Pictures from California!

Howdy! These are several pictures that I took from my first couple days of work! I can't believe I have already been in San Francisco for 10 days! 

This is the view from my window!

This is the view from outside the office!

We take a walk every afternoon while at the office to take a little break from work. I love all of the boats!

One of the first days I was here, we went to Phoenix Lake, which is a beautiful forest preserve! The following pictures are from that!

Kasie, Judi's dog is pictured in the bottom corner.

There is a delicious Puerto Rican restaurant called Sol Food, and I had a really yummy meal!

Kasie getting friendly with another dog.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I sort of see this as one of my favorite quotes, which states: Be the fruit loop in a bowl full of cheerios. :)

We took Kasie to this really awesome pet store after the lake, and they had a diy bath area.

This dog made me smile.

And check out these deluxe shampoos!

This made me happy. I could picture Katie playing with it.

These were some cool statues that we saw in the central part of an outdoor mall.

Finally, this is one of my favorite pictures I took over my first few days when we were at the lake. There was a lot of light, so that definitely gave the picture a cool effect!

Lots more has happened since these days, and I am stunned by how much happened over these last 11 days! I look forward to posting more soon!

I'm famous! (well, sort of!)

Hey guys! There will be more coming tonight, but today we had our eco dorm room shoot, and my boss put a picture of me holding a product on twitter! Check it out :)

To see the page, here is the link: https://twitter.com/teensturngreen/status/348169419282857984/photo/1

Also, Teens Turning Green was recently featured in Coco Eco magazine, and I am pictured with two of the other interns. To see this post, click here!

And finally, Channel One News, a news program made for students, especially middle school and high school, came by our office to talk GMOs yesterday. The 7th grade classroom I observed in with Jake last fall watched this news program every Monday when we were there, so I was very excited! I got to meet one of the main reporters, Maggie Rulli! We chatted a bunch, hugged, and took a picture!

Happy weekend!! :)

"Bringing It Home" Documentary

Hello everyone! It is already late and I still have several tasks to do, but I feel so inspired by an INCREDIBLE documentary that I just watched! It is called "Bringing It Home", and explains all of the incredible uses of industrial hemp, and how it can truly save the world! While it is not yet released to the general public, the company Dr. Bronners sent us the link and wanted Ashley and I to watch and offer feedback about how it would do on college campuses! I have included two of the different trailers, if you would like to take a look! The first one is a little bit shorter!

Several of the facts that really stand out to me are:

• hempcrete (instead of concrete...used in construction) not only insulates homes to greatly reduce the need of heating or air conditioning, but also removes carbon from the atmosphere (it's carbon negative!)
• hemp oil has 25 times the amount of Omega-3s (essentials oils that are in fish and flax that keep your heart, skin, and hair healthy) and half the saturated fat of olive oil!
• hemp can grow practically anywhere, and it's very hearty, grows fast, stops weeds, and leaves the soil better than before it was grown
• when used in clothing, the same acreage can grow 250% more fiber than cotton, and can be used to make hemp silk, hemp muslin, hemp denim, and a lot more!
• Hemp is used as an alternative to petroleum in soaps, so then you can put organic matter on your skin, rather than such a toxic substance!
• Hemp was used in many important events over the course of history, included the sails of Columbus's Mayflower voyage, the paper of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the first clothing ever made in China, in the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza, and more! (until it was outlawed in the United States in the 1970s.
• There are over 30 countries who have thriving hemp markets, including the UK, Ireland, Canada, France, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Africa and many others! The US is also the largest importer of hemp products.
• Although hemp comes from the cannabis plant and is related to marijuana, it is not possible to get "high" off of hemp, and the plants look completely different in terms of height, seeds, pollen, and fibers.

Anyway, I just thought I would share! I am very excited and feel mobilized! Now I am back to work on a letter to the filmmaker, doing some Project Green Challenge outreach in high schools and colleges across the country, editing some film footage I shot today at an organic nursery and garden store, and working on a lesson for my environmental curriculum! Woohoo! Wishing you all a happy week!

