I miss you

- my nephew Joshua
- my Yoga studio
- Vietnamese subs
- Sushi
- my own Bed

Feel Good Saturday

I am currently running on positive energy right now as I don't know how I am not exhausted.. I decided to go out last night (which was fun but I probably went too hard) I didn't get home until after 5am and by the time I went to bed the sun was rising... however I still managed to wake up at 830.. dont ask me why....

MMMM.

Anywho my friend Nicky and I made plans to go shopping downtown so she came and picked me up and we went and ate an awesome vegetarian restaurant and had these delicious little wrap-like tings call "doubles" I guess they are Trini but are so so soooooo good. I am addicted to them already. Then we headed downtown as I was on a mission to find some sandals and a new purse... which I found both.. along with some other nifty items. I loove going downtown. Most people are so shocked when I tell them I've been to downtown Kingston but to me it feels like the real Jamaica.. so busy and so much going on. *Yes I get warned to watch my purse all the time. But yes downtown shopping was a success. Next I met a woman named Roslyn who is actually from Vancouver but is the cofounder/director of a non-profit organization here in Trenchtown called the Trenchtown Reading Centre (check them out on facebook @Friends of the Trenchtown Reading Centre + their website which is http://www.trenchtownreadingcentre.com/ ... anyways I had heard about the organization when I went to a concert in Trenchtown for Bob Marley's birthday and all of the little kiddies from the centre were running around wearing their Trenchtown Reading Centre shirts and handing out pamphlets. I hung out with some of the kids that night and realized kids are the main thing missing in my trip to Jamaica as I always love to get to know the kids of the places I travel. But yeah... I will be volunteering at the centre on Fridays which I am so excited for!! And please dont worry about me I will be extra safe. ( I just got off the teley with Gma Ettie and I could tell she was worried already about this.. so please dont worry about me!!!) But yeah now for the rest of the evening I am probably just going to relax and take it easy. I have a lot of homework to do tomorrow so prob just take it easy to clear my mind into being able to focus for that.

New Kingston

Inkk

My new favorite pass time

p.s. This is what I miss about home... thank you to my beautiful soul sisters for making my day ... probably my weekend. MUCHLOVE xo

JahRastafarI

On Wednesday my friend Sebastian's class was going on a field trip to the BoboShanti Rasta camp and since Rastafari is one of my interests here in Jamaica I decided to tag along. Unfortunately, I wasn't having the best day and was not in the best state of mind to be going to a camp like this. I didn't realize this until I got there. There were way too many of us and things were disorganized as usual. But either way I will share my experience with as little bias as possible.

I have to mention the bus ride because on the way there the guy in charge told the girls to be "careful" of the Rasta them. They might kidnap us (joking) because they are looking for wives (or as they call them, an empress) so in other words we were to be mindful of any flirting we might do because the Rasta men could take it the wrong way and think it means something more serious than we may intend....

When we first arrived they separated the girls and guy outside of the camp entrance and one of the women from the camp talked with us. Basically she explained why we had to wrap our hair and wear skirts. It had to do with the top of our head being sacred and regarding our consciousness etc. so to wrap the hair is to protect this sacred part of us. As for the skirt it is to let our reproductive organs be more open to fully function and not to be constrained in tight pants that cut upwards towards the area. After this talk we all had to go see her or another woman individually to tell them when our last period was. This was to decipher whether or not we were "free" to enter the camp. As in making sure we weren't dirty depending on how long we had been free of our cycle. I think it was supposed to he about 10 days since our period ended...

Next when we entered the camp, we went and registered in a sort of guest book and then we prayed .. Which by the way when we pray we have to face the east. This is due to the sun rising in the east ( being a positive, and bringing forth new days etc) after this it was some wandering around and waiting to enter a sort of "church" building if I could call it that. I believe it is where they have their services and such. So we waited to enter and before we could we would have to take off our shoes, enter through a certain door that a man was holding a flag over that we were to pass under, bless the altar as we came in and then get down on our knees and pray to the north this time (this is also considered a positive direction for them.) we then had a little bit of a service which included some talking and music and then it was question time.

I could get used to being called an Empress but to actually be one.. nah by.

Unfortunately I was feeling claustrophobic and like I was overheating so I had to eventually excuse myself and go wait outside. I could still hear but by this point was feeling ready to leave. It was also frustrating because one of the questions asked while i was still inside was about the issue of gender inequality and how the men got to do everything first and seemed to be of a higher position than the women. However, I became annoyed because when the question was being answered another woman from the camp kept talking .. I imagine she was trying to defend the set up of things but I was unable to hear the answer to the question that I had been wondering about as well. Basically what I got from it though is the idea that the women are the princesses and empresses and they need security which comes from men so basically they don't have much duty other than to let their man look after them (?) I could be wrong but this was my interpretation. Some of the other questions asked had to do with why it was all older people or young children at the camp and not really anybody our age, why they try to avoid Babylon, but send the children to a school system outside the camp, the issue with Jesus not existing and instead it being jes-us...and so on.

Also I should mention that while I was waiting outside I was approached by a Rasta who was asking me if I had children and telling me he would love to have an empress like me. I let him know I had a boyfriend but thanks for the compliment. Lol. He also was quick to point out my tattoos and how anything Jah did not provide me with is because I was not meant to have it. He also questioned me whether or not I knew this before I got my ink to say that if I was unaware that I was doing something wrong then I would be forgiven but if I had known and done it anyways, then that is a problem..... I don't know what to say about this.

