Tae Kwon Do Awesome & First Home Cooked Meal~

So something I didn't mention in last night's post was that with the help of my baba, I was able to find a fantastic Tae Kwon Do studio relatively near where I work (The Academy of Tae Kwon Do). All I know is that it's on my way home and it's super convenient and easy to get to.

The master instructor there is actually someone I know and he happened to remember me which was awesoooommmeee~!!! He's exactly how I remember him: funny, nice, welcoming and great at teaching.

It didn't take me long to feel at home there. Sure I was a bit nervous because entering a new studio is almost like stepping into another country or region. While it's still Tae Kwon Do and they have the same basic foundation, the studio culture is a bit different. For instance, how they address our instructor and master instructor is different than how I address mind, how they start and end class is different than how my studio back home does it, and they learn the ITC (International Tae Kwon Do Council) forms whereas I learned the WTF (World Tae Kwon Do Federation) forms. But that's okay because no matter what a Tae Kwon Do family is a Tae Kwon Do family and everyone there is kind and welcoming.

Again, I felt right at home.

I still have to get used to their different routine and the like, but that won't take me long and I feel very comfortable there so that's all that matters. That and I get to keep up my training and not get so out of shape that testing for my third degree black belt in the end of May won't be a nightmare, haha.

Anyway, I went again tonight and while my body hurts in places I forgot could hurt, it's a good and refreshing pain (which might sound weird to you if you never experienced this sort of amazing exercised pain, haha). All you need to know is that getting back into Tae Kwon Do training and keeping it up while I'm in San Francisco is going to really help in keeping me stress free, refreshed, in shape, healthy and energized so I'm super glad my family and I were able to find this place~!

After class tonight, I mentioned to the master instructor about how I will be testing at the end of May when I get back home. I also told him that I have to create my own form for the testing as well which is something I'm working on.

That's when he offered something fantastically amazing~!

He told me that if I wanted, he would teach me the "mother of all Tae Kwon Do forms", the form by which all other forms derive from and a form that very few people know. It's basically the first Tae Kwon Do form ever and an ancient one. The master instructor told me a brief story about how it came to be and told me that he would gladly teach it to me so that I could do it for my black belt testing. He said it's an absolutely beautiful form, but he honestly had me at "mother of all Tae Kwon Do" forms and I was...no I am ready to learn it. He says we'll start this week and I am super excited~!!!

So that's my Tae Kwon Do awesomeness.

I'm currently, as my parents would probably like to know, cooking my own and first dinner tonight. And by first, I mean first home cooked meal in this flat, by myself.....first ever.....in my life........by myself......did I mention ALL BY MY ONESELF~!? Because I'm currently boiling pasta ON MY OWN~!

MMMM, YEAH, JUST LOOK AT THAT FOUR CHEESE RAVIOLI SWIM IN THAT WATER~!

MMM, YESS, JUST LOOK AT DEM PASTA BLOBS BOIL, MMMM~!

AAH YEAAH, JUST LOOKED AT THAT PASTA~!
(by the way I really love this pot....EASY STRAINING)

OOOH YESS~ LOOK AT THAT MARINARA SAUCE HEAT UP~!

MM, YESS, LOOK AT THAT MARINARA SAUCE POURED ALL OVER THAT PASTA~!

MMM, CHECK OUT THAT BOWL OF PASTA~!!

So yeah, there you go. There's your update for tonight, haha~

Now I'm going to eat this pasta, watch Once Upon A Time with my mom (we're going to watch it at the same time and text each other during it, haha), and then head to bed.

Until next time~

~Sara

Yikes, Check Out that Major Inactivity!!

Aaaaaah!! It's been nearly two whole weeks and I haven't made any updates! Super sorry!!

It isn't because I haven't had anything to post about, it's just that I've been pretty busy with the internship on weekdays and my weekends will filled with hanging out with my brother and parents. And every night I've just been waaaaay too tired to sit down and take time to type up a good ol' blog post, haha.

This also goes to show just how quick time goes by. It really doesn't feel like two weeks since my last update, but we can all see that it has been, pfff.

