Tad Tien Beach is such a beautiful bubble of sweetness!
We put together our first fire show in 3 days and it went amazingly. We went above and beyond our fundraising goal at Sanctuary Resort, had a really good show that ran smoothly and successfully glitter bombed all the men on the team. It was quite gratifying after working in the crazy heat for 6 hours or more a day.
 I got to perform a fire version of my hoop act  from The House of Faery Bad Things, a tumbling silly clowny display of precise blundering, and I have been getting really positive feedback about the act. I also developed the finale act for the show and upon looking at the crazy cramped cacophony of people coming in and off the stage, weaving in and out of each other, I decided that it reflected my current brain a little too much: grand and full of action but not quite in good order and too hot! After adjusting things and myself to match this environment and circumstance, I'm feeling really excited about my offering to this team and I am so grateful to be part of such an amazing crew! I'm finally starting to feel the cloud of arrival fog around me start to lift.
  We did a wonderful LED show and we got a lot of feedback that people enjoyed it more then the fire show! more freedom of movement, sweet tunes and more hypnotizing. It really re-inspired me to get a good collection of LED toys for shows, because they are so sweet to watch, to play with and so much less hassle then fire. Dressed in all white and lighting up the night, the team looked like a collection of ethereal faery spirits!
  The Bay has been filled with moments of good food, coconut banana shakes, laughing, playfulness and good community vibes. A slice of jungle paradise i will surely miss.
 Tomorrow we leave for Koh Samui where we will do a day show and circus worshops for orphan kids, followed by two nights of shows at 4 and 5 star resorts. It's ON!
 We will go to Bangkok from there for a couple days and then straight to Mai sot after that! Lots of overnight trains and buses are in my future.
 Started to get home, sweetheart and family missing sick this past week, but thankfully I have an amazing family of circus freaks to keep me busy and laughing in the meantime. So excited to meet Dawn in BKK so I can have a little slice of home with me for the rest of the tour!
Spark has a blog too. you can check it out here if you like: http://www.sparkcircus.org/blog/

Sillyness and circus bliss to you all!
Ariel

The whirl wind of activity never ends it seems!
 I had an awkward sleep and long trip over to Bangkok and was on such a weird schedule that I ended up being able to sleep at night and wake in the morning right away! Yes! I think the Saki from Narita Airport in Japan helped. ;)
 So after lugging more stuff then I could carry and narrowly missing getting dinged with an over size baggage fee, I made it with all my gear (and a few other peoples) safely and soundly in the craziest city I have ever been to. I hit the ground running so to speak... Bangkok is a wild and smelly place with an amazingly functional balance of organized chaos. I had to jump right away into defending myself against taxi drivers who wanted to rip me off, go around to the busy costume and clothing area for supplies, and try to arrange getting gear for our workshops on Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. It was all mostly a success.Thankfully there were few signs of the flooding where I was. I stayed in the Kao San Rd area, lured by the multiple vegetarian restaurants and began eating right away! Yum!
  I met a few of the other SPARK members in Bangkok and we escaped the crazy city and landed on this beautiful beach with great food, no roads, palm trees and rainstorms. So happy to be here! Taad Tien and the neighboring beaches are an amazing network of meandering paths, bungalows and little restaurants. it is such a sweet way to start the trip!
 Nearly the whole team will meet today to begin planning and rehearsing together, so from here on out it well get quite busy. Within the next two weeks we have to create our show and perform it 2 or 3 times and teach 2 workshops here and on Samui.
  There are some awesome hoopers on the team, some other clowns, jugglers and more coming soon! It is a very eclectic mix of people and I am so excited about this crew and the adventure to come. I am so excited to meet Dawn in Bangkok on our way back up north!
 As soon as I can find a plug for my camera (oops) I will post photos.
Wish us luck and smooth integration as we prepare for our first show on the 20th!

THANK YOU so much for all the support as I prepped for this trip and for the continued support as I continue onward! It was a success! I made my personal savings goal and surpassed my $1000 fundraising goal for Spark Circus!!! It would not have been possible without you!
Much love to all,

Ariel 

Spark Circus Here I Come!

I will be in Thailand from January 9th until March 18th, 2012. I am hereby inviting you to join me on my adventures!
My first post on this blog is simply that - to welcome you to stay up to date with me and my experiences abroad. Although I have a blog that I use (not nearly enough) on my regular website, I am not able to update it while I am away because I built it using Iweb which I won't have access to.

So from now until March 18th and whenever I go away, you will be able to keep up with me here!

May your days be sweet and filled with delight!

~Ariel