I found peace in the park

There are a lot of options to spend your weekend, some of you prefer to stay at home, some prefer to hang out with family or best friends, some may do their groceries shopping, some prefer to do the household on this day, and some prefer to do voluntary work. Those things are absolutely fun things to do. We chose the last option as the things to do on the weekend.

We did volunteer work with One Brick for the event "peace in the park" which took place Saturday 24 August 2013 at Golden Gate Park. We required to be on spot before 9am, we set off around 7.30am and managed to get there at 8.30am, yes we were early, but thats the girls in my house do, always come earlier! So proud of you girls ^^

Not long after than Suzanne our coordinator showed up, she gave us some instruction about what to do, was basically help with tent setting, table and chairs setting, lift stuff or food. Gave any help for those needed help. Also, she asked us to help with the volunteer registration, gave away volunteer t-shirt and meals. It was fun and we glad that we could at least help. Victor, one of the Brazilian also came to help on the voluntary work, it was very nice of him as he wasn't required to do the volunteer as he doesn't belong to CCIP students, but he did anyway.

These are the photos in that day

Tari, Ana and Me at Volunteer Booth

Some of the volunteer team "Peace in the park"

The event is called "Peace in the park" because it's about the activities to lead you to find your inner peace, happiness, things that make you feel better and feel the balance of life. There are yoga, wishing tree, face painting, and many more. It's one of the event organized by big Indian/Hindu community. I spotted Indonesian Booth, Shadow puppet making, where I met Sarah and her daughter Nia. They had been living in Bali for 3 years and now they are in the "Sanggar Budaya Bali" near Berkeley.

I was very happy to meet them, especially Nia, she is very nice and cute. She is 8 years old and she already started to learn Balinese dance, I was amazed. I became more amazed when I saw the Balinese dancer, dancing on the stage, they aren't Indonesian. Amazing! The moved perfectly, they danced Balinese dance perfectly. I'm Indonesian but I can't dance Balinese, I feel ashamed. They are American but they dance Indonesian perfectly. I should have learned it before I came. I always think that Balinese dance is very beautiful, My mom used to dance Balinese dance. I wasn't interested to dance when I was kid, I prefered to play Basketball anyway. Yeah well, now I regret it :(

How envy I was, seeing these beautiful ladies dance Balinese

Balinese dance

I found a peace seeing them dancing Balinese, I found a peace when I heard Balinese gamelan playing, I found peace when I was doing my volunteer work, I found peace when I helped others and seeing their happy face. I found peace and happiness when I hold 'Nia' a lovely little girl whom I met in the  event. I don't need to take Yoga class or whatever, I found my peace in that park easily :D

What makes you feel good?

You may feel good after shopping latest fashion items, you may feel good after eating a delicious food and you may feel good by doing things you love. But I just found out one thing that makes me feel real good, volunteering and using my skills and knowledge to help other people.

Indeed, shopping my latest fashion items also makes me feel good but in this situation volunteering makes me feeling even better :)

Today, I started my first day of volunteer work in helping people with literacy in Spanish literacy class. Fortunately, I found this volunteer work in my campus and I emailed the teacher offering a help for her class, Trust me, they will be glad to have your help. Volunteers are needed every where, in campus, in community, there a lot of opportunities to do voluntary work here. It's a big US culture.

Can you believe that I helped Spanish speaking immigrant to write and read? Spanish is not even my first language not even my second language. I do speak Spanish but I forget a lot of Spanish words because I never use it. But I'd love to help using my knowledge that I have.

Anyway, the teacher is Rita Moran, she's american but I think she's an english teacher for Hispanic people as well. I haven't gotten any chance to talk more about herself since we got very busy in the class. I helped some group of students to write properly, there were about 7 or 8 students in my group.

They are from El Savador and Nicaragua, most of them have been living in the US for minimum 8 years. Things that I love is I got attached easily with Hispanic people. I experienced living with Hispanic immigrant from Honduras in Granada, Spain. It was a precious experience living with them.

Sp hispanic students are very nice and warm and they treat me as family. I remember this kind of feeling, it was kind of Dejavu. 

I'm just happy, happy, happy that I could help them, to contribute to their life, i do hope they can have better job and living, thats why community college are serving them, I'm glad I'm part of it.

