Haka what?

Mondays are officially my favorite day of the work week because of Toastmasters and Italian class..and coming soon, poi! I think I only have two more sessions of Italian class and I have learned a lot already. I'm going to miss it. Starting next Monday, I'm going to a poi class between work and Italian! It's not worth it for me to drive home and back to Meremac in 2 hours, so I had been killing time by eating dinner, playing with my ipod, reading, and talking on the phone. In theory, I can do that stuff any time, though; poi, on the other hand, doesn't just come along every day. It's literally only 5 minutes away from Meremac, too (at Laumeier Sculpture Park), which is perfect. Months ago, I was considering fire poi, but I have to start somewhere, right? Check it out. Now, imagine that with fire! ;) Yes, I am crazy.

My sister and I saw poi dancing in New Zealand as part of the haka ("war dance") demonstration, and apparently that's where it originated. It came from New Zealand's indigenous Maori tribe and it was used to scare off opponents. The rugby teams, to this day, basically have a dance-off before every game, which is awesome!



I wish American football teams would start doing that--it would be the only part worth watching. Check out the replay of that guy on the All Blacks team, too. That face means "I'm going to eat you and you will be delicious!" Classic. The announcer is referring to totem poles like the one to the right.

It just occurred to me that I didn't really share much of this knowledge with anyone for a long time after this trip (if ever) because I was too distracted from the layoff that immediately followed it.

Speaking of layoffs, I got a random call from one of my old creative directors today! I hadn't seen or heard from him in forever and he was calling to ask if I was available to help him with some freelance. I almost let out an audible "aww" when I heard his message and then I talked to him before class tonight. He is such a good guy and it was really good to hear from him. He had been at Momentum longer than almost anyone there and he was one of several coworkers that took me under his wing, but he was laid-off, too. As we were catching up and I was telling him about my life post-layoff, I was actually pretty proud of myself. It almost blows my mind to consider everything I have done since then, everything that I couldn't do when I was burning myself out on work.

New Zealand (and the bungee jump there) was basically the turning point and it has become symbolic for me. The silver fern is the emblem of New Zealand. The Maori tribe has a symbol called a koru (spiral) that represents the unfurled new leaf of a silver fern. Ironically, that spiral represents new beginnings, growth, and harmony. I currently have a koru keychain on my keys, and I bought it in New Zealand because I was bracing myself for my own potential new beginning. That is exactly what followed--the growth and harmony stuff came later. Life has been nothing short of an adventure since then!