My relationship with yoga

As a kid, I did yoga from a VHS tape called E-I-E-I-Yoga that was a farm-themed yoga tape that my family friends had at their house. No, seriously. It exists. 

Anyway, although I've done yoga on-and-off my whole life, I started doing yoga more seriously about a year ago, when my mom started going to this hot yoga studio near her office. I went with her during my winter break, during a really sad time in my life, and it gave me a few hours in my week to focus on nothing. Yoga is amazing for the mind and the body.

I hated sports and exercise growing up, mostly because I have no natural talent and am a sore loser. However, yoga is perfect for me, because it is encouraging, there is no such thing as a mistake, and any practice makes some progress, even if one day I rest during a series of Vinyasas when I didn't the last time.

I have gotten worlds more flexible (I couldn't reach my toes before, and now I can put my hands on the floor!), and I feel healthier and more confident to try new things in terms of exercise, because I feel less discouraged. I've even ventured to take spinning and strength training classes, and you know what? They weren't that bad!

In any case, I went to Yoga class today, and the instructor played a song that I used to listen to in high school that always made me happy. It's called "La Mar" by The Beautiful Girls. Enjoy :)

Poetry Sunday: Nothing Gold Can Stay

Happy Sunday :) I'm going to share a poem that I love. I'm going to try to do it every Sunday.

This poem has been near and dear to my heart since I first read it in my favorite book, The Outsiders, in 6th grade. Enjoy!

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,

 Her hardest hue to hold. 

 Her early leaf's a flower; 

 But only so an hour. 

 Then leaf subsides to leaf. 

 So Eden sank to grief, 

 So dawn goes down to day.

 Nothing gold can stay. 

-Robert Frost

Loneliness

Loneliness is something that I've had to deal with a lot in my life.
As an only child, loneliness is something with which I am very familiar. At times, loneliness is my dear friend. Today after dinner, for example, I came to my single dorm room and did homework and watched TV for hours, not coming into contact with anyone. It was just loneliness and I, getting reacquainted and spending time together. However, at times, loneliness can get too comfortable in life, not knowing when to leave, the unwelcome house guest that makes you miserable but you can't seem to persuade her to pack her bags.

I had to watch this video in RA training. It's an animated infographic that talks about loneliness for our generation in our society today because of technology and "social" media. It's super interesting.
"I share, therefore I am."

Wanderlust: Dream Destinations

I was raised by world travelers. My parents lived for travel, and they spent many of their younger years on the road and seeing all the world has to offer. In fact, they met while traveling in Tokyo, Japan. We traveled a lot when I was young, back and forth from Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and many places throughout my dearest USA. The world is my fascination, and even inspired me to study International Relations in college. Now that I'm on my own, I realize that it's my turn to go on my own adventures and see what the world has to offer. I've started off by studying abroad (and I've got another trip planned for the summer: see you soon, Ecuador!), but I know that there are so many more journeys in store.

As of now, here are five destinations that I'm dying to see!

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
When I studied abroad in Chile, we went to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago, where there is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary. Being on top of that hill and seeing all of Santiago, standing next to a massive white statue was one of the coolest moments of my life. It's really hard to explain, but it was amazing. Can you imagine how that might feel while standing next to Christ the Redeemer? I want to do that.


Istanbul, Turkey
A mix of East and West, in Istanbul, you can actually take a ferry across a sea and pass from Europe to Asia. Come on, now.


Spain
A country rich with history, culture, and geography, Spain is definitely a dream destination. I'd like to practice speaking Spanish in the motherland of the language, even though a lot of parts of the country have their own languages! Also, there seems to be a lot of castles, and why would I not want to visit castles?



Montreal, Canada
Montreal isn't that far from where I live compared to the other destinations, and it's like a mini Europe in my backyard. I've studied the Quebecois movement in some of my IR classes and it's fascinating that there are nationalist movements within a stable, non-threatening democratic government. Plus, I love Tim Horton's.


Santorini, Greece
I like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as much as the next girl (probably more; I read the follow up book about when they were all 30-years old). As we know from those books and their movies, Santorini is a dream.

Valentine's Day: My Favorite Romance-Related Things

Love is in the air - it's Valentine's Day! Although I don't have a Valentine this year, I do enjoy a good dose of romance now and then. Here are my top three romantic things that get me sappy. In no particular order:

Pablo Neruda: Poema XIV
Pablo Neruda's poetry ranges from communist/nationalist to poems about nature and travel to my personal favorite topic of his, love. Pablo Neruda truly had a way with words. When I studied abroad in Chile, we visited all three of his houses that are now museums, and even took a class about his life and work. He meant so much not only to the country of Chile as a man working for social justice, but also to Latin American literature. They say Neruda only needed three things in life: Wine, women, and the sea. That itself is a rather romantic sentiment. I love all of the poems in his "20 poemas de amor y una canción desesperada," but Poema XIV is particularly lovely. The last verse says "Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos" : "I want to do with you what the spring does to the cherry trees." Super sappy and perfect for Valentine's Day. 

http://hellopoetry.com/poem/9920/every-day-you-play/ http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/poesia/ha/neruda/20poemas/14.htm

Pablo Neruda's home and inspiration, Isla Negra

Before Sunrise
A gorgeous backdrop of Vienna, Austria. Young Ethan Hawke. Two hours of awkward dialogue between strangers. This movie could not be more perfect, unless you told me that every ten years, they make a new one, with the same couple meeting again 10 years older, which is TRUE. Listen, I simply can't describe to you how perfect this trilogy is and how much it makes my heart swell with romance film joy. Two strangers meet on a train, one goofy American 23-year-old guy and one pretty, feminist Parisian 23-year-old woman. He asks her to get off of the train with him in Vienna, just for the night before his plane leaves. The movie documents the special night they have together as strangers. Nothing about it seems overly romanticized, everything about it seems like it was captured organically between two attractive and confused young people who met on a train.

