Wow! I need to write more often. So much has happened this spring!

Where to begin? Well, I have been able to get out of town a couple times this spring. The first was to fly up to Portland to visit my good friend Cameron who was my first college roommate ever. We lived together at Alaska Pacific University and have remained friends ever since.

Cameron is going to school in Portland and wanted to do something fun for spring break so I flew up to Portland for a couple days and then we drove down to San Francisco together. On the way down we stopped at a great lighthouse and got a private tour from the light house keeper who was a nice old fellow with a full gray beard. Exactly how you would imagine a light house keeper. We spent a night in Arcata with a pair of cool CouchSurfers named Jemma and Pat. Jemma works for CASA, an advocacy program for foster children. It was interesting to listen to her stories and how she helps these poor kids who get caught in the system.

Once we arrived in Berkeley Cameron was a little overwhelmed with the chaos of our house, but we had a good time exploring San Francisco together and we even drove to Big Sur for the day, which was beautiful. Luckily the weather was nice the whole time she was here and it wasn’t until she left that it started to rain.

CouchSurfing is moving its international headquarters (BaseCamp) to the Mission in San Francisco. Mandy, one of our volunteers, worked day and night to find a great property in the perfect neighborhood. We are moving April 25th, which has made life for me a little hectic trying to organize such a large move and get all the supplies we need. I know that it will all be worth it once it’s done. It’s hard to believe that we are actually going to be living in the city!

Our new location is a pair of Victorian houses that share a common wall and a huge backyard. The backyard is the main reason that we fell in love with the place. It gets a lot of morning sun and has a long patch of dirt that we can grow food in. I’m not sure how we are going to set up the garden space. Hopefully some community members will volunteer their time and help us get it started.

We also hit a really exciting milestone in March with CouchSurfing. We finally got up to one million members! Our house celebrated by watching the countdown (or up, in this case) and drinking mimosas. We were also teleconferencing the countdown with our cohorts in Costa Rica, which was fun to be able to see them too. Once the number 1,000,000 flashed on the screen, Andrew was able to freeze the image so that we could all take photos.

It’s hard to believe that this simple idea that Casey came up with a decade ago has become such a huge social movement. It is inspiring to be apart of CouchSurfing and watching it grow so quickly. Very exciting times!

A couple weeks after the official rollover into one million members, CouchSurfers around the world hosted events in their cities to celebrate. San Francisco hosted its event in Golden Gate park where we had hundreds of members come out to celebrate together. I was amazed at how well the event went. We had dance lessons, language lessons, a pickup soccer game, and tons of other events that volunteers organized. Jim, TTT and I arrived at 11AM and didn’t leave until 5PM. No wonder I got so sunburned! San Francisco is a tricky city. It wasn’t very warm out so I never felt like I was getting sunburned. But that’s no excuse for forgetting to wear sunscreen, I know!

Two weekends after the million member event a group of us drove down to Big Sur to go camping. My skin was still really tender from the initial sunburn so I made sure to cover up this time!
We had a great time at the Kirk Creek Campground. Our campsite was overlooking the ocean where we walked down and looked at the tidal pools. At night we hung around the campfire and one of our friends brought her fire poi and put on a show for us. Jim and I even got up and tried it. It was so much fun! The secret is that it doesn’t even burn when you hit yourself, although it hurts from the blunt force trauma of hitting yourself.
Our night of camping ended with a lot of drama when the crazy campground host tried to kick us out because he thought we were all drunk. The next morning we made an official complaint in regard to his harrassment and were surprised to hear that he is actually mentally ill and has caused many incidents with campers. Hopefully Dave won’t be around to ruin any other camper’s weekends much longer.

Perhaps the most exciting weekend so far has been my trip to Disneyland! When living in a house with up to 20 other people it can be difficult to get to know people one on one. That is why we designed a program called Platonatron. It’s platonic dating within the house where we match people up and they have to find something to do together. Walker, Marselles and I were matched up a couple of weeks ago and we decided that the best place to go would be the magical world of Disney. We drove down Friday afternoon and attended a house party in Long Beach with a group of CouchSurfers, which started off with me locking my keys in my car. Luckily AAA came and rescued them for me.

We CouchSurfed with a really nice guy named Brian who lives only ten minutes away from Disneyland. He was so accommodating and understanding of our crazy schedule. We showed up to Disneyland Saturday morning at 10AM and hit the park running. It was Marselles’ first time at Disneyland and Walker is such a child anyway it was magical. Walker was able to get a fast track pass because of his leg and we didn’t have to wait in line all day. I complained to Walker that he has forever ruined Disneyland for me. I am never going to want to wait in line again!