So another apology for that and now onward to tonight's update~

In a nutshell, these past two weeks have been pretty darn awesome! First off, let me just say that my phone has been replaced and has been since the day after the unfortunate phone theft. So yay for that~ Hung out with my big bro that Friday night which was super fun and then spent the weekend with him again, my sis-in-law and parents. We chilled around in Napa for a while where we stopped by one of the laaaarge fields of pretty wild yellow flowers~

Not only was the field big, but these flowers were also really tall, haha!!

So that was a super fun day with the family. I ended up still have pieces of yellow flowers stuck to my red jacket for the next couple days. Somehow they accumulated in my pockets haha.

Anyway, moving onto the next subject to talk about: THE INTERNSHIIIIIP~

Now I already said that these last two weeks have been awesome and that's including the internship~ Starting contacting Lead Activists via the phone where it's my job to connect with them, build a strong relationship with them and to empower and inspire them to take action in their communities as well as help us with our campaigns. Because people power is the strongest power and the more people we get behind our cause the more powerful our organization gets~!

So it's been super fun getting the chance to talk to different people of different ages, hearing their stories on what got them involved with grassroots organizing and environment protection and getting them excited about helping with our current campaign. Definitely a lot of fantastic conversations that get me pumped and inspired.

ALSO~ Last week, mom stayed the night at my flat until Saturday. It was super fun having her around and we ate at a lot of delicious restaurants each night~ Basically, one of my best weeks eveerrrrr~ LOVE YOU MOM~! (AND LOVE YOU TOO BABA OF COURSE~)

But yeah, there's your update. Sort of a rushed blog post here, but enjoy what I just gave ya, haha~

Until next update~

(and I promise I'll try to stay more on top of posting because even I will agree, two weeks is too long to be inactive, haha)

~Sara

The Day My Cellphone Was Stolen

Well, this morning. It happened this morning. On the bus. A crowded bus. And I mean a super packed, shoulder to shoulder bus.

To be honest, it really sucked and not just because I got my phone stolen straight from the depths of my coat pocket (and I'll explain what really sucked later in this post). Whoever stole it had to be a master pickpocket because my phone was really snug deep in my pocket. I didn't notice it was gone until the bus cleared up by a lot and I was able to take a seat. I went to check and see if I had any new text messages only to find that I didn't have a phone anymore.

I pretty much flipped out inside even though I didn't outwardly show it. I looked around for a great deal, especially in every pocket and all inside my backpack. Alas, no phone.

But while I was in a panic-y mode and figuring out if I should really come to the conclusion that I had been robbed, I had missed my stop by a lot.

Before I knew it, I was practically all the way in Union Square near a Macy's. Meaning I was a good two miles away from where I was supposed to get off on Fillmore and Geary. It was at this point (about 9:10am) that I had to cut my losses and say goodbye to that phone because it was gone and there was no getting it back.

So I got off the bus, trying not to flip out too much because even though I knew where I was, I wasn't sure how to get to where I wanted to go. I tried finding the same bus I was just on but going in the opposite direction. I realized I was on a one-way street and walked a block over to another one-way street but going in the direction I came from. So I kept walking along this street hoping I'd run into a bus stop for the bus I wanted.

But of course I didn't. I asked a couple people if I was going in the right direction to get to Fillmore, but nobody knew for some reason. And of course, during the time when it would have been really helpful to have a cop or a cab in the area, there were absolutely none. Which just hella sucked, man.

So I ended up walking that entire two miles, for about forty minutes counting the pauses I had when I would determine if I should go left or straight.

I ended up doing a left turn to the next street, turn towards my right to walk straight for a while, another left turn to another street, and then turn towards my right to walk straight for even more and finally I saw Fillmore in sight. Then I saw a bus stop for the 22 which would take me to the Greenpeace office and even though I was super tired from walking and running and hills and just being overwhelmed, I just bolted towards it because it was basically my safe zone. The bus finally came, I got on, got to work twenty minutes late, but at that point I didn't care I was late, I was just glad I was where I wanted and needed to be and not stranded for hours or something.

