Goal #53 Take a Middle Eastern dance class

In 2010, I had a friend who was a belly dancer. Previous to this, my only idea of belly dancing came from Aladdin.

It seemed like something scarlet women use to entice men. Belly dancing might as well be pole dancing which might as well be lap dancing.

But it's not! Alisha told me she belly danced (which surprised me) and told me how much she loved it (surprised again). Then she said the most intriguing thing--belly dancing is an escape from secular society. Whaaat? Turns out she had been writing a blog for a class, and chose belly dancing as her theme. I devoured each post. Her statements about belly dancing intrigued me. Things like:

• Regardless of your size, race, life style, dance ability, or anything else that may matter in any other setting, people there accept you for you.  Belly dancing, for me, really in an escape from a secular society.  My dance class is  something I look forward to all week because it is 1-1 ½ hours of freedom.  Freedom from gossip, freedom from being judged, freedom from a society that doesn’t accept people how they are.  At dance I can be me, and that person is good enough just the way I am.
• I call it empowering, because it gives the dancer so much knowledge about his or her own body.
• Belly dancing teaches you to grasp your femininity and learn to appreciate not only your body, but your internal attributes as well.  It also allows you to express yourself in a way that is comfortable to you as an individual.  
• Belly dancing is a type of dance that not only accepts, but encourages all females to participate.  It does not matter how tall or short you are, how big or thin you are, what race you are, nor what level of beauty a societal scale has given you.  ALL women are invited to participate, to learn, to enjoy this type of dance.
• And, after telling her dance class about a remark from a boy about how belly dancing was a dance skinny girls do for men, she got this response " 'Boys, ugh, boys need to get over themselves.  Not everything we do is for them.  They think we put on make-up for them, and now they think we dance for them...ha.'  How can you not smile upon hearing such a response???"

Every since reading her blog, I've wanted to try it. Not because belly dancing itself intrigued me, but because of how Alisha talked about belly dancing and what it did for her.

It took me 6 years, but I've finally taken up belly dancing. And I am surprised to discover that I LOVE it! I can see myself doing this my whole life. The first class was incredibly awkward. I felt vulnerable and out of my element. I immediately started judging my body in comparison to all the other women there. The movements felt strange in my body (you have NO idea how many types of figure 8s you can do with your hips!). The only thing that kept me coming back for class 2 was that I had paid for it already. Class 2 felt a little less awkward, but not by much. 

Then something happened during class 3. Earlier in the class period, someone said something about how "you can't feel upset when you're doing a horizontal (figure 8)." And everyone agreed--you can't feel lonely when you're doing a horizontal, you can't feel angry, you can't feel anything but pure joy and contentment. And I thought about it, and it was true. I was extra happy and content while dancing. During the class period I realized that I had stopped judging my body and everyone else's. I felt the acceptance and the sisterhood that Alisha had talked about. At the end of class, a 60-year old Armenian woman (who is now my friend) told me, "This is where we come to love ourselves."

It's so true. It's only been a month, but already this is what belly dancing does for me:

• It teaches me to love my body
• It helps me "inhabit" my body rather than living in my mind 
• It lets me express feminine energy, when so much of my daily life requires masculine energy
• It gives me a community of women
• It gets me interacting with women that are different from me in age, religion, culture (there are 3 Armenian women!), and experience
• It makes me feel completely accepted, without doing anything to earn it

Plus the fact that it's scary and hard, and I'm doing it anyway! #VulnerabilityVictory

My dance will be a traditional basket dance from Armenia, similar to this one:

And you know what? You can all come to my performance. It's on April 8th. When I started, I didn't think I'd even let my roommates come, but I'm not ashamed anymore! I'm proud of myself.

My dollar for completing this goal went to in-kind donations to help refugees settling into Salt Lake City. To learn more about what type of in-kind donations the IRC is currently in need of, go here.

Goal #52 Get scuba certified

My Scuba Class!

Last night at the Homestead Crater, I dove down to 66 feet and got scuba certified. I am SO happy! Two out of the three dive nights before last night, I didn't do so well. I couldn't get my buoyancy right. My ears wouldn't equalize and felt like knives stabbing through my sinuses. My tank wanted me to barrel roll, etc. It was the worst. And I wondered why I had decided to take up such an expensive, unenjoyable hobby.

And then there was last night. :) Last night we had two scuba instructors with our class, and one stayed with me for the first dive and helped me figure everything out. I got weighted. I achieved neutral buoyancy. I equalized my ears. And I dove deeper than I'd ever dived before. In fact, I made it to the very bottom. The crater is actually a hot spring, and I went to the very bottom and put my hand where the steamy water gurgles out of the earth. SO COOL! As a geology geek, that was the coolest part.

Since I didn't have my camera out in the crater, here are some beautiful Google images to show you what it was like. ;)

First we assemble our BCD on the dock

Then we get in. We did a seated entry though.

We go down to the platform, 15 ft below

And then to the pvc rectangle, 35 ft below

And down to the bottom

and back up!

This video encapsulates my experience. You'll feel like you were there. Except you can breathe through your nose and you don't have to stress out about equalizing yours ears.