At one point we were exhausted and sugared out and wondering how much longer until the fireworks that night. We were surprised the see that it was only 5PM! Another four hours until the fireworks show. We decided to tough it out and hang out in the park until the show. That mostly included eating sugary food and desserts. When it finally was time for the fireworks show we were so happy that we stayed. We were able to get a reserved seat on the benches in front of the castle and had the best view in the entire place. The firework show was amazing! The fireworks themselves were beautiful, but it was the perfect timing with the music that made it so special. The show incorporates songs and spoken word from the most popular Disney movies and rides. At one point they have a real person dressed as Tinker Bell flying over the castle with a magic wand. That was really cool.

Things have definitely been a little rough these last couple of weeks. Many members of our household came down with some sort of bronchial infection that hit us hard. I spent almost a week in bed just sleeping and coughing. Luckily I was able to fight it off without having to go to the doctor and get on antibiotics. That is one of the great things with working for CouchSurfing. There aren’t many companies that encourage you to take as much time off as you need to feel better. Then again, there aren’t many companies that you live where you work where you play… you get the idea.

I was just beginning to feel better from the bronchial infection when a handy man, who was repairing a heater in our house, stole my iPhone along with another house member’s from our bedrooms. It was very frustrating because we confronted the man and when he didn’t admit to the act we called the police who were unable to do anything without any evidence. All we know is that he is the only outside person who was in our house the two hours that the iPhones went missing. Mostly, I am just tired of all my possessions getting stolen by unsavory outsiders, but, as my father told me, it is an important lesson. I guess you could say that I am experiencing a bit of culture shock coming from Alaska where I was able to leave my front door unlocked any time of the day to Berkeley, which has the highest rate of petty theft in all of the Bay Area.

To top it all off. I became violently ill last night after thinking that I was finally better. But this is a stomach thing that is completely unrelated to my bronchitis. I am lucky to have such a sweet boyfriend who loves me and does all my bidding. He drove all the way across town today to get me gourmet chicken noodle soup, saltine crackers and Popsicles. I am just so tired of being stuck in bed!

Instead of feeling sorry for myself, and to distract me from the mundane, I have decided to focus on all the positive things that are happening around me. It has been very exciting moving to Berkeley to volunteer full time with CouchSurfing. I am proud of myself to realize that I wasn’t happy in Alaska and having the courage to leave my family and friends and venture into the unknown.

I’m sure some of you are curious exactly what we do here at the CouchSurfing house. I’m sure that I have mentioned that I live with anywhere from 12 to 20 roommates at one time who are all full time team members of CouchSurfing. A group of our techies left last week to start a collective in Costa Rica so our house is finally at a reasonable level of human bodies.

The house itself is pretty amazing. It is a Julia Morgan and was built at the turn of the 20th century. It has a colorful history, including being a nunnery for many years (the priests still live next door). The only downside is the location. We are in the heart of UC Berkeley’s frat row. The noise in our neighborhood is astounding, especially late at night. We are looking for houses in the city to have a better location.

At the moment, our house is pretty homogeneous. The majority of us are from the US, but we are working on diversifying our household. A lovely woman named Erin just arrived from Canada as an admin specialist and we are expecting a woman from Brazil to arrive in the near future to be our Events Coordinator.

Being the house manager for so many people has proven challenging and super fun. I love how easily everybody in our house gets along. It definitely makes my life easier. I couldn’t do it without our kitchen manager, Jackie, who is irreplaceable. She is in charge of all the cooking and shopping. Did I mention that we have a house cook? Yeah, that would be Jackie. I eat better now than I ever have since moving away from home. She makes lunch and dinner five days a week and has weekends off. It’s an amazing feeling to sit down to family style dinner every night with 18 people. Our tables are always crowded and very chaotic.

I’m sure you are all wondering what I do as house manager here. Well, I supervise Jackie, which she makes very easy to do. I am responsible for three separate budgets, the house budget, the kitchen budget and excursions. So far my team and I are doing an excellent job with keeping expenses down and coming in under budget each month. CouchSurfing is a nonprofit that is completely supported through member donations so it is important to remember that we are here to serve our members and not spend frivolously. Mom, that’s right, I can keep a budget when it’s other people’s money!

Other than overseeing the kitchen I also keep a finger to the pulse of how team members are feeling and relating to living in such a unique situation. It’s great, I get to hang out and talk to my friends all day and it is all part of my job! I also make sure that the house keeps clean (yes mom!) and run weekly house meeting in which we discuss house issues, upcoming events and guests. I also have weekly meetings with my supervisor who was TTT, but now it’s Jim with the new organization structure that was put into effect. It’s kind of weird that my boyfriend is now my boss, but going better than I expected.

