Mission Murals

Today my roommate Erica and I went over to SF and decided to take a free walking tour of the Mission District murals. A non-profit called SF Cityguides runs walking tours throughout the city and with the wonderful weather and free time, what better way to spend an afternoon!

I hadn't been to this part of the Mission in a long, long time. In fact, my only memories there are from middle school when my spanish class went for Dia De Los Muertos. I remember walking past bakery windows with pan ducles, altars, and decorated sugar skulls. Our class had some assignment to do with the murals and after we had finished our walk around, we went to a Cuban restaurant where I had platanos con frijoles. Amazing what stays in our memories! This trip we didn't stop for pan ducles or platanos... Erica and I are doing South Beach (getting our butts in gear for her wedding) and are currently in Phase 1 which means the Mission's authentic and tasty food was no doubt off limits.

Below are some photos of the murals and a bit of info on each. The colors were just so brilliant, even the photos don't do them justice! I recommend clicking on the pictures to see all of the detail.

The ocean scene was done on the wall of the local community pool. Each of the swimmers worked at the pool at one point in time!

The mural two up was dedicated to the Dali Lama.

Above- Many of the murals represent contrast. Loss on the left panel, life on the right.

The mural above is dedicated to Aids victims.

Brilliant golds and reds show a wife and child in El Salvador during the civil war. Faces of those who died are seen in the green mountains in the back.

Amazing what a simple garage door can show. Can you see the "army" skeleton with a gun?

This is suppose to represent struggles of war in Nicaragua. On the left there is a girl in fear of a soldier pointing a gun at her( out of frame), while the right side shows a new and hopeful Nicaragua

This one was done by an artist who was unhappy about the gentrification of SF neighborhoods. Notice the condo "transformer" in the middle.

An older women in Nepal(left) breaking a chain to free the group of women on the right.

Each piece has so much symbolism, but most of all community is a central theme throughout. I think my favorite one was the one with the eyes!

My First Triathlon (with Mono?)

It feels like ages since I did my triathlon (only about 2 weeks ago), but so much has happened to distract me from it. Despite having to stay in bed the few days before heading to L.A. for the tri, I really felt healthy the day before and day of the triathlon. I would attribute it mostly to the excitement of all five of us getting ready for the big race and seeing the hundreds of other women at the expo who would be competing. The race was great, I certainly felt like I could have done much better, including preparing better for the open water swim and run, but I felt like I gave all I could. It became clear to me when I arrive back in Oakland that despite feeling better, I hadn't magically healed. Once home after the 6 hour drive from L.A. I found a box waiting for me on the front porch. It was my new pair of running shoes! On any normal day in my life this would be a wonderful day... a chance to test drive the new shoes, but instead I threw the box inside the house and collapsed onto my bed. That was one clue something was wrong.
From then on it was sleep, doctors visits, blood tests, swollen icky tonsils, and temporarily moving back to the parents' to be cared for. After a week of constant throat pain, inability to swallow, and extreme fatigue, I am finally back at my house attempting to get rest (although this has proven tricky with voting, blood tests, constant urge to clean my messy place). Luckily, whenever I think of doing something too active, my body puts me in my place, usually by sending a wave of exhaustion over me. Now that my brain is allowing me to focus on something other than the pain, I am getting a chance to reflect on my race.
I'm proud that I was able to finish, and who knows how much the mono affected my race, but I can't wait until my next tri! I feel like I have a base ( a mono base?) and I can only improve from here. There really is no way to know how many weeks or months it will take before I have my normal energy back, but I just hope I still have the same enthusiasm. Once I'm no longer at risk for rupturing my spleen (glad that didn't happen on the race) I'd like to start swimming, maybe join a masters team.
To sum it all up, I may not be able to do much now, but I haven't forgotten the energy, fun, and excitement of the race and I can't wait to train for the next one!

Update!

So I went to vote today! I was worried about having enough energy to stand in line for up to an hour, but to my surprise there was only one person in line in front of me.

A few hours later I walked on over to the hospital to get my 3rd blood test of the week. The lab that I had become so familiar with from previous visits was a sight to see. Only one other person was in the waiting area and he had already been helped. Instead of waiting in a crowd of 20 like my earlier visits.

Since it has been a while since updating the blog, here are a few photos of what I've been up to this summer!

Here are some of my friends in SF celebrating Bronwyn's (pink dress) Birthday

At a wedding with old friends from high school

Playing with M-Bear at Jackson Plaza in Portland

Rogue River

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time.... Things have been busy, but fun! Since I don't have time to post about my rafting trip right now, I'll at least send you to my photo album link. Sorry, there are a lot of random pictures (of course, non of me). I realized that rowing your own boat takes a lot of work- packing gear, loading the boat, rowing, scouting rapids, unloading.... doesn't leave much time for picture taking.

Here are my Rogue Photos

Where am I?

Sprint distance____________ Where am I now?

Swim= .75k/33 lengths/.46 miles________ 1/2 length without lifting my head or stopping

Bike= 6.2k /12.4 miles________________ I can actually do this, Must work on time.

