MILK, the Movie

I remember driving around the city seeing filming, and hearing about the movie. I didn’t know who he was, what he did, or what the story was about. But, I was invited to join the opening night in the beautiful Castro theatre, one of the most amazing theaters I’ve ever seen. It’s got a huge auditorium with a full balcony, and a pipe organ that raises up out of the floor. Before the show, there’s an old man who’s playing the pipe organ as everyone sits.

The movie was incredible. I think sometimes it’s even better when you go in knowing nothing, because it’s even more inspiring/touching when you learn about so much so quickly. The thought of the struggle that went on for the Gay Movement just 30 years ago, and the unbelievable realization from Nov 4 that the struggle is still alive, made me happy to be living in such a progressive place like San Francisco. It’s still amazing to me with all the problems in the world, that this receives even a second of attention denying rights. I’m awed at Harvey’s bravery during the 70’s when it was still legal to raid bars and arrest men for simply being in there drinking. The old footage of these arrests, the shame that everyone held from societal persecution, was just so overwhelming to see.

Not knowing the story, the ending of Harvey’s life was absolutely shocking. From the previews, I had assumed it was an assasination during one of his speeches. Seeing how people are able to escape legalities is disturbing, but it’s a problem that we will always face. If the president can declare an illegal war, and there’s no punishment for the detriment of the country he’s put us in, how can we believe that people who are tied up in politics/legal environments will always do the right thing? It’s a scary thought, and this movie only highlights one groups struggle. When will everyone wake up, live and let live?

Prop 8 Protests

Since we voted in November, unfortunately a vote that won in California was Proposition 8 which fights to ban the gay marriages that have been happening in California for months now. It’s amazing to me in this time of economic downturn and national strife in war, that so many resources, energy and finances (especially from churches–ahem, separation of church and state, please?) are wasted on fighting against loving couples wanting to have the same rights as others who are partnered for life. If there’s any fight at all, it should be to outlaw divorce. If marriage is so sacred, then how is it so easy to cancel it, even after a child is brought into it? Why not focus on your own families and not worry about what ‘thy neighbor’ is doing to raise their families. How terrible to have a child who is wholeheartedly loved because of what struggle a same-sex couple had to go through to actually get rights to have one? And what a tragedy to teach a child of acceptance and tolerance at such a young age. Actually, I can think of a lot worse things. What’s even more amazing to me about this whole silly debate, is the demographics of the voters against it. Incredible that a majority of minorities think it’s valid to take rights away from other minorities. The national protests all started simultaneously, so I participated and showed support at San Francisco’s rally at City Hall. It was peaceful, loving, and it was incredible to see the support from people of all races, gay or straight, boy and girl. It was really cool. How can you try to ban that?

Yes We Can!

Today marks the most politically charged day in my life. I have never been so engaged and inspired by a national election, and more importantly, proud to be an American. For the past decade, there has been such tarnish to my thoughts on America and its direction, especially since I was living abroad twice and saw the effects of being an American abroad. Views outside of the US are often very more telling than being incubated within the confines of American media.

Congratulations to everyone, even those who didn’t vote, or voted McCain, because this change will bring success and progress for all.

Today marks the new era for America, and I’m thankful that we’ve come together to move forward.

YES WE CAN!

Halloween in NYC

Today, I got up with Andy to ride the train together downtown. I wanted to go on the rest of my tour with the tour bus. So I arrived and got on the double decker bus to start the Uptown loop of Manhattan. The first thing I was really happy about was what an incredibly beautiful day it was. The fall colors were awesome, and the cool breeze made it feel like true fall without being too cold. Yesterday I was uncomfortable with how cold it was, so it was a nice relief.

During the route uptown, we saw a lot of Central Park, and there were several famous people’s houses we went by. I didn’t enjoy our tour guide as she continuously asked for tips. That was really annoying, so I found myself tuning her out often and focusing on places that I wanted to return to. At the end of the tour, I got out and went to the NY Apple Store. It’s this beautiful glass cube that has a stairway that leads to an underground store. Very cool. I took some cool photos as well.

