Tapia's Birthday + Breaking Zowie's Castro Virginity

Even though last Friday was the longtime scheduled reunion for me, Zowie, Joel, and Chris, the weather remained torrentially wet and annoyingly windy. Well, in Berkeley at least. So much so that poor Zowie, who had to borrow my gigantic Cal umbrella, found herself chasing wildly after it (while trying to extract cash from an ATM) when a huge gust of wind carried it conveniently to a homeless man but not before it got completely destroyed in the process. Nature is powerful, yeah?

While on BART, we run into Ben (White House housemate) and at the Montgomery Station, Laura purchases a new umbrella (ella.. ella…) before we brave the wind and rain on our trek to North Beach. Actually, I overexaggerate. It wasn’t that windy (because that would be uncomfortably terrible) but I did have one of those car-drives-by-you-and-you-get-doused-in-street-water-moments which was not cool. Nevertheless, we were happy and in great spirits until we saw Chris’s face. Just kidding.
After some internet searching, I chose a place called Bocce Café, which as it turned out was a lovely little place with live jazz on the weekends and Fridays. Spacious, with a fairly pleasant waitstaff and rustic ambiance, it was just the cozy escape we needed from the incessant rainfall. Joel and I opted for the salad, which was surprisingly good and Zowie ordered a rigatoni with eggplant. Chris, being Chris ordered the filet mignon and because he is a fatty begged Joel to split a pizza with him. Hmm... I wonder if I'm really this mean to Chris in person too...

Obviously, no trip to Little Italy is complete with dessert at Steps of Rome so we did just that. I can still remember our gorgeous Italian waiter saying "And for you, beautiful beautiful beautfiul ladies ." Zowie and I nearly ovulated on the spot.

After Steps of Rome, Alex (aka "way too hot for Chris") swooped us up out of Little Italy in his fancy Exterra (complete with a GPS system that speaks in a British accent). Here, we begin my virgin experience in the Castro:

Stepping out of the car, I was greeted by a window display of gay porn - which inevitably provoked a conversation as to whether or not the man on the fireman poster had received ass implants.

Our first stop was "The Bar." Walking into the narrow hallway everything was Red, Red, Red. First round of drinks ordered, and it was off to the smoking room for a photo shoot inspired by the camara Alex received from Chris for Christmas:

The Derek

The Profile

The Candid

After our stronger than your average straight bar drinks, we were feeling a little anxious and relocated to "The Cafe" for dancing.

As a Castro virgin, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a dance club -- and I think Puma speaks for both of us when she said "I wish I were a gay man!" The scene breaks down as follows: Walk up a flight of stairs -- bar on the right pool table on the left -- the pool table was not for playing pool, rather, it served as a dance floor for naked boys (their ass-less underwear hardly qualified as clothing) shaking and shimmying to a level of sexiness that I could only dream of -- The bar on the right had two more boys kicking the Coyote Ugly out of Tyra Banks -- Behind the staircase was the dance floor packed with people and movie screens with more naked boys -- up the stairs to the left we found yet another pool table used as a dance floor and another bar (which gladly gave me my fatal shot Patron)

Puma, Chris, Joel and I danced well into the morning while taking several breaks to tip our pool table dancing friends:
Towards the end of the night we randomly run into White House Ben at The Cafe! In need of a ride home, he joined us in our post-Cafe mayhem. This part is a bit of blur to me, but if my memory serves me correctly, Puma, Ben, and I went to two different pizza places while Joel and Alex herded Chris around the Castro streets -- Chris felt the need to run up and down the streets yelling "White People!" while running into trash cans and street signs.

But alas, with me passing out at the car, we arrived safely at the White House in the wee hours of the morning feeling exhausted and content.

Easy Tiger

Last week I redeemed my bday gift from Puma and Fifi and purchased a ticket to see Ryan Adams live at Zellerbach on Monday Jan 28.

