Still moving along

Time is passing surprisingly fast here in SF. When we first came out here just under three months ago, I thought September would never come. Now we will be going back to Utah for eight days in two weeks! Brandon's first quarter is almost over, and next week he has finals. His first semester has gone great and he is really loving dental school. And, just as I thought would happen but he was worried about, Brandon is a natural at all of the stuff he is doing; making wax-ups, learning biochem, and assisting with patients.

We had a nice little break last weekend. Brandon aced his test on Friday so we took all of Labor Day weekend (our anniversary) off and he didn't study once. We drove up to Northstar resort at Lake Tahoe and rode the lift accessed downhill and freeride trails all day. Northstar is definitely one of my favorite places to ride! Fun was had, fine lodgings were stayed at (La Quinta Inn) and gourmet food was enjoyed by all (at Panda Express and Carl's Junior). What a classy and relaxing weekend.

                Nothing makes Brandon happier than anniversary buffalo wings

Classes officially started Thursday of this week. The day before class started I was able to go sea kayaking with Louise, who is a family friend of the Nakkens and moved out here a year before we did. It was so fun! We got to see a few harbor seals and one even swam behind us as we paddled away. After that I met up with the Luna Chix mountain bike group for a beautiful ride at China Camp.

Here's the little guy that followed us:

So, at least so far, I seriously love my job. This semester I am teaching three online classes. It's kind of a bummer that I don't have any real life interaction with my students, but for someone with no teaching experience, it's a great way to start out. Next semester they expect that I will do half of my teaching in class and half online.

The way our online classes are set up, the students are assigned pages to read from the textbook, then they watch a video presentation, and read the other information that I have posted. Each week, or module, they have to participate in a class discussion, complete a written assignment, and take a quiz. Then they have a midterm, a final project, and a final exam. So far I have been able to participate in class discussions and grade a few assignments. I get really excited being able to give feedback and participate in these discussions. Although so far it's been all of the overachievers who turn in work early that I've dealt with. Maybe I won't be as excited if I have to push and prod some of the less enthusiastic students.

One benefit of online classes is that I can login from anywhere, so when Brandon has his break, we can go back to Utah and I can still do my job and get paid! Awesome.

Just call me Professor Nakken

Ok so maybe that's a little bit or a lot bit of a stretch. I don't call myself professor....all I know is that my friends think so. (Disclaimer: that's an Emma quote.....pretty sure none of my friends would call me that)  I think I'll stick with instructor and just have the class call me Heather, but I still feel like a student.

Yesterday was my first day on the payroll. Class doesn't start until next week but we had a faculty meeting and teaching expo. I had to get up super early to take the free Presidio bus downtown. Free transportation? Thanks National Park Service.




We had a day full of seminars and a faculty meeting. It was really great to meet other instructors and eat some delicious food catered by Whole Foods. I was able to get trained and learn how my classes are set up with quizzes, assignments, and tests. I am really excited about the material and really excited to be putting my education to use. I have been having some severe career envy with Brandon in dental school. This helps.

Things I learned:

The math and science department is tiny. I know it's an art school and all, but come on! The good new is, the class I am teaching is pretty new. Currently there are three sections. They expect it to grow a lot and may add as many as three new sections next semester. More work and more pay for me!

I don't look like a professor. This is ok for this semester because I am teaching online, but next semester, I need some professional clothes. It's funny because I never felt out of place among science professionals even  at conferences away from BYU, but here my lack of fashion sense sticks out like a sore thumb.

There are some really talented students at Academy of Art. It was really fun to walk by some of the student displays. It would be really fun to be an art major.



Next post I'll talk more about Brandon. All I have been posting about is myself lately. He is doing way cooler stuff than I.

Heather's Homeless Day

Today our apartment was painted, and we weren't allowed to be there from 8-4. I don't start work for another week, so I had an awesome day exploring.

I started the morning out at Angelina's Cafe and Deli. I drive by it every time I drop Brandon off and have been eager to try it. I wasn't disappointed! I had a sweet morning bun, hot chocolate, and a fruit cup. It felt so European. The pastries are on display in a case, the doors are open, and everyone stops by on their way to work to grab coffee and a pastry.



