Tag Archives: travel

Tahiti, Here I come!

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As you may or may not know, I have been a long-time Polynesian dancer. I didn’t say I was a GOOD dancer, but it’s been a hobby of mine since the summer before I started high school. Throughout my early adolescent years, I was in the Polynesian Club in school and even finished high school as its co-president, weird. There’s just something beautiful about the movement, the meaning behind the dances, and the culture it represents.

In addition to the club, a few of my closest friends and I were a part of a small, family-owned and operated performance group, Pacific Island Dancers (PID), where we would dance at people’s parties, weddings, showers, and family events. Every summer I still come back to do shows with them. On a busy weekend we can get up to 3 shows! PID is such an amazing family and that’s been a reason why I love to dance so much. It’s good because it’s great way for me to relax and de-stress…and I don’t exercise so much.

After high school and throughout college I joined the group “Varua Hae” based in Buena Park. Melinda and I danced with them for a couple of years. It was actually on the carpool rides with Martin to and from this particular dance group that we started talking. Martin used to carpool with another friend, and if it wasn’t for this good ‘ol friend moving and not being able to carpool anymore, Martin and I wouldn’t have gotten so close. (Thanks John Lee!) That’s really where our relationship grew. However, after my sophomore year of college, I slowly started to get busy with school, work, church, and other activities to the point where I just couldn’t fully commit to the group.

Anyway, throughout these last few years, Varua Hae, (now Te Varua Ori) always had a special place in my heart. When we found out that they were going to compete in Tahiti this summer, we just had to come along for the ride. After all, Martin and I do owe a lot to the group :]

So after months of planning the time’s almost here. We’re leaving this weekend!

And I’m so excited I can’t contain myself.

Here’s a lovely video to give you a picture of what we will be doing next week:

 

Sacramento Clouds

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I’ve always had an itch to travel. I’ve only been to a handful of places, but they were so rich with culture and life. Today, I flew to Sacramento for a conference for work. I’ve never been here before. It’s awesome! I feel so blessed for this opportunity.

My flight was so early this morning, I got to see the sunrise!

As I said on my Instagram, there’s no feeling quite like that moment just as you take off. It feels like you are running so fast and nothing (not even gravity) can stop you. I was really late coming to the airport. The line was surprisingly long for a Wednesday at 5:00am. Airports are so hectic and crazy, but I love that feeling taking off. Of course, landing is a different story.

The flying always gets me a little nervous. The Sacramento Airport is so cool! Look at this awesome art piece by baggage claim:

It’s a bit cloudy around here. Light drizzle and overcast skies make it a great day to walk around and see the sites.

The view from my room!

It’s really beautiful here! I’m so excited for the seminar tomorrow! :] Hopefully I learn a lot that I can use for work.

Travel

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Im starting a new collection: Places I go/where I want to travel to/wish I could afford to travel to… and related topics!

and guess what, I’m starting today!

Martin and I are off to New Orleans. :] Aspiring to eat creole, jambalaya, Cajun food, beignets, and craw fish, we hope to come back on sunday with loads of fun stories and pictures to show you guys!

I’m so excited I can’t breathe. So many things to do before our flight… gotta run!

Look What Came in the Mail Today

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My diploma!

It’s quite amazing how 3 1/2 years of your life is ultimately defined by a small 7×8 piece of paper.

Many people ask what the whole point of college is – when all they get is this little piece of paper. All those late nights, 10 page papers, PowerPoint presentations, group meetings, projects, and hard work culminates itself in this teeny piece of paper. Is it worth it? Like, really?

yes?

I’ve come to realize that one’s whole college experience is not in this finished product, but the journey itself. “Peace is not a distant goal we seek, but a means at which we arrive at that goal.” I’ve grown so much through my experiences in college - not just in school, but the time spent with the people around me. Sure, I would have loved to move out, lived in a dorm, live a few crazy nights and gone “college crazy” drinking and partying or what have you. But where would that have gotten me? Growth is not in trying “new” things or experiencing life and making every mistake that could “define” you. No. It can also be in learning through shared thought, growth of the mind, and spiritual foundation. These things have gotten me through my college years. Being in Crosstraining has set a place mat for a mindset of peace and wisdom that no party or crazy expereince could ever do. I’m fully content and happy having been at home, close to my friends and family, and have experienced mild, less exciting college years. Many people say that you have to go crazy and that would be the only time with no obligations and no consequences. But really, simple is good too.

Don’t get me wrong, I really wish I could move out and learn to live, pay, and expereince how it is to be a full-pledged “grown up”- and one day I will – But as I wait for that, I find that I’m happy with how my college years turned out.

I still want to do a lot of things before life happens and I settle down. I want to travel to Europe again, go to Vietnam and the Philippines. Learn a new language. Live on my own, pay my own bills. Many of these things aren’t likely to happen in the next few years, but wouldn’t it be nice if I was able to?

Anyway, these things have been rolling around in my mind since I’ve received my diploma. And one more thought remains…

What now?

