its a bird, its a plane, its the greenpeace airship!

This is a bit of a hurried catch-up of the highlights of my last three days. Sorry for the delay.

Monday:

It was my manager, David's, birthday and I was supposed to organize an Activist Network Happy Hour. But instead I decided to make it a birthday thing for him and secretly invited the rest of the office behind his back. So a few of us Activist Network-ees were sitting in the back of Thee Parkside, our go to venue, and Jarrod (who is not a part of the Activist Network) sits down. David says, "Oh, I guess this isn't going to be just an Activist Network thing anymore". Then more people start showing up, and David is completely surprised. Everyone in the office had signed a card for him that I made, and I brought cake - which we all devoured. It was really nice.

Tuesday:

I talked to the coolest person ever on the phone. She is now a part of our Student Network but has just graduated high school and has already done loads of work with PETA working on different campaigns, organizing protests and running events. She has been vegan for six years, and is probably my new best friend. But every day I find someone on the phone that I talk to who I pretty much think is my new best friend.

Amy had a crazy story of something that happened to her on the bus today. Some guy got on the bus, and totally passed out. Then he woke up, threw up in his hand a bit, then ate it, and passed out again. Hahaha. Gross.

Also we launched our Costco campaign - check out oh-no-costco.com. And we launched the airship. I definitely sewed on the "C" in "destruction" and the colon!

I came home and Aaron, Mandi, Jason, Noah (Aaron's 12 year old brother) and I all hung out for a while. Noah and I spent about an hour relearning the cup trick and then doing it over and over and over again. We are so cool.

Wednesday:

Today I had to call in and talk to my co-op coordinator back at UVic about how my work term is going. Apparently David said some really nice things about me, which is nice, and she was super stoked. No one from UVic has worked for Greenpeace before as a co-op term as far as she knew! Very exciting. :) Haha.

After work today we headed over to the Temple Night Club for a Green Corps fundraiser that we were volunteering at. It was cool, we were just greeters at the door and what not. Green Corps seems like a totally awesome thing to do (check out the Job description in the Green Corps link) and I might apply for it after I graduate university. I was going to stay longer and network a bit once we were done volunteering but it turns out the Night Club wasn't in the greatest area of town so I ended up heading home earlier so I could get on a bus before dark. Ended up waiting for almost an hour for a bus on Market St., but luckily there weren't too many crazy people. I seriously just feel so comfortable in this city, it's ridiculous, considering that I'm not at all a city person. But it makes me happy. I really love it here. I think I might just not come home.

pride

Today was the pride parade in sunny San Francisco :) I can't even begin to describe it, but I think that today is the day I officially fell in love with the city. I got down there and met Amy and somehow we muscled our way, over the course of an hour or so, to the front of the crowds to watch the parade... which lasted three and a half hours! It was so amazing.

There were so many different groups, floats, costumes, music... I really recommend that you just check out the albums of photos on facebook (I took 600 and weedled them down to just over 300 - sorry there are so many!) becuase they tell the story far better than I could. I'm just so sad because I accidentally had my camera on the wrong setting for taking movies, so they didn't end up being movies at all... which sucks because I was going to make a compilation video and now I have no video. Oh well - pictures are plenty!

I have never seen so many naked men, and nearly naked men, drag queens and the sort. There were two drag queens with me on the bus ride back home, and Amy and I posed for pictures with three old naked men. It was pretty brilliant. But the best part... is... that...

WE WERE TWENTY FEET AWAY FROM THE BACK STREET BOYS! They drove by in a car as part of the parade (see photos) and they were RIGHT THERE and we were RIGHT THERE and holy crapoly! They were playing later on but we opted out of staying because it was so crowded, and the busses were all messed up because of detours and I didn't really want to stay later down there so we just headed home. Their set was going to be super short anyway. But oh my gosh, they were RIGHT THERE. Okay. I'm done. I was more of an N'Sync fan anyway :P

It was an awesome day. I love this city. I love this town. I love the people. It's great.

hands across the sand

In this picture I am the 30th person from the right. David is to my right, and Amy and Jules are to my left. We are holding our hands up in the air holding signs.



Another two days of work have past - it's awesome. I love it. But I have no thrilling tales to tell.

Today however was pretty sweet. Jules and I went out to Crissy Field - between the Marina District and the Golden Gate for a Hands Across the Sand rally. Riding the bus there was insane. We had to transfer busses at Market St. and get on a bus heading through Chinatown to our destination. We couldn't get on the first two because they were just way too packed and people were pushing and shoving and barely squeezing in as the doors closed.

Anyway, these events were happening today in over 820 locations, in over 30 countries and all 50 states. We met Amy and David (my manager from Greenpeace who is completely awesome) there and all got "Move Beyond Oil" signs from the Sierra Club, who was hosting the event in San Francisco. There were some politicians there, including one congressman, who were speaking and we stood behind them with our signs while they were filmed - so there is a good chance we got on the news here. Yay! Then everyone headed to the beach to form a line across the sand all holding hands and a helicopter flew above to take pictures! It was really awesome.