I then headed toward Andy’s office to see if he was available for lunch, but the hungrier I got, I decided I’d find a cafe down in Chelsea and do some more exploring in areas in the Lower West Side. I found a great little place called Elmo, that served Bison Burgers! The place was modern and I sat with my iPhone and read news, updated Facebook, looked up areas of interest, and maps to see where I’d go next. The iPhone proved to be the most convenient information provider as I had the train schedule, GPS/map, an application that would lead me to the nearest subway station, and tell me how to get places. Truly amazing.

After lunch, I wanted to go on the Brooklyn tour of the bus, so I headed down to the Ferry Terminal which was the origin for these tours. Arrived just in time for the 2:30 departure. We took the Manhattan bridge out of the city that gave us a great view of Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. The tour guide was perfect because he had spent his first 35 years in Brooklyn. There were only a handful of us on the bus, so it was a great way to ask questions, and interact with other tourists visiting. One of the guys from Holland came for the marathon. The tour guide asked what his time was, and he said 2:37. Isn’t that unbelieveable?! He was huge and thin, so it was amazing to think that he does this run often.

This part of the tours was the greatest–Brooklyn had a very interesting history, flavor, and landscape. At the end of the circle around Brooklyn, I opted to walk the Brooklyn bridge out. When I started crossing over, I had flashbacks of the video segments on CNN just after 9/11 with people walking over the bridge back home after the attack. Really scary and sad. I can’t imagine what the skyline would have looked like with those great towers standing in the distance.

After crossing the bridge, I got on the train back to meet up with Andy and get dressed for our night out. I brought my traditional kimono with me and donned it for the evening :) We went to a sushi restaurant, and I surprised everyone not only with my kimono, but with my ability to speak back in Japanese :) Always such a fun trick.

We then headed to Grand Central Station to go down to the Halloween parade. It was a huge crowd, and they were expecting over 2M people to be there! When we got out of the subway, we looked for Andy’s friends, but they were on the other side. Pedestrian control was underway, and we found that we could only go in one direction and not cross. After searching for a way across, we decided to just watch the parade from the sidelines. Then after a few more minutes, we got the bravery to jump the fence on into the parade to join! :) While we were walking, we saw lots of clever costumes. My favorite was a line of men dressed as mormon mothers who were chanting, we want our kids back!

After the parade, we headed for some clubs that were doing special Halloween parties, and met up with Andy’s friends there. We danced a while and chatted and then headed back to Andy’s house. I was in desperate need of changing my Japanese sandals for some regular tennis shoes :) We then went to Andy’s local hangout and danced some more!

Off to New York!

Tonight I’m heading off to New York to visit my friend Andy whom I met at grad school in Sydney. I visited New York once before in 2001 just after the terrible tragedy of 9/11. The city was definitely in a state of shock, and I’m sure I wasn’t able to enjoy the vibe of this awesome city as much as I could have, so I thought it would be a great chance to see New York again.

The trip started on a red-eye Virgin flight nonstop to JFK. It was a comfortable flight. I made my way from the airport to the subway to come into the city to meet Andy at his work place on 5th Avenue.  When I arrived, the whole front of the building was ‘for lease’ shops, so I thought I had gone to the wrong address. I called and found out that the ‘main entrances’ were on the side streets. I went in and got my visitor badge and went up to Andy’s office to see the floor and the views.

After a little tour, I left my luggage and headed out to see about one of those double decker bus tours that his colleague had suggested. Turns out that it was a pretty good deal, so I bought a pass that gave me unlimited use for 2 days, on all 3 tours that they give of Downtown, Uptown, and Brooklyn. I got on and did the downtown loop. I walked around the West Village because the bus was pretty crowded, and I wanted to be on the deck above so I could see better. I took the subway back to Andy to meet up for lunch at his cafeteria.