Yeah, I lost my phone, the charms, and the cool case that was on it, but those things are replaceable. I was more worried that mom would try contacting me but get no reply for the next hour and then start to worry. Because my mom is actually pretty quick to worry, pfff. Luckily, by the time I got to the office, borrowed a friend's phone and called home, she wasn't worried for that whole time. Rather, I worried her for a second when I called her that moment because, I'll admit, I started bawling after holding it in the entire time I was trying to find my way back.

Nonetheless, things are resolved now. Mom told baba about the phone thievery and they went out to get a new one. So I have the same model phone just because I like that model a lot) and the same number. Since Ali was down at my parents' house this week, on his way home tomorrow morning, he'll be dropping by to deliver my new phone, so yay. Apparently he's also going to be taking me to dinner.

And thanks to google and having a google operated smart phone, it'll be super easy to sync my phone with my google account and get all my contacts onto the new phone. I'll also be ordering a new case for my phone tonight. As for the charms, well, Japan Town is nearby so I'll just hit up a few of the shops there for some, haha.

So that was my morning today. Quite the adventure even though it was definitely one I didn't want nor asked for, pff. Nonetheless it happened and I guess now I can say that I've been officially robbed for the first time. That and I guess I'm also officially a San Franciscan because this crap tends to happen in big cities and especially on buses.

And I'd just like to say that thank whatever in this world that it wasn't my wallet that was stolen because than that would be a whole universe more worse, pfff.

With that, I'll end this story. I actually wasn't going to have a blog post for today, but hey, this is an update in my life, so I'll update you all on this, haha.

Until next post~

~Sara

A Whole Day w/ Brother, Sister & Eric

Yet another long and fun filled day~!

Ali, Monica and their friend Eric (who's practically another brother to me, haha) came by around noon. Our first destination was to get lunch. We went to Taqueria Can-cun which was super delicious food. We ordered a lot of tacos, Ali got a burrito that was really big and I got enchiladas with carne asada~

Delicious enchiladaaasss~

Burrito Mojado

After lunch, we walked around a bit with a full stomach before heading over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. While there was some pretty awesome stuff there, most of the time we were just all "I don't get it" or "....what.....?"

Other times Ali, Eric and I would just make up some crap to explain 'the deeper meaning behind the painting' and Monica would just shake her head at us and laugh, haha.

On the fifth floor was this awesome bridge. Ali proceeded to be a dork as always.

We started heading off to the Blue Bottle cafe that was in the museum, but we first hung out in this cool open area with a lot of large windows. Then Eric pointed something out.

Let's see if you can find it. Look really closely and find what doesn't fit in this picture.

In case it's too hard to see or you gave up trying to figure it out, all I need to say is this: Where's Waldo? Because yes, he's in this picture, right there in the middle, on that roof, haha. It was a pretty awesome find.

After chillin' around here, we walked to the Blue Bottle cafe that wasn't too far from this room. Ali and Eric basically went caffeine nuts off double shot expressos while I was calmly drinking hot chocolate. Which, by the way, was delicious. Not to mention the simple design on the chocolate foam was cute.

After finishing our drinks, we left the museum and drove to City Lights Bookstore. This is a super awesome bookstore with three floors of all kinds of books! Ali bought a book and even though I didn't, I still had a lot of fun looking around. I might just go back and look around again just for the heck of it.

Not too far from the bookstore was a really cool mural and these hanging lights in the shape of books.

Ever since we left the museum, we started to really crave some good pizza (or at least Ali and I did, haha). So after the bookstore and walking around a bit, Ali looked up a pizza place and we walked over to it.

And it was really yummy pizza. We ate at Golden Boy Pizza or something like that haha.

I'm still not sure how we all fit in a slice of pizza while still pretty full from all the tacos, burritos and enchiladas we ate, but somehow we did, haha.

After pizza, we drove back to my place to drop me off. After chilling around for a bit, we said our goodbyes and they headed home.

