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know where I'm going to end up in a few years or even where I'll be one year from now. But I do know that in September I'm buying a one way ticket to Kona and moving to an Organic coffee farm for an unknown amount of time, for an unknown way of life.