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back in the ussr

My russian disenchantment by nicointhebus
My russian disenchantment by nicointhebus

In just thirty days, I will be touching down on international soil for the first time since my trip to Germany. My thirst for traveling has finally caught up for me and I need to quench it with a last spontaneous trip to see a land of which I know so little.

It hit me mid last year that I really wanted to get out of the country for a while to see something new. Germany was quite an eye opener, and my appetite was whet for more. My urge to travel abroad has only grown in the last year, but knowing I didn’t have the funds to make it happen was my main crutch.

Over a month ago, knowing I had a lot of friends all over the place, I began looking around, pricing plane tickets to several different locations such as Germany, Italy, UK, South America, and Russia. With the US economy in such disarray, and with regulated airline companies fighting to survive, I expected very little.

Then, on a random weekday in September, I saw it. My golden ticket.

Conferring with my Russian friend, I asked whether I could crash for a couple of weeks while touring around. With the green light lit, I quickly snatched my place on the notorious airline Aeroflot and booked a two week ticket to Moscow.

Upon booking my plane ticket, I had absolutely no idea that I was required to get a tourist Visa in order to visit. On top of that, it costs exactly $131 to purchase this Visa just to visit! To turn the tables, Russians require an American Visa which costs them a pretty ruble.

As you read this, I am still waiting from the Russian Consulate in San Francisco to mail me my Visa. With travel abroad and especially to Russia from the US being limited, I expect to receive my Visa within the next two weeks.

So, in one month, I will be wandering the streets of Moscow. I will be riding the train to St. Petersburg. I will be trekking the neighborhoods of Veliky Novgorod, and learning about our misunderstood Russian neighbors. St. Petersburg especially excites me because of the rich musical history. My trip to Novgorod is a devious attempt to see where my favorite Russian Composer Rachmaninoff was born and about his childhood.

The next month will be one of my busiest this year. I shall be researching Russian history, consuming all the trivial and nontrivial facts I never knew, working, and preparing for what shall be another life changing trip across the ocean.

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wildfire – before and after

This is the morning that it hit my neighborhood:

My neighborhood evacuating
My neighborhood evacuating
After the Wildfire
After the Wildfire

the night of my history

One of my fondest memories from high school was Friday nights at the football game. The slow afternoon in anticipation, the bus rides, the cadences, dancing in stands with my bangs waving in all directions, practicing the shows at half time: I had a lot of fun at football games.

Last Thursday I spent the evening with an old high school friend catching up and attending my first game in nearly 11 years. I think the anxiety of attending our first high school game in years was evident at dinner as we shared memories.

There are so many noticeable changes I noticed when walking around. New bathrooms were constructed on both sides, cement was laid below the stands, the football team had new uniforms and colors, a new gate with a new stadium name welcomes visitors, a new scoreboard that flashed messages to the team. The biggest change was where the band sits.

When we made our way up to the old familiar place where the band should be, we noticed it was fairly empty, no instruments or boxes.
I was so confused.
I guess the band was out rehearsing?

Oh wait, maybe…

We walked to the other side of the stands, up the wheelchair ramp, looked up and Ah ha! There’s everything I was expecting on the other side! Maybe it’s not a big deal either, but it’s weird. We then noticed the band was out in the track field warming up for the the halftime show.

I was disappointed. Although the band had a wonderful halftime show, although hearing the fight song felt so familiar, the alma mater that I remember was different. Time has taken its toll and changed everything.
Again.

We walked to the other side of the stands and went up to where we used to sit. I wanted to recapture the visions I lived with for four years in high school band, and I couldn’t do that where the band sits now. We stood up there for a few moments reminiscing and enjoying the way it used to be.

Stepping back in time was strange. Maybe there’s a reason it took me 11 years to step foot in a place I have avoided since, but I don’t know what that reason might be. Being there with a familiar face helped.

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i’m not homeless

Firefighter bravely fighting the Marek wildfire
Firefighter bravely fighting the Marek wildfire

Since talking to my roommate on Monday afternoon, he assured me I would receive a call if anything bad had happened to the house. I have yet to hear from him. At times like this, when we’re all busy living our lives, no news is good news.

After seeing that only 40 structures were burnt, and knowing a large majority of them were mobile homes, I am pretty assured that my house is safe and unharmed.

For a great map to see the impact of the two major fires near my house, go check it out here.

When I return to LA on Sunday and get back to my neighborhood, I’ll be sure to try and take and post photos. It’s gonna be pretty interesting to see what it all looks like. Until then, if you wanna see some of the fires, Flickr is a great source.

