California Road Trip!

My mother arrived on a Sunday afternoon, after almost 2 days of traveling, at LAX airport. It was amazing to see her again after a year away from my family and home. We picked up a hire car from the airport and embarked on a Californian road trip. We had a hilarious time adjusting to driving in LA traffic (20 line highways and non-stop traffic 24/7) and not to mention driving on the right side of the road. Our first stop was Santa Barbara. We stayed in quaint little hotel, a stone's throw from the beach. We walked along the beach at sunset to the main street where we strolled the boutique shops and restaurants and retired early. Both mum was jet-lagged and I was emotionally and physically exhausted after a long season of work. Sleep came quite naturally on our first night.

We departed early, after an adventure at Wholefoods supermarket in the morning. Wholefoods is an enormous chain across the US that promotes entirely sustainable and/or organic products. It is one of the most mind-blowing shops you'll ever see, and of course mum was mind-blown too when she saw it and so a quick dash to the supermarket ended up in a 1.5 hour coffee, breakfast, exploration adventure. Who would have thought a supermarket would have been a tourist destination. Once we dragged ourselves away from the delicious raw chocolates, green smoothies and vegan burritos, our next stop was up the Pacific Coast Highway. Highway 1.

We arrived at my good friend Lloyd's property, Merlin's Perch, in Big Sur. Lloyd has a wwoofing farm and that is how I first met him if you recall back to a few blog posts ago. Lloyd had wwoofers from France, Iran and the Netherlands there at the time and we created a feast from home grown vegetables and authentic naans and the like. A few glasses of wine and a magic sunset through the fog overlooking the ocean, we were knocked out again!

Morning came, and we continued up Highway 1 to Monterey and enjoyed some of the renowned clam chowder and seafood. Our time in Monterey was relaxed and involved mainly walking on the beach and taking it easy.

Next stop: Where my US trip all started orginally, Berkeley! We basically drove around and I introduced my mum to Berkeley life and we explored Tilden Regional Park and went to my old house and caught up with my old housemates. It was so wonderful to be back in Berkeley and in typical Berkelyan fashion we dined at Cafe Gratitude (a Raw Food restaurant I've ranted and raved about for a long time now). Mum was introduced to the Biodisel petrol stations and homelessness that once fascinated me when I first arrived. We crossed the bridge and stayed in San Francisco for the night at a luxurious hotel nestled in typical San Fran architecture. I introduced mum to the life I used to live in the SF Bay and we met up with old colleagues for drinks at the local pub I occasioned after work. I later ditched the old lady (jokes, mum, I know you are reading this) and continued the night on with my friends and visited some iconic gay bars in the Castro district of San Fran (reference Harvey Milk). I woke up the next morning having not laughed so hard in months; my stomach muscles literally ached. I love those guys!

The next day was tourist time and we visited the DeYoung Art Museum, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, rode the historic trams, etc, before later that night departing out of SFO airport to New York.

* * * 

After New York we arrived back in California in sunny San Diego. People always tell me that San Diego reminds them of Perth, and yes, I can definitely see the resemblence. After a choatic two weeks (well, primiarly after a chaotic extended weekend in New York)  mum and I were ex-haus-ted. Tired. Worn-out. So we stayed in a little hotel in La Jolla near Windandsea beach and CHILLAXED. We went to a nail salon and got pampered, we watched movies and I got a hair cut and we drank wine, ate cheese, grapes and nuts and did I mention relax? I also caught up with another old friend whom I haven't seen in four years and inspired me to consider doing an internship in Washington DC. Another thing to think about career wise. Oh, little Laura. Another amazing evening catching up with old friends. 

Our trip continued as we drove up to Long Beach and dropped off our hire car and jumped on a ferry and headed over to... The Island. Yes, Catalina Island. This was another great time for mum and I to bond and she was really happy to see where I live and meet some of my friends and colleagues. We didn't get too adventurous with hikes or anything like that, but we did some rock-climbing and archery and had some great conversations overlooking the ocean. I guess there are no words to describe how happy and refreshed I was (albeit exhausted) after my mum left. It was no nice to reconnect with family and the notion of home. I know she had an amazing time too, and I am looking forward to seeing all my friends and family back home over Christmas. 

