I finally arrived in Ubud, Bali and I’m pretty excited and am glad that I decided to take the project and take the risk to come here on my own!

I’m staying at this nice villa that has its own pool, and there’s a small fountain outside of my room which sounds very relaxing…I’m not sure if I explained it before but I’m here to work on a design project with someone that I came across on couchsurfing.org

I came to work in-house to oversee the foundation, design, and overall flow/user interaction of the site. The current HQ is actually the villa itself and there IS a small conference/office room but people can pretty much do work wherever they want…by the pool, overlooking the pool, in their rooms, or somewhere else in Ubud.

I talked to one of the founders, a local Indonesian, and one of their social marketing guys and WOW.

I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna come out as a different person after this work trip/experience!

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Ubud is the hub of art, culture, and spiritual things in Bali.

They told me that there’s this thing going on every friday morning called a dance walk where people just go out on the street, share their music and literally dance-walk on the streets and it sounds so fun and new that I’m definitely going to try it out, since I don’t really dance and when I travel I love to do things out of my comfort zone so I think it’s perfect!

They also have something called an ecstatic dance on friday nights where people just let go and let their body take control and just dance dance dance feed on and share each other’s energy and it sounds SO amazing that I can’t help but wish that it’s friday here already (it’s already saturday, boo)

There’s some dancing going on every sunday morning as well, I think that’s more of a spiritual one, I forgot (sorry, 24hrs and no sleep yet) but it also sounds exciting and they told me join them so I will definitely definitely do that!

Watching and being part of a community that just comes together to dance, let go, and have clean good fun? Count me in!!!

Ubud isn’t Ubud without the yoga classes (there are TONS here), and I’m gonna join one…I’ve always wanted to but never had the time/chance to do it and this is the perfect place to do it!

Meditating and doing yoga on hill tops, overlooking beautiful rice paddies, doesn’t that sound great?

There are also unlimited number of art and cultural related classes that anyone can take, lots of beautiful temples, etc etc!

There’s this 4day festival called Bali Spirit Festival where people just dance, meditate, celebrate
Ife and love all day for 4 freaking days it sounds amazing and so….hippie-ish I’m having an overload of feelings BUT it’s held on March so ugh guess I just gotta go back for it next time!

Scooter is the only way that people go around this place so they’re gonna teach me how to ride and operate one so looking forward to that as well.

Oh, and did I mention that along with all those amazing things on fridays, friday is also beach day?

And the amazing beaches in Bali’s just a scooter away?

….yeaaaah I’m definitely gonna love my stay here!

It is so incredibly touching when someone does something for you that you never expected them to. 

I wanted so so much to attend that GLAAD awards in San Francisco but in the end, circumstances prevented me from going and a friend of mine was going with her wife but they only had a ticket for one so I decided to give mine to her wife since I won’t be needing it anymore and I’d rather make someone I know happy than sell it to some random person on the internet.

I didn’t really expect or want her to give me anything in return, but she did something in return anyway that is so incredibly kind and wonderful and I am just so touched that I gotta admit, I still have the biggest smile on my face!!!

So THANK YOU SO SO MUCH, Denise, for getting that autograph with my name on it and for saying whatever it is you said to her about me, you have no idea how happy you’ve made me today and I wish that I can teleport myself across the globe so I can hug you, and I do hope that we get to meet each other someday if I ever end up in the east coast, or if you ever find yourself in the west coast (when I finally relocate and we should definitely meet up, we still have 2 collab projects that we’re supposed to work on!)!

Love,
Dianne

Hahahaha OMG I just need to stop everything that I’m doing because those posts and actions are the most adorable things that I’ve come across today and this week!

No seriously, the big fucking smile on my face isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, so thank you!

YES I AM SO EXCITED!!! I got my Japanese visa approved, so now I can finally work on my complete itinerary and book all the accomodations for July!

AAAAAAAAAAAAH I’m not sure if 17 days is enough time to explore Japan but I’ll forego sleep if I have to! Ahahahahahaha!

I’m also planning to go to Mt. Fuji Rock, an annual 3-day rock music festival in Japan. their lineup looks incredible! I had to change my flight itinerary just to accomodate it but it’s gonna be so worth it, I mean, who wouldn’t want to experience a 3-day concert in JAPAN? Oh god. 

The lineup includes Radiohead, Araab Musik, Jack White, Explosions in the Sky, The Shins, and about 90+ other musicians from Japan and the rest of the world, CRAZY!

I feel bad that I won’t see the sakura blossoms, but there are still some summer festivals that I’ll be in time for so it’s gonna be fantastic nonetheless!

Can it be July now???