The Legend of Valentine...

So, Valentine’s Day is soon upon us. St. Valentine is quite the mystery man if I do say so myself. If you’ve ever attempted to look up historically accurate accounts of St. Valentine you’ll find quite the legends. But, through my ongoing history-nerd OCD research I have narrowed it down to two final legends. (If you aren’t going to read the whole epic blog…at least skip to the bottom.)

Legend 1: St. Valentine was a priest during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. Claudius, being quite the dictator…decided that his soldiers were losing battles and shying away from war because of their families and lovers…darn. So, he basically went on a rampage, like most Roman rulers around 200 A.D. and banded/cancelled all engagements and marriages in any time of battle. Valentine, being the Romantic that he was, continued to secretly marry couples hidden in church basements and bell towers.  Claudius found out and threw Valentine in jail. While rotting away in prison, Valentine was believed to have fallen (pause for dramatic effect) secretly in love with the jailors daughter (which I feel this is the dramatized version…besides the fact that everyone knew the jailors daughter was blind…). The day before Claudius had Valentine executed, the priest wrote a letter to the jailors daughter signed “Your Valentine” and from then on it stuck. Quite the sign-off line. Also, the poor girl was in fact blind…how was she supposed to read it? Legend said that she would exchange roses to have children continually read her the letter after he died. Sigh... It’s a legend. He was executed on February 14, 270 AD.

Legend 2: Everyone knows how intense and crazy blood hungry the ancient Romans were. So, we roll back to pagan times in the ancient Roman Empire. In those times, people celebrated a holiday on February 14 to honor Juno… the mythological Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses. We all know Romulus and Remus of course…the founders of Rome.  Following the bloody tradition, the Roman priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for “purification”. Following the command of R & R, young “gentlemen” would chop up the goats and go around slapping women with the sacrificial animal hide. Ladies, who wouldn’t be flattered by getting wacked with a bloody hunk of dog or goat meat?? Roman women though, would gladly receive the slap, as they believed that the practice would make them more fertile…Oh the lengths of fertility. Later, during the Feast of Lupecalia, all the single ladies in the city would place their name in a big urn in the middle of town. Bachelors would then play the Roman lotto for their new girlfriend to be…and became paired with the girl whose name was on the stone for the rest of the year (rough 10 months if you got a bad one). Hopefully they got a descent match…if not, I guess they’d throw the stone back in and try again next year. WHAT ROMANCE!

So ending the legends…or tying them together that is… basically people became Christian and saw this practice as ridiculous...and made the dating lotto illegal…and Christians spread the “real way” to meet true love…o wait, they stuck women in corsets and kitchens...well , at least we do it right in 2011 after what, 1000 years? Yet even in 2011, some people should still get the memo…I won’t mention any names.  And as for Valentine, some priest deemed love to Valentine around 500 AD…after his legend number one.  Let’s stick with that.

Ending the longest blog I’ve ever written…My grandmother once told me that my luck with love is because I’m Italian…that Italians love to a different level. No one can quite match us…except for other Italians, which I’m commanded not to marry because they are...to say the least…not to our level. So I guess I’m stuck. We’re just that deep. Sometimes, I’ve heard that my luck in love is because I’m not Catholic. Well, as written above, nobody seems to get it right...

…Love. Oh, the four letter word that can turn words in the mind so quickly. Love, amore, agape…the Bible says that Love is more than just a “feeling.” That people have made it a temporary, shallow feeling of want, lust, and even affection. It’s funny that you can go from loving Valentine’s Day to loathing the upcoming, pre planned day where you know you will voluntarily turn off your phone, get the cheesiest movie and hold up with a calorie fest.

So…if you have a lover…good for you. Just remember that LOVE is meant to be shared, not centralized and selfishly given to one other person. After my disaster, failure has opened my eyes to reality. It’s about loving yourself, about loving people, and most importantly loving God…after all…Valentine was a man of God…keep the legend going.