Of course, my job can be a lot of fun too. I get to organize events within our house. Yesterday we had an open house for all of the CS community to come and enjoy. We got some BBQ grills going and I made my famous pico de gallo. It was great opening our house to all the members that we are here to provide for. (Yes, Dad, I secured my laptop). We also have big parties on weekends. Our last big party was a sock puppet party. If you would like to see the invitation visit SockPuppetParty.com That’s my roommate, Andrew, singing in the bathroom and Cameron just happened to record a bit of it. This house is so funny!

We also have events just for our house which is great for bonding. The night that we decorated our sock puppets we had a Cuban theme. Jackie made amazing Cuban food and Jelena and I made a big batch of Mojitos. Right before Christmas Jelena was feeling homesick for Switzerland so she organized an entire evening of Samichlaus where we made breadmen and had a gift exchange.

I have also been trying to get out of the house more and experience the area surrounding us. Walked and I decided to go on a date and spend a Tuesday in San Francisco (another great reason to work for CouchSurfing). Our plan was to spend the day riding the historical cable cars all over the place and get off in every neighborhood. Unfortunately the cable car we jumped on made it half a block before every cable car in the city broke simultaneously. Apparently a cable came off the line and they were down for the day. Luckily it was a beautiful day out so we decided to do walking tour instead. It was great, we just wandered aimlessly and ended up hitting some pretty cool spots. China Town is a must see for any visitors. There are tons of shops with live animals that they will butcher right in front of you. We saw a lot of tubs full of live frogs and turtles. The produce is sitting out on the curb all nice and fresh. I decided early on that we should eat something in every neighborhood so we grabbed some dim sum from a tiny shop. Next thing I knew we were in Little Italy where we stopped at a nice cafe, Pinnochio, to soak up the sun and sip mimosas. It almost felt like we were in Italy as we sat outside watching passersby. We kept the drinking theme of our day going by walking down to Jack Kerouac’s bar where Walker announced that he was craving an awful sounding shot called a statutory grape. The bar tender had never heard of it so we had to google the ingredients: 2 ounces Southern Comfort, 1 ounce sour mix, 1 ounce grenadine and something else that I can’t remember. It wasn’t long after this that we hopped on the BART and met up with one of my favorite people here, Camtastic. We were on a mission to find cheap socks for the sock puppet party, but the line was so long at the discount store we lost interest and decided to find a bar instead. Fate was with us and we found the best dive bar ever! The drinks were ridiculously cheap and the bar tender, a complete asshole. But we loved it.

So I would say that my time down in the Bay Area has had its hits and misses. I am still glad I am here, but I need a break from the city life for a couple months. I have Costa Rica in my sights for April, which is keeping me sane for the moment. I’ll go down there to rest up for all the craziness that is going to be happening this summer. Jim’s family is having a huge reunion in New Mexico and this is my first year to attend Burning Man at the end of August. I can’t wait!

A friend of a friend was filming a documentary about skipping and needed some participants so a bunch of us volunteered. It was really fun and we skipped around Berkeley for a bit. I’m only in it for a split second, but whatever. Skipping Mockumentary

Things have been really hectic and stressful at our house lately. We have to deal with our crazy landlord and it’s starting to wear me thin!

Jim stole me away for the afternoon yesterday and we had a great time eating in the Gourmet Ghetto and then bowling $1 games at Albany Bowl. We ended the night with dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house in the Oakland hills. Their house has an amazing view of the city and we arrived just in time to take in a beautiful sunset.

The whole afternoon and evening was a much needed break from the chaos that is the CouchSurfing house. The drive home was a nice transition from small intimate dinner in the hills to crazy raucous family in Berkeley. When we walked up to the house I could hear a lot of people in the kitchen talking and laughing and it made me smile. To realize that although I get burned out on being together all the time, I also miss it a lot when I am away.

I couldn’t help but get a bit warm and gooey inside when I walked in and everybody was together cleaning the kitchen and having a great time. It made me realize how lucky I am to have such a cool family to come home to. It’s really amazing that we have so many people living together in this house and, somehow, we all get along. Nobody fights and there isn’t one person who is passive aggressive. How did we compile a group of such amazing people from around the world?

I am back in Berkeley, thoroughly enjoying the weather. It’s a balmy 60 degrees here while my family and friends are freezing in -20 temperatures in Alaska. Sorry guys!

