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so Part II of my Italian journey....The Leadership Programme...So as I mentioned before we were staying in a divine Mansion villa in the hills of Tuscany, 10mins from Lucca. Villa Borcella, a couple of acres of gorgeous land that contain the main mansion villa, hall, kitchen, 4 villa houses, swimming pool, olive, peach, apple, fig orchards and all in true Italian flavour.You will all have to see my vids when I come back.Anyways, during the 12 days we ate only vegetarian food (which I luved) except we had quite abit of carbs, volunteer chefs cooked all our meals they were awesome, no alcohol and drugs and they encouraged us not to leave the grounds.So we were in a way kind of in our own community away from the world as we had no TVs which also meant we completely missed all the Olympics.Everyday started at 8am with a half hour of 10/10/10 - which is 10mins of exercise, 10mins of vocal warm ups, 10mins of mind wake ups..based on the principal of starting your day waking up your mind, body and soul which is kinda kewl.Admittedly I did miss about 3 days out of the 12 hehehe.The brekkie and into our days of sessions.Each day was different and we weren't really told what the plan was, a lot of what we did was something that I have done for myself over the past 2 years - finding more who I am, what I want in life, where I'm going etc etc…..and the programme defiantly had people from a variety of different stages of their life so you kinda got out of it what you wanted.For me personally, it was just a time to have some space for myself and reconfirm that I know my truth and purpose in life and also making some really awesome friends and being humbled by other peoples experiences in the world that come from places less privileged then us - we have no idea in NZee we are sssooo lucky.Speaking of NZee…..it was a really interesting experience being a person from NZ and the Pacific - it's a strange thing for me to be asked 'where you from' and you say NZee and Samoa and you get a response of 'wheres that'? and its not out of ignorance, they sincerely just don't know - so I was educating people too hehe.But it was just strange for me to literally be the minor.Then also, being in a group of predominantly Europeans and English speakers and due to my accent always having to repeat myself - kinda got frustrating sometimes - at times I felt like I wasn't even speaking English hehe so strange.Oh I have to share this one experience….on our 5th night we were told that we would have to spend 6 hours the next day in the bush in the hills to 'reflect and connect with nature and ourselves'….which I know sounds really hippy but really its about having some quiet time to yourself to listen to yourself…yeah hehe give it ago sometime its good.Anyways, that's not the experience.So I was all good for it, admittantly 6hours seemed bit to long but I was down.THEN they announced that we did have to be cautious as every year at least 1 person had a snake encounter.OHMIGOSH at first I thought they were just winding us up….but no…they were dead serious - followed by my minor heartattack hehe - I was tripping out I was not happy with that possibility at all hehe.So the next morning we all went up into the hills with WYSE backpacks and lunch on backs for our 6hr time.We each had to go in individually into the bush and pass through a line of about 12 of the staff as we walked into the bush - it was strange coz I suddenly found myself crying, coz I had this déjà Vu feelin of when I left home 2 months ago - as I walked in to the bush I was chatting with God and said, ' Lord I just know that you are going to test me today and that I will be the one to encounter a stupid snake'……I found a walking stick and I walked for about an hour, I was determined to make it to the highest point to get a good view of Lucca.I found a spot and made me a little home to settle in and write, read, pray, listen to music - I did this for about 2 hours.Was really lovely actually.Then I started wondering back down the hill and meet up with my mate Ben, now we were encouraged not to talk to anyone but by then I was done ya know, felt confident that I had done what I needed to do on the mountain….how wrong was I….coz…..myself and Ben were walking down one of the main paths gasbagging and Ben was about 2 steps behind me.Suddenly he yells out 'S*?IT' and starting running back….I look down on the ground in front of me and there right were my next step was about to land was a long……big……SNAKE!!!!! With its yellow stripes going crazy in the leaves and twigs wriggling around…..and what did I do….I bloody froze man! Then after clicking as to what was happening do I run?....no…..Grace grabs her walking stick in front of her as if to fight it off……then I hear Ben running back yelling run….I go to turn back to run and slip a little and Ben grabs my hand and pulls me to run….while asking if I had got bite….thank God I hadn't…..we ran up the hill abit till we got to the corner and I got abit teary, bit shocked aye….but as scary as it was…was kinda exciting.Then Ben is all like I wanna go back and have a look and I'm like hell no hehe….then my good good friend Dan comes walking up behind me and knew something was up, so I got a hug felt bit better.BUT then we had to go back down the road as it was the only way out we knew…..so the boys walked in front while I made noises with my stick hehe.We think the snake was chasing a frog across the path before I nearly stood on it.Apparently their not poisonous but I don't care man, it's a snake…..also after I explained what it looked like people were saying it was a type of python eeeekkkkk!Oh man, I can hear my mum freaking out right now hehe.Anyways…….another kewl experience was our Passion night - a show where we had to perform or tell of our passion in anyway we choose.Yes I did poetry, but I wanted to convey my passions - people, purpose, passion and poetry.While listening to Fat Freddys around the pool I got inspired by the song Hope and the message of my work with young people and the desire to leave a positive footprint in life and encourage others too also.Combining this with someone telling me I should give doing my spoken word to music a go…..I attempted to put a poem about this to the instrumental of Hope and then….sing the chorus...but not alone, I used the actual song and just added my five cents hehe….I quite enjoyed it and others did too - so discovered something new to try and craft in the future.Then was the amazing conversations with people that grew up in countries that experience so much racism, religious division and war…..so humbling to hear their stories - you see it on the news but until you hear from someone that has been there in it, you just don't know.Its so sad how we get so immune to hearing about all the unjust things in the world - seriously my eyes are a lot more wider from the stories shared…and so much more appreciative of NZee but also see the need for us to share ourselves out there ya know, in the northern side of the world - they just don't know our beauty.And then on top of that I made some really awesome friends, mostly they live in London and its kewl coz now I can hookup with them and I know they will remain good friends for life.After the programme we were 'let loose' on the world and after a lunch in Lucca with the majority of the crew I and my m8s Ericka, Ben, Morgan and John decided to stay the night in Lucca.We found a place to stay (yes that's right I was adventurous and didn't pre book hehe) dumped our stuff and went off in search of bikes to hire to roam the streets and city walls of Lucca.Lucca is beautiful - really authentic Italian city that back in the day was exempt from Roman rule which is interesting.We then all got a feed and took it to the park and watched the sunset from the city walls - was lovely.The next day I needed to get to Pisa which is like half hour train from Lucca - I had to stay there the night as I was flying out the next day and had to be at Pisa airport 4am.So I left the crew and ventured to Pisa alone and managed to find a place to stay about 5mins walk from the train station which was good - although the street I was in I think was kinda the ghetto of Pisa hehe.I spent the late arvo checking out the leaning tower of Pisa and then relaxing to wait for one of the girls from the programme who was gonna stay the night in Pisa also - she was coming from Florence.We had a late dinner then 4am in the morning I had to walk to the taxi stand to get to the airport.I must admit I was abit nervous as it was still dark and bit dodgy but I just walked super fast and all was well.And now I am back in dirty London hehe - and weather is mud compared to no rain Italy…..if I have money left I would love to go back there for couple of days. LUVD IT!Well, that's enough for now - some of you wanted reading - well you got it hehe…BIG LUVSGracie
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