A Change in the Direction of the Wind.

So, I guess I better let it be known that a month after my last post things in my life have changed quite significantly. Diogenes and I decided to go our separate ways. After distance and more distance and then some more distance, we were both tired. We also realised that we want very different things for our futures and after many long chats and hearty discussions (yes, this has been happening for a few months now) we trusted our gut that breaking up was the best option. Our decision was completely mutual and I know I can at least speak from my end that I feel like it was completely the right choice. The distance certainly made the process a lot easier and I'm sure we will forever be amazing friends. Right now? I was lucky enough to have my mum visit from Australia for two weeks and we traveled and I came back to the island completely refreshed. My heart is completely open and I feel so much gratitude for my life right now. I have bonded really well with all the new staff we had come in and feel so happy every single day. The new season brought about new work; my job has changed a little for the summer and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am starting to make decisions about where I want to go and what I want to do for my postgrad studies and the future looks so bright right now. The wind has certainly changed direction for me, but I am happier than ever. Isn't it incredible when one door closes that another one can open so quickly?

A Reflection: One Year Gone

I’m currently sitting on the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach California. The ferry came early and hence I have about an hour and half until my pre-arranged taxi to the airport picks me up. Instead of sitting, waiting and occupying my time drinking Pina Coladas at some cheesy “California Beach Bar” at LAX Airport like I did last time, I decided to do something touristy in Long Beach. A grand old retired passenger ship sits next to the ferry landing and it seemed quite fitting that I toured it given my childhood obsession with the Titanic (mostly for the Deep Sea elements than the ship itself). So here I find myself sitting on the Promenade Deck in the sun, writing. I contemplated whether to read or write, but I realised I hadn’t really written in a while. It’s not that I haven’t been inspired to write, but life has been daily if you know what I mean.

Catalina Island has still been heaven. In fact I was sitting out in a kayak this very morning looking around and there were sea lions floating and feasting beside me, the company’s pirate ship the Tole Mour had just entered the Cove, snorkelers were discovering giant black sea hares (yes, sea slugs that were 15lbs!), sea stars, octopus and more, the water looked like silk and the sun shone brightly. Catalina Island is not always so typically beautiful. This last week gone had huge surge that stripped the beach bare, there was not an animal in sight (well, the visibility was so shocking that even if there was we couldn’t see them) and it was generally cold and wet without much refuge from Mother Nature. Nevertheless, moments like today, when I was travelling across the channel back to the mainland on the ferry, and there were bait balls; fish, birds, dolphins, sea lions all frolicking and competing for a giant school of fish, or just the hundreds of dolphins that bow rode, jumped and breached continue to take my breath away. 

However, sometimes I feel like there is something missing. Missing? You ask. Impossible! You proclaim. What could possibly be missing from living life in paradise? Well, family and familiar culture for one. Huh? Yes, that’s right. I’m homesick. Okay, for starters the living situation at Fox Landing quite peculiar; 20-40 people you live, work and play with 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I have no qualms with the living situation and rather I absolutely cherish and adore each person in their own individual way, but I’m just very different and it’s a weird sensation that sometimes there is nowhere for me to go and just… well, be different. I guess I’ve always been different; from a different place, on a different path. If you know me well, you’ll know exactly what I mean. It was two months straight from the first time I stepped foot on the island to the first time I ventured off a couple of weeks ago to go and visit Di up in Monterey. Sitting in an air-conditioned car, mixing in civilization again, back in the city, using money to buy things from shops, meeting people from all different places, really made me realise how much I miss being involved in a broader society. Being at the airport in particular was a huge wake-up call reminding myself how much I miss travelling, Europe, home, and all the different people you could possibly meet at an airport; the diversity of life!

I recently turned down a Masters Program to go to a university in Norway to study International Development. Development and ‘world betterment’ has been a passion of mine for a long time, but being on the island has humbled me a little for the better or worse. Long story short, I realised the timing wasn’t right. I am at a stage right now where I am going to need to take a big think about my future and make some decisions. Decisions such as when, where and what postgraduate studies will I undertake. The timeline is currently being constructed with a goal to be enrolled in a Masters Program by mid-next year doing exactly what I really want to do and plan to make a career out of. Oh my. Crunch time. Being only 22 years old has given me some freedom to ‘take my time’ as I have continuously rushed through life since I was about 5 years old. So, the first step in my plan? To go home. I miss my family.

