Overview

I was feeling a little home sick for the first time today. The longer i am here the harder things are (as normal) so i felt like a little passionate post would be good for today... enjoy.

No we are not fire fighters who save lives, no we are not athletes who have metals and no we are not famous and rich. We live our lives quietly backstage, all day learning something we love... Our hands are raw, are feet are numb, our legs give in to the burn. We are up too late and sleep too little, yet the work never seems to end, constantly distracted by the thought of what could be better. we live in a perpetual stink of produce and rarely have time to shower. Frustration fights its way to take over our confidence and at our weakest it may win. We forget there is an outside world and those who love us reach out to us to ground our busy lives. When we leave the kitchen we go to another, in hopes that if we tweak enough we can create perfection. we get tired we get cranky we get overwhelmed we get discouraged, we try to give up but in the end we never do, and never will because we are culinary students and we love what we do more then anything. Our hands ache to hold a knife and our bodies urn to be in the kitchen. We love what we do and we may never stop.

Step 1.

 

The first day of classes at the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute started on a Saturday, I wanted to give myself enough time to adjust to the small costal town surroundings before I jumped right into the learning part of my trip to Fort Bragg California. I was the first of my group to arrive at the Inn which was nice, I am very shy and it takes me a moment to warm up and open up to people. So I was very happy to have a moment alone to gather my thoughts before I began meeting a whole heap of new and different characters. To be completely honest, which is why I started this blog, in my head I was expecting everyone who walked through the Inn's door to have dread locks, be head to toe in hemp clothing and potentially smell of recreational drugs. Just goes to show how stupid and insulting my mind is, prematurely judging people who were coming to an unfamiliar place to do exactly what I had come there to do, and I was none of the things I assumed everyone else to be. The next person to arrive was my roommate, and the very first thing I noticed about her, other then her contagious positivity and pure joy of finally arriving, was that she had a luminous glow about her. I couldn't put my finger on it but something about her was just enlightening. She immediately broke the silence that I has been cowering in and invited me to meet the other girl she had arrived with, who was from Australia. Once again there was that glow, followed with a welcoming smile, and all my ignorant misconceptions of what my subconscious was expecting to come through the door vanished as one by one I met all the women who would be take the courses with me. Each of them drenched in the same luminous glow, and just oozing with excitement to begin the journey.


After a very successful trip to the school store to buy all our required reading, and materials we were all as ready as we could be for the unknown of what would be waiting for us on the first day of class. My fiancé had special ordered a hot pink chef coat for me that had "Chef Krysten" embroidered on the front, I was just itching to put it on and be in a kitchen. I was up at 6:45am, in the kitchen by 7:15, made a green smoothie and out the door by 7:30 to start the 0.6mile walk to school. It was a chilly morning and the bitter blasts of coastal wind did not help, but my anticipation was keeping me warm and motivated to continue walking. When we arrived we were given lockers, name tags, binders, asked to fill out paper work then led up to where class would be. For the first time in my entire life I made hast to sit at the very front of the class, and be one of the first students in their seat ready and eager to go. I gave my self a split second to breath as I patiently waited for the instructors and shivers of pleasure prickled my skin as I felt so positive that this is where I was meant to be. As soon as class started it was a whirlwind of learning, everything was meticulously mapped out, every demo and every lecture was timed perfectly to lead one right into the other. My brain was expanding at an exponential rate with all the new information being poured into it. So many door were being opened, so many myths being dispelled, all of my what ifs and hows were vanishing, all this in just the first day. I couldn't believe how much was crammed into 9 hours, and yet I couldn't get enough, I was at the edge of my seat waiting for the next day.
 

The Hippie House

I knew I was coming in to a culinary arts program, but what I didn’t know is that I would be walking in to a whole new world, community, family that would touch my heart and change my every thought completely.  The people I have met, from the moment I checked into the Inn have blown me away with the brilliant positive light they all glow with. People from all over the world, Australia, London, Rotterdam, Russia, Canada, and Korea.  Everyone with a different but intense and motivating story of why they are here, either their health depended on the life style change  or they are interested  in following their passion for good food with goodness in it. The place we are staying at is an old two story house till retaining its grandma charm from the gray colored carpets to the flower patterned wallpaper and has been transformed into an Inn

with ten rooms and one kitchen. There are 12 of us living at the Inn and there is never a dull moment. We start our day at 7am with multiple blenders and dehydrators going at once, everyone in the kitchen making green smoothies or creating snacks.  Along with the deafening sound of the machinery are the debates over the nutritional benefit of soaking or not soaking almonds; or if garlic is toxin or a tonic. The kitchen is small but with patience and a little understanding of the raw food inner workings we all manage to get something to eat, along with helping each other out by swapping produce or bartering for dates. When we gather in the kitchen all the different pieces of a full community shine through. We feed and support each other with zero judgment. Everyone is left to eat and “cook” how he/she would like but we are all there for each other to answer questions and find a solution even If we use a little help from Google to do it. Usually when you go to a group of people, school, party, sleep away camp, whatever gathering you may be at you will have an internal pull towards a particular group of people, or a person which is how we get our typical stereotypes of the popular group, nerds, jocks ect. I came into the house expecting cliques to form, and worried about which group would accept me, but that is not what happened at all. I did have that internal pull but not to a group or even to a person, but to everyone in the house. I could not tell you who my favorite person is, I could not tell you who I get along with most, and I won’t even call this a family because even in families there is a black sheep. That just is not the case in this fantastic group of brilliant individuals who, every day remind me that being her is right.