End of Semester Celebrations

So I have been a terrible blogger. I know. Sorry. I promise to make a New Year's resolution to fix that. On that note, I always start to get excited and cheerful this time of the year!! YAY for Christmas, New Years, time off from school and work. Life does not get better!

Get ready everyone. For those of you who go to the gym often and year around, there is about to be an invasion of impostors. You have probably seen them before, and you will see them again in the next year. But do not fear, these people will discontinue to crowd your gym by February. ahahaha Let's get a little more creative, shall we? No New Year resolution that will say I will go to the gym everyday. This year I will eat better and lose ten pounds... blah blah blah blah Just kidding! Maybe this year is your year and you will lose the weight and be a healthier person. If that is truly your goal, I hope you have a partner in crime! I have Rachel Cannon! :) We are committed to running a half marathon together, along with Katy, Nina, my mom and dad. I can't wait!

One more thing about the Holiday season, remember that gifts are only gifts, but your time with friends and family is a must! This is what the Holidays are for, enjoy each other, get ready for the family feuds, usual screaming!!! I know you missed it! I sure do!

I miss putting up the Christmas tree, wrapping gifts in secret, helping mom with Christmas shopping, figuring out what everyone was going to eat on Christmas Eve, making the food, picking outfits... all the fun stuff!

Get ready for the Holiday Season!!!!!!!!

Best wishes,

Gaby

Overnight Camping Trip: Foothills Trail

Things every neophyte camper/hiker should know:

1. Invest in a decent hiking backpack
2. Know your route
3. Figure out exactly how much water you will need
4. Sleeping in the woods can be scary


Okay, now we got that taken care of, to the real story of the week. Since our last hiking trip to Forty Acre rock (which I did not blog about, SORRY!) we decided it was time for an over night trip!!!!!
After checking out some stuff online Joe and I decided on Foothills Trail, the trail itself is about 80 miles long and it runs both in North and South Carolina. It covers the highest mountain in South Carolina (about 3500ft!). Not too shabby!

So it is the night before our big trip. Joe, Lawrence and I go to Inakaya (a Japanese restaurant) to iron out details. I would write out our packing list, but it is too long. Here are some key items: map, wet wipes, food, whistle, first aid kid (which came in handy), sleeping bags, tent..among other things! Oh yea, Iodine tablets. Once we got home from dinner Joe and I realize that we cannot pursue our original hiking plans to go from Points access 8 (Whitewater Falls) to access 11 (King's Creek Waterfall) because there were no camping grounds along the way. I am sure all of the experienced hikers are probably laughing as they read this, since it took at more than an hour to realize that primitive camping does not require specific designations. I know...silly right! But we were awake until 1am because of the minor detail. It was quiet the experience, but now I know a whole lot more about the foothills trail and its access points! I even know the Boat access point in 5A (Laurells something)!

Saturday Morning, 9am everyone meets up at our place. Where we all ate pao de queijo (cheesy bread) that I had frozen earlier in the week and baked that morning. It was gluten-free so Erin could eat it!!! =) Yay!!
We were all packed and ready to hit the road! Joe and I were carrying traditional backpacks, I attached my sleeping back and cooler to my backpack. Which sounded like a splendid idea at home until we reached the trail and i was dying from carrying so much weigh.
After all, I think ultra light backpacking might be the way to go!
Magically we get to our hiking location all right. Tom tom and Garmit got us there in one piece and good timing! We parked the car and took pictures of the beautiful Whiterwater Falls.

I think the first 1.5 hours were the worst. My shoulders were killing me, I was out of breath. I felt like I was out of shape. When really, I have been steadily working out, but I am just going to blame the weighted! Lawrence was nice enough to take the cooler off my back (he had a real hiking backpack!) and a Erin took the sleeping bag, that was great because it was not centered on my back and it kept making lose my balance. Which is clearly a bad idea, when you are hiking a mountain!!!!!!

About 2.5 miles in we find a great, perfect condition campsite. Ohhh were we tempted to stay there. But, Joe and Lawrence pushed us to keep going. Erin and I were ready to give in and change our hiking plans. We decided to speed up the pace because it was close to sundown and we needed to have our campsite ready and some food cooked before dark!

