Week 6... Off to Micronesia

Thanks http://japanfocus.org/-Andre-Vltchek/2619 for the picture!

Hi everyone! Wow, I am almost halfway through my journey and am beginning my sixth week in Micronesia. Micronesia is made up of many tiny islands and is located very close to Australia. There are indigenous people in this country who have many very neat and unique aspects to their culture. This week, I have decided to practice something that they do. For the entire week, each day, I will use coconut oil in my hair on my skin as a means of conditioning and moisturizing. These people use coconut oil all of the time for its medicinal effects on the hair and skin. They even use it to prevent lice! I find this practice to be so important, especially because it is one that uses and that is in harmony with nature. I purchased a container of coconut oil in the beginning of the week. It resembles Crisco and smells like well... coconut. I will be putting up pictures of the oil, my hair with the oil in it and my hair after it throughout the week. I will tell you the effect the oil has on my hair, nails and even mood (I read before "travelling" to this country that the oil's odor can be soothing). I will also tell you more about how I am using the oil, following procedures for doing so that I have researched. I am excited to connect to this indigenous, tribal culture of these tropical islands this week. As the world advances, the simple but vital ways of tribes like those of these countries are being deemed unimportant and are diminishing quickly. Hopefully by this week's end, I can give others a reason to believe much differently. Talk to you soon!

Thank you Spain!

 Hi everyone! This week has been great! I apologize for the late post- things have been a bit hectic lately. Though like I said, I don't really like to dress up, I really enjoyed doing so "in" Spain this past week. Above are some of the outfits I wore throughout my time "in" the country. I got lots of compliments and as I mentioned, those compliments and the fact that I was dressed very differently from my usual attire allowed me to share what I was doing with so many people. My one friend even said she was inspired by Spain's tradition of dressing up to go into public. You know, appearance isn't everything, but the fact that Spaniards take time to care about theirs says a lot. I carried myself differently this week as I was wearing this formal attire. I felt more confident. These facts may just be the experience for me, but I think that they are the reasons we can all learn a lot from this cultural aspect of Spain. I am not saying that formal clothes are needed for confidence. However, wearing these clothes make each day a bit more of a special occasion, especially to Americans like myself who don't dress up each time they appear in public. Maybe this tradition of the Spanish people helps them to treasure each day of their lives as special and worthy of breaking out the the skirts, blouses, dress pants and dresses, not because these clothes are needed to make things special, but because society as a whole can see these kinds of clothes as for special occasions. Wearing them in public all of the time shows that the people of Spain see everyday as important, exciting and hopeful. Maybe to them, formal clothes are just as normal as jeans and sweatpants, but for me who looks at their culture with the perspective of an outsider to that culture, this cultural aspect is respectable and so incredibly important to the world. Thank you Spain for showing me a very positive, optimistic and very respectable piece of your culture.