Happy Asian New year 新年快乐

Xīnnián kuàilè!! Which is actually the Chinese...Japanese…Korean…and several other Asian culture’s traditional New Year. Basically the Chinese New Year falls on the first new moon of the now set Gregorian calendar and it last 15 days until the following full moon. 15 days of pretty epic celebrations of dancing dragons, kites, and good food. It comes to an end with the lantern festivals. These lanterns are…outrageous to say the least. My students were showing me pictures and they are unbelievable!  I find the ancient traditions much cooler…and so did the Japanese and Koreans until western life swept in and brought our high tech calendar into play. Whatever. So, Year of the Rabbit…bring on new luck!

So basically, I was kept awake all night with firecrackers and huge fireworks basically being set off at every angle outside our apartment windows. Saipan walls are pretty thin, hence all the cockroaches that share housing with us. And let me tell you…Chinese fireworks make American “fireworks” look like Pop Rocks. They aren’t illegal either. Hence the raw danger when David and I blew up buckets and bottles in the back yard the other week testing them out.

So, I’ve decided with the dawn of all these ancient traditions I might as well visit a Buddhist temple while I’m at it. I mean, when in Asia. The relaxing mantras and chanting seems very meditative. Don’t worry though, being here as a student missionary I am just as strong in my faith, yet why not meet other people of greater peace than I? Enlightenment can come from more than just Buddha. That’s why I flock to the beach after work every day in prayer. Also, planning my trip to Tokyo and all of our temples Silvia and I will be stopping by for a week is sparking interest as well. This religion is so old. A religion based on peace of mind…yet no higher power. Buddha was basically a dude who was a prince, who encountered 4 suffering people, sat under a tree for quite a while and got brain freeze…ate too much, ate too little…then settled in the middle and called it “Enlightened”. Though I find this all far-fetched I will respect it, and still find Karma a real force ;)

Happy to report next Monday my roommate and I start our MIXED MARSHAL ARTS CLASS!  KEE-YA!

Street market today was bustling with people. I witnessed my first DRAGON DANCE TONIGHT…EPIC. I find my spicy “cheeken” on a stick and Pad-Thai a welcomed gift to me after a hard week of teaching Korean students…who also flock to the street market… hunt me down, and parade around with me giggling and planning my future with every male that may look my way. It makes me laugh. Oh, and the drinks here entertain me. You can physically drink ANYTHING in Saipan…Rice soda, rice punch, Sardine concentrate…mmm...pear soda, and Aloe water being the weirdest. About last week’s statement of bad luck due to a birthmark…we saw a foot long blowfish snorkeling last weekend. Koreans find that good luck, considering blowfish is a deadly delicacy. Win.

To everyone back home, Happy New Year! Know that I miss you, and know that “The world is a book, and staying in one’s place is only reading a page…” Get out and read the whole book people. That’s where I’m at.     新年快

Sweet sweet Ube...

So…the the other night I tried something called “Ube” which is pronounced “ oobay” for those of you who are laughing at such a word. So…apparently ube is like an Asian sweet-potato...but not. I also heard it was a type of bread...like a vegetable...and a type of rice. SO, needless to say ube ice cream is a pretty gnarly mystery food and has such a weird but amazing flavor.

It’s week three here in the sunny far-far east. I’m blamed for the rain here, apparently it’s because Filipinos find birthmarks on one’s behind as a sign of bad luck...so I’m now well aware that my birthmark is to blame for all my misfortunes…lol. But…last weekend we did go snorkeling at this ridiculously beautiful island off the coast called Managaha…(where Silvia and I had time to make 2 rap songs about Thai food to the beat of Milkshake) where we fed sharks hotdogs and they came a swimming…I went a screamin. We also saw sweet fish, huge blue star fish and bumped into an octopus! (Which our nature friendly friends left alone…after scaring it into coral)…which I later got a sweet gash on my knee from. It was pretty sweet. Battle scar. Remind me people back home to introduce you to an amazing Indo bread I ate at the street market this week…I will learn how to make its warm, sweet spongy goodness soon…and it will be earth shattering.