I don't know if I like scuba diving yet. Hopefully when there's pretty fish to see, I will. But I'm totally proud of myself for doing something that was hard for me. :)


My dollar for completing this goal goes to providing in kind donations (socks!) for refugees resettled into Salt Lake City, through the International Rescue Committee.

Goal #83 See a silent movie with an organ playing

Seeing a silent movie with an organ playing feels like going back in time! SO cool! The film was made with short screens that show text dialogue that give you enough context so fill in the blanks. The organ music provides the emotion. And the audience does some inferring from the visual. The overall effect is a more intense emotional experience than a normal film. Kind of like how you get more attached to characters while reading a book. I highly recommend it.

If you wanna go, it's the Edison Street Theater. They have this crazy purple glitter organ that's over 100 years old, called the Mighty Wurlitzer. They show 1 or 2 silent movies a month, and a ticket is $6. This brilliant musician plays through the whole film, without a score or looking up at the movie. 80% of the audience is over 50 years old, and the other 20% is 20-somethings on dates. Nobody in between. It's pretty fun. :)


My dollar for completing this goal goes to funding young innovators in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and South Africa.

Goal #43 Missionary work: Give someone a Book of Mormon

Me + niblings

Over Thanksgiving I went with my family to the Tijuana Temple open house. It was fabulous. I was fascinated crossing the border (it was only my 2nd time despite growing up an hour away) and seeing everything change. The temple was beautiful--I loved how they incorporated regional characteristics and architecture. And afterwards we ate street tacos--best lunch ever!

Tacos El Gordo, I shall remember you forever!

We brought a family friend with us to the open house, and I was able to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon in her native Spanish. There was no pomp and circumstance; I hadn't planned it; and I didn't write my testimony on the cover page. I just noticed that she loved the open house, saw a copy of the Book of Mormon on a table in the reception tent, and gave it to her.

Us with the Christus statue

To make this post a little better, I thought I'd reflect on the role of the Book of Mormon in my life. I can recite what the Book of Mormon is "supposed" to do--a) bring you closer to Christ b) help you gain a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because if the book is true, then Joseph Smith is a true prophet, then the Church is true--but those things aren't necessarily what I think of. If you want to know what the BoM is, go here.

What the Book of Mormon has done for me:

• It has brought peace. Sometimes I'm reading something completely mundane, but the simple act of reading in this book has calmed my troubled heart.
• It has brought answers. There have been times when I didn't know how to approach a situation, and then a verse enlightens my mind and I know what to do next.
• It has brought me to repentance. Reading the stories of these people and their interaction with God has reminded me of what I need to be and do, which has caused me to change my ways.

Some of my favorite verses from the Book of Mormon are:

"For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." 1 Nephi 10:19

"He (Jesus) doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." 2 Nephi 26:24

"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; ad as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." Omni 1:26

"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." Mosiah 4:10

"But he (Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Mosiah 14:5 (in which this guy Abinadi quotes all of Isaiah 53)

"And he (Jesus) shall go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:11-12)

"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperature in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive." Alma 7:23

"Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." Helaman 3:35

"The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." 3 Nephi 13:22 (also taught in by Jesus in Matthew 6)

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." Moroni 10:32

Wow--I've never strung them together before. I guess I like scriptures about Jesus' character and how I come unto Him.

My dollar for completing this goal goes to funding young innovators in Africa.

Goal #20 Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City

When you're from San Diego, you're just not impressed with other zoos. In fact, you don't even feel the desire to go to other cities' zoos. Which is why I'd lived in Utah for 9 years without ever going to the zoo. But I finally did, for zoo lights!

Zoo lights in the freezing cold with the niblings!

Backlit by beautiful trees

Zoo lights!

Ice sculpture!

Whether it's a decent zoo or not, I couldn't really tell. All of the animals were inside. But it definitely didn't hold a candle to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The lights, however? Amazing! Totally worth it.

My dollar for completing this goal goes to funding young innovators in Africa.

Goal #37 Watch 7 of the following films (5/7): Lawrence of Arabia

They showed Lawrence of Arabia one night while I was on study abroad in Jerusalem. I heard it was 4 hours long and didn't go. So now, 5 years after my study abroad, I got together some Jeru friends and we watched the whole thing (let's face it; no one else is game for this movie). It took us forever. Twice we got together to see it and ended up not even starting it. And then we buckled down and watched it in two gos. Lawrence of Arabia is not for the faint of heart--it takes dedication!

When you get over the slowness of the movie, you start to realize how amazing it is. We were amazed by how good the cinematography is, and it was made in 1962!! Incredible! The history is also super interesting. It exposed me to a side of WWI I never learned about in school. There's also a scene where Lawrence is abused that is pretty disturbing; we skipped that. Overall, stunning movie. Glad I saw it. Probably won't ever watch it again, but glad I did once.

Goal #37 Watch 7 of the following films (4/7): A Lady Vanishes

Previous to this, I had only seen one Alfred Hitchcock film! So I put several on my list to get a little more cultured. The Lady Vanishes was pretty good. It was tense for me, but then again, I'm pretty wimpy.