Can't wait for the next meeting! I volunteer every Tuesday and Thursday at CCSF Mission Campus. Love it!

Golden Gate and Sausalito Trip CCI San Francisco

We officially visited Golden Gate after waiting for about a month until ESL class had finished. First, we celebrated the first long weekend, we didn't have a class until Wednesday yaaay.
Second, we celebrated that the fact that we all (the girls in our house) got an A for ESL class and got the highest ESL test result to follow the academic programs.
I'm so proud of my girls, Tari, MP, Ana, Roslina and Ibu Milka. They are very determined and smart! They didn't spend their time only for studying but also exploring the city to enjoy their time. We all know how to live our life when we are here :) I love you girls!

We were stunned with the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, It's beautiful. It was sunny that day, we were lucky. There is strong wind around the bridge area, so you better prepare our thick jacket and scarf. I still can not believe it that we are in San Francisco, California hahahah but when we got in to the Golden Gate, yes we are officially Californian Girls :D

233 Girls

CCI San Francisco

We also glad to have Tay Park who arranged this Golden Gate and Sausalito tour, thanks Oppa, Tay Park is the tall guy wearing glasses in the above picture. We are nothing without youu hahahhaha
After seeing the view of Golden Gate, we walked crossing the bridge, and it took an hour to walk to other side of the bridge. We took a lot of picture that day from the real camera (Roslina's)

We continued walking to Sausalito, a small bay with beautiful scenery across the bridge. It was 2 hours of walking tour, indeed we were a bit tired. But after seeing the scenery, we feel refreshed. It's totally worth walking for 2 hours. You may drive the car, ride bicycle or maybe on a tourist bus, but we preferred to walk and come back to SF with ferry ride. Ahhh how stunning Sausalito, a tranquil small village near the ocean

Sausalito

The shops and restaurant are beautiful, I really love it. I may be back here when my boyfriend visit me on winter break. We had lunch in a pizzeria, I order Lasagna with salad for $10, it was pretty good deal, as in this tourist area, food tend to be expensive. We got 1 hour to enjoy Sausalito, we walked along, sit near the beach to enjoy the sun and scenery. Enjoy the beautiful Sausalito :)
And this place remained me of Spain, the fisherman village "Cudillero", aah finally I could feel and see this scenery again :)
We came back to SF with ferry ride, again enjoying the sun on the deck of the Ferry, we could see teh Golden Gate and The Alcatraz Island from the Ferry. It is amaaaaziiing!

What can I say, I was so happy, I was glad that the fact I live in San Francisco, I fell in love with this city, the bad summer, the foggy house but at the same time a nice weather near the ocean and downtown. This city is so happening!

I Love Mission!

We finally made it to explore Mission District, well I can't say I already explore them all, but some part of Mission we exactly did. What I love about Mission is their vibrant life, a home for immigrant, particularly Latin American. I can hear people talking in Spanish every where, in the street, in the stores, every where..ahhh I really love it. I miss talking and listening Spanish. I really do!

Mission is warmer than CCSF Campus or Park Merced, there is sun! Yes sun is very important for us. We actually visited this place twice, but the first time we only visited the mexican restaurant "El Farro". The mexican food tastes good, I ordered Burrito but I think Quesadilla tastes better.

Burrito ala taqueria

MP, Tari and I fully loaded with food

Ana and her Tacos

I even spoke Spanish with the waiters, I'm so happy, finally I could practice some Spanish yaaay, I dont know I can't describe my feeling when I hear people speaking Spanish, I'm just too happy!
Mission is well-known for Mexican Food, Thrift Stores, Cheap Stores for example $1 store, everything for $1 only ! Girls went crazy here. Shop hopping from one store to another store.

We made an agreement one store for 10 minutes but we couldn't manage our time, we ended up spending 40 minutes shopping in one store, girls oh girls, BEHAVE!

The girls in the Mission

Shopping in Mission

I started to like this city, there are a lot of places to visit and those places are really happening. We love Mission, we love Downtown, we love Castro etc. I'm so lucky to have these girls because they love to walk and explore the city, we make a good team :)

To go to Mission district from CCSF Ocean campus we need to take 49 bus (Ocean-Vanness) or you can take BART from Balboa Park to Mission. Since taking Muni bus is cheaper I recommend to take bus, and you can see the scenery and all the stores in Mission district, enjoy!