One of the things I have realised is that I am a “cold” country person. Not cold in relation to the weather, as I definitely love the sun and a warm summer. But in terms of culture. Australia (albeit divided in some parts), England, Germany, South Africa, Norway – all of those typical “cold” countries. The US is technically a “cold country”, except for the South. Brazil, Spain, Italy, Mexico are all examples of “hot” countries. It’s very interesting, because my whole life I’ve always been told I was very warm, open, etc, and so one might assume I would love “hot” country culture. And I do. For holidays. But just not to live daily life there. One of our bosses at work is a “cold” country person and, aside from myself interestingly enough, most of the staff have a hard time relating to him. I was talking to a good friend who was ‘trying to understand me’ a little better the other day, and we used the analogy – how would you feel if you went and lived on an island with 20 people just like that boss? Answer: A little bit out of place. And my friend quickly realised that is exactly how I feel sometimes in reverse. The US and Australia are similar because we both speak English and are Western societies, but I’m starting to realise there are far more differences than I had anticipated. It makes me miss home a lot and I often ask myself – why am I here, away from my family and friends, if I could be there doing the same thing there, with them, in a familiar culture? Walking around on the decks of the Queen Mary, listening to British tourists stroll and chat in their very British way and meeting fellow Australians only reiterates this feeling.

For now, however, the Spring season is coming to an end in a few weeks. My mother is coming to visit for a little USA Road Trip in the break, and then a summer filled with SCUBA diving and fun is ahead! So I have a lot to look forward to. Every day I am learning a little more about myself and how to cope in this big, glorious World. I am incredibly grateful for all my experiences. I look back at all the posts over the last year and its easy to remember how much I've learnt about myself since I left Australian shores one year ago.  I am flying up to Monterey for a week in a few hours to visit some old friends, go camping, relax and spend some time with the boyfriend. Hopefully this week and the two weeks with my mum when she visits mid-June will be rejuvenating and give me that grounding I need to keep understanding why I started this journey one year ago…

Easter in Los Angeles!

Easter weekend was one of those times in my life where I had to sit back and the only thing I could do was appreciate how blessed I was. As soon as the kids left the island, we all packed our bags and jumped on a dive boat. The dive boat was called the Sand Dollar and had an incredibly overt American Flag and Bald Eagle across the front of it! USA! USA! 

We dressed up in our sun dresses, played guitar, sang songs together and drank beer as the boat motored from Catalina Island across the channel to San Pedro in Los Angeles. The boat pulled up and we strolled a mere 50m to the front gates of the “Railroad Revival Tour”, an amazing music concert. Couldn’t have parked closer in a car! The evening was spent dancing and laughing watching three incredible bands: Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Mumford and Sons in a parking lot in the middle of industrial LA. We had a group of nearly 20, picnic rugs, and the best attitude in the whole concert. It just simply rocked! 

After the concert we got to avoid all the traffic and crashed on our boat. Throughout the night, the captain motored the boat over to an unknown island. The island was supposed to be Santa Barbara Island, one of the magnificent other Channel Islands. However, the seas were too high and we couldn’t get there. The island we woke up seemed awfully familiar… oh wait, that’s because it was Catalina Island.  Yay, back home. At 6am before breakfast we jumped off the back of the boat on the West End of the island and went SCUBA diving. This was my first time diving in a kelp forest and we saw all kinds of echinoderms, rockfish, nudibranchs and opistobranchs. I found the most magnificent pink abalone shell I could possibly ever find. Epic find, if I don’t say so myself. We ate, dived, ate some more, dived some more (on the last dive we dove Gregorian Fan Coral covered caves – incredible!) and then headed back to Fox Landing where a keg of beer awaited us.

 The rule was that we weren’t allowed to leave the boat until the keg was finished. With a bit of leniency by shifting the party onto the float, we spent the afternoon drinking and playing in the sun. We play games, jumped off the top of the boat, jumped off the pier, went for random dinghy rides, sun-baked and just generally had the best afternoon of my life! Afternoon turned into evening and we all crashed early to no surprise. 

