Cultural: Ethiopian Restaurant

Had a date Friday night, and went here. It's the first time I've ever been to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was very similar style to the amazing meal I had in the Beduin tent in Israel. I ordered the lamb, but they didn't have any non spicy sauce, which kinda sucked. Overall though, I really liked it. Next time I go I'll have to go with a meat eater, so we can do a little switcheroo.

Cultural: Torah study

Yes, you read that right. I, went, to, Torah study.

My friend Julie has been inspiring my Jewishness in me, east bay style and encouraging me to go with her to Moishe House, which is yet another option to explore your Jewishness for young people. I was super wary at first, especially beacuse the first thing we attended was a dress up shabbat dinner, but its really growing on me. The Jewishness that they focus on is not the typical money grubbing Jewish, or the caddy uppity Jewishness, but this back to the earth, spiritual, sustainable inward Judiasm, which I wish I had learned about and understood as a child. It's definitely way hippie dippie ,and if I would have found them my first year, I would have not been down whatsoever, but now I'm super into it! I have even met guys there whom I actually find interesting and potentially date-able, which is also a first with me and Jewish guys. They all seem super down to earth. Plus, its male heavy which is nice as well. Overall, I am super impressed!

Today, after dinner we read two chapters in the Torah, of Moses in the desert about to receive the commandments and then had discussion on how it affected us in our lives today. The leader of the group connected the parsha to the idea of listening and active listening at that, something I am very poor at, and made be really reflective about it. Plus, I was able to connect my history and knowledge of Ancient cultures, to a new kind of spirituality I've been developing.

Definitely a culture experience, to actually flock towards a Jewish spirituality! It's definitely a first for me.

Cultural: Making the best out of a rough start?

I'm grabbing at straws here and I am well aware. I did a fair amount of things this week, but none of them were truly cultural. By Thursday I realized this, so Miquila and I decided to do a Sunday bar crawl in the city and had looked up places and were all set. After a personal rough start, we headed off and every place we had looked up was closed. Accepting our rough start we went to eat, saving the bar crawl for later. We shared Tomato cream sauce gnocci and garlic bread in North Beach, then hit up a happy hour across the street that had $3 Bellini's. We then started hitting up some other bars in North Beach and then on Polk.

What makes this event so unique is a few things. First of all, drinking on a Sunday. Second of all, going out with just one person. I very rarely do something like that. Also, it really depends on the person. There are many people that I would rather sit at home at, then go to a bar with, because it seems silly to do that. So Miquila was a great person to start that with. Third of all, we went out in North Beach, which I've hardly been. And finally, which didn't happen till we got there, but continuing to go on once it kept getting rough. We were both a little grumpy and could have easily called it a day, or done something regular, but we continued on and let go any preconceptions we had, and wound up out from like 330-1130.

Overall an excellent day!

Cultural: Potluck

At Aileen's on Wednesday I was leafing through a magazine and it was talking about how people live for the weekends, when they could live the weekends everyday. They gave suggestions on how to feel a little weekend everyday. One suggestion was to have a dinner or potluck with friends on a regular basis during the week. Thus, an idea was born!

I pulled my crew together, and wound up with about 7 people at my house for a potluck.

It was soo great!! It really did feel like the weekend and gave me something to look forward to!

It was also nice because Miquila and Aileen stayed back and we wound up just doing silly little things like numerology and knitting and stuff. It was super great!

Such a great night!

Cultural: LA

I mean the OC. I went down Friday-Monday, and while I didn't get to do a WHOLE lot of touring, I did definitely get the feel! I stayed in Santa Ana mostly, but also ventured up to Santa Monica for an afternoon. Overall, I'm not sure that area has my kind of people with a RARE exception!!

Cultural: Death metal Concert

Amy, her teacher friend Erica and I headed to Blake's on Friday night for their coworker's(and fellow history teacher) David's band Ashkira. The first band was pretty awful, at least as far as my limited musical tastes allow. The lead guy kept screaming into the microphone and it hurt to listen. Then David's band went on and all of his teacher friends went up to dance. I however, hurt my feet by being a baby and wearing heels. Yet, after the first song I couldn't stand it anymore, took of my boots and got right up in there!! It was soo much fun!!

