learning new

You guys. 

This summer changed me. 

Not only physically (hello nose ring & chopped hair!) but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually and all of the other above.

But I just don't know how to talk about it. 

I want to share about my time in Italy and Greece with Rachel - tell you about drinking with the locals, running around the city of Rome at night when all the tourists are gone. And about all the fun we had ATVing around Santorini in our swimsuits, swimming in volcanos' natural hot springs, drinking unlimited wine on a catamaran, making new friends and watching a gorgeous Greek sunset. 

I want to post each and every one of the pictures of Switzerland, the most beautiful country I've been to yet. and tell you what it was like to travel with my parents, how spontaneous and "go-with-the-flow" they were with me, how proud they were of me that my french came out and how good it felt to not have those 6 years of French go completely to waste. 

OOOHHH I want to share it all, I really do. but I don't know how.

I want to tell you how much that shooting incident affected me, while still small in the grand scheme of things, it turned huge in my world. I want to tell you jumpy it made me and brought on new, intense triggers for quite some time. It made me want to spend every single second with loved ones, embracing them as much as possible, because tomorrow isn't ever promised for any of us. Whether that means something as permanent as death, or a falling out or a goodbye, it reminded me of the importance of being in the now. 

I want to tell you how my time in Malawi seriously changed and impacted me, I think in at least 100 different ways, but it feels too cliche to ever say out loud. 

I want to tell you about how climbing 2 more 14ers and other random tough hikes throughout this summer made me feel like a BOSS, accompanied with other emotions about what our bodies are capable of doing...and about camping/being outdoorsy, what feelings of independence and NEW came with that.

I want to tell you about the river June, Ashley and I floated down, the conversations we had while stuck in traffic, looking at the joshua trees. I want to tell you about VIP night in Vegas, how dancing your heart out to skrillex is worth the sweat-ruined dress.

or about the time June and I got a flat tire in the middle of Nevada/nowhere in the middle of the night, how I was so determined to change that thing myself because I KNOW HOW and I'VE DONE IT BEFORE WTF! But we had to call AAA anyways and get help, even though were independent women dammit and we don't need no man! I want to tell you what that night did for me, as well as several of the following nights. 

I want to open up to you about how I feel about love these days and why - how I lost another love this summer, how it's been a harder heartbreak to heal from, how much it has taught me and how I've grown from it. 

I want to tell you how for the first time I think maybe ever, I think highly of myself. I found self-love - I want to tell you what it feels like, what everyday looks like for me with these new eyes, how positive self talk is the biggest game changer of them all.  

I think that was the theme of my summer, the general topic of love - for our selves, others, each friendship, this earth, everything. holy cow this summer, i learned a lot. 

And i just don't know how to talk about it. 

MALAWI: part t w o - the village + pictures galore

Before Shannon and I got to see elephants, discover our love for hippos and play on paddle boards, she took me to her village. This is where I started really falling in love with Malawi and I'm hoping you'll be able to see why - I'm already wishing I could just go back and hang out with her til her service is done, buuuut that's just me :)

Shannon's village was where I got to experience all kinds of things for the first time, truly immersing me into that culture shock that was bound to happen. For example, I got to watch as Shannon picked out rocks from the uncooked rice since "it's a fancy thing" and she "only does it when she has company over." true friend right there. 

Soon after, I ate the first rock of my adult life...can't always catch 'em all. ;)

While in the village, I also...

...got to ride a bike taxi for the first and second time - and good news, I only screwed him up and made us almost fall just a few times...

...learned how to properly wear a chitenge/dress appropriately to village standards - shoulders and knees covered - typically by a chitenge or something flowy/not skin tight. Shannon told me I couldn't wear my yoga pants or leggings without a chitenge because "they ain't eva seen an ass like dat." thank you, microwave squats *heyyyy!*...

...got to see Shannon's new digs, where she has spent the whole last YEAR of her life! Her house is probably the nicest (& biggest, phew!) house in all the vill AND it has the best, most fun porch (aka the children's daily playground)...

 

...met the sweetest kids. I probably spoke a total of 3 sentences to/with them but OH the fun was had, especially with the camera. And see how fun the porch is?!...

...found the best hammock spot yet, just a super steep, hourish long hike in Shannon's "backyard!"... 

