Wednedsday, August 12, 2009
Some background: The Kazakhstan chapter of the trip is over. I am sitting in my hostel in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, where we have been for two days now. Before this we were in Odessa, a beach town on the Black Sea in Ukraine. When I say we, I'm referring to myself, Elise, and Lindsay. We all fell in love with Odessa from the moment we arrived. Well, maybe not the moment, but I'll comment on our busride in a minute :).
Odessa is beautiful, charming, full of people showed out, dressed up in their finest, strolling along the main streets, chilling in the beautiful parks, sunbathing on the dirty but nevertheless refreshing beaches. Open air restaurants line the streets and the whole city is breathing deeply, slowly, fully. The hostel we stayed at was run by two dudes, one from San Jose, California (I am always shocked by how I find Bay folks everywhere... today in the underground caves of the monestary in Kiev I ran into a guy wearing a Cal t-shirt), and one from Poland, whose wife and two-year-old also lived in the hostel. Part of the reason why I loved Odessa is how amazingly nice these two were to us.
A note on bringing zen to the mountain:
Yes, I believe it, because when everything went wrong on our busride (we got off the night train in Odessa and rode the bus an hour in the wrong direction), i just smiled, shrugged, and brought zen to the bus. I placed my fate and path in the hands of the world and determined to meet it all with an open heart. Being here, though, on the port of Odessa, makes me wonder. Because I definitely did not bring zen to the water. The Black Sea brought it, refrehed it, instilled it in and to me. Maybe it's because I already felt zen. But the water has always had this effect on me.
I do believe that places possess spirits, that locations have vibes and souls. Each being who comes to the place leaves a different mark on it, minisculey or massively altering its essence. Even those who mentally or emotionally--but never physically--cross its path alter it. Because the seeds of rumors or taints of opinion carried on the wind also touch a place.
Right now, I am touching Odessa and she is smiling on me.
Later that day:
I've realized that I adore vacation spots if the majority of vacationers are not American. That's why I loved Zihuatanejo so much, and I'm sure why I love it here. It feels comfortable here, but the lack of Americans also makes it a foreign experience. Almaty felt so far away from home, but this feels familiar, cozy in an eye-opening, sun-soaking way. I wonder, though, if I had been on the water in Kazakhstan, if I would've felt more at home. Water seems to do that for me.
Sometimes I write lists of topics in my journal as they pop into my head, thinking I'll come back to them and expand later. I almost never expand. At the end of Thursday in Odessa, my list stood as follows:
*Recommending Odessa to people
--Whiteness
*People-watching without eavesdropping because of the language barrier
*Our night out with people from the hostel
*and a longer entry on Israel and Judaism, which I'll post later.
love to all. I return home in 2 days! please write me emails! I have email access at this hostel :)
infinite x's and o's,
L
I do believe that places possess spirits, that locations have vibes and souls. Each being who comes to the place leaves a different mark on it, minisculey or massively altering its essence. Even those who mentally or emotionally--but never physically--cross its path alter it. Because the seeds of rumors or taints of opinion carried on the wind also touch a place.
Right now, I am touching Odessa and she is smiling on me.
Later that day:
I've realized that I adore vacation spots if the majority of vacationers are not American. That's why I loved Zihuatanejo so much, and I'm sure why I love it here. It feels comfortable here, but the lack of Americans also makes it a foreign experience. Almaty felt so far away from home, but this feels familiar, cozy in an eye-opening, sun-soaking way. I wonder, though, if I had been on the water in Kazakhstan, if I would've felt more at home. Water seems to do that for me.
Sometimes I write lists of topics in my journal as they pop into my head, thinking I'll come back to them and expand later. I almost never expand. At the end of Thursday in Odessa, my list stood as follows:
*Recommending Odessa to people
--Whiteness
*People-watching without eavesdropping because of the language barrier
*Our night out with people from the hostel
*and a longer entry on Israel and Judaism, which I'll post later.
love to all. I return home in 2 days! please write me emails! I have email access at this hostel :)
infinite x's and o's,
L
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