Overall, I had not only a fantastic day today, but ultimately an awesome weekend~

Not to mention, brobro and sis brought me their old dresser for me to use for all my clothes and other things. It looks really great in this room and is just perfect. I love it~

They also brought their old mini television which is now in my room, haha~

Anyway, that basically sums up my day. Time for me to head to bed since I have "work" in the morning, haha.

Until the next blog update~

~Sara

Hanging out with Staci & Then a Solo Adventure~

Aaaah, another long day, but this one was filled with all kinds of fun~!

Staci and TonTon stopped by at around 11:20 this morning and we all went to Japan Town to hang out. Japan Town has quite a few awesome and cute stores and I ended up buying a phone charm that was about a dollar.

Actually, I ended up buying two because it was super adorable and since it's a tiger I knew Heather (a friend of mine in Oklahoma) would love one as well. I thought it would make a cute little present~

We also went to this super delicious crepe shop. I've had crepes before, but never like these. The only kind of crepes I've ever eaten were small, plain ones. But these crepes, oh man, these crepes were so gooooood. I am so planning to go back to Japan Town one of these weekends and eating another one of those crepes~

Chocolate syrup, Whipped Cream,
& Vanilla Ice Cream filled crepe~

After hitting up Japan Town, we drove over to the Metreon which happens to be going through quite a renovation. We hung out for a bit longer and also ate lunch there at Buckhorn Grill. Ordered me a delicious tri-tip sandwich and shared a nice sized caesar salad with Staci.

We started heading back around three to drop me back off at my place since Staci and TonTon had other plans at that time. The funniest thing happened along the way. First off, I must briefly explain that Staci has a GPS and that very GPS talks with a squeaky like squirrel voice. It has the potential of being annoying, but at the time it was super cute and funny. Well, turns out TonTon fell asleep during the drive back. After a bit, he suddenly jolted back awake and Staci and I laughed a bit. Staci then teasingly asks "Hey, did you fall asleep?" with a chuckle and not even a second after, the GPS (in it's squirrely voice), shouts "Yeah!".

We busted out laughing (and I mean hard laughing) at this because the timing was just too perfect. I swear, we must have laughed for a good couple of minutes straight. It was pretty awesome, haha.

Not long after, I'm back at the flat and saying goodbye to Staci and TonTon. Although we didn't do too much other than walk around, shop a bit, eat crepes and lunch, and just hang out, I had a whole lot of fun with them. Not to mention, it was nice seeing them again, especially Staci~

I made her a promise that it'll be me who visits her next time, haha.

So I'm home at around 3:20pm to an empty flat, which honestly doesn't bother me at all. And even though my time with Staci and TonTon was over, it didn't mean my day of fun was. After getting a few things together and checking the almighty internet to figure out bus routes, I set off on a solo adventure to China Town. Today was a huge Chinese New Year's Festival and when I say huge, I mean huuuuuuge~!!

The real hugeness came when the parade was getting just started, haha.

I headed off to the street fairs just to walk around, take a few pictures and look in a ton of shops. I ended up buying my friend, Heather, another tiny something (also for a dollar). It's a cute theme and I'm excited to send it to her~

Many of the shops were familiar since I've been to a lot of them from my previous
trips to China Town~

But that doesn't mean they still weren't fun to browse around in~

I almost bought something for myself. I came across a lot of miniature samurai swords (aka, samurai sword letter openers, haha), but none of them really struck me as 'buy me, Sara, for you must have me'. Maybe I'll find something that calls out to me when I go back to China Town another day.

It started getting a bit dark at around 5:30 or 6:00. I had planned to watch a movie at the AMC in the Metreon at 6:45. The walk to the Metreon wasn't long nor far from where I was at so it only seemed practical to just travel there by foot rather than go out of my way to catch a bus (besides, it was a nice walk). However, I ended up missing the 6:45 show due to the enormous and loooooong (both time and in distance) parade. But since it was really no big deal, I decided to just go at 7:45.