About 1 year ago, I received a surprise package in the mail from my estranged Georgian friend AK containing one cd, one dvd, and a map of Austin. Each item was equally thoughtful, but the cd was the best element. The package contained a little note saying something along the lines of: This album is amazing, I had too pass it on to you. And since AK is my music sensei, I took his comments seriously and gave Ryan Adam's Heartbreaker a thorough listen. I immediately established my music love affair with the album and now, it has become one of those staple cds in my antiquated cd case in which every single track takes me back to last spring/early summer (the period when I listened to it on a daily basis).

Needless to say, it was quite a joy (and slightly nostalgic) to revert to my bluegrass phase for an evening and immerse myself in the "alternative country" that is Ryan Adams for three solid hours. He put on a fantastic show. With back up band The Cardinals, Ryan switched between piano and guitar playing some of my favorite Heartbreaker tracks. I especially enjoyed his brief interlude in which he confessed that Mariah Carey was the inspiration for his album title.

And now, one year after my surprise package, I've come full circle with my appreciation for Mr. Adams

Catch a Fire

Oath to the Blog of FPZ World: I Zowie will pledge to update more regularly and use my camera to its fullest potentials (exceptions to this will occur in the event of an earthquake, fire, power outage, or personal injury)

Alright, now for the update:

Wednesday 1/17: Nate, formerly known as the Man with the Dirty Mustache, picks me up from the Oakland airport midday. In the evening, Mr. Messenger and I participate in the Willard Sports Banquet in which I gave a speech about the cross country team/passed out awards and Gabe explained why he was sporting crutches.

Thursday 1/18: Puma arrives! Feeling inspired by Chester's joke of "Puma Signs," I solicited the help of our new roommate to create welcome back signs to greet Puma at the airport.









Saturday 1/19: In an effort to welcome all Encinitas folks into the Bay Area, I took my recently relocated friend (whom I like to call "Tickle me Emo") around Berkeley and SF. We had breakfast at La Note and then perused Golden Gate Park's De Young Museum and Japanese Tea Gardens. That evening, Yuliya and I met up at the UCB Basketball game and later found ourselves in a tin-foil covered apartment for Simon's "back to the future" party.

Sunday 1/20: Whew, what a day: Chargers lose and the that damn Eli Manning won (I drowned my sorrows by playing way too much Street Fighter II), in the evening the White House fire alarmed blared for about an hour -- but I salvaged the day with the mini poppers I bought with Nate in Oakland China Town -- the White House Crew and I proceeded to run around Berkeley throwing poppers all night in celebration of successfully turning off the fire alarm

Monday 1/21: Timmy's homecoming dinner!

Tuesday 1/22: Full day of class. Here's the run down --
*American Cultural Landscapes (Env Des 169B): made complete with Brian the Diver
*Theories and History of Development: I've chosen Mexico as my "in-depth" case study of development
*Existentialism: Last breadth req...
*Writing about Env. Des: Long Composition: Every week I will write a 1000 word story about almost anything I want...hurray for creativity!

Wednesday 1/23: Back to coaching tennis at Willard + Joel turns 24 dinner = a happy Wednesday. Also, my long lost friend who studied abroad in South Africa for a year returned and brought me a lovely souvenir.

Thursday 1/24: Teach for America Welcome dinner in about 1/2 hour at Berkeley Thai House

Things to watch out for:
*Intramural Softball and Dodgeball
*Coaching Willard Track and Field
*African Film Festival
*Ryan Adams Concert
*Birthdays, dinners, parties, and glamor...

Walk vs. Wait, The Lazy Mathematician Wins

Why I made the right decision to take the 51 to La Foot today.





I also got new running shoes! I'm not too crazy about the color, but they're comfortable enough.

Celebs in Europe!

Props to whoever can guess is sporting the Louis Vuitton.

(Vienna)

(Amsterdam)

(Barcelona)

(Barcelona)

A Promise of an Update

Alright, so I know I haven't been updating recently... but that will soon all change! I promise! I plan on doing some quick updates about my Europe trip (avec les photos!) in addition to my usual whines and complaints about life, life which as of now I feel really ambivalently about. Is it the hormones? The position of the sun, moon, and stars? The fact that I am back to being exposed to North American bacteria? Or the fact that its.... the final semester and I'm freaking out about things in general. So in this post, I will attempt to make my mundane life sound more interesting than it actually is. So get excited.