Run= 5k/ 3 miles ____________________ 2 minutes- tomorrow I aim for 3.5 min!

Tri Training: Swimming Part 1- What did I get myself into?

I'm planning on doing a Sprint Triathlon in San Diego with my cousin Erica and sister Jess. I don't know how they convinced me to do it. Actually, I love these ladies so much, they could convince to do almost anything! I wish you could all hear my inner voice during all of my attempts to be athletic... I really find me quite humorous, but since you can't, I figure I'll give you the jest of it in this blog.

Swimming, Part I:

I have a very real, but very irrational fear of jumping into water. Recently I have realized (within this last week, and confirmed tonight) that I associate the pain of water up my nose to putting my head underwater. Similarly, I do not swim with my head in the water, that was, until today.

My friend Amy (a swimmer) took me to the pool at her condo complex tonight to give me pointers, general breathing advise, etc.

Within the first 5 minutes in the pool-
-Oh look, I can put my head underwater and not drown or feel like my nose, lungs, and throat are burning!
-I made it across the pool!!! It only took me 2 minutes and 3 breaks!
-Now I just have to do this 40 more times, in open water, in a big crowd, in the ocean

Yeah, it was pretty bad for the first 30 minutes. I'd make it halfway across and would take in some water, freak out and stop. It definitely had one of those, 'What the Crap was I thinking' moments. After a while I moved to a different part of the pool where it was shallower and half a pool length. I figured it gave me an easier goal. Get to the other side without stopping using 2-3 breaths. Soon I moved onto taking a breath every other stroke, getting used to where my head should be and making fishy lips to avoid getting water in my mouth.

I finally took it as a success when I could go a half length of the pool without stopping. Not much, but I figure its the most I've every done considering I've really never been swimming with my head under. Learning breathing I guess is like riding a bike. If I can keep building on it, I might have a chance.

Other successes- swimming down along the bottom of the pool for extended amounts of time.

Swimming is quite a workout- different than biking or hiking... I was getting tired by the time I was done!

Well, I've rambled way more than I wanted. A few quick things though- If I can keep building on this start, I think it might be possible to be ready in Oct. Amy said I had good form, just need to work on the breathing. Next issue to tackle... running??? AHHH, that's worth it's own blog. I'll let you know how that goes... still building up from a 2 minute jog.

If you didn't notice, this is pretty much my brain spewing out random thoughts. Feel no obligation to read all of this Tri stuff. I figure it is a good way of seeing my progress, keeping my thoughts in one spot, and working to verbalize any challenges I might come across.

Booyah!

Hot, Passion and Motivation <---catchy title

It's hot. Plain and simple. Not the just the "nice weather, got to go run around outside" kinda hot, but the "blah, I don't want to do anything" kind of hot. In about 4 hours it will be perfect for a walk by the water or in the city, but til then I'm hunkering down inside. This will not protect me from the heat (this old wooden house seems to retain heat like no one's business), but at least it will shade me from the burning rays of the sun.

Anyway, my point of this entry was to avoid any real work that I had hoped to accomplish. This 'real work' is actually applying for jobs and internships that I am interested in. It is so easy for me to float along, working part time for my friend, lazying away the mornings or taking a few days off to go to theme parks, play tourist in SF, or go rafting. While there is nothing wrong with having fun, I have noticed that a limited income sometimes makes it tricky to have all of this fun.

That got me thinking on two things today. Passion and Motivation. I'm the kind of person who wants to be doing something worthwhile. I want to be passionate about my work, and therefore I want to work in an area I am passionate about. For the past few months I've noticed I've lost that passion, and it is about time to get it back. Strange as it may be, I am passionate about Geography and learning about the earth. That leads me to motivation.

I have realized that if I want to work in geography, I need to start somewhere. Having spent the last 3 years working in an unrelated field, I sort of feel like I am starting from scratch as far as experience. The interesting thing though, is that the thought of an unpaid internship working with geography sounds great to me (of course, paid would be nice).

My second burst of motivation came in a surprising way today. I had to run into the City for work this morning and later found myself on craigslist looking at apartment prices for SF. Now don't get me wrong, I love where I live, but the temptation of moving to the big city is out there. My rent in Oakland is a bargain, and yet I am barely making ends meet. What if I had a real income, though? Think of what I could save... or what I could splurge on? I'm not a person driven by money (as seen by my frugal budget on a 20 hr/week job), but it is motivating to think of what I could do if I wasn't "just scraping by".

Here is my list:
-get a personal trainer
-sponsor a child in India
-fly to Oregon to visit Chris, Jess, and the girls; Fly to Arizona to visit my close friend Suzie who just moved away.
-new bike (I'm a dreamer)
-Grad school (this will probably happen anyway, but saving sounds better than student loans)

Well, not much of a list... I guess it's my realistic list- my dreamer list would include: going back to Ukraine, travel, explore, travel, etc.

Anyway, it's still hot. I still haven't gotten those job apps. out. One of these days ; )