Close to six o'clock we get to our checkpoint. Only to find some hikers that well, scared me a little bit. There first question when they saw us was, "where are yall sleeping tonight?"-- what kind of question is that???? HELLO?? CREPPPYYYY
Anyway, we figured out where to go next on a picnic table and of course it menacing to rain. Thanks to Zeus, it was ephemeral. Did I mention these were three guys that said that to us, so it was Erin, Joe, Lawrence and I. When we get to our trail, we see them setting up, I was freaked out. I know, I am paranoid!!! Do not blame me okay? I am a city girl. Safety is my priority.

We hike a few more minutes and find a great site. It was used before, so we had a fire camp already set-up and plenty of room for our tents. Boys in one, girls in the other! Joe and Lawrence found a dead tree nearby that really helped us out with our fire!!!! Erin is the master of fire. She worked that fire like nobody's business. The menu for dinner was, chicken with veggies (Lawrence), corn on the cob (Erin), Roasted potatoes (G &J), and hot dogs (G&J)! And for desert, ::drum rolls:: SMORES!!!!
Dinner was delicious!!!
Lights out, 9pm! Erin and I pretty much fed each others fear that we were going to be attacked by the creepy guys. It was not bad, but when you start to over analyze things....you know what happens!

We got up the next day 7am to the sound of rain. Great huh??? When the woods was really well sheltered by the trees so we had no problem getting going!! We packed up, had breakfast (protein bar) and headed out to finish our 7 miles! It was beautiful and easy compared to the day before. Loved every minute of it. We told each other jokes, talked about the possibility of a bear driving an ATV, tapped Erin's ankle, cross over two state lines, really nothing extraordinary.

Okay, so turns out Erin is prone to rolling her ankle and of course she cursed herself, but mentioning that fact to Lawrence 10 minutes prior to rolling it. Lucky for us, Joe had insisted on buying sports tape at wal-mart two nights earlier. When I opposed. Fortunately, he was an athletic trainer in HS and taping ankles was one of his responsibilities! Overall it was a great camping trip. We talked a lot, saw plenty of beautiful waterfalls along the way and certainly heard a ton of birds.

*Erin walked about a mile on a bad ankle. Kudos to Erin!

On our way back home we stopped to eat at a Ruby Tuesday's and I felt compelled to apologize to our server, because we smelled so bad. Really, how do people camp out for a week?a month? 5 months? NO SHOWER????? NOPE, can't do.

- I will post pictures later!!!

Peace

Ps- GO GATORS
62-3

My attempt at a half-marathon

For those of you who know me well. Know that this Spring I will attempt a half-marathon. I know I know, it is not like it has never been done before. Even better, it is NOT a marathon. I get it.

I applaud the runners of the world. Yes, being in shape matters, but to keep running requires mental stability. No I do not mean to be capable of taking a math test, reading a book, or figuring out the answer to our society's health care problem. How does a runner not get BORED while running? Now, that is the true/trick question.

On a personal note, this past week was a great running/jogging week for me. Not because of distance, but because when I was running I forgot about running. Funny huh? I did not notice that until Joe asked me what I thought about when I was jogging, I said whatever I am listening to or watching on TV. (The gym I go to has a TV for each equipment...I know...it is heaven) I have finally found a pace that works for me. I never thought such thing existed. Yea, I had read about it, but really. It happpens! Just hang in there and keep up the jogging!!!

Mapmyrun.com is a really good place to go for people that want to be held accountable for their workouts and also see progress. I was skeptical about my running abilities when I first embarked on my crazy journey of training for a half-marathon. But thanks for Dj steve boy and mapmyrun I can easily jog 3-4 miles without gasping for air when I get off the treadmill. Let me make sure you got that, WITHOUT GASPING FOR AIR. Not bad huh?

(For those of you who are reading this, I get nothing for mentioning either of the websites above!)

Let us talk numbers, I started with a 14 minute mile only being able to do one without slowing down. That was about 7 weeks ago. Today I can do a ten minute mile, without passing out! Even better, now I can do 3 solid 12 minute miles without slowing down. My goal for the next two weeks is to get to a solid 4 miles. I think a 12/mile for me right now is good.