First order of business: Everyone should give the new Magnetic Fields album, Distortion a listen. Along with of course, the entire new Britney Spears Album, but especially this song because sadly its pretty addicting.

In line with my quest for new music, (Zowie will tell you that I spent nearly three-quarters of hour trying to get Andy Bey's "Ain't Necessarily So" album illegally off the internet) I've decided to kick it off with jazz and blues. And when I decided to be legit and buy Bey's album off I-Tunes, my computer tells me: "An error has occurred in the I-tunes store". So today, I'm venturing into Rasputin and maybe Amoeba--stores that do not have errors and will hopefully deliver me what I have been seeking for so long.

This week:
1. Joel's dinner birthday tonight
2. Greenlining Friday and Saturday
3. Working the Cal-Stanford Basketball game Saturday (first time I'll be wearing khakis since junior high!)
4. Birthday celebration with Zowie, Joel, and Chris Friday like old times
5. Reunion with Supaksh Gupta on Sunday night!!! Supaksh was in Sweden all of last semester and he is so much fun--I guess you could say he was the one who "corrupted" me in high school. The only thing I'm sad about is that Anita won't be there too. Looking forward.

Somewhere in there I have to make a trip back home to see the rentals. Thats pa"rentals."

Day Trip away from Nelson...

Navy seals reporting for duty....

The big rafting trip in Murchison yesterday. I did some major class 3-4 rapids! I have to say that while the day was great, the rafting was a bit disappointing. It's to bad and it's really to bad I spent 105$ to do it! On the whole I'd say the rafting trip was a 4-5 on a scale of 1to 10. 1 being I was miserable the whole time. 10 being this was the best thing ever. I want to do it everyday for the rest of my life. If your the kind of person that would rather go on the vortex at great america then I highly suggest level 5 rapids! If, when your at a theme park you like to go on the bumper cars I'd say do class 3/4 rapids. They are fun, but kinda lame...yaknow?




Okay, the good and the bad. The ugly, my wetsuit smelled like someone had just peed in it the day before. geeeerosss! -The rapids- while they look astonishing here they didn't knock the raft around much. Our boat did go all the way on its side so we almost flipped, but other than that I almost felt like I was going over a bunch of large speed bumps...booooring! I wanted to feel like Kevin Beacon in "The River Wild"--now that's what I call river rafting!

One of the more enjoyable parts was the experience of being on the river. There is something really peaceful, exciting, and beautiful about floating down a river with a bunch of people. If the rapids would have been more "life threatening" if you will I would definitely go again and again!

Also, the photographer was hilarious. Her name was "squirrel" and while you were rafting you'd look into the distance and see her between a grove of trees, or on a bridge, or on top of rocks just like a little squirrel. I thought that was some funny shit how the other guides named her squirrel! The guide couldn't remember my name for the life of him so he asked me if my father was in the army and I said no. He said okay "Can I call you lumberjack" and I said "ya, I like that"...so the whole trip he kept referring to me as lumberjack. haha






Another great part of the trip was that I went on a hike in which I developed a new love for hiking! It was a short 30 minute hike. The picture is a view from the top. Can you see the small town of Muchison below!! I realized I just love hiking because your getting exercise, taking in the scenery, and striving to accomplish a goal! I can't wait to do the 3 day Abel Tasman Coastal Track and 3 day Routeburn hike.




This is the biggest kite and basically the only kite I saw at this "kitefestival" which was a bit of a bust. Evidently I got there late and there were tons of gigantic kites in the air just before I got there. Even chinese fighting kites that were trying to bring eachother down like in "Kiterunner". I had no idea how popular kiteflying is in pakistan.


This is a picture from the hike. Pictures like words, always cut out so much! You just have to hear the crickets, the bustling of the birds, feel the freshness of the air, and the excitement of getting to the top to really bring the moment to justice.

