(Belated) Tuesday Tunes #8

Happy October everyone! Wow, I feel like when October hits there's so much to do...think about all the holidays coming up and finishing the last quarter of the year! I love the craftiness of this time of year - all the Halloween treats and decorations. And I am determined to find a pumpkin...so let the pumpkin mission commence!

Today is Tuesday Tunes...on Wednesday! This is where I share a artist I love or have recently discovered. You're very welcome to join in too! 

So today I´m featuring someone who´s music and spirit has personally touched my life. He goes by Mestizo Magic. He´s the reason I actually met Leia, because we met and lived with each other in Spain. Currently he´s working his way into the country scene in Tennessee, but has accumulated skills in all genres of music. It´s always fun to see the new tunes he´s working on. I´m such a fan and love this guy!

Find his newest tunes over on SoundCloud or his website.

Arist: Mestizo Magic and friends

Song: Ain´t Nothin´ for a Country Boy

Stone Meditations

live simply. simply live.

Good day, lovelies! I hope you're enjoying your day so far - whether its spending time with loved ones, out exploring, catching up on housework, or just chilling at home. Before I head out to adventure around Barranco area of Lima, I want to share a little sweet something ...

I call it Stone Meditations. Basically, collect some smooth rocks and started writing inspiring messages or things you want to reflect on them. Here are some ideas I used and want to make:

~ all with love

~ live simply. simply live.

~ fly

~ gratitude

~ inspire

~ voice

~ do you

~ go girl (one of my favorites!)

I also tried a few techniques of writing on them. I used sharpie directly on the stones, tried using stamps, and also stamped on tissue paper and modge-podged it on. Have fun playing around with what you like.

Now you have your meditation stones :) You can use them as a mantra of what you want to bring into your life. Look at them and hold them once a day. Maybe even take a few minutes to sit with them, feel their weight, and let the message sink into you. Admire the beauty of their grounding nature. I keep my meditation stones with my plants, on an alter, and on the windowsill. 

If you like this, you can see some more Zen rocks at Chasing Happy, where I was re-inspired with this idea :) Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Sunday!

I'm tagged! 6 Things About Me

Hi there folks, here we are again at the end of the week! Fridays are great, aren't they:) ? I've been tagged by my lady friend Leia at Latitude Adjustment with 6 get-to know-you questions (thanks for the tag Leia)! If you're just tuning in, check out a few more posts about me here, here, and here. 

1. What is your favorite animal and why?
I'm such a big animal-lover! Every species is so intricate and unique its hard to choose just one that's my favorite...BUT I'm going to go with the butterfly. I feel like it's pretty applicable to my personality. These little creatures start as a chrysalis, then form an egg, hatch as a caterpillar, and live as a butterfly until death. Pretty amazing the life changes it goes through, isn't it? I tend to go through changes and adapt my world from time to time. It helps me keep a fresh perspective. Fun fact: Butterflies use chemo-receptors on their feet to taste!

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2. If you could travel to one place in the world, where would it be?
Like Leia, I've got a handful(or maybe 8) of places on my to-go list. At the top of it are several Asian countries, but Taiwan in particular. I choose Taiwan because I have a good friend who is Taiwanese and tells me about it all the time. I really hope to travel with her there one of these days :) AND definitely for the food...I mean, just look!!

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3. What is your favorite thing about yourself (or quality you like in others if you don't wanna talk about yourself)?
Listening is a very admirable quality in my opinion. It's very humble and shows compassion. There's really an art to listening and it can be very therapeutic. It's such a compliment when I'm told that I'm a good listener :)

4. What did you want to be when you grew up and what do you do now?
As a kid I wanted to be a lot of things. I was inspired by animals, nature, music. I remember using my little chalkboard and teaching all my stuffed animals. I really liked the word flow and remember 'teaching' how to say it, what it meant, and using it in a sentence. It's still a word I like. I have been teaching many years now (swimming, tutoring, English, even math - which is not my thing). Currently I teach English with business professionals and young children. I would love to learn yoga and really teach about 'flow' :)

Practicing letters with the littlest munchkins. Cusco, Peru.