We woke up the next day, being Easter Sunday, and did an Easter Egg hunt, some Easter Egg competitions and enjoyed a family dinner where everyone cooked and joined in. I called my family back home on Sunday night and went to bed at an early hour. The following Monday we all awoke before sunrise and ventured out on the flat-top boat with bags of cut up fish carcasses that we had prepared the day before. We dragged them along the side of the boat in an attempt to “Shark-Chum”. This is an event undertaken once a season where the staff all prepare some fish-guts goodness and hang out in the middle of the channel trying to attract sharks in an attempt to jump in and snorkel with them. Sounds kind of crazy, I know, and all I can say is I’m glad we didn’t see any sharks. Nevertheless we went for a sensational dolphin bow-riding session on the way home. The water was crystak clear, and we rode with the dolphins for a good ten minutes (that’s a pretty long time for dolphins to bow ride!) as the sun rose across LA in the background. It was magical. Later that morning we all raced back out onto the boats as a Humpack mama and her young was swimming by. We followed the whales for a good kilometer before they dove into the depths. They were a Type 5 (very dark) Humpack Whale and there are no other words to describe it but magical! Oh, and we also found a dead dolphin carcass floating in the ocean.  

ALL IN ALL, one of the most incredible weekends of my life. Over and over I kept repeating – we are so blessed! Can you believe this is reality? We are so blessed! Happy Easter everyone. 

Catalina Wine Mixer

It’s a perfect Tuesday, and I have the day off work. The weather is a little overcast which creates a gentle cool breeze in the warmer air. The fan is on I am snuggled up in the doona I bought on my second day in the United States. Perhaps I paid too much for it at the time given I didn’t have a job and rent in San Francisco was far higher than I budgeted for. Nevertheless, being snuggled up in this quite opulent and lavish doona; the way it smells, its crunchy yet soft feeling, the ruffling sound it makes when I move, make me feel completely content and at ‘home’.  My home now, as you well know, is a dream paradise. My room reminds me of a hotel in Bali with a king size bed, furniture to match and of course a balcony with an ocean view. I live, work, play in the same place with the same people every day, and have done so for just over two months now. I have found stability, excitement, passion, knowledge to be learnt and challenges like learning to drive boats. My peak hour traffic to get the mail in the afternoons are dolphins and sea lions with a sunset that lights up the mountainous ridges of the island creating a glowing golden shine to everything light still touches. When I get to Toyon Bay to pick up the mail I am greeted with smiling faces, dear friends and I feel part of a much greater community.

This weekend all the different Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI) bases joined together for a big party of wine-tasting. Not to be confused with the fabricated Catalina Wine Mixer from the movie Step Brothers, but something similar. The event was held at Toyon Bay (one base) and those of us from Fox Landing (my base) and the other base Cherry Cove all came and joined in. Friends from Avalon, the town on the island, and the Catalina Island Conservancy were also invited. There was wine, food, music, dancing and an incredible time had by all.

The best part was, is that Diogenes came out and enjoyed the weekend with me. This was not only great for our relationship but was, of course, great for me personally too. Being out here on this island, away from all of my family, old friends and generally everything has often stirred homesickeness within, but all in all has been amazing. It wasn’t until Di came out that I put myself in the bigger picture though. It’s really easy to get absorbed with life here and think that this island is the whole universe. Which, for me at the moment this place is unequivocally my little ‘world’. Everything beyond has seemed like a distant fable. Of course in some ways Di’s visit made me incredibly homesick, it also had a positive effect of grounding me and allowing me to see my role here much more objectively and in a more unbiased way.