Father's Day

In honor of Father's Day coming up, the Human Rights Campaign posted this video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

New Destinations and Beginnings

Hello all!  It has been over a week since I last posted and I have been very busy! I spent the past few days in Arizona with my family and visited my grandparents. It was a wonderful vacation! Then, I flew directly to San Francisco, where I am beginning an internship! Although I don't go into the office until tomorrow, from the moment I arrived around 8pm the night has been a whirlwind!

Tonight it was one of the other interns birthdays, so we had a home-cooked meal altogether, with Judi, the founder of the organization I'm working for, Ashley, the other intern, and John, the organization's graphic designer that lives with Judi. We had one of the healthiest meals I have eaten all year haha. It consisted of lentils and quinoa cooked with olive oil, salt, and pepper, some roasted asparagus topped with some fresh grated parmesan cheese, and some avocado. For dessert, there was a special treat of gluten free chocolate tarts and a vanilla cake, topped with strawberries! They were some of the best treats I have ever had!!

Then, we headed off to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, armed with notebooks and pens, and in just a half hour, we divided and conquered almost the whole store for an upcoming project, since Bed, Bath, and Beyond will now feature a "green" school shopping list, for incoming college freshmen, in addition to their other list. Then we stopped by the office, and they showed me where we will be working! It looks so cool! I will take pictures tomorrow! We finished all of the days activities around 11pm, and then I started unpacking and getting settled!

My head is currently spinning, which is really saying something, since I am usually very busy! However, I am excited to really dive into work! I think I am going to really grow this summer! I will be doing all of my own cooking, which is exciting, but I also will probably learn a lot about food, especially with the lifestyles of the others. Ashley is vegan, gluten free, and prefers to eat raw foods, and Judi is almost vegan (she likes cheese), gluten free and sugar free as well. Looks like no one will be touching my morning yogurt! :) We also go shopping at Whole Foods every day! Also, I am currently staying at Judi's house, but I will be living with another lady in a couple weeks, and will be borrowing one of Judi's bikes to ride to work. My bike riding abilities are currently a little rusty (or very rusty haha), so this will be a good challenge (and a workout, it's 7 miles each way!) for me!

Here are a couple pictures of my room, for the next few weeks anyway! I feel like I am living in a Pottery Barn catalog haha! Also, my window has one of the best views I could possibly imagine, so I will definitely share a photo from during the day! I included a nighttime view, and you can see the lights from all the homes on the hill, overlooking a valley!

I will hopefully be going to bed soon, but I hope you all have a wonderful night!

Video footage from the ICST Japan 2013 Trip!

Hello everyone! This is probably the last video I will make regarding my Japan trip, but I have included  much of the remaining video footage from the trip into one youtube video. Some of it may seem random, but there is a collection of footage ranging from the Rotary International Peace Conference in Hiroshima to the Osaka Aquarium to the fish market in Tokyo! Enjoy!

Day 3: Yanai

Happy day! As usual, this post is very long, but my favorite parts are towards the end! :)

As we left Hiroshima, I was quite excited for what came next! The trip was already off to a great start, and I looked forward to see what Yanai was all about, and meet our host families! Yanai is a very small town, and located on the map below!

As we were driving in, I enjoyed seeing a more rural Japan than I had expected! I tried taking some pictures, but it was sort of rainy, and many of the pictures came out blurry!

One random thing is that these cube shaped cars are incredibly popular, and I thought this one was a cool color!

Another fashion post for Lizzie!

 This fish is the symbol of the town, and there are fish hanging everywhere! This was a very large one hanging in the hotel where our program facilitators stayed.

 Soon after our arrival, it was time for a walking tour! The rain made everything seem really beautiful and magical! It was very quiet, calm, and relaxing!

Click "read more" to see the rest of this post!

Children's Taiko Performance

While we were in Yanai and attended a banquet sponsored by Rotary Club, we met our host families and also saw a performance from the Children's Taiko group! Taiko is a Japanese art form involving an ensemble of drums! The children were both incredibly talented and very adorable! I put together a video of part of their performance! Hope you like it!

Japan Video Slideshow

Happy Saturday! I just compiled a video slideshow of my Japan trip! It is definitely tough to capture an incredible, two-week experience in just 10 minutes, but I did my best! Enjoy!