I had a lot of trouble at first figuring out what was better, increase speed or distance. Well, since I am not the best at pacing myself I tried to do both simultaneously. I had to take a week off because I pushed my body too hard. My knees were in so much pain I could barely walk. Listen to your body, but push yourself!!! Another great question is what is the happy medium? Well in a documentary about Marathoners, Deena Michelle Kastor mentioned that she had never stopped running due to discomfort except for one time. She says, it felt different than the other times I wanted to stop. Turns out she had a fractured bone on her ankle and had she not stopped she would not have been able to compete. So, listen to your body!

On the marathoners note, yesterday I met someone that is training right now. To be more speficic she finished her 20 mile run yesterday prior to our meeting. I asked how did you do it... Her response, "I talked to myself, if this were a real race would you quit? C'mon you can do it!" She also says she loves to run and talk with people. My guess is, not many people can cover that much distance in one run. Also, our of curiosity I asked about her time. She proudly replied, 3 hrs and 20 minutes. So, 10 minute/miles all of the way!!! Impressive!!!!!


"Good things come slow - especially in distance running."
- Bill Dellinger, Oregon coach

Peace

What is wrong with this picture?

Funny, huh? Well that is certainly not the word I would use. But that is reality, not reality TV, but life. This is a picture taken by my brother in Sao Paulo, Brazil. My home country. This post is mainly to get me to try and understand and feel for myself the magnitude of injustice and class discrepancies in Brazil.
This is Brazil socioeconomic class 101. There is the rich, and the poor. The sad part is that this is true to most of central and south America.
According to the UN estimations, Brazil has 190 million residents, making it the 5th most populous nation in the world.
Now, read for yourself about wealth distribution.

(this was released in 2008--> relatively recent)
"The Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA) of the Brazilian Government in a recent study stated that in São Paulo the wealthiest 10% had 73.4% of while in Rio they retained 62.9% and Salvador 67%.

Near the end of the 1800s, the richest 10% in Rio had 68% of the wealth. Not much progress."

Tell me these numbers do not make you want to puke. Just look in over two hundred years nothing has changed. NOTHING. For a country's whose motto is "Ordem e Progresso" (progress and order), they (should I say we) are lacking in every aspect of this issue. This is a major FAILURE.

It is truly pathetic, a country with so much to give, cannot give to their own people. A country known for its happiness but that is incapable of caring for its citizens.

A read an Ethnography called Laughter Out of Place by Donna Goldestein. It is about Brazil's favela. The researcher follows, lives, and records the life of a empregada aka maid. She depicts the horror, poverty, fear, and deplorable way in which this woman lived. She is black. Now, for those of you who believe Brazil is free of racism, let us all be clear when I say you are DEAD WRONG.

Look at what the footprint of an apartment in Sao Paulo. See if you think there is anything wrong...

It is a little hard to read. But to point things out I drew-in two ovals, and wrote front and back door. I do not know much of history, so dates to me are just dates. What i do know is that in Gainesville in the 1960s due to some law, it was required that apts have two doors, a front and a back one. But in Brazil...well I cannot tell you if there is a law, but it sure is a practice.

I lived there for 11 years. I never EVER thought about the fact that we had a service, and a non service elevator, an entrance and a back door. For safety? Very possible. However, you can see from that picture that it was used for more than that. It is portrays a separation of the areas where one's maid can enter, exit, and a lot of time live. In this specific plant, we do not see the "Maid's room," but I can say where I lived, we had one. Now, my mother was opposed to idea of having a maid sleep and stay with us. I will be honest, although I am part of the middle class and we were in Brazil too. My mother proudly says she only had a maid for about 2-3 years. Mostly because she was working and needed someone to clean the house. We were brats and did not like the empregada's food, so we asked that my mom cook =)

I distinctly remember no being able to use the "front door entrance" if i was wearing a bathing suit, barefoot, or carrying groceries. I guess this was brought to my attention almost a year ago, and still cannot grasp it. Why?