Okay my party people, I hope all is going well. How are things going!!!!!!!!!! Check comments to your blogs b/c I often read them again and write more comments. :) Your the best and I am always wondering how your doing!

Trying to figure out life... that ever perplexing question...

Picture from Routeburn 3 day Track

ahh I'm exhausted. I've been thinking all day about what my goals are while I'm in New Zealand. It's hard to travel b/c I don't have any money. But I can't just go to new zealand and only see nelson. Working in a hostel is not the best environment if you want to stay in one place b/c people are constantly coming from doing something new and exciting in New zealand. These are terms I hear constantly...

" Ohh, this is just like the Bay Area you have to go see New Zealand."
" Ahh, you have got to go kayaking at Abel Tasman! It's beautiful"
" I've just travelled all over the south island"

blah blah....

So anyway...it's late thats why I'm moody. I think the plan will be to get a job for a while then travel the last 2 weeks I'm here


View from Abel Tasman Coastal Track which takes 3-5 days

In 2 days: level 3-4 white water river rafting!


People rafting the buller river...I'm doing this exact section of the river on monday! Yikes...
another week: Mountain biking in Abel Tasman
Just before I leave: do the abel tasman Coastal Track (1 of the 9 "New Zealand Great walks")
then down to fiordland to do the Routeburn track another "NZ GREAT WALK" takes 3 days of hiking with some awesome scenery.
- Then I'll do some surfing lessons at Mt. Maunganui on the North Island
- and finish up at wellington

Glad to hear everyone is at home in the world!

It was so nice talking to you for that brief moment Ms laura. Yu have to update me on your scores n 3 weeks! Tell chester hello, I so stupidly didn't give him a shout-out in the car to tell him i am still on the lookout for that infamous kiwi bird and that I have started reading the alchemist and that I'll read that link he gave me soon!

Nate is so wonderful for hosting a pre-semester dinner. Someone has to go to the dollar store on my behalf!!

Happy homecoming ariane...I'm sure your glad your home with friends and the lovvvaaaahhh!! :)

Missing the Bay Area

I´m 100000% ready to come home.

Just a little bigger than the dogs house...haha

Mouse hole where I (gus-gus) sleep. It's actually quite nice b/c it blocks out the light :)


haha...our living quarters in the backyard. Ballin..... this is where it all goes down people.

This place is wonderful thanks to my nice roommates. The top is from Taiwan. Her name here is Raphi. She's been to many countries in eastern europe, likes architecture, enjoys going on hikes, and wants to do hot pot for new years in February. When I told her I used to do hot pot with my friends back home she busted up laughing and said "oohhh really??? You?" Stacy in the middle likes to snowboard, cook, from canada, and wants to volunteer at an orphanage in S America next year. There's more info about them which I'll have to add later...

A Surf and Turf Celebration

Friday Evening: Mama Pryor and I traveled to Long Beach to Battle THE PRAXIS SERIES. I was scheduled to complete two tests: "Praxis II: Principles of Learning and Teaching for Middle School" and "Praxis II: Middle School English Language Arts." Successfully passing these tests puts me one step closer to obtaining my Louisiana teaching credentials.

Saturday Morning/Afternoon: Furiously write the day away in an effort to defeat the practice. After my first morning session, I noticed a boy who was also taking the same test series as I. He asked me where I was planning on teaching and it was soon discovered that we are both teaching Middle School English in Louisiana -- I will be in New Orleans and he will be in "Southern Louisiana" just outside of Baton Rouge. This boy looked and reminded me of Michael Cera and now I can't remember his real name because I keep referring to him as Michael Cera. Anyway, we will reunite this summer in Phoenix during our summer institute -- hopefully I'll remember to call him by his real name.