Next I stopped at Sport's Basement to buy some pepper spray to assuage my fears about cougar attacks. Turns out, according to the guy I talked to, pepper spray won't really work. He suggested I get a knife. Hmmm, not so sure I would be able to stab a mountain lion. So I bought a cute shirt from the sale rack instead. Sport's Basement is seriously awesome.

I drove 30 minutes north out of the dreary fog in SF to  sunny Fairfax, a quaint little town below Mt. Tamalpais. It was so beautiful! I had to park in town and ride my bike up to Camp Tamarancho to explore some of the touted "best singletrack in NorCal."  All I have to say is "Amazing". It was like a combination of Clark's Trail and Ridge 157 Trails. Sometimes flowy, sometimes technical singletrack and beautiful views. I was in heaven. Until I came upon this sign posted to a tree. Yep my nightmare was coming true. At which point I went into panic mode and zoomed down the rest of the trail, singing at the top of my lungs to warn any mt. lion of my presence.

I only saw one other person on this whole 11 mile ride, which was kind of creepy. He probably thought the only creepy part was that a weirdo girl was singing at the top of her lungs before she saw him and stopped. Embarrassed, I said, "Don't worry, I scared all the mountain lions for you." He smiled and I felt better.


Before I saw the sign:

After I saw the sign:

Right as I finished. I look good! Or relieved.

I finished the ride a bit hammered (see previous pic). It was hot and I only stopped twice for a quick second to snap a picture so I wouldn't get eaten. I stopped at a streetside cafe on the way back in Fairfax. Most mt bikers go for beers after rides. I go for oreo milkshakes. (Weird pic because I didn't want anyone to see the weirdo eating by herself and taking pictures of herself)

By now it was one o clock and I still had three hours to kill. I got a free pass from our housing complex to go to the Exploratorium at the Fine Arts Palace in SF. It was pretty cool. They had exhibits on physics, math, social science/psychology and biology. 


Back to gloomy SF.

My face as it would look if it were two right sides or two left sides. I have read that beauty in a face is the result of symmetry. I don't think my face is symmetrical.  You can make whatever assumptions you want from that. Also, apparently one of my eyes is twice the size of the other.

Fun Day!

I am lame.

For the past hour I have been occupying myself laughing at animal memes. I must be really immature because I think they are hilarious. I laughed at this for a whole ten minutes. I'm still laughing. I am lame.

Scaredy Cat

So..... as I have been sitting here waiting to watch footage of the Curiosity landing on Mars I have been feeding a recent obsession I have acquired. It's quite unhealthy and it's sort of consuming......and it's also kind of weird. Mountain lions. Yep. Weird.

In the few weeks that we have been here I have been doing a lot of bike riding, since I don't have a whole lot else to do (I got the teaching job BTW). Most of my mountain bike rides have taken me into the Marin Headlands. The Headlands are beautiful and secluded and full of wildlife: I have seen bobcats three times (once with a kitten), coyotes, and deer. No big deal and pretty awesome right? Well, I have run into a couple of bikers who told me that they or friends of theirs have run into mountain lions on their rides. Eesh. So I went home and read all that I could find about mountain lions in California. There has been a lot to read. Turns out, tons of people have seen them in the Headlands, and all on trails that I am riding. Luckily, no one has been attacked here, but a few years ago a couple of mountain bikers were killed in Southern California.

I don't know why I am freaked out now, when I wasn't in Utah. I even saw one in Utah (from the car) and I still wasn't scared out on the trails. Perhaps here it is because there are lots of them packed into small parks and relatively closed off spaces. I can't stop thinking about the one I saw in Utah. Walking through a campground. Of at least two hundred people. It was huge and it wasn't scared at all. 