The post holiday come down has been nice and relaxing. There are only three of us at CouchSurfing BaseCamp this week and it has been lovely having the place to ourselves. Jim and I have decided that we are probably going to be here for another three months so we have started getting settled in. Before December I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to the Costa Rica collective or not, but if I do, it won’t be until March. Since I lived in Costa Rica during college I think I would rather save my money and go to the next collective, especially if it is someplace that I have never been before.

So with that in mind Jim and I went to the Berkeley Public Library and got Library cards. We also applied and were granted financial assistance at the YMCA. I am really excited about working out there. It’s a really nice facility and they have three pools! I’ve been feeling so lumpy and out of shape lately. I can’t wait to start feeling fit again!

I am also coming to the realization that if I don’t make an effort to actually do the things I want to do while in San Francisco, they will probably never happen. With that in mind, I have been hounding Jim to walk the Golden Gate Bridge with me for a week. The weather was finally sunny yesterday so we drove into the city. Of course, it happened to be sunny and a Saturday so the place was packed. Luckily, we found a free parking lot and walked a little through the park and then up the hill onto the bridge.

The view from the bridge was fantastic. It was nice and warm with a bit of a breeze. We walked half way across the bridge dodging pedestrians and bicycles. Took a couple photos and contemplated what it would be like to jump. We recently watched the documentary The Bridge in which a camera filmed the bridge 24/7 for a year and captured various people committing suicide. The director interviewed the families who talked about the victims.

Being on the bridge and looking over the railing to the water hundreds of feet below made me think about how desperate those people must have been feeling. Just looking over the railing made me nauseous. I can’t imagine any person having the guts to climb over and let go.

Jim and I were wondering how long it would take for a person to fall so we started spitting over the edge (immature, I know). It took the average spitball about 11 seconds to hit the water and when it did, it had picked up enough velocity to make a noticeable splash. I can’t imagine knowing that you are going to die for 11 seconds! It would feel like eternity.

Luckily our day was a bit more lighthearted than just contemplating the affects of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove through Golden Gate park, which is beautiful. We stopped for a few minutes to check out the Dutch windmill that is sitting next to a lawn of poppies. It was all very beautiful.

I am trying to come up with our next adventure. I’m sure there are some other activities that one must accomplish when living in the Bay Area.

 

My little long hair/ wire haired dachsund finally had her puppies! They were four days early, but most of them are doing really well. Unfortunately, it looks like the runt isn’t going to make it. It’s a little male that is about half the size of the other puppies, can hardly crawl and still hasn’t opened its mouth to feed. We have tried to bottle feed him, but he won’t take a nipple.

 

 

 

The other five puppies are doing well. They are rolly polly and feeding non-stop. Sophie has turned out to be a good momma so far and is very protective of the puppies. They were just born yesterday, so it’s too early to tell what their hair is going to look like, but most of them are dappled.

Well, I have been home for a couple days now and am wondering, “what I was thinking coming home for three weeks?” I left 60 degree weather to come visit a frozen landscape that has averaged 5 degrees farenheit since I arrived and only receives a few hours of light each day.

I haven’t been out of Alaska for more than a few months and my skin is already as thin as possible! It was funny trying to drive my mom’s Highlander around today. It doesn’t handle that great in the snow anyway, but then add the fact that I’ve been driving a compact car lately and haven’t driven on ice since last winter and it was an adrenaline rush everytime I went to stop at an intersection. I had a personal mantra going, “Please don’t slide! Please don’t slide! Please don’t slide!” It must have been effective because I managed not to crash my mom’s car.

The best part about driving in Anchorage in the winter is the fact that their snow removal system is awful. I can’t believe a city this size that gets this much snow each year hasn’t come up with a more efficient method of doing this. What ends up happening is that you can’t see the lines on the road and it turns into a bit of a game. We call it the Make Your Own Lane game where you just kind of guesstimate where you are supposed to be on the road. It’s quite interesting. Roads that were three lanes turn into two and half. Roads that were four lanes turn into two and half. Roads that were one lane turn into two and half. You get the picture.

Another fun game is counting all the cars in the ditch on the Glenn Highway. I was surprised today that there weren’t more trucks. In the past I have been commuting and it feels like I am always being passed by some huge fallac symbol who thinks that just because he has four-wheel-drive he can speed down the highway on black ice. I always feel a bit satisfied when I pass them two miles later and they are up to their tailgate in snow in the ditch.

I can’t wait until Jim gets up here and gets to experience Alaska in all her winter glory. Today I walked into Becca’s house and exclaimed, “It’s cold outside, it’s one degree!” For some reason she found this hilarious, but it boggles my mind that it is one degree! That poor degree, he is probably lonely on that thermometer all by himself. I think that Three Dog Night said it best, “One is the lonliest number.”

