10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME

You may have noticed a game of tag happening all over Instagram - someone will share 10 things that most people don't know about them, and then tag other people in the post who they want to play the game back! Galina, a beautiful woman living across the ocean - @galinaap - tagged me in the “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me” game, so here ya go!

1. I’m an only child - the independent kind … I left the country for the first time when I was 16 - alone, for a year - as an exchange student. I left again for another year when I was 20, then again for a few years when I was 22.
2. Since I was 7 years old I was searching for something … it’s what drove me to travel so much. I finally found it when I was 24 years old, when I met a group of Tibetan monks in red robes. For the first time, I felt like life made sense in a very profound way.
3. I meditate every day. Besides flower elixirs, it has by far been the most powerful method of personal growth and transformation in my life (unbelievable, really).
4. I speak 3 languages fluently. I love speaking other languages, because it’s like putting on a whole new mind and expressing other aspects of yourself through a completely different culture.
5. I am in love with hot springs and all forms of bathhouses. It gives me such an overwhelming sense of peace to sit in hot water outside in nature or in a bathhouse. It’s like a refuge for me, where I can rest & just be. This past July, I booked an unexpected trip to Iceland to soak in the magical hot springs & hunt for wild Icelandic orchids.
6. When I have the time, I love to cook Nyonya food (Singaporean fusion culture of Chinese + Malay), like: fish cakes wrapped in banana leaves (Otak Otak), spicy fried anchovies & peanuts with coconut rice and egg (Ikan Belis), Chicken Chili Rice (whole chicken soup + chili sauce with tons of ginger & garlic). Even better yet is not to have to cook at all … when I’m in Singapore I looooove the hawker centers (the most delicious street food ever … Malay, Chinese + Indian style).
7. I’m crazy about salsa dancing! I dance several times/week. It brings me so much joy + surprisingly is teaching me so much about myself.
8. I’m less of a beauty girl and more of a remedy girl. Give me tinctures, extracts, herbal pills, remedies, antidotes, herbal liniments and essential oils over beauty products any day.
9. My favorite flowers are mostly weird exotic ones: toad lily, jade vine, pink torch ginger, rainbow tumeric, red bird of paradise, jasmine sambac.
10. I have a secret getaway plan to move to Asia sometime in the future (or at least have a second base). My favorite places in Asia (so far) are Thailand, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Asia is like home. It’s divine, lovely & nourishing on so many levels.

Start the chain reaction in your web of friends + family - share 10 things about yourself, and tag 5-10 people you are dying to know more about.

Love + flower petals,