...was humbled by my privilege and opportunity often. Once occurred when we passed these sweet little girls on our hike. They were the youngest of the many people we saw, each going back and forth up the hill to get water, firewood, etc. Very few understood why we were choosing to do walk because to them - time, responsibilities, basic survival...doesn't necessarily allow for hiking just for funsies.

We stayed in Shannon's village for one full day. I met all of her new friends, each of her little friends too. I got a little taste of what it's like to live as a Peace Corps volunteer. I ate the meals she has been eating for the last year, lots of rice, eggs, AND we got tomatoes from her garden, yummy yummy...

...I peed next to a cockroach for longer than I thought I could, I asked Shannon to place a dead spider on my hand so I could not be a child and learn how to handle it (I did). All kinds of new, lemme tell ya. 

I soaked up every second while in her village - the simplicity, the frustrations, the peacefulness and silence. The pain, the hunger, the laughter, the singing and dancing. The morning cock-a-doodle-doos, the birds scratching the tin roof, the effortless, pure joy each person I met has, the view from her porch...   

needless to say, my time at Shannon's village, while brief, was special, meaningful and so.much.fun. 
all I hoped for and so much more. <3

And as if this post isn't long enough already, here are some of other pictures of her house, should you be curious. :)

^^her backyard/garden area

 ^^^ shower room on the left, chim (bathroom) on the right

^^^ glass fence around almost all of her house. safety first! 

 ^^^ hand washing station

^^^ Shannon's kitchen/nifty bucket system

^^^ kidskidskids. seeing Shannon with these cuties, interacting with them, teaching them, supporting them, laughing with them and making goofy faces...filled my heart right up, GAH. so proud of you, sweet friend. 

I could talk your ear off about my time in Malawi and add so many more pictures, so I shall cut myself off here. 
Thanks, as always, for reading. xo. 

M A L A W I (part one)

I'm homeeeeee. My trip is over. Safe and sound. 
And now I think I'm already ready to go somewhere else! ;) 
that travel bug is reeeeal. 

My 6 weeks away was almost too good. Despite the big scare, everything seemed to work out rather well (PS - thank you, ALL - for the love and support after sharing that <3 so appreciated). Sights continued to get more and more beautiful each day, I met amazing new people, had quality time with some of my favorite humans, had great conversations with even greater people, ate all kinds of different foods, tried all kinds of new things - literally everything I was hoping for and more. I start off by saying this because I can't wait to share it with you, but putting it into words/attempting to organize my 3,000+ (!!) pictures is just too overwhelming to fully wrap my head around sooo we'll just have to see how this goes!

For now - I present to you - MALAWI part o n e ! aka - the best quotes from the Africa portion of my trip - aka - MY MOST FAVORITE 2 WEEKS OF ALL TIME. I'm hoping this will give a nice little set up of what Africa is kiiind of like, as well as give me a place to put the random pictures that are still worthy of sharing. So much of my time in Malawi is hard to describe - I imagined dirt and desert and bugs and hunger and sadness and some more bugs. People who ask me about Africa say they thought same thing...so hopefully these next few posts about Malawi can give you another piece of reality looks like there. Most of the quotes below you 100% had to be there, but I'll do my best to try and explain the hilarity that was my time with Shannon in Malawi. <3 

PS - *sorry not sorry* for the insane length of this post! ----------------------------

1. "Oh hey - um. A bat just flew into your house..." This was at Shannon's house in her village, while she was cooking us eggs and rice for dinner. I was casually keeping her company and in the dusk of the evening I noticed something fly right into her kitchen. From here, all of our bat knowledge came out and only a little bit of our fear/jumpiness. We both screeched a little too loud and neither of us wanted to get that close to the buckets - BUT we learned things like bats are blind and they have to fall first before they can start flying...who knew! the pictures below are us using Shannons' kitchen bucket system for it's alternative purpose - bat capture and getting it outside...and having much success!

2."Ooh I think I just ate a spider leg with that edamame." This is something that I calmly said and laughed at afterward, while snacking on loose edamame from Shannon's backpack. I know, who am I - being so okay with knowingly eating a spider?! A changed person, that's for damn sure. 

