Superstition

We made it out to Makapuu the other night: a random get together, potluck kinda thing. Maya (from Turkmenistan) who is taking my room this summer), Antoine, Maxie, Robin, Adi and his friend Adi and I.

Happily eating away, listening to the crash of water on sand -the infamous shorebreak- and talking about Hawaiian myths and legends, we watched the last group of people leave when dawn set in. The only light was from the Makapu'u light house and the new moon. We had the beach to ourself.

Antoine started to whistle which caused an upstir. Whisteling invites the spirits after dark and we didn't need any of those: Maxie, a little obsessed over a getting her bed out of the way of the lined up doors when we moved into our new house beginning of December, just in case of nightmarchers; Robin for her own reasons and Maya trying really hard not to be impressed by the thought of spritis altogether. A little while into our conversation we all of a sudden hear a baby cry. Odd.. everyone left right? hmmm. Were there any other people then? A little disoriented we resettle, trying to find a comfy spot to lie down, watching the stars, falling stars here and there.

It isnt too long before we hear the cry again. It is a baby sound, coming from the rocks opposite the ocean side. We are all trying to rationalise. Wouldnlt we hear peoples voices then if we can hear the baby? why does it only give one cry and then stop? Nevertheless we are on edge. Time to leave? really? Okay. We gather up our stuff and head for the car.

It is a little rought going in the dark, the balck vulcanic rocks have belnd into a black mass and the beach in between was wet. Walksing across the wet sand little light come on. when you set down your foot all around little spots turn on and then fade again. I have seen this phenomena in waves but never on the wet sand. Beautiful! We hop around for a bit. It doesn't help everyone relax though. robin: can we go now? I really do not feel welcome here. Antoine, a true boy feels like he needs to explore and Adi is almost out there with him. But we leave.

The parking lot gives us a last jitter. Our two cars are really the only ones there and Makapuu is really not an easy walk from anywhere.

-Some intensive research on google yields a little bird called catbird, it's call sounds exactly like a baby. (to be found on youtube except that our bird was way better!) pfew.

My last day of packing and randomness ended me at Waimanalo with Ten Zin and the two Adi's. A a last day swim anbd relax. Ten Zin is learning swimming from Maxie and is doing great! trying everything even taming the sea! and Adi (the other one ;) ) let himself in with the salty water too! I donlt know what I would od if I didnlt know how to swim, but I'm glad they came with us and trusted us to look after them!

A little get together after that with those who were still in Hawaii was good fun! It is wonderful how well randomness works in Hawaii.. I make some snacks and you bring whatever you want to drink! I stayed up till 2:15 cleanign and packing last leftover bits, crashed for two hours and then made travel packages and poked at Robin who stayed over so she could drive me to the airport in Hajime's truck.

I'm home now..
I'll keep you updated!

Music: Nunca Mais, Zuco 103
Quote: A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. -George Bernard Shaw

Canvas Abandon

Art is leaving the museum halls in search of a more vital interactive context. In this day and age of individual accomplishment and self-enhancement it seems yet again our artists are one step ahead of us and aiming for the change that others only just begin to feel the need for. It is a change towards reconnection, a switch from using art to observe and analyze to making art the art of interaction, a social event.

The contrast is similar to what in psychology would be called natural observation (meticulously recording and analyzing what we see in a natural setting on paper) and setting up an experiment (the bringing together of people who actively participate and generate the result). Art is no longer a question posted by the artist, analyzed by him to then be presented to us as a conclusion of his thought process. It has become a question posted to the public and asking for their hands-on participation and analysis. “Giving each person a voice is what builds the community and makes art socially responsive.” (Gablik :82)

Where some might question whether this interactive form of art is really art; I would suggest to turn to art history for an answer. Many of the great artists we know from before were initially not accepted because their ideas were ahead of ours, because their concepts broke boundaries we had set for ourselves and because they explored our cultural norms in ways we had never thought of. They made art in a different way and we also questioned its validity.

While we used to have the tendency to sit back and observe art as if we were sitting in front of a TV, we are no longer going to be entertained as such. Having always been focused on looking, obsessing over, and gazing, art now requires action. Lygia Clark is one of those artists who challenges us to let go of our ‘normal’. She crosses the boundaries of observation and those of objects and people, and creates pieces where object and body become one. In blindfolding people, enhancing their other senses and giving them only their hands to grasp what life is around them, she challenged us to step out of our comfort zone, requiring interaction to experience.