5. What is the LAST concert you went to?
Oh, gee it's been too long! The last time visiting California, we went out for a friend's birthday and saw a pair of really great local Americana folk bands. The night was danced away so hard!! I'd love to see some good live music soon!

6. What is something not a lot of people would know about you?
I was adopted. It's a funny thing that doesn't up come often for the most-part, not because it's something I avoid or am not open to talking about. It's a complex thing to explain the feeling that goes along with it and everyone's experience and story is so different. I'll be posting on this in the future for sure. Anyway, I'm proud that this is a part of who I am. I love my parents and brother so much. 

6 bloggers I'm tagging:

* Nicole @ Letters from Nicole

* Kerry @ Till Then, Smile Often

* Meghan @ Neither Here Nor There

* Laura @ The Pink Herbivore

* Elizabeth @ Army Ever After

* Noami @ girldust


Choose 6 questions you'd like:
What is your favorite animal and why?
Would you prefer a city break or a sun, sea, and sand vacation?
If you could travel to one place in the world, where would it be?
How many countries have you traveled to?  How many of the 50 states?
What is your favorite thing about yourself (or quality you like in others if you don't wanna talk about yourself)?
What is the best advice someone has ever given you? 
What did you want to be when you grew up and what do you do now?
What is a pet peeve of yours? 
What is the LAST concert you went to?
What is something not a lot of people would know about you?

Tuesday Tunes #7: We Were Evergreens

Hey there. It's that time of the week to share musical discoveries and inspirations - wohoo! Leia is also linking up, so go over and check out the funky fun artist she's sharing this week :)

So in my YouTube and musical searches I stumbled across a new-to-me band. They're called We Were Evergreens. I immediately fell in love with them. They have a very happy and whimsical sound and their songs are like poetry with a sweet xylophone (which makes me wish I learned more than 'happy birthday' on my xylophone when I was 8). Plus, they're French:) You definitely should check them out if you're intrigued. Maybe you'll be as smitten as me!? :)

Really...how cute?? [source]

Some favorite songs so far are: 

. Penguins and Moonboots

. Summerflings(below)

. Tree Song

. Eighteen

. Eggs

Are you jazzed up on any new music these days?? 

You're welcome to join in the link-up fun :)

Weekly Wishes #4

Hi kiddies! I have been missing Weekly Wishes with Melyssa so here I am linking-up :) 

For me this week is about getting into a healthy flow. Gee, I've been needing it! We've been eating generally healthy and mostly cooking at home these days. But exercise-wise I've been slacking. In Cusco this wasn't hard because I walked everywhere (and was also taking a spinning class). Being in Lima for almost 2 months now, it's time I give 'physical activity' a place in my life.

It's a little challenging to make a schedule since my work can be somewhat sporadic. BUT I've made a decision. I'm sacrificing an extra hour of sleep to get my booty up in the mornings. It will actually be really good because I can 1) get a head start on my day, and 2) have more energy. So my plan this week? To find a yoga or dance studio to take classes a few mornings a week. I love yoga and am hoping to find a teacher/class that I like. That can sometimes be tricky, but I'm sure something good will come! And a great thing is that I have a girlfriend who wants to do it together. Extra motivation! :)

How about you? What are you focusing on this week?

Reverse Bucket List

Good evening folks :) Hoping you had a nice weekend. We did over here. It involved lots of cooking on my part (pizza, cookies, and broccoli and eggplant over rice), relaxing, a fun community event that I helped out, and seeing a friend from Cusco. It was good to get out a bit and see some things. 

Now, onto a sweet thing I found over at Chimerikal the other day...it's called a Reverse Bucket List. Essentially instead of things you must do, the things on this lists are things you've already done or achieved. Neat idea, right? Thanks Erika :) 

Reverse Bucket List
1. study abroad for a year in Granada, Spain
2. teach 4th grade in Peru
3. start own jewelry-making business (Thneedles)
4. drive stick shift in Costa Rica
5. see a double rainbow
6. silent meditation retreat (10 days)
7. sleep under the stars
8. eat gelatto in Rome
9. meet people from other places and travel together
10. start this here blog

Ok, so this picture is from a car because I don't have pictures from walking.