3. "Give me my iPod, we're being sold." Malawian transport summed up in a single sentence. From mini buses, to big buses, to tuk-tuks, bike taxis and hitchhiking...disorganized, but oddly very functional chaos. This cannot be further explained, you will just have to go there to see for yourself - buuuut make sure you have Shannon with you, it's very confusing and sometimes they sell you to other minibuses and it's good to know what that actually means. but, good news - the buses stop often and you can get snacks from people on the side of the road! like lollipops, grilled corn, apples and samosas!

4. "Heather! you need to 'bo' them!" This was Shannon's friendly reminder on how to talk to the kids. In her village (and I think most villages in Malawi?), everyone greets everyone. To greet kids you yell, 'BO!' and they yell back, (To Shannon - "Shannonni BBOO!!" and its really cute - everyone's waving and smiling and your heart just fills right up. My afternoon and mornings with those sweet faces, watching Shannon interact with them, playing games and coloring with them - nothing. better. 

 

5. "My feet are the only ones that are nice." - this was in reference to us taking our shoes off and having our feet not smell so nice. #villagelife 

6. "I think I dreamt that we fought..." "Oh, do you feel weird about me right now?" "Extremely..." Hours spent on transport, heading from the south of the country to the north. Shannon and I did a great job at getting along splendidly, just as we expected...but when one of you has a weird dream about the other, makes for some mini awkwardness. Thank you, malaria pills, for making my dreams extra cray.

7.  "A bus for Zimbabwe?! I think we're on the wrong bus..." #africatransportproblems 

 8. "How can such a tiny thing inflict so much pain on a human being?!" Those of you who know me know that if you can see the salsa on my chip, it's too hot for me...but spice whimpy-ness aside...Malawi has these teensy tiny peppers that with a little lick of one, I kid you not, instant fire. Shannon thought it was funny to encourage me to have a bite of one each time we walked by a bush...I'm not always the best at saying no to peer pressure so, I learned about these bad boys the hard way. Props to you, Jaryt, for having a pepper pocket and including them in your meals, often. You real impressive. (sorry for the blurry pic, but LOOK HOW TINY THEY ARE!)

9. "Who needs a cigarette when you can just rip off your chest hair with a nicotine patch?!" An "example" of how PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) find new ways to have fun while living in Malawi. loool. Meeting Shannon's people/new friends was so so fun and each minute was filled with goofiness, laughter and great stories. PCVs are quite entertaining, lemme tell ya.

10. "Ooh, babe at 3:00, look." "The one in the hat? He looks like a child, I think he's legit like 13..." Shannon being just an okay wing woman. 

11. " You can put your legs in there?! We must go!" Dangling my feet is a highly used motivation of mine for many of my activities. One place we stayed at had a floating dock in the water, so why not paddle board out and take pictures on it!

 ^^^ those little huts (Myoka Village) are where we stayed for 3 nights while in Nhkata Bay - it was incredible. 

12. "This is what the people in jurassic park must have experienced." Shannon and I in our room at our lodge in Zambia, looking out the window as an elephant walks by. 

13. "Well that was the most expensive nap I've ever taken." Shannon and I napped on our morning safari in Zambia. A big oops, but also so SO necessary.

14. "Hm that's interesting...but back to the hippos...." While on the safari, Shannon and I discovered hippos are actually one of our favorite animals. We were oddly fascinated by them and wanted all of the hippo info possible. At one point I asked our guide, "so what else can you tell me about hippos?" And when he asked what I wanted to know, I said everything. This caused excellent entertainment throughout the safari for Shannon and I - and I'm sure only a little annoyance to all the others with us. Did you know they can stay underwater for 5-7 minutes? And they most likely do not get their bellies sunburnt when they lay outside. You're welcome. 

^^^hippos making all kinds of noises while underwater, cause they cool like that. 

15. "Come'ere chip!" this is an inside joke that goes way back...but we did call this chess piece "chip" and it was hilarious as hell. 

15. "It's so weird how comfortable I feel about mosquito nets - it's like my safe place." This became ridiculously true. I got used to the bugs pretty quick, mostly because they weren't bad at all like I assumed they would be and also because I had to. But once wrapped up in the mosquito net at night, I just told myself nothing could get me in here and all the sleep was had. 

16. "Ooh look at this shirt- it says 'Hard rock cafe, fuck it!' I think it's pronounced 'Phuket'..." thank you, secondhand secondhand stores. You're so entertaining.

<3 <3 <3