Instead of depicting subjects of controversy one is now challenged to physically experience it. There is a common quote used among teachers everywhere: “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.” I feel contemporary art is doing exactly that. We have gone from the showing stage to the involving stage. Art is out to change the world; not by hinting at change with images, but by grabbing people by the hand and making them experience and become part of the change.

So art is not contained on a canvas any longer, it has taken on the world as a place to manifest itself. From the halls of galleries where it only reached the elite few that came by, it now goes for a stroll outside, to meet people, to interact, to confront. There is no limit to space for art other than the limits of our minds and the world is our canvas. Through art we can negotiate the direction where we want to go with our life, our culture, humanity but, most importantly, where we don’t.

It seems a logical step for art to take on this social form as people are a social species and nothing in this world ever happened because one person took action. It was always an idea multiple people stood up for that determined the course of life. Art in a way is promoting this vision. Emotion is steered in a new direction, sensitizing us to the course we were so obliviously walking along, making us aware of the others walking alongside of us and asking of us to evaluate, in our newfound perspectives, our norms and values. Art is looking for a purpose other than pleasure, not only requesting awareness but a common step up to a world of harmony. We are still looking for aesthetics, maybe not on paper but in the immediate world around us, and art is still our way to represent it.

Coach

Epiphany: women wear dresses because in the earlier days it was eaier to go to the bathroom that way... squat. And yes I was wearing a nice long skirt today, blue top and a shawl and my hair down; thankyou for asking. I forgot how tired one becomes of the same pair of jeans and sweats for two weeks straight and how much you need to feel female some days! ;)

Just gotback from our first road trip, San Hose and Stanford, 10 games in 11 days. We lost an important conference game (we were up 7-2 and lost in overtime and we beat them by about that much in the tournament but that didn't really count), and we upset UCLA which is big. Coaching really doesn't do much for me. I understand my coaches a little better, and realise this is something I can do but not something I particularly enjoy. i.e.: I can tell people what needs tobe said and I can figure out ways to get to someone in a game. However I remember what it is like to be in there too (want to get in sometimes) and am young and not set in my ways (up to a certain point LOL wait till you cross that boundary) and I can be felxible and I believe everyone can grow, I guess you need this quality as a coach and I'm sure I wouldnlt judge harshly enough if I had to select a team but can we stop judging each other? Ah! Womans!!!

I have very much enjoyed watching Ryan play. A girl who had never really played polo untill uni in hawaii. She still goofs sometimes but she is still discovering and getting better! It is just great to watch people grow.

Now I'm home and I really want to just relax, enjoy the house and the fact that I am in charge of my own time. I really like structure... and I do not mean that I need my entire week planned, but I think that if you want a team to perform they need to know when they can get food, when they can study and when it is time to sleep. I think they need to know (as do I) what time the game is tomorrow AND the day after and weather we need to bring food home from the store as the next hotel does not have complementary breakfast! And I need to not be called to my coach's room in a hurry half an hour before I need to drop someone off at the pool to video the game just to be told that as he had only just thought of it while we had agreed to meet that half hour later at the car. MY WORD!!! I like being in charge of my own time!!!

Had a fun night out the last night with some of the "older" girls. Two of which didn't enjoy it as much in the morning... Now I just wish I didn't have to leave again in a week... hm.

Music: M.I.A.: Paper Planes

Quote: “You are only as good as the coach thinks you are.” -Brian Williams

Fear is for Prey

I mean: Merry Christmas and a happy Newyear

If ever you wonder where I went: I'm in Canada visiting my family there.
As always full of good intentions of writing christmas letters and cards and e-mails and as usual thinking of everyone a lot but not so much doing anything about it. It seems to be my style.

I've entirely merged into my Canadian family's life style of which the kids (my two cousins) are the pivotal point. It is good though, I've done literally nothing but play with them, read a really good book found in my uncles cupboard and visit their friends and family for just fun or game days and nights. I even got to write on one of the last pages of their victory book (they do game nights often). Of course this was a place I could claim after having prepared for this event playing high level competition and travelling through China and the US to finally come to Calgary, Canada to enter a certain state of flow, combining my practiced mental and physical states into a true victory worthy of comitting to writing.

