I had the pleasure of visiting Japan about two years ago where I traveled to Tokyo and Atami. Atami is located right at the coast line. Our hotel was perfectly placed on the edge of a cliff so it looked if we were floating on water. But I have to say it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to. Atami is south of the severely affected Sendai area. The landscapes, the people, the culture – Japan is truly a remarkable society and I hope relief comes to its people quickly.

I was a monkey bar QUEEN back in the day, twirling around in the playground like it was my 8-year-old civic responsibility. Always just under my weight curve, my body’s never been much of an obstacle to flip over. But it’s the dead of winter in New York City, and too cold to hang off the frozen metal bars in the scarce downtown playgrounds usually hidden within school grounds.

So why not up the ante and defy gravity in other ways… yoga? I took a class at Crunch gym last week and wow, let me just say, it’s a total body workout. I stretched muscles that I’m sure have sat unused for several months now. If anti-gravity yoga took human form, it’d be a 300 pound sumo wrestler that completely squashed the living soul out of me. I can’t remember the last time I felt so sore, no, bruised.

The experience was exhilarating: swinging back and forth suspended on your navel, flipping your body forwards and backwards, hanging upside down with your legs intertwined against the silk hammock. But that was the easy part. In between, we did serious AB work suspended in mid-air or holding ourselves up with our hands. “You should feel suicidal right now, or else, you’re not doing it right,” our teacher instructed. Suicidal was an understatement. The class resonated with grunts, giggles, gasps, OMG’s and the rare clunk of a body hitting the floor in renunciation.

I wish I could say otherwise, but this class whipped my ass! For the thrill seeking, challenge thriving, monkey bar swinging child-at-heart individual, I definitely recommend it!

We had about 30 minutes to get a story up on the web as many of the major news outlets were already spouting the news. I worked the national angle as my editor worked the local angle from New Jersey. It’s one thing when you’re a reporter on deadline calling an institution for information, but it’s another ball game when you’re one of hundreds trying to obtain the same information. I hit so many dead ends trying to confirm simple facts. Phones went unanswered, lines were busy or redirected, and many contacts were just unreachable. Regardless of what the wires and the networks were publishing, I was under strict orders — all my information had to be from a primary source. Statements had to come from the agency that issued them and were not to be copied from other news. As frustrating and meticulous as the process proved to be, it paid off, as many media outlets reported incorrect information.

This was big, and I knew I couldn’t afford to come up empty handed. It was a lot of call, call, and call again. I exhausted every possible venue of information; looking up possible neighbors, friends or relations, old companies, workers, nearby stores as potential witnesses, fellow politicians. It was a mad dash to the finish and I can say I’ve never been more nervous or excited about a story.

But in the blur of breaking news, you’re so caught up in getting the facts and getting the story, you don’t always take a step back to think about what really happened. As a reporter it’s easy to get detached from the subject, but in this case, it was hard to believe the facts that I was finding out about the shooting. It was whirlwind of an experience. And my thoughts and prayers go out to the victim’s of the Arizona shooting.

I’m not sure if it comes from my Peruvian or Chinese culture (growing up it’s been an amalgamation of both, where one cannot be clearly discerned from the other), but, as the clock strikes 12 on the eve of Dec. 31, my family and I each eat 12 grapes and make a “wish” for each. Some wishes are as hopeful and whimsical as winning the lottery, others more compassionate like less stress for my parents, happiness for my loved ones. Most require a bit of a struggle and lots more than wishful thinking – traveling, getting a job, earning a degree. It’s not enough to “wish,” to make a resolution or hope that this year will be different. When it comes to goals that are in your control, it’s up to you to make sure you carry them through.

So this year, I’ve decided to make a Bucket List. Not a list of things to do before I die, but a list of things to do this year so I can live – fully. I’m a writer and also, a finisher. Often I write things in my calendar or on a scrap paper that I’ve already done just so I can relish in the feat of crossing it out. I ran long distance and cross-country in asphyxiating Miami heat simply for the satisfaction of finishing a 5K race. Knowing me, I can’t and won’t leave a list uncrossed.