Once I got back, I was so hungry that probably anything tasted good, but this cafeteria was great. They had all sorts of foods, but the most appetizing thing to me was their fresh deli sandwiches made to order. The views from the cafeteria were incredible as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed our lunch.

I then headed back out to get back on the bus to do the downtown tour parts that I had missed. It was pretty cold so despite the great views on the upper deck, I was getting a bit cold. After taking some pictures and taking notes of some places I wanted to ‘revisit’, I headed back to Andy’s office so we could head home for dinner.

Once we got to Washington Heights, we headed out to a Dominican Steakhouse. We ordered two steaks to share, and I have never seen so much meat on a plate. It was overwhelming! We had a fun dinner catching up and talking about Andy’s experience so far in NY. We then met up with his roommate to go to Harlem to watch his friend John sing 80’s cover songs in a bar.

Upcoming Journeys

I’ve finally decided to go back to new York after six years. My first trip to New York was with the University of Tennessee spring break trip where a group of us went by bus there. While it was a good trip I feel like there are plenty if things I didn’t get to see so going back will give me the opportunity to visit some places I haven’t seen yet. Plus what an amazing way to get some good ol’ photography in!

I’ll be visiting a friend from grad school and seeing what Halloween in the big apple is like– I’ll have to figure out a clever costume! Stay tuned for pictures of the trip in November!

I Finally Got the iPhone :)

iPhone 3G

I finally got the iPhone! After over a year of patiently waiting for a hardware that could support faster speeds, I’m glad I waited. Surprisingly, I felt I’d be the only one with a white one, but I’ve seen more people with white ones than black ones. It’s been a great way to connect my PC with contacts, get everyone’s info up-to-date, and have the city of San Francisco at my fingertips–no pun intended. I’ve been able to find my way with my scooter all over the town now complete with real time GPS assistance if I’ve happened to make a dreadful turn on a one way that lead me somewhere I wasn’t intending to be. I’m also able to find restaurants, gas stations, and just about anything you can think of when you’re out and about. It’s been a great gadget to customize and I’m looking forward to traveling with it!

Goodbye Moscow!

This morning we got up and I got my things together. Evgeny and I had breakfast while Masha and Grisha were still sleeping. The end of my trip this time was quite sad, because being around lifelong friends, seeing new places, eating new food, all makes the time fly past so quickly. The sad thing about going to such a far place, is knowing that it will be a bit of time again before we get to meet again.

I left them a letter thanking them for their hospitality and a gift card to their favorite restaurant: TGIFriday’s. Evgeny and I drove to Sheremetyevo, and had a small snack at the bar. I had forgone buying the vodka I wanted to bring home because I didn’t have room in my suitcase, so I figured I’d just go to DutyFree to purchase it there. So after our snack, Evgeny and I bid farewell. Memories of my first trip came flushing back where his father, mother, sister, he and I were standing in line watching me leave. That was definitely a turning point in my life 10 years ago.

As I waited in line for ticketing, I finally had my bag searched. I would usually think this is bad luck, but amazingly, they were checking every single person’s baggage. And not only did they open it, but they completely ransacked it. Oddly enough, they didn’t question the 18 cans of Nivea spray deodorant that I can’t buy in the US. That to me would have screamed, SUSPICIOUS, but nonetheless, they were more interested in the amount of chocolate and candies I was bringing home. At the checkin, I was shocked to see a sign that said, ‘ATTENTION: Travelers to the US cannot bring any DUTY FREE liquids on board’. My mouth dropped. I wanted to bring some friends some original vodka from Russia and alas, now I should have just stuffed it in my luggage. I was so disappointed, especially considering that if it was Duty Free, you can usually bring liquid to the US from other countries. Traveling, I’m afraid, has definitely lost the charm it once had. I can only wonder 5 years down the road, how troublesome boarding a flight will be.

