Crazy, Amazing, & Unexpected

   

 It has been a crazy, amazing, unexpected last couple days. Since I last wrote I reached Cork city safe and sound, found the hostel, discovered the lovely English market, made friends with a pair of young German guys, spontaneously went to the town of Kinsale with them, watched the hobbit in the TV room of the hostel, met two more people on a bathroom break a woman from LA and another from Canada and before I knew it I had been served up a delicious bowl of vegan pasta they had just made and was sharing dinner and stories. Then by midnight all five of us were laughing and talking and trading tips and stories and so went out into Cork for a drink, although I refrained from the actual drinking part but went just for the fun of it. We went to two pubs and then a McDonalds enjoying the Cork nightlife, which was almost busier then in the day and I'm talking two am. Finally we got back to the hostel, parted ways and went to bed. 

    While I was almost in shock about this great chunk of luck that seemed to have fallen my way (by that I mean companions to share in my adventure) from hearing their stories Cork was just another city making up the intricate network of solo travelers who seem to navigate toward one another like magnets. It's truly an international web of young people all taking time off their normal lives to cut loose and just travel, letting the road take them wherever it will. I had no idea of this hidden world, but it's marvelous! Information of the best and cheapest of everything is traded names are thrown about like fire, and no one has to fear of being alone if they don't want to. At the back of my mind I knew there must be other travelers, but I had no idea how extensive this network actually was. While we from yesterday have all gone our separate ways I now rest comforted that I need not worry to hard for their is a great world out there and if used properly you can flourish and prosper from it. 

Adventures Day 1

Walkabout, Parivarajika, gap year travels, whatever you want to call it, I'm doing it. While going to Ireland and staying on a farm was great, this is what my heart truly yearns to do, travel and see the world, to put it in the most cliche way possible. This morning I packed up my final belongings separating them out into two bags, my backpack which will come with me on the journey, and my suitcase which is staying on the farm until I fly back to America courtesy of my hosts. I love my clothes and shoes and it was a painful night to be sure to sit down and select 1 dress, 1 skirt, 1 pair of pants, four shirts, one jumper, and of course a handful of undergarments and socks. Along with my laptop, knitting, toiletries, camera, and snacks. This is all I am taking on the 20+ day journey I embark on today, and it's strangely liberating. I am catching a train, changing trains, and will arrive in Cork city, check into my hostel, and then see what comes next. Hello world! Here I come!!

Cooking By Instinct

"So you do all the cooking here?" The woman asks. A visiter to the farm where I'm WWOOFing, she  looks on as I peel and chop carrots, parsnips, and potatoes for a stew. 

   "Well, yeah" I admitted, "most of it." In addition to helping with the animals one of my main jobs is the cooking for the immediate family and anyone who wanders around, sometimes as many as nine people. While one part of me has gotten used to it, another part still marvels at my ability to adapt to this chore. For those of you who cook daily this may seem silly, but maybe you can still understand my amazement. It is well known that I love to bake, and even use it to de-stress. It's my default activity, bored? Bake. Event coming up? Bake. Need something to do with a friend? Bake. Babysitting? Bake. But cooking is a whole different ball game for me. Sure I'd cooked a few special dinners for my family with the close help of cookbooks and google. So you now see that every time I could conjure up a multi-dish have decent (or dare I say good) I would beam with pride. The first couple times I made the meals I would do so hesitantly, with my iPod opened with google close at hand. As I grew more confident though I started cooking by something I like to think of as food instinct, a simple sense of knowing how much to add of this or that, how long to cook for. It's how my dad cooks I know, with no text or book or even family recipe. Simply by knowing food, and while I am far from his level or calling myself an amateur chef I certainly am inspired to stray further from the comforting world of cakes and breads to the vast land of food in its entirety. 