I’m getting pretty comfortable on this small island…being a local now has its advantages…and I’m also named the “Most impatient driver on Saipan…even more so than David.” I feel like that’s quite a title, I plan to live up to it. Got my first taste of Asian drifting up near Banzai Cliffs too... I found it pretty amusing.

My kids have given me quite a week, but they understood my drift when I made them write my class rules 20 times before lunch one day. Teacher win. Lots of crazy things have happened lately…it’s like every day is just full of pointless and very humorous events. I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard in a while. Today I had my kids demonstrate, in English, how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This was hysterical because half had never made one, and the other half flung jelly and peanut butter all over their blindfolded and un-expecting partners.

SO, I sit here, another weekend upon me…soaking up the smell of my rice noodles cooking and listening to some old school Island music blaring from my crackly old boom box I found in the closet. Getting back to why the whole blog is called “Sweet Ube” …Just like poor Ube…not knowing what it is and yet enjoying the adventure of such an odd food, I compare it to my experience here so far…I’m completely in love with it here in Saipan, I haven’t regretted one day….but I still feel like I just don’t know what’s going on…what exactly I’m doing. But…that’s where I’m at.

I know I wrote earlier in a journal that I felt like God didn’t get on the plane with me to Saipan…that I felt like I was all kinds of floating by myself…but after this week it is apparent that I haven’t been alone for one second. I have had so many amazing things happen in 3 weeks…I’ve even actually learned a thing or two about myself…which is an accomplishment for me after this past year. I feel like me again out here… off to fix my sink that exploded on me while washing dishes…and my toilet as well…well, it didn’t explode but nothing duck tape and wire can’t fix.

Be my escape.

So I’m sitting here at 2:30 am. Rain is pounding outside my window bringing the creepy crawlers right under our gapped front door. I guess it was the large cockroach that crawled into bed with me earlier that is blessing me with this late night.

So, where I’m at…on the very small, yet very exciting island of Saipan off the coast of Japan in the Marianas Islands. Smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The entire island is like 12 by 15 miles…and it’s already cracked me up how the locals here complain about the drive across the island being too long and inconvenient. Why and how I got here you may ask, your guess is as good as mine. For my close friends and family, you know my addiction for adventure and my ridiculous love of travel escapades was in high gear since I got back from Italy. So I’ve been here a week…I figured I needed to start documenting some of my stories…I just haven’t had the inspiration to write like I used to. With my book being published and world being thrown into “the real one” I’ve been hiding out. I’m hoping the sunny days and beautiful beaches here will convince me otherwise.

The flight here took 21 long hours…17 of those on a plane filled with bad food, no movies and coughing and infested plague. Actually it wasn’t that bad…BUT I did panic a bit at all the masked Asians that surrounded me. I discovered on the way over that my name in Japanese translated into “plate”. You can imagine my surprise at such an exotic meaning. But the journey was well ended when my new co-workers and oldest friend met me at the airport at steamy one a.m. on the other side of the world. The next day was spent hugging my toilet bowl with stomach flu…which the tap water here is salty and the smell is slowly growing on me…but hey, I got that over with.

So, my escape has led me to teaching 20 Korean students English at the Saipan SDA Elementary School. Probably one of the most challenging, frustrating, yet most fun thing I’ve ever gotten myself into. I have no one else to thank but God. Who I’m learning to trust more every day due to coincidences that ironically smack me in the face every day.  Enjoying life has become quite the regular occurrence here J

On the way home from an amazing hike to “Forbidden Island”  (which by the way has mind-blowing cliffs and caves leading to the ocean) the song “Be my escape” by RK came on…and it made me poke my head out the window and just wonder…is this trip my escape?

My favorite verse of the entire song is “I’m begging you to be my escape…” God, you did give me this escape, that’s for sure.