We had a truly magical time when he was here. He caught the ferry over and I picked him up (in a boat) at the ferry terminal in Avalon. We drove back to Fox Landing and relaxed and played guitar together (yes, I learnt to play guitar!), went for a little hike so he could see camp from a higher elevation, then he met everyone and we had lunch. After lunch the weather was to die for so we went for a snorkel and explored the kelp forest and recent wreck in our cove; there were invertebrates and fish everywhere and the water was SO clear. We then kayaked around the island a little bit and the water was like silk we just glided through. I showed Di all the places I go and what/where I teach the school children who come out. After dinner we enjoyed some wine on my balcony and had a super relaxing evening together. The next day we hiked to the airport (a good two hour hike each way). The weather had taken a turn and we felt blessed we had enjoyed the water so much the day before. It was overcast, windy and cold. So we enjoyed the weather and hence we hiked! However, we hiked well above the clouds and found ourselves in warm, sunny weather. Neither of us unfortunately had thought to put sunscreen on so now my skin is peeling from sunburn! Dang. We came back, had a shower, napped a bit and then headed over to Wine-Tasting. The next day we went into town, Avalon, and relaxed and ate glorious seafood, ice-cream, coffees, etc. We explored the shops a little but mostly just regretted that we had to say goodbye, again. It never gets easier, but you do get used to it. However, I know in a few weeks I will be going to visit him so at least we do not have so much time apart this time! All in all, Di’s visit was like a magical holiday even though I never left. Everyone loved him and welcomed him into the community.

Today? I am feeling super snug in my pyjamas and might literally ‘take the day off’ (normally I am always doing something on my days off) and read a book and really, really relax! 

An Introduction to Life on an Island

I just got back from an afternoon paddleboard. I packed away my salty 12ft board with my skirt hem a little cold from the water and a content feeling that everything is exactly as it should be. There were sea lions in the cove and being the pinniped-lover that I am, I felt compelled to go out and chill with them. Bait balls of anchovies and like fish spiraled beneath me and made the dark depth glisten. Brown pelicans dived from above creating a defined splash in the silky calm water as they filled their enormous bills. Yes, this is bliss. The sea life in our cove is incredible. I arrived on the island just at the end of whale migration season and Humpacks, Blue and Gray Whales were seen along the horizon. Boat runs before/ instead of breakfast out to see the Gray mama’s and her newborn were common. Fellow cetaceans such as common, bottlenose, Risso’s and Pacific White Sided Dolphins have also been abundant in our cove lately. Between 100-300 dolphins on a good day are spotted off the end of the pier. I have a few times now taken kids out on kayaks and rafted-up in the blue water together, and sat floating and giving a marine mammals class; giving a real life example of why odontocetes hunt and migrate in groups.

 Below the surface of the oceans around Catalina is just as abundant and invertebrates such as sea hares (both the cute Californian Sea Hare and the Giant Sea Hare), sea cucumbers, lobsters, urchins, dorids, nudibranchs and opistobranchs, octopus, sea stars and giant limpets exist in the kelp forest. Fish like garibaldi, blacksmith, senoritas, half moon, sheepheads and more school in and out of the kelp. Leopard sharks, horn sharks and swell sharks live in the rocks and along the sandy bottoms couples with thornback, round and bat rays. But step off the beach and hike up the steep mountains that enclose the cove and deer, Bison, endemic foxes and squirrels amongst birds and reptiles, can be found. The island is alive with endemic species of flora and you can treat yourself to lemonade berries, toyon berries, miner’s lettuce, prikely pear fruit, peppercorn trees, Bermuda buttercup and other edible flora on your hike up. The process of island formation, subduction and simultaneous volcanic activity mean the island geology is incredibly special; metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks. Mixed into it all are semiprecious stones like garnet, quarts and serpentinite.

Right now I am sitting in the Lodge, the common area of the communal housing, and the girls are playing acoustic guitar and singing about Ursa Major, Canus Minor, Orion, Auriga and Cassiopeia in preparation for the astronomy class tonight. They will probably put on superhero costumes and bizarre accents to teach the class, and the kids will have the best night of their life. Others are gathering squid to teach a squid dissection and there will probably be a Marine Mammals and Deep Sea class tonight too.

There are 18 instructors (mostly females with except of about 5 guys – poor things!) and we rotate between being a ‘technician’ who prepares everything, lifeguards and is responsible for organization and safety, an ‘instructor’ who takes classes, labs and activities, and a ‘program coordinator’ who runs the program, overseas everything and is also simultaneously an instructor. We teach everything from Fish lab to Shark lab, Algae to Inverts, Plankton to Oceanography, Marine Mammals to Deep Sea, Fisheries Awareness to Squid Dissection, Island Ecology & History/ Hike/ Team Building, and from Snorkel to Kayak. Schools come and stay on the island with anywhere between 15 – 250 kids for either 3 or 5 days and we run programs, activities, lessons, etc, for them about Marine Biology and Island Ecology. Sometimes the groups want more of an activity-focused program, others want a more content-focused program. You never know what you are going to get!