After this disappointing news, I had to figure out what to do with almost the $150 worth of Ruble I still had saved for buying vodka. What’s the next best thing? Chocolate J I bought some chocolate and wandered the airport til it was time to board.

Good ol’ Delta. The crappiest plane made me question if even Aeroflot had been more comfortable. There was only tiny tv’s above every 10 rows or so that showed a movie. Since it was day time, of course I spent the entire flight awake.

After landing in New York, I went through immigration/customs, and then wheeled by baggage to the transfer area. I had the funniest feeling as I watched my baggage sit there, tired from its flight just wanting to be picked up onto that conveyor belt to be stowed away in the appropriate plane bound for San Francisco. I waited and stared at the guy whose job was to do this, but alas, he was too busy chatting with another employee. I was too hungry to wait any longer so I headed for the gates.

I stood in line for about 30 minutes for Burger King, to the point of my flight having final boarding calling before I even got to order. I ended up not getting to eat anything, so I was concerned about now the 7 more hours that I had to travel to get back to San Francisco.

I’m thinking that delirium sets in even faster at high altitudes, because this flight seemed to go by faster. It was night time, seats were definitely more comfortable, and there was actually satellite TV on board. Bravo Delta for coming up to speed in at least one of your planes. Once we landed however, I was one of the first at the baggage claim area. Waiting, waiting and waiting, finally it began to turn, dropping off seemingly everyone else’s baggage first. Until there were no more. Of course! My poor baggage sat through that man’s conversation, as well as probably a lunch and a break, completely ignored and abandoned. Therefore, I had to stand in line again to wait to submit a claim. At least it was on my way home so I had clothes, toiletries etc waiting for me there.

All in all, I safely arrived back, from one of the most memorable trips to Moscow.

Tretakovskaya Gallery

img_0896.jpgThis morning, I woke up early to head to the gallery which had been suggested. I’m glad I did. It was interesting to see a lot of artwork from Russian artists about Russian History. When I entered, unfortunately there were groups of kids everywhere, so it was noisy, rowdy, and boisterous. After making my way through tickets, I had to go and turn in my coat and things, and I was handed two blue bags. I kept thinking, I don’t have an umbrella, so what would these be for? As I looked around, everyone was strapping them on their shoes to enter the main part of the gallery. I thought it was odd because any wet dirt and mud that you’re bringing in on your shoes, will be on this floor, in which you’re stepping on again with the bags. I guess the bags magically dissipate the mud and dirt for entrance into the gallery. So with my magic bags around my shoes, I entered the gallery to take a look at the paintings. They were quite amazing, and seeing clothing/fights/women/men opened a view into Russia’s past. It made me want to learn more about the Russian historical past and wonder why in my schooling we didn’t seem to even take one chapter to learn about Russia.

After the gallery, I headed back home for lunch. Evgeny, Grisha and I headed out to a Palace near Novogireevo. We just walked the grounds so I could take some pictures, but what I found so amazing was the lake that was right nearby completely frozen over. Kids were playing hockey and everyone was just walking on it. There were holes in the top for fishing as well! I’d never been to a place so cold that the lake actually had frozen over solid enough for walking on!

img_0906.jpgEvgeny and I then went to Gorki Park to do some ice skating. We had all thought about going to Red Square where they had a rink set up, but it was so crowded that we thought Gorki Park would be bigger and better. Well, it was definitely interesting! It wasn’t just one rink, but all the trails throughout the park connected areas that you could skate. It was like a huge skating park where you could just skate around to different areas. It was cool to see so many kids just hanging out with their friends and skating as big groups, the troublemakers that would rush past and cut ice in front of you, and the beginners that were moving ‘like cows’.

I felt pretty comfortable on the skates from my roller skating history :) We had a great time once we finally got out to the ice and started going around, but boy, you can tell that you don’t use those muscles often! After an hour, we were both more than ready to turn in the skates for a rest. All in all we had a good time and enjoyed this unique winter activity.