With about fourty minutes to kill (because I had to think about time to walk to the Metreon and time to buy the ticket/find a good seat), I ended up watching the parade for a bit. But I had to get to the other side first to ensure that I could leisurely watch the parade without freaking out about how I was going to get over. After finally crossing through the parade when there was a break between floats and the like, I continued to watch the parade for a bit longer before heading over to the Metreon.

I watched Chronicle after my older brother, Ali, told me about it last night. I looked it up to see what it was about and it seemed like my kind of movie. Turns out it is. It's definitely an awesome movie that makes you laugh at some parts and flip out in others. I definitely had fun watching it and can't wait to tease my bro with the fact that I watched a movie he also wanted to see before him, haha~

After the movie, I started to head to the bus stop to get back home, but not long after I exited the theater, I ran into Andrea, a fellow intern. She was hanging out with two of her friends, but the funny and awesome part was not just me bumping into her at the Metreon, but her and her friends having watched the exact same movie as me. Talk about one major coincidence, haha~!

I didn't stay to chat with them long mainly because I was really tired and they were going off to hang out somewhere else. 

At first, I thought that catching a bus wouldn't be so hard since the parade was over now, but I had forgotten that it had taken up most of Geary which is the street I was to catch the 38 or the 38L heading towards my place. Which means that most of Geary was apparently still not drivable. I thought I would give it a shot and wait for the bus on Geary, but the moment I got there, a cop told not only me, but a group of people waiting for the same bus that the 38 was rerouted to Sutter. So we all walk to Sutter where we end up waiting what seemed liked forever for a bus that ended up never coming.

While waiting on the corner of Mason and Sutter, I met this guy waiting for the 38 as well. He struck up a simple conversation with me to pass the time. What was funny was that he asked if I spoke another language because according to him I have some sort of an accent. I guess in some way that's true because to any foreigner, I would have an accent (an American one, go figure, haha). Only thing was he wasn't a foreigner, but actually moved up from L.A (I didn't care to ask when though). I joked around with him and just said that maybe it was a SoCal accent even though he's also from SoCal, haha.

He was a really nice guy and talking to him was fun. But then I just got tired of waiting and announced that I was just going to get a cab. It was either that or walk 5 blocks up a hill to wait for a different bus going in the same direction. Mind you, it was also 10:30pm and my feet were hurting so there was no way I was going to do that extra walking.

The guy also decided he was tired of waiting and started motioning for a cab. One eventually stopped and he opened the door, but instead of taking the cab for himself, he told me to take it which was super nice.

And that basically wraps up my day. All that's left is me riding in a cab home (striking up a brief, but nice conversation with the driver about the parade), entering my flat, taking a shower and snuggling in my pjs and robe typing this post.

Anyway, I actually didn't realize the time and now I'm flipping out because I really need to go to sleep now. Brobro and sister (along with their friend, Eric) are coming up tomorrow morning around 10am so to bed I go now.

Goodnight everyone~

~Sara

Greenpeace and Painting and Yoga, Oh My~

Phew~!

So I had a pretty long day. Although I wasn't necessarily busy, I did do a lot of walking (which I will explain why in just a bit).

First, I'd like to share what I do while at the Greenpeace office. While I can't give specific details such as tactics and the like in regards to our campaigns, I can tell you general information. For instance, I can tell you that the campaign my fellow interns and I will be working on is Chicken of the Sea.

I won't take up too much time explaining everything about the Chicken of the Sea campaign (as you're all sure to read more about it in later posts), but for those who don't know, Chicken of the Sea is one of the biggest companies for canned tuna. Following right after them in the canned tuna business is Bumblebee and StarKist. What these big corporations don't want you to know is that they engage in horribly unsustainable and destructive fishing practices killing thousands of sharks, seabirds, turtles, baby tuna and other precious sealife in the process.

You'd  have to admit that their fishing method is actually extremely efficient and clever, but this is still no excuse for jeopardizing the vitality of such an important part of this planet. What canned tuna companies like Chicken of the Sea do is use FADs or Fish Aggregating Devices. Many fish and other sealife are known to have a behavior that causes them to be attracted to anything new entering their water and as a result swim towards it. FADs are man-made objects that attract not only tuna, but also sharks, turtles and juvenile fishes. Then, they use a massive net and swoop up not only tuna, but everything that had congregated around the FAD resulting in a disgustingly large bycatch.