Today we couldn’t go into town because the fog was too bad and the cove I live in ‘Fox Landing’ is only accessible by boat. The other day we had a school canceled due to gale force winds, or rather the boat was cancelled and the school couldn’t come out. Only later in the week to have a tsunami hit the island with kids in camp. Luckily our position and the geology of the island makes it near impossible for a tsunami to affect us here (when it comes from the west), nevertheless we had to initiate our evacuation plan and everyone moved to higher ground until we were given the ‘all clear’. Yes, I can’t reiterate it enough – you never know what you are going to get!

* * *

After dinner we took the boat out to get more practice driving it. We did what we like to call a ‘blue water hunt’, where we go looking for whales, dolphins or other incredible animals to swim with. Unfortunately we saw nothing as the seas were starting to rise, but we watched an incredible sunset over the island as we drifted out in the channel between Catalina and Los Angeles.

There are no words to describe what a little ‘dream world’ I am living in. I am on an island, with incredible people, working to inspire kids, working with knowledge, working with my hands and my body in the fresh air, the ocean and the mountains. The community is so strong here – it has to be. Fox Mafia Family (FMF), we even have our own merchandise just for us. We often visit (or rather they often visit us) the other camp with the same company at Toyon Bay and take little adventures to the backside of the island to go surfing on our days off; chill at the beach and make quesadillas on a camp fire. Living by the ocean again and out in nature really inspires me. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing, and of course it makes me contemplate the future a lot.

As I lay down for bed, the warm breeze blows and I hear sea lions barking in the cove, as loud as if they were just outside my window. An introduction to life on the island… 

My Island Home: Moving to Catalina Island

I’ve had three, approaching 4 sleepless days. I am exhausted. However I need to write. So much has happened in the last few days that I feel it vital I share it before life goes on and these moments become merely my own incredible memories. I ended up my stay in Merlin’s Perch on a high. The two new wwoofers who arrived as I left were incredible and I felt a really strong, deep bond with them. I also enjoyed spending time with Lloyd alone and getting to know him more too. I feel like Merlin’s Perch is my home away from home and Lloyd became part of my ‘international family’. You know, those people you come across in life that make an impact on you in some way or another. I was also very fortunate to spend a lot of really meaningful time with Diogenes in the last week as well. Love & gratitude are flowing. I cried for an hour or so to myself in bed after we separated for yet another long-distant stint. My tears were completely one of raw love and deep gratitude though. They also represented the gratitude I felt not just for Di, but for everyone in my life and family and all the experiences I’ve had up until that moment. My time at Merlin’s Perch came to an end, knowing full well that I’ll be back one day soon.

My amazing friend and old housemate Mia drove me down to LA, cruising Hwy 1 to SoCal (Southern California) has a completely different vibe… I like it! Palm trees, people about everywhere on the streets, the summery vibe (despite being the middle of winter) is innate here. I stayed on a Tall Ship in Long Beach over night and caught the 6am ferry over the island in the morning. We were greeted with huggingly warm sun and a pod of dolphins. Fox Landing is the base where I will be living and it is only accessible by boat. It didn’t take us long to get our dive gear on and hit the ice… I mean water. Same thing here. It was freeeezing. We snorkeled and oriented ourselves around the bay. After, we enjoyed a three hour hike around the canyon. Later, we sat on the roof of the instructor accommodation and told stories and learnt about constellations. Aside from the WOW-factor of how amazing this place is, and how incredible everything we have done is, the people, the set-up and the program are pretty damn good too. We exchanged many laughs, ate delicious healthy food (a nori soup for example!), sang along to the guitar and just got to know each other. I am lying in bed, desperate to close my eyes and finally sink into my pillow. But my excitement was too great and I just had to quickly write something about my first day on the island. I am just STOKED to be here.