Cultural: Santa-Con

So our intention was to do several cultural things, starting with santa-con, which is a afternoon bar crawl where everyone dresses up as santa. Then, we were going to head to a BrewFest, a speakeasy bar that needs a password, and then a party at Todd's friends house.

After starting to pregame at Miquila's house(photo above), next thing we know its 6pm, and Santa-Con was over at 7. So we decided to grab something to eat at a Pizza place nearby(two pictures below. There was no picture out of like 8 where all three of us looked normal) and before we know it, ONE OF US is asleep on the bar. So we had all these grand expectations and didn't make it more then a block from Miquila's house. In this case, I am going to count intention, especially because it involved dressing up!!

Cutlural: Aileen's barefoot dance party

This is the first time since I began this chart that I did not have a real "cultural" event to go to! How crazy is that! 10 weeks of having at least something out of the ordinary to do. That was until Omari and I convinced Aileen to have a party, which turned into a barefoot dance party!! Soo much fun! Met great people and saw many more great people! Overall a "kick-ass" party, as Aileen would say! Happy Birthday Aileen!!

Cultural: Claremont Auction

I couldn't really decide if the auction or the Halloween party itself was more cultural, but I'm opting to go for the Auction since the Halloween party, was just a regular party with costumes.

The Claremont Auction, is a silent auction with a bar, and food being delivered(I even worked the bar!). It's put on by the PTA and raises alot of money for the school! There were over 200 auction items and parties! Our item, for our house, was taking the 8 kids that signed up on a CIA special mission, to dinner and ice cream.

It was located at a body shop and was a great setting for a Halloween event! I always have a blast at these things talking to the parents, and staff. I am really in my element! Unfortunately I told Pam we would leave at 7(we left at 815) and told Aileen I'd pick her up at 9, to head into the city, so I had to cut my joyous evening short, but it really pumped me up for the rest of the evening!!

Cultural: Tour guide

Yes, I am getting credit for this twice now! The tour began at the palace of fine arts, and stepped outside for a photo shoot. Then on to Lombard, where we barely made it up the hill prior. Then some drive bys including; the painted lady, Haight/Ashbury, Castro and Mission. The final stop was the fairy tale houses in Berkeley!

Cultural: Iph

The bay area, and theater groups in general around the country are trying to reach out to a younger audience. Therefore they created Free theater night across the Bay area. I missed it a few weeks ago, but I knew I wanted to capitalize on it this week, especially since I really had nothing cultural going on this week. So I convinced my roommate's girlfriend Geebi to go. Miquila wound up meeting up as well!

Iph... is the story of Agamemnon's internal and external struggle as he's been told that to protect Greece he needs to sacrafice his oldest daughter. The story is originally told by Euripidies, and much of the dialogue was hard to understand. However, it also had a social justice slant, about the need or lack thereof for war.

Overall, it was interesting. It was a production put on by an African American troupe and a women's troupe, so they were incredibly creative in their casting and musical selections. Geebi hated it, and Miquila was pretty neutral. I thought it was pretty good, especially for the fact that it was free!

Cultural: Japanese Karaoke

I have done this one other time, in Thailand. The premise, is you sit in a room with a monitor and two mic's and you control the karaoke. It's pretty much awesome. We went for my coworker Brian's birthday. Most of the guests were gay rugby players, which is a real shame since one was SUPER cute. Had an absolute blast, singing everything from "I got rhythm" to "Roll out".

Cutlural: Winner!!

While I am not even remotely a gambler, I do enjoy playing the penny slots from time to time. Luckily Miquila wanted free drinks quite a bit so we wound up there a bunch! Who knew you just sat down somewhere for a while and drinks are delivered to you!! Anyways, while I have partaken in light gambling before, I think it can still count as my cultural event for the week! I x7.5 my money!! Started with a dollar, wound up wth $7.50

Cultural: Now and Zen Fest

Free concert: Check
Golden Gate Park: Check
Plain White T's: Check
Natasha Bedingfield: Check
Sara Bareilles: Check
90 degree weather: Check
Miquila and Aileen: Priceless
Overall a super fan! Not too crowded, but crowded enough!! Loved hearing the songs that I know. Not too super excited about Sara Bareilles though. Her songs are great, and I'm a huge fan of her, but her onstage persona was not at all a match to her songs. She was drunk, I think, or she kept saying it, and she just seemed like a total ditzy party girl. So not too impressed, but otherwise, an EXCELLENT time!!