Marek Wildland Fire

Wow.
I’m kinda anxious right now.

This might be my neighborhood!
This is my neighborhood!! My roommates drove away from this scene early this morning.

I just got a call from my roommate who was awaken by the firefighters telling my roommates to evacuate the house. The Marek Wildland Fire started yesterday morning at 2am and has only been 20% contained as of yesterday. There are Santa Ana winds which are driving the wildfire all over and sadly there’s little control.

I had to quickly, in 5 minutes, tell my roommate to grab my computer, monitor, digital camera, passport and bag of a lot of receipts. The firefighters are telling everyone to evacuate really quickly because the fire is not under control.

I might be losing a LOT of clothing, a digital piano, some furniture, books, and a few other miscellaneous items including personal photos. They just couldn’t grab everything sadly.

Update:I found a nice blog that seems to have good updated information. http://calfire.blogspot.com/ Obviously, I’m also watching all the Los Angeles news stations as well.

I found an active forum with lots of good links and updates to the wildfire: http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?p=31315. There’s also a cool little map to see who’s been evacuated: http://lafd.blogspot.com/2008/10/city-of-los-angeles-evacuation-map-for.html

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travel season

Today begins three months of travel. I sit here in the Burbank airport waiting to board a plane to Houston, realizing that I will be in an airport at least four times between now and January.

Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight.

I am at peace.

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hurricane ike

Three years ago, I was paying attention to Katrina as it demolished New Orleans.
This year, I’m paying attention to Hurricane Ike as it threatens to RAVISH the Gulf Coast and Houston area.

Hurricane Ike before it hits the Texas Coast
Hurricane Ike before it hits the Texas Coast
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struggle for more

I’m now in my 5th week of doing the program hundredpushups.com. I’m stuck on week 3.

This is going into my third week for week 3. I can’t seem to do any better on column 3 than I did last week or the week before. I’m confused why this isn’t working as I’d hope. I push myself until I can’t push myself up anymore. I break the muscles as much as I’m comfortable breaking them. Yet, I seem to be making no progress.

This is a struggle for more.

I am starting to not look forward to doing them, but I always feel good once I finish. I hope I can keep changing my outcome. I’m frustrated.

EDIT 9/08: Getting past week 3 has been very difficult and I’m still struggling to complete the week successfully. I’ve hit my plateau a couple of times and even rested for a week in between. This is just frustrating!

I think the key to success for me is going to be a steady balance of on and off. This won’t take weeks, it will probably take months of balance.

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the basics

I knew a challenge was the only way I’d force myself to work out. So far, so good.

I began a new program that works only only the upper body and I’m using it as a weight training to gain muscle mass. I don’t expect radical changes to my body nor do I expect to be ripped by the time I am done. I only expect results that are promised.

Hundred Pushups is a new challenge launched just months ago which guarantees by the end of the program you’ll be doing 100 pushups in six weeks. It requires around only 30 minutes a week and all your effort. That’s a program to which I can definitely commit.

My first week was a breeze. It starts out light for people who have little to no recent exercise experience. Pushing myself is difficult when you don’t know how to effectively push your limit. But, I go until I am stuck for more than a couple of seconds and can’t go anymore.

It wasn’t until the last set of my 2nd week that I began to realize this was about to get more difficult. On the first day of my third week (which was just a few hours ago), I felt as though there was a huge jump from last week to this week. I could not finish more than three sets before feeling completely physically drained. This might be because I either did not effectively push myself last week or because the jump from week 2 to week 3 was a little drastic. If I have to, I will repeat this week and make sure I perfect it.

Because I don’t think doing just pushups is enough, I’m actually supplementing this work out with pullups. I suck at pullups. I can’t do them for the life of me. But by the time I’m done with this pushup program, my goal is to do at least 15 normal chinups and 10 pullups. I’m already at four chinups and two pullups. I have a long way to go.

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5.8

It was just violent enough and long enough to shake my Texan nerves.

11:42 a.m.
I was sitting at my desk, business as usual.
I felt something.
A little startled, I looked around.
Curtains aren’t supposed to shake on their own.

Earthquake!!

I ran into the doorway as soon as I realized what was happening. It had been shaking about five seconds already by this time. I think it lasted just a few more seconds before it stopped. The excitement and adrenaline lasted me the rest of the day.

Amazing. This was the biggest earthquake LA has received since 1994.