Afterwards we went to Johnny Rocket's for some grub and then headed home. On the 9 bus (the one we take to and from work every day) there was this guy who I have seen a couple of times. Once he was on the bus with me, once he was with Jules on the bus, and another couple of times I've seen him just walking around a bus stop en route. I was talking about him to Jules and then all of a sudden, speak of the devil, he comes on board. Now this guy, we're going to call him Freddy, has flaky skin and is a raging alcoholic. Oh! I think I wrote about him in a past blog actually - he was the one who told me that I shouldn't be afraid of him and then yelled "Yippie-yi-oh!" on the bus. Anyway he gets on, today is a bad drinking day for him, and starts cursing and swearing. "[insert a lot of words my parents don't want to hear come out of my mouth, and some racial slurs]" Another guy on the bus starts telling him to shut up and the bus driver finally just pulls over and yells at him "You shut up and stop making trouble or you get off the bus, I'm giving you that choice!" (I am so glad I'm not a San Francisco Muni driver). Well Freddy "don't want none of that BS" and he keeps on yelling. So the driver calls the police. We wait for about five more minutes for Freddy to calm down and finally he does, and we move on without the police showing up. It's funny because in the beginning these things really freaked me out and now it's like, old news. Haha.

I came home and flopped on the couch with Pippy curled up next to me and Shivs sprawled out on my legs, even though they generally try to avoid each other. It was super sweet. And! Amy just told me that she saw us on three channels of the San Francisco news earlier this evening! I have now been on television in San Francisco - yeye!

work party doggy cuddle cookie crumble god of war

Yesterday was another blur of work, and warehouse, and phone calls and other such awesome stuff so I won't go into the details - although I did have a totally awesome snuggle party with Pippy.

We did have lunch with Casson Trenor and talked about how he got where he is and what not which was super cool and inspiring. He is an environmentalist, social activist author, restaurant owner (he opened the world's first sustainable sushi restaurant - Tataki, right here in San Francisco), and media personality. He is the author of Sustainable Sushi and was named one of Time Magazine's Heroes of the Environment in 2009.

Today, was more time spent in the office and more time on the phones. I spoke to some incredibly inspiring people today who are actually living in Louisiana or nearby the oil spill and have family who are being directly affected by what is going on. One of them was telling me about how controlling BP is being about the whole situation, and here's the story that really got me. Apparently some local fishermen were trying to go save some sea turtles and other animals that were on the surface of this huge oil slick and BP made them leave. Then, BP lit that oil slick on fire and burnt the animals alive while people were trying to save them. How sick is that?

After work Jules and I went to her place to make compost cookies. Basically they use a basic cookie recipe plus you add a bunch of random crumbled up junk like potato chips, crackers, coffee grounds, chocolate and M&Ms. She had tried them before and figured we should try making them ourselves. The dough was so good - we ate way way too much of it but once they cooked they tasted like fish. I don't know how or why, it was super disappointing though. Afterwards we walked up to Bernal Hill with one of her roommates for a gorgeous 360 degree view of the city, even though it was foggy and nearing dusk. But we made a vow to go back when it was sunny and her roommate was nice enough to drive me home, which was lovely.

Since then I've spent the evening cuddling with Pippy, watching movies with Mandi, and watching Aaron play God of War. This is definitely the life.

that's right we have an airship

Somehow I managed to completely sleep through my alarm this morning. I usually get up by 8 at the latest and today I woke up at 9:23. I don't know how, but I changed my clothes, brushed my hair, packed my bag, gave Shiv's his antibiotic and ran to the bus by 9:30. I got the 9 and then, because we were heading to the warehouse today, had to wait for the 22. It's about a twenty minute walk so I figured the bus would be faster. Well the bus took about 15 minutes to come and then only took me two blocks - for some weird reason it was stopping its route early. So I started to walk and just as I left another 22 that was going all the way drove by. But I wasn't at a stop anymore so I couldn't catch it. Anyway, I got there about half an hour late and they were JUST starting - so it was cool.

Anyway at the warehouse we worked on sewing on letters onto a huge banner that is going to be sewn to the side of a Greenpeace airship for our new sustainable seafood campaign really soon. So keep your eyes peeled - more details to come.

We stayed there until 2 and then headed back to the main office for another two hours of Student Lead Activist recruitment calls. The last girl I talked to is an international student at Michigan State University. She moved here from India to go to school so we talked about the fact that I'm dating someone from there, and it was pretty cool. Definitely neat to connect with these people about random things - not that Karn is random in any way. Heart. Moving on. Uh, yeah she was so stoked and wants to intern with Greenpeace in a year when she is done university - yay! Super fast bus trip home today. I think it took 2o minutes on two buses - it was godly and amazing.