* * *

This morning we woke up at sunrise and swam/drove a boat along with over 100 dolphins who were so inquisitive and played around the bow of the boat. We then went on an incredible 3 hour kayak. The water was so clear you could see 30ft below; it had the texture of silk. And we got paid for it… This is the life! 

Wwoofing: Big Sur I

Wwoofing. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Wwoofers exchange their labour for a bed and some food every day around the World, simultaneously learning, growing and sharing.  A week into my journey wwoofing I feel the need to write. Write. Write. Write. Draw. Create. I am in a haven for expression, peace and community. As I write, three wwoofers, my boyfriend and our host are sitting around the fire place. Conversation, music, guitar, art fill the room as we sit in a rain cloud that creates a bubble of magnificent natural beauty and peace around the farm. The breathtaking view of the ocean over the rolling hills is hidden by fog and we are about to prepare another community dinner as the sun goes to rest for the day. Night approaches. I arrived exactly a week ago and climbed up into my loft; the walls lined with books. Lloyd, the wwoofing host, built his house gathering eclectic mixes of art, textures, literature and stories to match.

We awake at whatever time we awake (the earlier the better because we can fit more adventures into our day) and set off to work, retiring before lunch some days and working until sunset on others. In any case, the days are relaxed and filled with new adventures. We have undertaken activities ranging from pruning, transplanting, setting up irrigation, erosion control, seeding, other farm visits, public organic agriculture lectures, farm maintenance, community networking, and more.  Each wwoofing experience is different and people visit different farms for different reasons. Some venture and journey looking for farms to gain practical experience to start their own life living off the land. Others use wwoofing as a medium to travel using the wwoofing sites as stopovers on bike tours and the like. And me? I am wwoofing to be out in nature, away from it all, and enjoy some time of peace with likeminded wayfaring strangers. Merlin’s Perch is exactly the right place for that. Today Karen, Laura and I worked on the hillside helping establish an orchard. The view was breath-taking; a cloud swept in with the breeze off the ocean and we worked in a foggy dome. The land was green and fertile and the thick air created a rainbow in the valley of the mountains as the sun lowered in the sky. We got our hands dirty, talked nonsense whilst simultaneously having those iconic deep and meaningful conversations, stopped for a breather and grazed on some homemade bread every now and then. What a life.

Aside from the work and nature aspect, wwoofing is a refuge where many ground themselves emotionally and/or spiritually. The relationships you build with not just your host but your fellow wwoofers are incredible. Laura (20) and Karen (24) are mirrors for me, despite the diversity of our upbringings. We share similar dreams, hopes and ambitions but intend to manifest them differently. Our challenges (be it career, relationships, family or something else entirely) are similar and we find strength in knowing that we are together in our respective journeys. Given there have been roughly 4 wwoofers (including myself) here at a time, the house has been social and busy. There have also been a lot of dishes! We gather our creativity at meal times to prepare delicious feasts from fresh ingredients. We have made stuffed capsicums, tabouleh, tatziki, fresh salads, soups, smoothies, fresh fruit, homemade pastas and risottos, different kinds of fresh breads, all with delicious ingredients from fresh lemons to coriander and from kale to goats cheese. The best part about it is coming together to create and consequently be greatly rewarded by our communal efforts with a scrumptious assortment of fresh food.

After living in what I have now realized to be a bubble, the Berkeley Bubble, I am learning about different aspects of American culture. The wwoofers come from wide and far and have been even wider and farther in their travels. It is truly wonderful to learn and hear about their views, beliefs and values. Karen, in particular, comes from Virginia, raised out in the ‘mid west’ and probably has her head screwed on better than most other people I’ve ever met. Even political discussions differ from the same discussions I had with my fellow Berkeley/San Francisco companions. It makes me realize how much I want to visit the South and the East to learn more about the good ole’ US of A.

Having little internet access and no phone reception is also incredibly comforting and grounding. I feel much more peaceful and intend to go for some local hikes, bike treks and do some more painting and drawing over the next week. In addition to the farm work, we are also constantly meeting people, going to farmers markets, going around town running errands and I have made some incredible contacts and people working in/ running inspiring non-profit organizations. I don’t know what it is about this region that inspires me so much, but I know for certain my first week wwoofing has been an amazing positive learning curve. I can’t wait for week two. 

Check out the full photo album here.