The way they fish for tuna is catastrophic and rips up the ocean eco-system which is why Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee and StarKist must end what they're doing and switch to more sustainable fishing practices.

Since I don't want to bore you guys with a wall of text (although this is seriously important information), just watch this video to give you a better understanding of why we're demanding companies like Chicken of the Sea to switch to sustainable fishing practices.

For more detailed information and more videos, go to Tuna Secrets.

Now I'm just going to move away from this and go back to what my role is in Greenpeace's Activist Network. One major part of my work is calling lead activists across the nation and coaching them. What I mean by coaching is basically me helping and guiding them towards their own solution for a problem they're facing in their communities. In simpler terms, it's my job to empower and inspire them to take action against any environmental injustice they find in their community. I have yet to really start this part of my internship, but I'm sure most of it will be related to the Chicken of the Sea campaign.

The second major part of my internship work is called realms work. In a nutshell, each intern got to pick from three choices of realms work: Projects (shipping and inventory), Logistics and Scheduling, and OSN (online social networks such as GP's facebook).

I'm sure all of you know what I signed up for, haha. If you guessed OSN, then you're right! It only seems fitting that I choose the realm that involves using the computer/social network sites since I'm so savvy in this field, haha. My job in this realm is actually pretty easy, but still fun. I get to type up and post messages that link to articles, petitions and other news regarding Greenpeace campaigns to GP's Student Network Facebook page. So far, I made two posts on the page.

So if you have a Facebook, be sure to fan the page to keep yourself updated with all the posts I make which are all really important information. And if you don't have a Facebook, go check it out anyway~

Well, now you know the bulk of what I do. Now onto the next part of this post.

Painting.

Painting? What kind of painting?

Painting banners for Greenpeace campaigns, that's what~ Once in a while we'll get the chance to walk over to the GP warehouse. This is where all the walking I mentioned earlier comes into play. The distance from the GP office to their warehouse actually isn't that far and it doesn't take too long, but it's still a good walking exercise due to the all the inclines San Francisco is famous for, haha.

My fellow interns/friends and I spent about two hours (from about 3-5pm) at the warehouse painting two super large and long banners. It was really fun and with everyone working together we got done with both banners pretty quickly. Not to mention we did an awesome job because they look great! Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of them due to secrecy, but if I ever see the banners I helped paint in any articles or any other sort of news, I'll be sure to post about it.

Now here comes the last and, I feel, the slightly funny part of today's story. I will shamelessly admit that I have absolutely no yoga experience. None whatsoever. Zilch. Nada.

But both my flatmates and many of the GP staff are....yogis....which is a new term I've learn recently since I've been here. Yogi, someone who practices yoga; go figure, haha.

Anyway, today the Activist Network Fellow, Jess (the person the other interns and I work closely with), set up a time for her to teach an hour yoga class to anyone who was interested. Rachel was in on it from the get-go and in a way I sort of got dragged into it. While I would have said 'no, but thanks for the offer' if I really didn't want to do it, I will confess that I was curious about this whole....yoga.....art....stuff....something or whatever.....I'm not sure how to explain it without sounding like a non-yogi (although I am so it really doesn't matter, haha). With this curiosity, I decided to take a crack at it and see how this yoga experience would go for me.

Again, I've never done yoga before, meaning this was my first time ever. I'll be honest...........yoga is seriously not for me, haha. While it was a fun and interesting experience and certainly relaxing, I just couldn't get into it like the four other girls who were there. And while I did feel the stretching and the strengthening exercises, I just wasn't feeling....whatever I'm supposed to feel when doing yoga. Maybe it's just because I was and am new to yoga so I'm not used to it, but honestly, even then I just don't think it's my sort of thing. I also just can't sit through a meditation, I just don't work that way, haha.

While I did give an honest shot at it and actually tried to get into it, I was still super bored. The only part of the class I liked was when we got to lay down on our backs and just relax (and this was near the end of the class) where I almost fell asleep.

