In the nearly two months that I've been in California, I've seen a side of this
great state that not many people get to see. Even those that live here. I'm
but a simple Hoosier running up and down the coast highways and byways working
for Independence for a people that have had it taken away from them. Always
on the move, a day on the March for Tibet's Independence crams more eye candy
and mental stimulus in then most people get in a month. Yet here I am, still
plugging away, still half-sane.
Coming from the Amber Fields of uh... corn to the sun-drenched beaches of California
isn't exactly what I expected it to be. Yeah, everything is more expensive out
here. Yeah people are, on the whole, more easygoing. Yeah, I spend half my time
worrying about what I'm going to do for money when I get back. But What I hadn't
counted on was the sheer magnitude of the beauty that I've encountered on this
walk. One day I'm in the middle of a fertile foodbasket overwhelmed with avacadoes,
asparagus and Strawberries, the next I'm overlooking a magnificent vista of
sea and rock in the Big Sur .One minute I'm flirting outrageously on a swingset
with the Mayor's daughter and the next I'm giving a quarter to "Randy and
his dog Blackie." One second I'm showing my tattoos to giggly girls in
barely-there bikinis and the next I'm crying with the rest of us as Palden recounts
a poignant story from his years of torture in Chinese Prison.
And it goes on and on.
It ain't even close to being over yet. We still have LA staring us down in the
distance, but regardless, I've found a new place that speaks to my heart. California
rocks!
OK, enough digression, you're here for pictures right?
Alrighty then.
Despite appearences, this is NOT Pema Lhundup.
When we got to Orange County, the Orange County Friends Of Tibet were on fire and ready for our arrival. Imagine our bemusement when after days of happy-go-lucky walking along the beaches of Southern California, we arive in Laguna Beach to a full plate of activities, including a press conference and a ceremony where Palden cut a star out of the Chinese Flag.