Arizona

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As I mentioned before, I took a trip out to Arizona for my little cousin’s Confirmation and First Communion. I was honored to be her sponsor! :]

Martin, my mom, and I set out for the 6 hour drive to Prescott, Arizona:

After the ceremony, we set out to Sedona, which was another hour past Prescott.

It was beautiful:

It was one of the best trips I’ve been to. Although it was short, we were able to do and see a lot of different things :]

I love my family!

Places

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I haven’t been to that many places in my life. Or as many as I would like to go, anyway.

My favorite trips so far:

A. Paris – We went on a school trip with my best friends. We went on my sophomore year of high school and it was such a great experience. We weren’t able to travel around Paris as much as i wished, but i’m still happy I got to go.

B. New York – I blogged about this in an earlier post. I went with Martin for our two-year anniversary. It was so fun! We really got to walk around and see all the famous places, as well as a few of the smaller, more indie places.

C. And third… I would have to say, when I was younger, we used to have a huge van. It had a VCR, TV, and lots of compartments to fit random toys. My parents used to take us on road trips all over the western states. We visited Utah, Oregon, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Colorado, among other places. I have a lot of fond memories of myself, Melinda, and Devyn watching movies and playing games in that van. We were too young to truly appreciate all of those places. At times we didn’t even want to get out of the car! That’s just sad. If I could take a road trip again, I’d want to visit all of these places again. It’d be different, now that I am older and could actually appreciate all of these places.

I really don’t have the time to travel much anymore. But if I were to somehow (magically) get vacation time, I’d like to visit so many places. Hopefully, at least once in my life, I’d be able to go to these places. Look how beautiful they are:

1. Guanajuato, Mexico

2. Colmar, France

3. Tahiti (and see REAL Tahitian dancers)

4. One day I’d like to visit Vietnam (where my Dad was from) and see what life is like there, meet the people, and explore these pretty waters:

5. Great Wall. One of the seven wonders of the world. Or is it eight?

6. I think this is Cinque Terre…is that right?

7. The Sapporo Japan Snow Festival

8. Definitely, Italia

9. Greece

10. Back to New York:

11. And back to Paris (especially if they have all of these pretty balloons):

**edit**: All images above are unknown. If you know any of these sources, let me know and i’ll change it. thanks!

Yes, I know, you can’t go everywhere. Plus I don’t have the kind of money to be traveling everywhere. But it’d be nice to go to any of these places. I want to see people, their culture, and what motivates them. I want to look at their mannerisms, their background. I want to meet the locals, find cute coffee shops, and sit and watch everyone walk by. It’s a long shot, but who wouldn’t dream of all of these things?

I used to daydream about traveling all the time, and now that I have a job, it’s been put on hold. I hope that one day, I could go with my future husband and travel the world together. Wouldn’t that be sweet? One of my sister’s best friends recently got engaged in Italy. ITALY! Can you imagine?! How amazing is that?

As I dream about all of these things, I’m still grateful for everything that I have right now. I’m lucky to be where I’m at. I’m lucky to have a job. Lucky to have the family, friends, and boyfriend that will support me. I wouldn’t want to change that for anything. But sometimes I just like to wish.

wish. wish. wish.

New York

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I wanted to update my trip to New York which I took last fall. So long ago right? We had such a great time out there, and I rarely get to travel as much as I would hope, so here it goes:

This trip was a get-away of sorts, before Martin started his full-time job. It was our 2-year anniversary, Christmas gift to ourselves, and our ”desire-to-travel” fix (if that makes sense) all rolled into one. We stayed with Martin’s cousin Paula, who lives in Hoboken, NJ.

It’s such a beautiful city, right near the train which went straight to the heart of New York City (perfect for travelers). It was great because they were able to show us the “cool” places that only the locals know about. We ate Arepas (below), bagels, New York-style pizza, burgers from Shake Shack, Five Guys, chicken from Bon Chon, and anything else you could think of that would remind you of the city. We tried it all!

We stopped by 30 Rock, hit up statues, museums, historic buildings, and celebrated mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Of course, Times Square:

I wanted to check out the MOMA as well as the met, since we are such “art enthusiasts”. Haha. We loved both of them! They get pretty crowded though, but most things around NYC were as well.

The Statue of Liberty. We just took the ferry around it, and didn’t land on the island itself. Next time, I definitely want to get off and explore.

We stopped by Washington Square Park to see the infamous street performers and musicians:

But my favorite part of the whole trip had to be the ice skating. I’ve always wanted to ice skate in Central Park. We skated until our happy little hearts were content. Simply perfect!

We had a wonderful picnic in Central Park the day before we left. We walked to Whole Foods at Columbus Circle and bought our lunch, brought it into the park, and ate it…peacefully. Haha. It was pretty sweet and romantic.

It was the perfect ending to our trip. We laughed, ate, bonded, and were just starting to figure out the subway system!

We really enjoyed our time in New York – sheer bliss, if you ask me. We even got accustomed to the walking pace – everyone walks so incredibly fast in New York. It was crazy!

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our trip! :)