Nu er der gået lidt tid siden jeg har fået opdateret bloggen så nu må jeg hellere forsikre folket at jeg stadig er i live. Linket til min blog er kommet på skolens hjemmeside, og i skrivende stund er den læst knap 700 gange så nu skal jeg nok passe på hvad jeg skriver.
Jeg har det stadig godt og tiden flyver afsted (kliche, men den er god nok) - kan ikke forstå at jeg har været her i 1½ måned nu. Merete (min søster) kommer og besøger mig om små to uger, fra den 20-30 marts og jeg glæder mig helt vildt, og er igang med at udtænke hvad vi skal lave i løbet af de dage. Jeg har fået godkendt ferie i alle dagene så vi skal bl.a. på en road trip rundt i California.
For et par uger siden var jeg på Treasure Island til loppemarked. TI ligger midt imellem SF og Oakland med Bay Bridge tværs henover. Det er en ret interessant ø, den blev dannet af jorden fra guldminerne der skulle køres væk under the Gold Rush i 1849 - man valgte så at smide jorden i bugten, og pludselig var der en ø. Den blev døbt Treasure Island fordi folk mener, at der stadig er en lille smule guld i jorden. Den var længe brugt som militær base, men blev i 1990erne lavet til normal beboelse. Loppemarkedet var rigtig hyggeligt og jeg fandt en gave til Rakel, min dejlige niece som fylder 1 år i marts.
Selve Bay Bridge er også ret interessant, delen mellem TI og Oakland blev nemlig en smule ødelagt under jordskælvet i 1989 og blev erklæret usikker. Først efter mange år kom de igang med at bygge en ny bro af forskellige årsager, og den vil blive indviet næste år vist nok. Så nu er der to broer med ca 20 meters mellemrum. Det er ret dumt.
Yes, jeg er begyndt at blive ret klog på byen, kan jeg høre I tænker. Jeg har nemlig taget på nogle gratis guidede gåture rundt i byen. De foregår forskellige steder og med forskellige temaer. Den ene omhandlede jordskælvet og brandene i 1906 og den anden var om Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill og en speciel gade med kun trapper og haver (se billeder nedenfor). Det er en rigtig god måde at lære byen at kende på, når man ikke har lyst til at køre rundt i turistdobbeltdækkerbusser.
I sidste weekend var jeg tilfældigt i Dolores Park, og en robot startede en fest med omkring 30 dansende gæster. (se billeder nedenfor) Det er netop den slags ting der gør SF til så fantastisk en by. Samtidig mødte jeg nogle søde mennesker fra bl.a. Denver som jeg drak øl med, købte en ukulele for $20 men da jeg ville prøve at stemme den gik den i stykker, så jeg indså at den nok kun var til pynt. ØV! jeg savner sådan et instrument at spille på. Huset jeg bor i hedder Bonny Music House hvilket er meget misvisende, da jeg vist nok er den eneste musiker, og der findes ikke engang en guitar i huset! Jeg vil se om jeg kan få lavet om på det.
Over en periode har jeg været ramt af en byge af dårlig planlægningskarma. Ofte har det også involveret andre, så jeg håber det snart går over, for det er ved at være ret belastende. Det startede vist en weekend hvor jeg først tog ind for at høre Chris (min housemate) læse sine digte i en bogbutik i Mission sammen med Bri (en anden housemate). Det gik fint nok, selvom vi ikke kom til tiden og ikke hørte de første oplæsere fik vi hørt Chris og et par andre. Derefter ville vi til Berkeley for at mødes med nogle af Chris's venner, der havde en koncert/kunstudstilling kørende. Det tog os et godt stykke tid at komme derhen, og undervejs fik vi at vide af Chris's ven at politiet havde lukket festen pga. naboklager. Da vi kom frem i Berkeley stod vi så bare ude på gaden lidt, snakkede med hans venner og drak af vores brune poser. Dagen efter mødtes jeg med Kelley og tog til Kinøjsernytår i Kinøjsertown - der var vi dog heldige med at se deres vilde optog, men da vi senere ville til en festival på et bryggeri var der allerede lukket da vi kom frem. Øv igen - vi fandt dog en anden koncert vi kunne tage til og nåede at se hele to bands. Så sent som i tirsdags ville jeg have været til en beboerhøring på Bayview politistation (en ting som min vejleder havde henvist mig til, da der planlægges et herberg for hjemløse i Bayview, som er det distrikt jeg bor i) - men jeg kom afsted alt for sent så endte med at tage hjem i stedet, da jeg kunne se at jeg ville komme mindst 40 minutter for sent. Der har sikkert været flere dårlige planlægningskarmaepisoder som jeg har glemt, for jeg føler mig lidt forfulgt af dem - jeg håber de stopper inden Merete kommer herover, for vi skulle gerne nå at se lidt ting mens hun er her..
Der er også lidt kedeligt nyt siden sidst: jeg har været til tandlæge to gange, da der begyndte at gå betændelse ved en tand jeg tidligere har fået rodbehandling i. Jeg fik en rensning og røntgenbillede og eftertjek som i alt blev $330, så det var ret surt - især når min forsikring ikke gælder lige præcis tænder. Til gengæld fik jeg set en amerikansk tandlægeklinik indefra!