Overall, I'm not going to do a yoga class again. I just can't go through all of that again, haha.

So that was my day today. Sorry there were no pictures in this post. I did add a video even though it's GP related and not so much about what I did today, haha.

But it's still a video, so there!

Anyway, with that, I'll say good night and hope everyone has a lovely night.

And if you're already asleep, well......hope you're sleeping well and you'll read this in the morning....or the afternoon....or whenever you check your email for a message notifying you that I submitted a new post, haha.

Much love,

~Sara

First Sunday in San Francisco

It's my first Sunday living in San Francisco. Yesterday, which I actually didn't mention in the previous post, I accidentally overslept until about 5pm. Truthfully, that doesn't happen often, but I guess after the first week of living roughly six hours away from home as well as a week of internship orientation and cram/boot camp like training, Saturday was my day to just pass out and get a good, long, day of rest.

But enough of that. Today, I got up relatively early, about 10:00am, and got ready. My flatmates and I heard that it was a free admission day at the Academy of Science Museum. The museum opens at 11:00am which was about the time we got there and to our dismay we were greeted by a seriously long line that seemed to just stretch on forever! So we decided not to wait that long in a line and walked across the street to check out the Japanese Tea Garden.

Which was just absolutely beautiful.

If you know me, I love these sort of gardens (well, I actually love all types of gardens). It was just luscious with all kinds of beautiful trees, shrubbery, waterfalls and ponds filled with a ton of koi fish~

Japanese gardens truly have the best ponds ever. They're always so big and beautiful.

Speaking of koi fish, they were super awesome and some of them were just huuuuge! The following photo was actually an accident while I was snapping shots of them which is funny because photographers usually say the best photos are accidents. I like to agree.

Pretty awesome, right?!

For the heck of it, here's another shot of a bunch of pretty and awesome koi fishies because you honestly can't get enough of them, haha.

I'll also go ahead and give a few other shots of the garden because it's honestly an awesome sight to see~

Later, we had a small lunch in the garden and I ordered this delicious and beautifully adorable mini bento meal with sesame fried chicken and rice balls. And let me just say, it was really flavorful and just so goooooooood.

Deliciousness presented in a super adorable and awesome way~

Also, there are a crap ton of squirrels in the garden, which is to be expected in any garden filled with a bunch of awesome trees. They were scurrying all over the place, hopping from one tree to the next, and chewing on nuts and other goodies they found. I took a few shots of couple of them, so this next photo is something I'd like to call "obligatory squirrel picture for my mom" because she goes nuts over squirrels (bad pun there, I know, haha).

This little guy was awesome. He totally loved posing and actually kept pretty still while I took a
couple shots of him. But then he ran away when he realized I didn't have any goodies for him.
Guess that's all us humans are good for, delicious nuts, haha.

After the Japanese Tea Garden, we actually headed back to the Academy of Science Museum. The line was practically not there anymore so we decided to take advantage of this and head on in. This museum is just awesome. It's the sort of museum I would love to go back to because there's so much stuff to see in there and I didn't get a chance to check out the beautiful greenhouse they have there. 

Since this post is actually getting pretty long now, I'm going to keep the rest as short and straight to point as much as I can, haha. Basically, we did a lot of walking around, saw some cool exhibits, and got to see an awesome 'Tour of the Universe' show in the planetarium at 3:30pm.

Did I mention they have rays there? Because they do and they're super awesome and I love rays. 

Also, they had a little swamp area and this guy is just hella cool. He's...or she's (can't remember now) is a Rare White Alligator. You can tell that it's an albino alligator by looking at its eyes. True albino alligators have pink eyes and lack the body pigment melanin. In lush green swamps, bright white stands out (as you can obviously see in the following picture) and a white alligator born in the wild would actually have a low chance surviving to adulthood.

Coolest looking alligator ever~!

Other than looking at other awesome sea life in the aquarium, we looked at stuffed animals (well, pretty sure they were....they looked like it.....who knows I could be wrong though, but usually they are), observed dead bird and bug specimens, read a lot of Earth history, and checked out awesome skeletons like the oh so popular t-rex, but even cooler a lemur!