Anyways eventually this all ended and they serviced us drinks in another open building .. I think it was merengue and June plum? Plus some little fritters that were like pakoras (yummy) and a type of loaf. After that it was basically time to leave which I was ready for as I was not feeling well and was overwhelmed by the whole experience and the vibes that I was getting from being in this place.

So I guess I will end this post with saying I will probably not become a Rasta woman.. At least not one who lives at a camp like this one! I'm too much of a feminist to play this sort of gender role.

Blessed love

Not impressed.

I had a doctors "appointment" at 830AM this morning. It is now 1pm and I am still waiting. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Tuesday Mornings ...

Ya make my heart go Bo0m.

0301-0303

Here is my post to go along with the pictures I most recently posted.
My friend Alberto invited me to go with him and his flatmates to Treasure Beach for the weekend and I have been itching to have a little weekend get away so naturally I was down as soon as he asked.
So on Friday after 4pm I met up with Alberto, Sophie and Benno and Benno's brother Manuel who is visiting Jamaica for the week (from Germany... sooo many Germans in Jamaica) and we headed out which was a mistake as we hit all of the traffic in Kingston as well as took the detour through Spanish Town as opposed to just sticking to the highway. Needless to say it took a lot of time but was definitely a cultural experience because Spanish Town has so much going on and alot of hustle and bustle.
Long story short - Manuel is a Jamaican driver at heart but even so it took us like four+ hours to arrive at our destination (a drive that was only supposed to be ~two hours)
Anyways, our first night we stayed in a house that I do not know the name of but we had it to ourselves which was nice so we dropped off our stuff and headed out to explore Billy's Bay. We ended up at Villa Elegance. Immediately we got awesome service with Tavisha telling us that she had just closed and then heard we were coming down so she opened back up for us.. it was a chill night.
Saturday morning Manuel and I woke up early to go watch the Sunrise down at the beach but unfortunately it was too cloudy and we didnt see very much... and a couple hours later we moved down to our main place that we were to stay at called Nuestra Casa. There we had an amazing english breakfast and relaxed on the veranda which is very open and beautiful. We made plans to go to a bar called Pelican Bar which is out in the middle of the ocean and planned to get there so we could watch the sunset. We wouldn't be heading out until about 3pm so in the mean time we decided to go check out the beach. It was still overcast but super hot and I kinda liked it because it gave a different vibe to the town and the beach which was not what I expected.. in a good way. There were some kids playing out around the beach and they came and hung out with us too which was one of the highlights of my day! & to top it all off the sun eventually did come out <3 We then headed to Jack Sprat which is like a restaurant/bar and had a couple drinks there and went swimming off their beach. Finally it was time to go meet our captain for our boat ride out to Pelican Bar. The boat ride was AMAZING because we saw dolphins !! For those of you who know me, you know I absolutely love dolphins and to see them in their natural habitat and swimming so free... agh it was so special for me. We reached the bar which was so cool - it's made out of wood/stilts and has flags and character from all over the world inside. I have to say there were tons of Canadian flags in their which instantly made me feel at home. Also the guests have the chance to write little carvings in the wood which all of us did (well mine wasn't turning out so Alberto did it for me) and the rest of the gang did some snorkelling which I passed on but heard as so amazing. We didn't see much of a sunset cuz it was still pretty cloudy but it was still so worth our time to be out there and enjoy the vibes but eventually it was time to head back.

the real Treasures of Treasure Beach..

We decided to return to Jack Sprat because they apparently are well-known for their pizza so we got pizza and it was suuper good ..definitely hit the spot. After dinner we went exploring to find out about any parties going on around Treasure Beach and we stopped at a couple of places but the vibes felt wrong so we headed back to Nuestra Casa where we had a little jam with one ofthe guys who works their named Jeremy - until the power went out. (reminded me of Nepal lol) and then he went to bed and we figured since there was no power the parties that we had considered heading to later prob wouldnt really be going on so instead we headed down to the beach and had our own party in a little shack. It consisted of Sophie getting me to tell a story that translated into my views on life, creativity, practicality, authority, my sex life, ambition & death.. needless to say it was interesting :P After that we decided to have our own little dance party which made me happy because that's all I had been trying to do all night. We used an ice cream container to amplify the sounds from our iphone and then had some glow stick flashlights/ and flashing lights from phones hahah it was one of the best parties I have ever been a part of ...
Sunday morning was attempt number 2 for the sunrise but we still didn't see much due to the clouds ...but that's okay... then we had Jamaican breakfast which was probably the best I have had since I have been here. I was soo full after but it was worth it.. then we talked with Roger for a bit (the guy who runs the guest house) and after that decided to make our plans for the day. We finally settled on driving towards Black River and seeing what the day had in store for us. We said our goodbyes and headed out on the road again. We stopped at a place called Cloggies for a drink and a couple games of dominoes.. then headed towards the Black River where we decided to do a boat tour. The tour was awesome because within the first minute we already saw a Crocodile. I didn't even think it was real and then it started moving =O ... it was cool though. The tour was really neat and I felt like we saw a great deal of wild life and learned alot about the area. Definitely worth the resident's price we got since we are from Kingston ;)
This pretty much concludes the weekend but I should mention our drive home was much better than the drive there and definitely did not take 4 hours. 

Weekend adventures

Ill post details soon ✌

Jamaican Breaky

Some kiddies playing in Billy's Bay, Treasure Beach

Jimbo chilling in the back & my new friend Shiba showing her pretty face for the camera

Nate came and hung out with me for a little bit but was suuper shy. Cutie.

Pelican Bar

The little marks of ourselves we left at Pelican Bar

Croc

Black River