Saturday Evening: Mama Pryor and I travel directly to the Schmuckle's for dinner. For Christmas, Mama Pryor received a gift certificate for live Maine lobster and I took it upon myself to redeem it. Thus, I was pleased to see a fed-exed box of live lobster as I walked into the kitchen. Uncle Carl decided to complete the meal by preparing steak and cutting up pineapple and garlic bread. The cousins, sister + husband, aunts/uncles, parents and I all feasted on fresh Maine lobster and steak while watching the Patriots battle Jacksonville. For dessert, Auntie Arlene heated up fresh baked cherry pie. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sunday Morning: Aunt Arlene and Uncle Brian join us to watch the Chargers game - Chargers surprised all the critics and won! and Uncle Brian added to his bank roll with all of his online sports betting.

Presently, I'm VERY relieved that my tests are finished and VERY satisfied with all the good food and company

Birthday festivities!

A SECRET GARDEN: MY B-DAY PRESENT FROM THE ULTIMATE ONE

I discovered this "secret garden" on my walk to the center of New Zealand. It really didn't look like anything special from the outside. I only decided to venture across the street because there was an art exhibit in the park. As I passed through the gates I walked into a small patch of paradise. There was a long white arched bridge (the kind you see in movies) with a beautiful murky stream winding under it. I enjoyed looking at the way in which the stream snaked into the distance. I crossed the bridge and discovered a tiny piece of Paris in the summer. A beautiful circular labyrinth with benches surrounding the circumference and a fountain in the middle. There were dark red, yellow, orange, and pink roses in the labyrinth. I saw the whitest gleaming seagulls you could imagine souring just a few feet over the colored roses. I could hear the sound of crickets that made the place feel alive. There were palm trees, trees with purple flowers, and trees with bright red flowers to name only a few. I liked the sound of croaking seagulls mingling with each other like argumentative siblings.

Lesson in traveling #1: Never look down in a portable bathroom :)





WALK TO THE VERY CENTER OF NEW ZEALAND!



TRAVELER FROM CANADA MET ON WALK

haha...



TRAVELER BOUGHT ME A B-DAY ICE CREAM




"HOLE OF DOOM" MY B-DAY BUDDY AND I CONSTRUCTED AT THE BEACH



VOLLEYBALL SIGHTING IN NEW ZEALAND!



I GIVE IT A 6 OUT OF 10

I went randomly to see if this movie was playing. It started 5 minutes after I got there. What a treat...when does a movie start right when you want it to??...only on my b-day!



MY BIRTHDAY CAKE FROM NATE!

The owner was so nice. They stayed up until I got home to sing me happy birthday :). Everyone was so impressed with Nate's "soooo sweet" gesture. I was shocked by the number of people that went out of their way to say happy birthday and good luck in the future. Even the next morning a girl came up to me and said happy birthday and that she was sorry she couldn't stay up last night.

I feel very blessed...

Bonjour encore!

Hey ya'll, guess where I am? In Nice!!!

Yes, its very nice (ha ha.. Chris and I wore that joke down to the bone, as we did the other "when in Rome" saying when we were in that city). The Mediterranean beaches are gorgeous and the best thing about it is that its a nice change from freezing Germany. Of course, most of the people here are old rich French people (who use fur coats as beach blankets) and their splendidly spoiled grandkids but that doesn't make it any less relaxing. Casinos and luxurious hotels abound, this town is probably besides Cote D'azur the epitome of the French Riviera. Mmmmm...... So we're just relaxing.

Oh, and I'll expand later but this morning we were stranded in some small town in Italy called Ventimiglia and then in Monaco (which is also stupendously gorgeous btw... that is, if you're a high roller). The whole not showering thing has been alright actually-- Chris and I have gotten used to it and suprisingly we haven't gotten the least bit sick of each other (as people usually do when they spend, holy shit what is it, 6 days = 144 hours straight with each other). Yep yep this week we've been to Vienna (Wien) as well as Venice, Florence, and Rome. We were both underwhelmed by Rome but man, Vienna.... now that's a city.

Becoming a Buddhist

Gosh, okay guys. I've been listening to this introduction to meditation CD daily for the last 2 weeks or so. The CD goes over the 4 noble truths and does a meditation after each one. I really think Buddhism is something I'd really like to get into. What do you guys think about joining a monastery. They say to really do it you need a teacher...hmmm. They have Wednesday night meditations here.