But I digress, reading that book made me sick, made me want to just cry. Our society is built to repress and prevent the people that live in the shantytown you see in the picture from rising above poverty. How? Good question. One way is to not address the problem with violence, the empregada in the story felt save in her favela yet the police was never there. It was managed, by a drug lord and gangs. The cops are well aware of this. It would not be the first time to know that a cop is cooperating and getting paid by the drug lord to protect him instead of abiding by Brazilian Law. Corruption.... enough said. Everyone has a price..is that not what they say? I guess Brazilians just are not that expensive...

To make matters worse... I heard on NPR yesterday as story that once again breaks my heart. I don't know why it still does. I mean wouldn't you have gotten used to it? Well it turns out that a popular TV Host (whose show is about reality TV covering murders) has been allegedly ordering the killings-- so he can UP his TV RATING. What is a life in term of rating? 2 lives for #1 program for the night? Really? This is just another example of how little life is worth, at least how it appears to be in Brazil. Things are bad when there are too many dead to make the 5 0'clock news....

Okay. I am done.

Like the Southerners say "Bless her(Brazil's) Heart"

GaBy

An attempt to see the Opossum Creek Falls

This week has been a little crazy new for me. I started my GA (graduate assistanship) and I love it. I have a lot to learn, so it is a little overwhelming but with time I will learn it all...hopefully! hahah

Well enough of day to day. I will get to it sometime in the near future!
Anyhow, Joe, Lawrence and I decided we wanted to go see a waterfall. Okay, the back story...
Joe got a new Pentax K10D for graduation from his mom, so he wanted to put it to use. One day I mentioned that I would really like to see a waterfall, just because. You know, one of those things you want to but never get around to it.

So on Friday Joe and I looked up waterfalls and picked one that was others had said were challenging but not impossible. ( Mind you my only previous experience with Hiking was part of the Appalachian trail with an outdoor group from UF, there were two guides we hiked for 7 hours and camped overnight. It was a great experience.) But all in all I am not expert.

The next morning we get all of our stuff together. Things like, sun-screen, bug repellent, lots of water, hats, first aid kit, matches (the last two were courtesy of Joe =) he said it was a safety precaution!!!), he also had a pocket knife, and snacks. We geared up, but our shoes on and headed out the door. We met up with Lawrence and hit the road.

Oh yea, it takes 3 hours from Columbia to get to the Sumter National Forest where this waterfall is located. Long story short we arrived at the "location street" around 3pm that afternoon. Little did we know that there were no signs of where this unpaved road ended nor of where the trail could possibly start. Like I said before I am no hiking expert and neither are the other boys. We failed to realize that looking into getting more detailed instructions might have been slightly beneficial. But hey, like I told them yesterday-- it will be an adventure. What an understatement.

After about 20 minutes of driving on the dirt road which both google maps and my Tom Tom said the distance was less than a "1 minute," we saw CARS. You should have seen our happy faces. We actually saw parked cars on the side of this one lane, curvy, dirt road! We stopped and looked for a possible trail, and there it was... An upwards red arrow that lead to a four wheeler "marked" trail.

The beginning of the trail was nice and easy, which surprised us since we had read it was going to be a "strenuous" 2 mile hike that would take two hours each way. But hey, we were just happy to have gotten somewhere. Of course like every good hiker we each picked up a hiking stick! At first we only used it because it was fun and looked cool.

Let's just say that we were glad later. To recap, we have no map, no idea where this trail is leading us, but we are proud.

Lawrence proved to be a good leader. He lead most of the way including parts where I did not think it was possible to get by. I am not very good with imagery but just imagine this inexperienced hikers, walking around with a stick, a sweet new camera, on a difficult and obscure path.

The best part was when we could hear the water from the trail. Then the feeling vanished when I saw the steep downhill slippery path we had to go through. But hey we got by!

On a good note, no one us got hurt. Except me, not bad. I had scratched, and Joe got the first aid kit out. Okay it was more than just a scratch if I had to count it would be ten on my lower leg, it was bleeding a little. No problem! I am a trooper.

In the end, we did not see the waterfall, instead we saw ......well the pictures speak for themselves!




We had a great time! Sorry for the long entry. It is my first...I hope you enjoy it!

GaBy