Author: elkabear2011

Oh my gosh! It’s the last day, this is so weird! No me gusta :[

I’m going to miss seeing every single one of you every day. You were all such awesome, supportive and fun people to be around. I learned a lot from each and every one of you and I’m glad to have met you and learned about your cultures and where you came from. I had so much fun and I hope to see you all again. I’m glad most of you live nearby haha we should all meet up at one of the pow wows or something!

Also, I went to the sweat lodge last night and it was the most amazing experience. I’m proud of myself for lasting all 4 rounds! I can’t wait to go again, I am so grateful to the ones that allowed us to sweat with them and gave us that amazing opportunity and especially to Tony Certa who lead us. We were in good hands, I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am to have them as our friends and teachers.

Overall, I feel like I ended the program off perfectly. I can’t wait to make more memories with all of you on our last day. I’m going to cherish every last moment (:

The past few days have been very culturally informative. Yesterday we went to Los Angeles and identified many different types of traditional plants that were used for medicine and food. It made me think very differently about the way I am living my life now compared to how my ancestors once lived.

Also, Hula dancing was really fun, I’m glad that they have that part of their culture to share with us. The dance was very beautiful and it made me wish I could go back to Hawaii.

I liked this picture because of the confused look on my face. I am apparently no dancer!

I’m sad that I came late because the time I spend here is going by even faster. It’s been fun so far, with all the dancing and singing. I really liked going to Western again and learning about how the body works and how it balances itself out in order to function. The way the body works is incredible.

I also finally got to go swimming and that combined with working in the garden gave me an awesome sunburn on my nose.

P.S. I’m never falling asleep in the grass again.

And I was surprised when I got to my dorm with some beautiful material to make a shawl laid on my bed. I’m almost finished!

Can’t wait to start my first full day and go to Western!

It feels good to be back (:

I haven’t blogged in a while so this may be long!

We went to Universal Studios and I felt so dumb because I was like the only one that didn’t know and I got really excited! I went on the Mummy ride three times and the Haunted House twice. I’m pretty sure I almost lost my voice from all the screaming because it was hard speaking the next day.  Anyways, the tour was great! I had no idea there was so much to Universal Studios and now I can really appreciate all it has. It was fun, the city was absolutely stunning that day

Then we went to a museum and did some gardening the next day. Boy was that unexpected! We were hauling rocks and raking up leaves all day! My back was killing me after that and I was another shade darker from a combination of sun exposure (woohoo, tan!) and dirt (booo) but I was glad we contributed to a good cause.  It felt good being able to see how much progress we made after only three hours (and jumping in the pool afterwards!). I was also happy with how I learned about the many different ways I could use sage. I mean I knew it was great but wow! tea for colds!? Amazing!

Then we went to the Gene Autry Museum yesterday, which was amazing. I saw a lot of baskets from my tribe and pottery from my sister’s tribe, it made me miss her but just a little bit! I also saw some beadwork and it surprised how it was in such great shape for being so old; The people at the museum are doing a great job of preserving the artifacts that they have received from the various tribes.

Toodles!