At some point though, seriously lacking some physical movement I decided to take a hike up nose hill which is quite close by their house. This was truely wondeful! I felt like a little kid wanting/trying to run up the hil, wanting to merge with the white snow glistening in sunlight. Running doesn't work very welll through deep snow and high altitude frozen air though. Halfway up the hill I was knee deep in the snow which made me turn back alltogether (of course after denying defeat and trying awas more kind. I nearly gave up again because as the sun was setting and the wind picking up (there was a chinook wind- the warm wind and the reason it was -12 instead of -25). It was so cold I could barely breathe! Turning my back to the wind to catch my breath the hood of my jacket flew up, which made me realise my hat and scarf just didn't do the trick! This however gave me a new comfort (and breath) and had me attempt going up again. Up was wonderful! The sun was still shining there and setting between the hills in the distance and the clouds above. (Again no pictures as we have a virus here and it targets removable harddrives *sigh* technology is not on my side) I skipped down the hill when I was done taking pictures and studying Calgary from above in the changing light.. back home to have some REALLY HOT CHOCOLATE MILK!

Also went to watch a Calgary Flames game! I must say I quite enjoy watching ice hockey which is strange because I have very little patience for watching sports in general! I still get a little awkward when they break into serious fights and have bloos splatters to wipe off the ice, but I love the spead of the game and the agility on ice!

You must be wondering by now where the title of this blog came from though? Well??? can you guess?? no? Okay well.. Ice Age 2. My cousins got it from Santa and it has been played at least 6 times already (listening to it in the background as we speak). Justin, the youngest, has the greatet memory for words and texts. This particular one coming from Diego, the Sabertooth tiger who doesn't know how to swim. Swimming is like staling prey. Did I lose you? okay well just go watch.

Speaking of swimming, I went to the pool with my family a couple times now! Both my cousins grew a lot, as little people and in height (there is no denying this is my family). Lucas a true boy, showing off all his skills and making sure never to admit defeat or miss an opportunity to tell us he is good at things (I do remember my little brother going though a very similar phase) and Justin very good at playing on his own, sometimes coming out of nowhere to tell you about the fantasy-world he just submerged in while we were not paying attention and sometimes cuddly and loving. Those were the days!

Today being the last day of the year I hope it will be a good one for everyone! And a good one tomorrow for everyone too! I know I will start mine leisurely. Hope to get one day of skiing in, some more time with my cousins, maybe another hike and some sledding in the snow when it gets a little colder (makes the snow less wet!)
Hope to see you all soon... Hawai'i or eslewhere. All my love.

Music: ACDC
Quote: "When there is snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds." -Takayuki Ikkaku

Quand je Marche

Computer: R.I.P.: died in it's sleep... never started again when I prodded it in the morning...Moped: down and outBicycle: still parked where I left it one and a half years agoLegs: only a little sore from capoeira (again) but very good for walking.I walked to school the last three days in a row, takes about 35 minutes and it makes me contemplative. You have been warned!

*

"Entends-tu", m'as-tu dit,"le chant du monde?", alors depuisquand l'aube se lève, je la suiset quand la nuit tombeje tombe aussi-Camille, excerpt from the song "Quand je Marche"Such a beautiful language, I'm in love. I think I need to court it a little more, but for now I'm only listening and trying to understand.

*

I moved to my new place! Pictures for those who are keen to see, I will edit this post as soon as I find a way to function without my laptop (and I promise my room will not always be this tidy). Everyone is welcome! This means: come by unexpected, we have a lanai: a good place for talking or just contemplating and looking down into Manoa valley (or doing art), two crazy house mates/friends -but always good fun, the hills behind us, dinner if you want, three guitars in the house, the best breeze in Manoa, a garden, tea, cookies.. hmm maybe I should start charging!I shall attempt a house warming party after everyone returns from Christmas break!