Cultural: Yom Kippur and Break the Fast

In my quest to keep myself cultural, and semi religious, I have been getting together my mostly non-Jewish friends and making them be Jewish!

At 530 on Friday evening I had my last meal of a whopper with cheese value meal, thinking that the food would be so bad for me that I wouldn't want to eat all day! Obviously that didn't happen. Went out Friday night and didn't touch a drink or food. Woke up around 1030 and headed to the Berkeley Hillel for Yom Kippur services. I find that I see going to services as getting credit. While I sing along with lots of the songs and I read the English version when I don't know the Hebrew, I am not sure how important going to services is, if I don't really understand it? I'm really struggling with this. I mean I love being Jewish and all, but I like the tradition and the culture, but there are some core beliefs about Judiasm and an all fearing G-d that I simply cannot fathom? I am really struggling with this as I try to really decide where I want to put my beliefs!

Anyways, I then spent the rest of the day making food and preparing for my Break the Fast/My brother's birthday Par-Tay! Miquila and Aimee came over early to help and it wound up going well! I even got Miquila to fast with me!(which in retrospect could have been an ultimate failure as we both get SUPER grumpy when we don't eat. Luckily that didn't happen). I had a bunch of both Jewish and non Jewish friends come. Miquila and I started with bananas as that's what we were told to do so it wouldn't shock our system. We had bagels, lox, cream cheese, tomatos, cheese, other veges and fruits, and egg/tuna/abrosia salad!! I believe a great time was had by all! I was even called a convener, as I brought together my friend Aimee and this guy that she went to elementary school with!! Crazy?!?! It was a Yom Kippur miracle!!

I'm really liking how I am able to combine my friends and my traditions. I have an excellent group of friends, who constantly indulge me in all that I want to do! I am very thankful for them and love the community that I have been building because of it!!

Cultural: Wine tasting in Santa Rosa

While we happened to be up near the Russian River to forgive our sins, it only seemed natural that we also did a little bit of wine tasting. Since we so enjoyed our times, we only hit up two, Harvest Moon and Sunce.
Harvest Moon was great because it had mostly zinfadels and Geverstameaners(spelling). Since Liz was a member, we got in for free, and got to walk around the grape area which was fun! The Ice Desert wine was by far the best, but they were all super expensive, so I didn't wind up getting any!
We next went to Suncee, which had 5 wine tastings for $5. The port was incredibly good! We spent a far longer time there, hanging out with another group of people, stuffing our faces and playing Bocci, a sport which could be its own cultural event! I got pretty good at it! I was also able to impress everyone with my chocolate peanut butter bars!
Random, but I came home to my roommates making a BBQ with steak, what could be better!!!

Cutlural: Eat Real

So I am taking some liberties with this. First the week will be a little fluid. I technically did this last night, but after all my other categories were done. I think its ok as long as I'm not getting to one category in one week before another one in the week before!

I went with Jenny to the Jack London Street Festival called Eat Real. Its very similar to the San Francisco street festival then I went to with Carly a few weeks back. Its essentially a bunch of retailers that have carts/trucks or tables and sell a sampling of food, in hopes to get you back there! I went right for this El Salvadorian place because I was super hungry and got a pupusa and a bacon wrapped hot dog. Ridiculous right? At a food festival which could arguably have some of the most unique and delicious food in the country and I go for a bacon wrapped hot dog. Honestly, if I had only eaten that I don't think I could have counted this as cultural.

But then, I had this wild Arguela corn salad that was incredible!! It was from this new place called Gather, which is in downtown Berkeley. I really want to try it! Not only does it seem pretty chill, but they use meat from the Prather Ranch Meat co. If I remember correctly Prather Ranch Meat is a weekly stall at the farmers market at Lake Merrit and the DMV, whose workers are soo good looking, I would sometimes go to the market just to get a look at these guys. Cute guys and meat! Sounds like a winning combination to me!