In my Own Little World

The one nice aspect about the rain 

     Today is one of the miserable irish days. A light, but steady drizzle pattering down continuously, a constant damp chill to the air, grey skies so dense the very air seems to be smothered in gloom, and of course I just had to get the chore of walking the dogs. I snuggled into my blue raincoat tightening the hood around my face, pulled up my equally cheerful blue flowered wellies and headed out. The first half of the walk was consumed with keeping the six dogs in check, but on the way back they had tired enough for me to sink into reverie. I had two of the six on leads, and the gently tugged me forward along the grass covered path, the rain pitter-pattered on my hood making it feel as if I was in a miniature tent, made just for me. The birds were all but silent, the song's quieted by the gloom. I had the feeling as I walked that I was in my own world, I was in my own world. The other dogs ran around, the water rushed beside me in the grand canal, the trees swayed in the wind, and the rain fell, but there I was walking along calm with my own thoughts and emotions. It made me start to think about my perception of my current life, of course I think about it a lot, but the physical actions of what I was doing walking through all this outside world, yet completely staying with myself, contained within myself really just emphasized something I have been weighing in my mind and trying to put into practice.
      I am who I am, I can work on different aspects of myself that need to be helped, but I don't need to be apologetic or sorry for what I am. Being in Ireland I am constantly being brought aware to things that are starkly different, I have a tendency to shrink back and be apologetic for them. The vegetarianism thing I've been discussing one of them, but everything, from my habits to the manner of my dress. When staying with different cultures everything is brought into the spotlight and I have had to work hard to not take it personally that I do some things different. Thinking about this I don't know if I'm making any sense, I hope I am. In essence, you are who you are. Instead of trying to do what others do and inevitably looking like an idiot, simply stand tall and strong and be yourself, unless of course you do actually need to change something. For me its a work in progress, but I'm working on it, and hopefully I'll get there soon. In the meantime, I'm sitting in bed crocheting a scarf (much harder then knitting for the record) and it's still raining out. Ta Ta for now! 

Vegetarianism Part 2

I promised vegetarianism part 2 and here it is, whether you want it or not. In my my last entry I talked about my outrage toward the meat industry in general, but now it's time for sharing! As I said before I have been a vegetarian for a good sized chunk of my life. I'm pretty sure I was 10, or early 11 when due to the tragic death of my pet chickens I decided to stop eating poultry. A large controversy as it was almost thanksgiving and I refused to eat the Turkey. Luckily for me my parents became vegetarian shortly after because of the Nithyananda mission, and so unlike many other young Veggies it was a piece of cake for me. I never had to struggle with my own nightly dinners, or meatless breakfasts as many students do, the transition was simple and easy, partly because I went to India during the rough transition (for many people) period and didn't have a choice. By the time I was 13 I was a full fledge vegetarian not eating eggs, and with the exception of those stupid questions all young Veggies in the US seem to get: "if you were stuck on an island and the only thing to eat was meat, would you eat it?!" So besides childish questions and a couple one week summer camp issues I sailed through childhood vegetarianism. 

     So, when I came to Ireland and was hit full on by an Anti-Veg sentiment, for better or worse, I was not prepared. On the one hand it's great I got to live this long without major problem, but on the other it hadn't set me up for the inevitable time when I would have to fight for the diet I believed in. 

    Everyone knows Ireland is the land of meat and potatoes, and after only a few days I quickly  learned that potatoes doesn't cover you as an only food source. In addition to that everywhere I go the concept of vegetarian was as foreign as I was "so you'll have the fish?" "No thanks." "If you just eat a little it won't hurt you" "all the same I'd rather not, thanks though." At first I was apologetic and shy about it, but slowly I grew more into my stance on the matter, and spoke up. This was my diet, this was what I was going to eat, and that I wasn't going to. I'm aware that I made a few people annoyed, when people don't eat my vegan cupcakes because they're  vegan, sometimes I get annoyed. The thing I'm having to realize is, I need to stop caring (most of you are probably saying, well duh! At this point, but given my history hopefully you'll forgive me)  so used to vegetarian being the cool thing, the in thing, the right thing, this sudden change was so startling. It has gotten easy, a bit. An education process for all involved, most of all myself, that I'm sure will continue for the rest of my stay here. I'm assuming this is just the doorway to a world where being vegetarian is the hard path, yet as you may have gathered from the last entry I do believe it is "the path" and so will continue. It's definetly hard, but as one of my favorite quotes go "well behaved woman seldom make history" and while I doubt my vegetarian values will go down in history books, I still feel this applicable. Stick with what you believe in and sooner or later others will honor that, or at least (hopefully!) stop asking silly questions.