4th grade on a field trip to visit the llamas!

11. zipline in Costa Rica
12. roadtrip internationally in Europe
13. dance like crazy all night with good friends
14. lead a troop of 1st graders at summer camp
15. walk the Golden Gate Bridge
16. travel sola
17. skinny dip
18. 5 day trek Choquequirao in Peru
19. fly in a private jet (a long story)
20. roadtrip across several US states

Way too many photo opts on the way to Choquequirao.

Just leave all your worries in the pineapple patch (WWOOFing)

21. have a beer in some Irish pubs
22. listen to bagpipes in Scotland
23. stand next to a condor in Peru
24. own a car
25. WWOOF on a beautiful farm in Cosa Rica
26. gawk at Sagrada Familia and Park Guell in Barcelona
27. mountain bike through waterfalls
28. go cayoning
29. build a fire
30. hitchhike

Amazing creatures resting for some days after big journeys. 

Me and mi gato <3

31. go parasailing
32. snorkel
33. learn to make tortillas
34. graduate college
35. see sea turtle up close in Hawaii
36. meet and hung out with a famous band (Mars Volta)
37. go on a cruise
38. help to build several houses
39. go skiing
40. find tarantula in shoe
41. get married (AND in a foreign country - read more Wedding Wednesday) 
42. free hugs in Dublin, Ireland
43. participate in CouchSurfing 
44. celebrate Huatia 
45. learn to make crepes
46. taste Pliny the Younger 

Wow, I feel so incredibly grateful for all these experiences I've had! Share something you would put on your list! 

Harvest festival in Peru: Huatia

Buenas tardes, dear readers.

So, who likes Thanksgiving?? It's one of my favorite holidays because it's all about food! In it's tradition, it's really about celebrating a harvest. It's fascinating to me to learn that most cultures around the world have a similar harvest festivals. For example, there's Sukkoh in Judaism (celebrated with fruit), the Yam Festival from Africa, Harvest Moon Festival from Korea, and lots lots more. 

In Peru, the harvest festival is called Huatia [wat-iya]. Living here for the past nearly 2 years I've been able to celebrate this twice! I love this tradition because first of all it's not about buying things or supporting the commercialization of holidays (*cough* Valentine's Day, Christmas *cough*). It's a natural celebration for the food that has been grown from the Earth. So this feels very organic and something that has been meaningful for thousands of years. And for this reason, it's a holiday for even people who live in poor areas or out in the country-side. That's actually where it comes from. 

So in the mountains of Peru, potatoes are one of the highest produced crops. During the months of May-July, Andean people celebrate the potato harvest. Huatia isn't just about harvesting the potatoes, it's about creating a natural oven to cook them. Over the past nearly two years living in Peru I was lucky enough to celebrate this twice. So below I'll be showing what the process is like. Since I was working at an afterschool program out in the countryside, we did this with the kids. They actually knew more about how to do it than most of the adults. 

First step was to collect some dried dirt clods. Then we started building them up in a U-shape.

The boys also showed off their building skills - very impressive!

And the girls got right in there too!

Next we lit the fire. It burned until the dirt clods were black. 

The black clods means that the fire it is hot enough to add potatoes and beans. Some people also cook meats, but it needs to be wrapped up.

Then it's time to collapse the hot dirt clods.

By burying this with loose dirt, the pile creates a hot insulated oven. All the holes with smoke coming out were covered.

During the cooking process you can take a break on the monkey bars for awhile :)

After about an hour, the food should be cooked. You have to be careful when finding the potatoes and beans in that hot pile! It's literally like 'hot potato'!

Keep undigging until the very last ones are out. 

Then it's time to eat! Everyone gets a few potatoes and can eat it with some different sauces. No washing, just peel off the dirt-y skin and enjoy! Now that's a natural flavor :)

So what do you think of this? Do you have any special food traditions?