Music: CamilleQuote: "Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time." -Steven Wright

Goofy Footed

What can I say, this is nothing new to me!
However I didn't know they would have a term for it when riding a wave. ;)
I think I'm turning my chlorine addiction into a salt water addiction though! Surfing is so much fun aspecially if you can do it a couple days in a row or with your random friends who decide to show up out of nowhere aka Brittany Kamai! (I just wanted to write out her last name as she finally got it officiallised and she is proud to have her dad's name, so there!)
First it was Nicolas who took me out once a week, if lucky but the three times I went so far were great! Man I bruise badly on my knees and hips from lying on a surfboard! Then I went with Britt:

On my way to thanksgiving dinner my moped broke down again (I just got it fixed two days before) so I walk it to the moped place, tie it up and sit at the busstop. First of all I talk to this guy who is a chef at one of the big waikiki hotels and who is carrying a bunch of pies. He tells me his life story, in short I guess but still... we discuss bus systems all over the world and right before the bus comes we get interrupted by a phone call: Brittanny!
"what're you up to?"
"hmm me? sitting at the busstop moping over my moped whattabout you?"
"you want me to come pick you up?"
"wait what?! Are you here?!?!?! heck yeah!"
So I tell the guy how cool my random friend is and he donates a pie to us for thanksgiving, figuring we are students and he has only a small gathering where we have quite a big one!
He takes the bus and britt picks me up. We go see her dad play first, so nice, so good, I suggest you all come listen to him play someday, and when Britt walked in he had the proudest smile on his face! So sweet!
Then we had thanksgiving dinner at my new house where I havn't moved in yet and at the idea of surfing with Britt in the morning I confirmed my previous notion that shopping on black friday (the discount dat after thanksgiving) really wasn't my thing, so we go home at 00:00 and go surfing in the morning...
More of this!
wayyyyyy more of this!

Meanwhile my friend (Isar) had asked me to come to cpaoeira sometime, so I did as it sounded like good fun! Little did I know I was going to be sore for the entire 4 days after! I tried to swim it out, walk it out (I took the stairs everywhere) but no... I'm going back on monday though! So fun, so hard though, but at least I can get better at it!

Also have been playing with the girls a lot lateley. I am getting better at it, so much so that Mich called me friday as he wanted me in. Friday was Sinterklaas though and my free day form waterpolo so I desperately needed to finish my 'surprise' and print out my poem... so we could be ready after practice! The girls invited me to the cafetaria (where I havn't been back since I left hawaii) and ended up eating a random veggie burger, slice of pizza and icecream as there was, as usual, no proper veggie food. Brrr that was so bad it was good! :) and Dagmar had some pepernoten after so we were all pretty much ready to explode. We had a lot of fun though, even the non-Dutch girls did such a good job in picking up the sinterklaas spirit, it was impressive!

One more week and then finals start, then I am off to Canada for christmas! I bought myself a woolen sweater to get in the mood! :D

Music: Nothing Ever Ends, dEUS
Quote: "If ti swells, ride it!"

Things

Beach workouts have dwindled as season (accordingt o NCAA rules) has started officially which means there are no funny rules holding one back from using balls in practice and working out a certain amount of hours in the pool... It was fun... Taken at waimea beach and they weren't even greatful! I guess they liked the pictures of jumping of the Rock better! I must admit I thought it was! :)

It was halloween! Altogether waikiki was a bit dissappointing, it seems the center has moved to downtown which is where I'll be going next year! There are too many tourists in waikiki that don't dress up and just come to watch :S

We had an after weddign BBQ of Volker's brother and his girlfriend. It was a very spontaneous potluck and I met a whole bunch of fun people there apart from the very fun ones I arlready knew! Spent a lot of time in the sea avoiding Men of War... I was succesful, but not everyone. Ended up hanging out with Krystian and Isar who were my ride home from Waimea... which resulted in my latest piece of art (on the right or on my deviantart site)

We had dinner at our house. According to Adi this picture is proof Dutch girls can make real Indian food! :D (for those who know: Mango Dahl and Palak Paneer) And it is great when everyone likes it, especially a random culture clash like this! From left to right: Angel (Spain), Takuya (Japan), Adi (India), Ecaterina (Romania) and me (Dutchy!) Later for desert which was a combi of strawberries Gulab Jamoon hmmm and appel/caramel cakes Nicolas (France) and Lisa(Japan) also joined us! Good fun!

And somewhere in between all this my little brother turned 21!!! Must mean I'm getting old haha!
Oh, and we have a new president which should be great but the next topic of discussion is how he is going to be assasinated. This is a strange place to live... but we live right down the road from where Obama used to live!

Quote: "I am not young enough to know everything." -Oscar Wilde
Music: Pandora!!