The other thing that makes it scary here is the thick, all-enveloping fog. I can see myself, alone on the trail, visibility reduced to five feet, and then, WHAM! No one around to hear me scream, even if they could see me. Saturday I went on a lonely ride at the top of the Headlands that started out as kind of foggy and ended up as mega foggy. I wanted to stop and take a picture but I was too freaked out to stop. What, and make it look like I am injured or lost? That would just be a mountain lion lunch invitation. So I tried to find a picture online. This is pretty much what the trail looked like:

I joined a women's mountain bike group, but they only go once a week. So the rest of the time I am on my own. But not really. Because I am pretty sure the mountain lions are there too. And this is what I feel like:

But replace these:

with this:


Disclaimer: I actually think mountain lions are way cool and beautiful. Also moderately to severely terrifying. Thus my obsession.

Finally starting to feel like home....?

Ok it really doesn't but I couldn't think of a better title. It's starting to feel like our temporary home. Thanks Carrie. Last week we finally got a couch! We were having people sit on our camping pads when they came over, so this was a major improvement. Next thing we need is a real dining room table; but for now our card table will have to do. 

Family room with the new couches (Don't look too close. I painted the flowers above the couch, but I tell people my niece painted them for us): 

 Brandon's study area:

Bedroom- pretty bare:

Kitchen:

Spare room/bike room minus two bikes out in the shed: Come stay with us!

In other news, school is going great for Brandon. He has done really well on his tests and quizzes so far and is loving practicing drilling on teeth! I was really surprised when Brandon told me how competitive dental school is once you are in. He told me how one guy was bragging about how he told other people incorrect information to study for the test so he could do better than everyone else. Someone even ripped out the pages to one of Brandon's notebooks when he left it on top of his locker one night. Crazy!  

We were able to get out for date night Friday to go nuts on chocolate at Ghirardelli Square. Brownies and chocolate bars and ice cream, yum! Don't tell anybody in SF this or else they will shun me, but Ghirardelli is not my favorite chocolate. Give me Cadbury any day.

No pictures of me this week because I dyed my hair orange again. Every time I dye my hair I always say I will never do it myself again. But then I always do. So I am never promising anything when it comes to my hair again except that it will usually look weird because I did it myself. I have an interview for a teaching position (Physiology/Nutrition) at the Academy of Art University on Tuesday. I am just hoping that they think orange is cool and artsy looking, especially on someone with dark brown/black eyebrows.

This is how I will show up to my interview.


Ok well that's it for this week. Here is a pretty picture from our backyard.

Also one of me on a ride this week prior to orange washing myself.

Week 1: Done!

Check week one off of the list. Only roughly 150 weeks left to go! Just kidding I'm not really counting. But he really did it. Now that the first week is over and he knows what to expect, Brandon is feeling a lot better. This week was like dental preschool. They got to open up their lockers, their dental kits, and meet their new practice mannequins. They practiced tracing lines with drills, waxing, and coloring! So fun. Oh and also biochemistry and physiology. But that's the boring part.

There are a bunch of new and not so new dental students in our ward, and Brandon rides his bike to school with a gang of them. Yesterday, all of the dental students in the Presidio had a barbecue on the beach behind our house as a kind of "get to know you" activity. It was great to meet some fun new people, but it was probably the coldest barbecue I have ever been to!

                         (This is what it looked like walking down to the barbecue)

I spent the last week looking for jobs. I basically have two options: research or teaching. I would love the chance to teach. I love working with other college age students, teaching, and being more or less my own boss. Also it would be awesome to have the same schedule as Brandon so I could be off when he is off. I have applied for two teaching jobs; one at the College of Marin, and the other teaching physiology and nutrition at the Academy of Art University. I have heard back from the Academy of Art and they are still considering me, even though I lack teaching experience. I should find out tomorrow. I really hope I get this job! It's right in downtown San Francisco, and I get to take one free art class per semester.

If I don't get the Academy of Art job, then I will apply for another research position at UCSF. It's a good job, but I wouldn't be as excited about it. Other that job hunting and house cleaning, I haven't done much except BIKING! I am so glad we moved to an area with trails and good roads to ride on. I have been able to explore the city without spending a lot of money (which is very hard to do in San Fran).