Also, the other day Jules and I definitely saw a guy in a total pimp suit - bright purple suit, selling watches out of his coat pocket. Ye we did!

go grease lightning

Last night, Amy, Jules and I went to see Grease in Dolores park. They put up a big screen there once a month or so to show a movie and tonight it was extra special because it was a sing-a-long. We got there around six or so and I spread out blankets to hold our spot while the other two went on an adventure to go find us some grub. Forty minutes later they came back with sandwiches from Safeway and beer - yay! Also, there was this Giradelli guy walking around with a giant canister of hot chocolate on his back. As we were finishing up our sandwiches all of the sudden the drama began to unfold:

Let's call the man sitting next to us with his cute little dog - Guy, and let's say the young man sitting a little further over, who was clearly a little strung out on drugs, with a giant pitbull - Tweaker. So Tweaker throws some trash and Guy yells over at him, "Hey man, don't litter in the park." Well Tweaker and his posse will have non of it and start cussing and swearing at Guy. It settles down for a moment, but there is obviously some tension. All of a sudden Tweaker's beast of a dog springs on Guy's puppy and starts attacking. Wine splashes everywhere and finally Tweaker gets ahold of his animal and Guy's girlfriend clutches their puppy. Guy is hovering over Tweaker's dog and telling him to control his animal. Well, Tweaker doesn't want anyone in his business so he stands up and grabs Guy around the neck. Guy fights back and a wh

ole little debacle ensues. The police come over and take control of the situation and make Tweaker and his friends leave. Don't ya just love San Francisco?

Around 8 or so the guys, Mac and his friend Julian, joined us and then the show started. It was amazing. Huge screen, and we were really close to it, with lyrics to sing along to all of the songs. Mac even "ooh-ooh-oohed" a bit, which took a lot of pushing and a fair amount of vino. But we had a blast. At the end Amy really wanted to get up and dance, during the last song, but no one else was. Who cares? We did anyway. So the three of us danced for part of the last song, in front of about a thousand people. It was fantastic.

Jules and I bussed home, and she took a taxi from my place because walking to her place from the main road at night is a b

it sketchy. But the taxi took almost an hour to come so she didn't get home until after one in the morning!

I got to sleep in a bit this morning and then after breakfast I met up with Jules and we headed up via bus to North Beach, up near Chinatown. There was a festival up there today so we met with Genevieve and Amy and did some petitioning to get signatures in support of strong chemical security legislation (see previous post about chemical security phone calls in Nevada -

this is the same deal). It was so hard, and so many people didn't want to have anything to do with it. Although we did get cool Greenpeace T-shirts out of the deal. I only got like 25 signatures in just over an hour of petitioning. But it was cool, we all got to hang out and go grab some lunch and what not. It seems like young guys were the majority of those that were willing to sign the petition and half of the time you had to flirt with them to get them to sign. There was a lot of "Hey, if you want me to write my address and phone number you better give me yours" type things - sure buddy, go visit another beer garden. Highlight of my day was definitely when this guy, who was totally wasted, was talking to Amy and signing her petition. He gave her this long hug after and wouldn't let go, and then kept kissing her ear and cheek - definitely got pictures :)

There are two big changes I have made personally while I am down here. One, I don't think I have really complained in the last week or so - not on a regular basis anyway. We all know how much I love to complain, but honestly, there is no reason to. Sure, I tell ridiculous stories about how much crazy shit happens, but being independent and just having myself to take care of and depend on, and no one else to look out for me has really made me appreciate things I once took for granted and suck it up and deal with situations a lot better. It's a good thing. The other thing is that I will never again take a functioning washer and dryer for granted. The washing machine we have here sort of works, although sometimes it floods, and the dryer doesn't work at all. I could be normal and take my clothes to a laundry mat but instead I have opted for hand washing. Every time I shower I take a few clothes with me and wash them, and then hang them to dry! It's really efficient, I never run out of clothes, and I always almost have all of my shirts to choose from. Haha.

saturday morning sweet peas

Firstly, this picture of Pippy I took last night and couldn't resist posting because she is adorable!!!!!

Thursday and Friday are all a blur. Work was amazing I am sure. I am having lots of fun and learning so much. David and Ben are really great at figuring out what it is that we want to get out of this summer and giving us projects to work on based on that. It's fantastic. On Friday we planned out what the rest of our summer is going to look like and presented it to our managers and others and overall they thought it was great. We're look at a minimum of 90 new recruits to the Student Network and 160 to the Activist Network which seems so awesome to me! I'm definitely really excited. We're also starting to work more with the Activist Network fellow, which is basically a paid intern that works on a 6 month contract, Alex, who seems pretty cool too. Aaron and I went out to Trader Joe's to buy some groceries when I got back - hooray! Looking back to Thursday we had a big monthly meeting where all of the offices were connected and gave updates - video conferencing to DC! And all of the new interns and staff were introduced (that's us!). And then we had our weekly San Francisco staff lunch. Also... I am hooked on Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans which are like the Activist Network meeting staple food. :)

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging much lately, I'll just either be so tired at night, or sit down and try and think of what to write and either not be able to share that many details of my day or just totally forget what happened because it is all such an awesome blur.

And then this morning Mandi and I went to the farmer's market (which I found out is one of the best, or even the best, in the city) and stocked up again on gorgeous fresh produce including amazing nectarines, raspberries and gorgeous peas.