Sorry for a relatively crappy photo here, but the skeleton was behind a glass which made it hard
to capture a good, clear shot of it. Many thanks goes to my Photoshop skills to help make this
a heck of a lot clearer.

Another cool part of the museum was the Global Climate Change and Carbon Footprint exhibit. This was one of the most interesting and informative sections of the museum. It was also relatively interactive which made it all more exciting to learn about.

This is actually taken right in front of that exhibit I just mentioned.
Look familiar?
It should because this is where my blog icon is from, haha.

So now I'm basically at the end of this post. Therefore I'd like to top it off by showing off one of the Academy of Science Museum's best spots, featuring mounds of native and drought resistant plant species..............ON THEIR ROOF!

Super cool, right?! I certainly thought so!

Here's a photo of the sign explaining how it all works and how it was created.
Hopefully it's clear enough for you to read. Sorry if it isn't.

Well, that's just about all I did today. I definitely had a lot of fun this weekend and am sure to have even more fun weekends to come. Not to mention, I'm also sure to have fun during my internship~!

With that, I wish everyone a lovely night~

Until next time,

~Sara

First Blog Post~!

Introducing the very first post of this very awesome [hopefully] blog!

Finally, right? I'm positive every close member of my family and friends has been patiently yet impatiently waiting for this blog to be created and for posts to be written.

Well, here I am now. Better late than never, I'm sure you all will agree, haha.

Today marks the end of the first week of my internship at Greenpeace as well as the first week since I've been living in beautiful San Francisco.

I have two pretty cool flatmates, roommates, living buddies, or whatever you'd like to call them. To keep this part short, my flatmates are Rachel [19 years old] and Anna [22]. What's funny is that I'm actually not entirely similar to them although we do share common interests and values in regards to protecting and preserving the environment. As we all should know, our planet is under a hell of an attack by human over-consumption, global climate change triggered vastly by human activity such as the burning of coal, the deforestation of many ancient forests, marine destruction, and the list literally goes on and on.

They're both vegetarian whereas I am not, although I'm honestly more of an occasional/light meat eater. Nonetheless, we make it work and just as I respect their choice of being vegetarian, they respect my choice not to be (though I'm sure they wish I was, haha).

But enough about the people I live with. The Inner Richmond area is a great neighborhood and what's great is that I conveniently live near a CVS that has almost everything if there's anything quick I need (like shampoo, conditioner, various food stuff, ice cream, etc).

The bus route to the Greenpeace office is actually about an hour, give or take a few minutes, but my flatmates and I always arrive about twenty to thirty minutes early which really isn't too bad. Only con is waking up early, but that's for any work really, right? If you guys know me, which those of my family reading this certainly know, I am not a morning person, haha.

In a nutshell, the first week living here is awesome. I'm definitely pretty homesick, but this is also the start of a new adventure. Plus, I just keep reminding myself and my parents that it's only for three months and those months are going to fly by fast. So while I do miss my mom and baba a lot (especially my mommy and baba hugs), living in San Francisco on my own already proves to be an awesome experience and I know that there will be more fun to come (and no doubt annoyances, frustrations, and the like because that's just life for you, haha).

To wrap this first post up, I'll just post a few pictures of my room. 

Sleeping on a full sized air mattress.
Doesn't beat my organic mattress at home, but it's still super comfy and I like the bigness of it~

Best part of my room is that I have a bathroom with a shower just behind that door with the full
length mirror. Aaah yeaa~

My desk area. That tree hanging on the wall is certainly a pretty and awesome touch~

It's still a work in progress since my parents and I couldn't possibly fit everything in the car, haha. So they're going to bring a few other things I asked for when they come up to see me in two weeks. Honestly, I can't wait for that weekend because like I said, even though I'm already having fun here, I'm still missing my parents hard, haha.

Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for pictures of the rest of the flat. I was too lazy to take more tonight, haha.

With that, I bid you all a good night~

~Sara