I praktikken har jeg fået udarbejdet og godkendt læringsmål, så dem er jeg godt i gang med at fokusere på nu. Der har været meget læsning, research og skrivning på det sidste, da jeg har ventet på at kunne blive oprettet i deres computersystem for at kunne servicere brugere i WiC - på den måde er Glide lidt dumt skruet sammen, således at én person er ansvarlig for én ting, og når personen er på ferie går den ting bare i stå. Af samme grund har jeg først fået nøgler til kontorerne nu. Der har været en spændende debat på Glide den sidste uges tid efter disse artikler kom frem. Den første artikel er skrevet af en social worker i Tenderloin (hvor Glide også ligger) og denne artikel er skrevet af en anden social worker som modsvar på den forrige. Derfor er der opstået debat om menneskesyn og etikken i socialt arbejde som jeg synes er rigtig spændende. (god inspiration til pæd. medstuderende) Glide er i hvert fald rigtig spændende, gør en masse godt for dets brugere kan man mærke, hvilket giver en selv motivation.
Jeg håber DK har det godt, og i er ved at få lidt forår :-)
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It's been a while since I have updated the blog so now I better assure people that I am still alive. The link to my blog has been put on the school website, and in this moment it's been read 700 times so now I'll be careful what I write.
I'm still good and time flies (cliche, but it is so true) - it's hard to believe that I have been here for 1 ½ months now. Merete (my sister) will visit me in less than two weeks, from March 20 to 30 and I'm really looking forward, and started to think what to do during the days. I have been approved holiday all of those days so we will also do a road trip around California.
A couple weeks ago I was on Treasure Island to flea market. TI lies midway between SF and Oakland with Bay Bridge crossing it. It is a very interesting island, it was formed of the soil from the gold mines that had to be removed during the Gold Rush in 1849 - they chose to throw the soil into the bay, and suddenly there was an island. It was named Treasure Island because people believed that there was still a tiny bit of gold in the soil. It was long used as a military base, but in the 1990s made for normal habitation. The flea market was really nice and I found a present to Rakel, my lovely niece who turns one years in March.
The Bay Bridge is also quite interesting, the part between TI and Oakland was in fact damaged a little during the earthquake in 1989 and was declared unsafe. Only after many years, for some reason, they started to build a new bridge, and it will be inaugurated next year probably. So now there are two bridges approximately 20 meters apart. It's pretty stupid.
Yep, I'm starting to get quite clever on town, I can hear you think. I have joined some free guided walking tours around the city. They are in different places and with different themes. One theme was the earthquake and fires in 1906 and the second was on Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill and a special street with only stairs and gardens (see pictures below). It's a great way to learn about the city when you don't want to hop on the tourist double-decker buses.
Last weekend I was randomly in Dolores Park, and a robot started a party with about 30 dancing guests. (see pictures below) This is exactly the kind of thing that makes SF so great a city. At the same time, I met some nice people from particular Denver which I had beer with, bought a ukulele for $ 20 but when I would try to tune it went to pieces, so I realized that it probably was only for show. SIGH! I miss an instrument to play so bad. The house I live in is called Bonny Music House which is very misleading, as I'm probably the only musician, and there is not even a guitar in the house! I will see if I can change that.
Over a period of time I've been hit by a flurry of poor planning karma. Often, it also involved others, so I hope it will soon pass, cause it's becoming quite stressful. I guess it started in a weekend where I first went in to hear Chris (my housemate) read his poems in a bookshop in Mission together with Bri (another housemate). It went well enough, though we did not come in time and did not hear the first poets, but we heard Chris and a few others. Then we went to Berkeley to meet with some of Chris's friends who had a concert / art exhibition running. It took us quite a while to get there, and on the way Chris's friend informed us that the police had closed the party because of neighbor complaints. When we arrived in Berkeley we stood just out on the street a bit, talked to his friends and drank from our brown bags. The day after I met with Kelley and went to Chinese New Year parade in Chinesetown - there we were, however, fortunate to see their wild outfits, but when we later would go to a festival at a brewery it was already closed when we arrived. Sigh again - but we found, however, another concert we could go to and managed to see two bands. As late as Tuesday I planned to go to a public hearing at the Bayview police station (a thing that my supervisor had referred me to, they're planning a homeless shelter in Bayview, which is the district I live in) - but I was running late so I ended up going home instead, because I could see that I would be at least 40 minutes late. There was probably other bad planning karma episodes which I have forgotten, cause I feel a little persecuted by them - I hope they stop before Merete's coming over as we would like to actually see a couple things while she's here.
There is also a little boring news: I've been to the dentist twice since in infection began in a tooth I have had root canal in. I got a deep cleaning and x-ray and after checking that total was $ 330, so it was quite annoying - especially when my insurance does not cover exactly teeth. On the other hand, I've now seen an American dental clinic from the inside!
In the internship, I have prepared and gotten approved my learning agreement, so I've started to focus on that now. There has been much reading, research and writing lately, as I have been waiting to be set up in their computer system to be able to see clients in WiC - the way Glide works sometimes is that one person is in charge for one thing, and when the person is on vacation you'll have to wait for that. For the same reason I only just got keys to the offices now. There has been an interesting debate in Glide the last week or so after these articles appeared. The first article written by a social worker in the Tenderloin (where Glide's also located) and this article is written by another social worker in response to the previous one. This raises debate about human ethics of social work which I think is really interesting. Glide is an interesting place, you can tell they provide good services to the clients which gives you motivation.
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| Around Russian Hill - street of stars and gardens |
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| skull tattoo + bald spot + growing out hair = awesome |
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