Well, I finally made it back to Alaska for Christmas! I made the mistake of flying US Airways. In a time of economic crisis they want to make people hate them more by charging for bags! It’s $15 for the first, $25 for the second and $100 for the 3rd-9th. I don’t know how many people need to check nine bags, Madonna perhaps? but US Airways is going to capitalize on it! Can you imagine spending almost $1000 just to check your bags on an airline?

It gets worse. US Airways doesn’t even serve water for free anymore! They offer Coca-Cola products, juice and some alcoholic beverages that are going to cost you. $2 just for a can of soda! On our flight from Phoenix to Anchorage the flight attendants were anxious to let us know that they did not have any food on board so if we wanted anything to eat during the six hour flight we had better buy it at the airport.

 

 

All this was only mildly annoying until I got on my Phoenix to Anchorage flight, which was a red eye, and realized that my seat, 8A, was in the row in front of the emergency exit row. Imagine my distress when I realized that I couldn’t put my seat back! Six hours of flying during the middle of the night and I could not find a comfortable way to sleep. The poor older gentleman next to me looked like a contortionist as he changed from one uncomfortable position to another. 

Luckily I made it to Anchorage in one piece. There is quite a bit of snow on the ground which is good to see. In past years it has been too warm and actually rained on Christmas! It feels good to be back at my parents house. When I walked in the door I was greeted by the smell on my mom’s homemade pumpkin spice bread, delicious! I’m also excited to see my two favorite wiener dogs. Sophie is pregnant with puppies and is supposed to give birth a couple days before I leave. I hope that I am here when it happens!

I don’t have too many plans for while I’m home. Hopefully there will be a lot of skiing. Once Jim and Chris get here we are going to rally the troops and head north to try to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Whatever happens, I’m sure it will be an adventure.

After spending Thanksgiving driving around the country eating lots of fast food and then gorging ourselves over the weekend, I am ready to not eat for a while and get to feeling healthy. One of my roommates in Alaska told me about the Body Cleanse, a liquid diet that cleans out your whole system. Then one of my roommates in Berkeley was doing the body cleanse too. She only lasted four days (the minimum is supposed to be ten), but she said that she felt well and did feel a difference. I can’t judge her too harshly for not completing the regiment considering that she is the house cook and I can’t imagine being around food all day and unable to eat it.

The master cleanse is a diet that is supposed to cleanse your body of all the toxins and leave you feeling healthy and not craving overprocessed sugary and oily foods. Allegedly, a lot of people decide to be vegetarian after they complete the process. In order to experience the total effects of the diet a person should do it a minimum of ten days, but it can be done for up to 40 days. I don’t think I could do it for that long.

I went to Costco yesterday and bought two bags of lemons with the intent that I am going to make this lemon juice concoction and not eat food for ten days! Jackie helped me make a pitcher of the juice last night so that I would be ready first thing this morning to commense on this strange odyssey of not eating.

When I woke up this morning I came into the kitchen and grabbed a quart Gatorade bottle to make the quart of salt water I am supposed to drink first thing every morning. It only calls for two teaspoons of seasalt per quart, which didn’t seem so bad. That was until I sat down and started drinking it. After all the time I have spent in the ocean, it felt unnatural to actually want to swallow the salt water. It took me two hours of chugging a bit of salt water then chugging regular water before I couldn’t do it anymore. I only made it 2/3 of the way down the bottle, but that should be good enough for beginning, right?

Once I gave up on the quart of salt water I poured myself a tall glass of my lemonade concoction. The lemonade consists of 1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 1/2 cups maple syrup and about three dashes of cayenne pepper.  It actually tasted pretty good and I liked drinking it. It made me feel full and content, for about an hour.

Now it is lunch time in our house and I get to smell all the lovely food that is being prepared in the kitchen. Jackie made greek sandwiches for everybody, except me. I don’t even want to know what she is going to make for dinner!

So here I am, four hours into my body cleanse. I’ve already quit twice and then been talked back into it by Laura who wants to do it as well. Originally I was planning on doing it for ten days, but now I’m realizing that it cuts way too close to Christmas and all my mom’s amazing holiday food. Plus my dad made his famous chocolate covered cherries, which I want to eat about a dozen of when I walk off the plane. So instead of ten days I am going to do it for five, well, that’s the plan for now. My stomach has that empty feeling that says, “feed me!”.

This attempt at the body cleanse is too humorous to keep to myself. I’m going to have to blog about it and see how long I can keep it up. It doesn’t help that Jim is teasing me as much as possible about the whole thing.