Something
Something by The Beatles is an amazing love song. I have this friend who says "I know objectively that the Beatles are the best band of all time, I just don't like them that much." I feel as if that sentiment applies to this song as well: You might not love it the way I do, but you can't deny that it's a great love song. It's a simple song with very few lyrics, but it's about an inexplicable attraction toward someone. "Something in the way she moves / attracts me like no other lover." Sometimes, the best feelings are the ones you can't explain, and the ones you don't even feel compelled to explain.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day :)

A Case of You

"You're in my blood like holy wine 
You taste so bitter and so sweet 
I could drink a case of you darling 
Still I'd be on my feet "

The first time I heard this song, I was at a strange Keller Williams concert in Kent with my parents and my friend Leanna. When I came across this cover of it, I fell in love with it again. 

Top Five

In high school, I had a short stint with tumblr. My best friend still tumbles regularly, and she is a tech girl, but I never kept up with it and I still don't quite understand how it works. However, when I did tumble (is this the correct verb?), I made top ten lists, and I still enjoy looking back to see what I was into at that strange time in my life. 

Here's what's been making my world go 'round this week:

Earl Grey Tea
College has made me a regular tea drinker. I have a cup of hot tea almost everyday, sometimes more. Lately, I've been reaching for the earl grey lavender that campus coffee shops carry. The coffee company on campus has recently released these gorgeous loose leaf tea satchels. The earl grey is particularly beautiful because mixed throughout the black tea are small purple flower petals that expand slightly in the hot water. I used to hate earl grey because of that odd fragrance from the bergamot, but now I find it rather comforting.


The Office
I started watching The Office over winter break and I am fully obsessed. Now I know why everyone loves it - it's SO FUNNY.

Texas
I bought a ticket to Texas for spring break! In the past, I've found that Southern hospitality doesn't hold a candle to the genuine friendliness of my dear home the Midwest, but I've never been to Texas and I'm looking forward to exploring Houston and Austin with my best friend Gabrielle. We'll be perusing South x Southwest, which is still a bit of a mystery to me. I love traveling, so it's bound to be a great experience.

Running
I've hated sports my entire life, and anyone who knows me well can attest to that. I'm bad at them. I don't care about winning. I don't like watching them. However, individual sports are not so bad a because I am not letting anyone down if (when) I lose. I made the  goal at the beginning of the year to run a 5k by the end of the school year, and I've been running on a treadmill to prepare for it. I know that it's not as hard as running outside, but I still have been seeing improvement from when I started, which is good for me. Yesterday, I ran twice as long as I ever had before! I ran a total of 2.7 miles, and even though it took me half an hour, I am so proud of myself for not stopping after my usual 15 minutes. 



Naked 2 Palette
We talked about gender norms in class today, and a lot of the women in the class agreed that we dress up and wear makeup because we like it, and that shouldn't make us any less feminist. I totally agree. Makeup for me is like painting. I finally bought the Naked palette, which I've been lusting after for years. It was expensive and frivolous, and I don't regret it a bit. My favorite colors are Bootycall (a peach-tinted white-beige with a frosted finish) and Tease (a dirty mauve-brown with a matte finish).

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.

When I was a little girl, I told everyone that I was going to be an author. In my childhood bedroom, you'll find countless notebooks with frayed edges filled with mundane experiences I would have otherwise forgotten, secrets that I could only entrust to the page, drawings of characters that I built in my mind, stories of my own invention, terrible poetry. As an only child, I often only had myself and my imagination for days on end. I remember a moment in my adolescence, as a confused 12-year-old, when I felt particularly low - I crawled into my attic bedroom, a warm, comforting space, and began  to write a poem.

Then, I grew a little older. High school happened. I made memories with my best friends and fell in love for the first time. I realized that I had life ahead of me outside of the village where I grew up. I began to focus on school and work and success and all of the things that I thought happy people did, and I stopped writing for myself. I wrote beautiful analyses of classic novels and historical events, but my silly poetry and journal entries made an abrupt stop.

 (I also played cards a lot.)


Now, I'm a third-year student at Ohio State. When they said that college was going to be a time of personal growth, they weren't kidding. While the first time I fell in love was in high school, my first heartbreak was in college, and it was a doozy. I've traveled the world, made some impulsive decisions, learned to think critically, and realized nobody has to live life in that straight line we learn about growing up. I've written too many academic articles and next to no personal writing.

I don't want to regret not writing at all during this time in my life. Blogs are a great way to write and include other forms of visual media to tell the ultimate story. Although I love one-on-one time with pen and paper, I want to record events and interests and ideas because it is fun and ultimately, this life is about happiness.

Why the name "A Star to Sail Her By"? My favorite movie in the world is the 1971 film Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. A little known fact is that much of the wisdom Willy Wonka imparts in the film is unoriginal, taken from poetry, often Shakespeare. Before he gets on the boat for the absolutely terrifying trip down the chocolate river, Wonka says "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by," taken from a beautiful poem called "Sea Fever" by John Masefield. Actually, the poem is sort of a pretentious cry for adventure on the open sea, and even says "vagrant gyspy life" at one point, but in the context of a wacky film adaptation of a dark-spirited children's book about candy, it really speaks to me.

I haven't written in a while. Bear with me.
Love, Marisa