Anyways, I got to check out some new food and otherwise happenings in the East bay while enjoying my last hours of freedom at the wharf of Oakland!!

Cultural: Beauty and the Beast

Thursday night, I headed to Beauty and the Beast. I had very high hopes for it and was immediately loving it as they stuck very close to the script of the movie, which I appreciated. But then it happened. They started singing EVERYTHING. Nearly the entire movie was sung. The classic Beauty and the Beast songs are incredible and timeless. Yet, the dribble that they sung inbetween the "real songs" was AWFUL. They turned it into a near Opera.

We did move up seats during intermission, which was a huge highlight! They also did a great rendition of Kill the Beast, Be our Guest and the Gaston song. The cast was fine, not great, and not awful. The best character was probably Gaston's sidekick.

All in all I am not overly impressed with it. I would have much rather rented the movie and had it be a sing-a-long, then go to see the play. I had a fun time, but would not go again. It ain't no Wicked.

Work hard, Play hard.

I started off the summer pretty rough. I heard some upsetting news, and I went through a lot of change, which is something I suck at.

Yet, I overcame, and for over a month I had an absolutely excellent summer. For the first time in my life I completely enjoyed free time.

But the school year is starting again, and I tend to get super wrapped up in it and super emotional so I am trying to give myself an outlet, actually 8 outlets.

I have created a chart for myself, and this blog to keep myself accountable. Each week, in addition to all the things I need to do in order to keep myself alive(laundry, sleep etc), and the money flowing(work), I am committing myself to complete activities in eight categories.

Drum roll please....

Dress up-I tend to ignore my body and my looks. An entire day can go by where I don't look in a mirror. While I am not intending to be superficial, I would like to spend at least one day each week getting ready and taking care of myself. It could be for work, for a date, or for an evening out on the town.

Reading-This one is pretty obvious, but I am actually an avid reader, who can sometimes go for weeks without reading, since I ignore my need to learn.

Nature-Being outside, and breathing in the air, centers me and calms me in a way that little else can. I am committing to do this at LEAST once a week. It can be as little as sitting in my backyard for an hour or more, or as much as, hiking, paddle boating etc.

Physical-Except for getting physical. I mean Elle said it perfectly when she said "Exersize produces endorphins, endorphins make you happy and happy people just don't shoot their husbands." I mean I need to protect my fictitious husband right?

Cooking-While I am not an awful cook, I tend to stay towards the stuff that I know how to cook, which sucks really, because I have all these great cookbooks, so I need to cook at least one new meal a week!

Movie-So my house, the apartment I live in, is HOOKED up! They have, or can have nearly every movie I could ever want just by a click of a mouse!! Since I tend to stick to VERY girly movies, I intend to watch one new movie each week. This does not necessarily mean a brand new movie, it just means a new movie to me, one that I have not seen. This can be anything from the Godfather, to Inception. Please suggest movies that you think I should see!!

Cultural-This one is a late arrival, and might be a little difficult to always complete, yet I want to do something each week that is touristy in some way. This can be going to a new restaurant, heading to a museum, or hitting up an outdoor market! Since I do intend to go away, I will also count sleeping at a house not at my own(but not like just crashing somewhere else), to give myself a little wiggle room here. This category was initially going to be social, but since I do that pretty naturally, I wanted to expand it a bit. It should include others!

Creative-It is this category however, that I want to bolster the most. It is also the one I am most worried about succeeding at. I am by nature a very crafty person and even have an artistic bone or two in my body. Yet, I have gotten so lazy, or forgetful of my talents, that I had to buy a book entitled "Get a Hobby", just to remind myself of my own interests. I have rested on my interests being education and travel for so long, that I feel as though I am one dimensional. I am depending on this category to add some more dimensions, and passions to myself!

So tune in every few days, as I reflect on the different categories. I am publishing this, so I keep myself honest, but the benefit to you is you could learn about a new book, a new/old movie, a new hiking spot, something cultural in the area, a new recipe, a new outdoor spot etc. So please hold me to this!

I need to be a well rounded individual, and not a traveling, teaching robot!