1. Blog for the week of 1/2/2011

2. Ice Skate in Bryant Park

3….

My first on camera report for my new freelancing job at Patch.com! Check it out!

The stage was set for the onslaught of fed-up immigrants and workers to take the streets – poster and child in hand. This year’s May Day rally was particularly memorable for the scores of families and children that participated. Toddlers waved flags from around the world; kids of all ages chanted louder than their parents, they understand the real consequences of deportation: the breaking up of families.

The draconian immigration law SB 1070 recently signed by Arizona’s governor, is racist and indicative of the xenophobic and anti-immigrant movement spearheaded by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The passage of the bill galvanized thousands to pour into the streets in outrage, both in New York and around the nation.

We are now in the second year of the economic crisis, and despite the large bailouts that have been simultaneously subject to praise, scorn and scandal, “Main Street” has been seemingly left out to dry. Middle to low income families are still scrambling to make ends meet and bearing the weight of a 9.7 percent national unemployment rate, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

May 1st celebrates International Workers Day, that began in Chicago during the 1886 Haymarket riots where workers won the 8-hour workday, establishing better working conditions for their fellow workers across the country. May 1st is celebrated internationally except in the U.S., where it originated. Momentous in this year’s rally was the large support and endorsement of the labor unions, including TWU, DC 37, Workers United and ASFME.

“We’re going to make our statement regarding the solidarity with immigrant groups and reclaim May Day as a day where labor brings its issues forth in a very strong manner,” said Kevin Pat Lynch, director of organizing and legislative affairs at Local 338. He added, “Immigrant rights are workers rights.”

The 85 degree weather and the luck of May 1st landing on a Saturday contributed to the large crowds that congregated at Union Square beginning at 11 am.

The rally at Union Square was particularly festive and energized, imbued with cultural performances including Rebel Diaz and Immortal Technique.

There was a huge youth presence, demanding the passage of the DREAM Act and protesting Senator Schumer’s immigration bill.

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With Wall Street profits once again soaring while unemployment hovers around 10 percent, two different coalitions of labor unionists and immigrant rights groups will take to the streets of New York on May Day.

The May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights will rally at Union Square at noon on May 1 and march down Broadway to Wall Street. The event will feature cultural performances organized by the radical hip-hop group Rebel Diaz. A number of organizations will set up educational tables around Union Square.

Meanwhile, a couple of miles away, the Alliance for Labor and Immigrant Rights and Jobs for All will rally at Foley Square at 11 a.m. and then march around City Hall before returning to Foley Square. The Alliance is composed of more than two dozen labor union locals and several prominent immigrant rights groups. High unemployment and severe budget cuts have galvanized many of the city’s unions to take action.

“It was time [the unions] get back in the public eye,” said Kevin Pat Lynch, director of organizing and legislative affairs atRWDSU/UFCW Local 338.

The two coalitions share similar demands around immigrant rights, jobs and defending public services but tend to approach politics differently. The groups rallying at Foley Square often work with Democratic Party allies to try and advance their goals. The May 1st Coalition, which is closely aligned with the Workers World Party, emphasizes building popular movements that operate outside the two-party system. Both coalitions hope to draw thousands but have not agreed to unite their events.

“We’ve met with them and we will continue to meet,” said Charles Jenkins of the May 1st Coalition and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. “I can tell you the message is the same. There is an attack on workers all around the country.”

“It’s not a split,” said Lynch. “Anyone that’s marching with them is also marching with us also.”

May 1 is celebrated as International Workers Day in most of the world but not the United States.

Miami-Dade Community College student Felipe Matos has a new schedule this spring semester. Each day starts with a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call, a big breakfast, a quick stretch and securing his feet with a thick layer of duct tape. Then Matos sets off for a 17-mile walk interspersed by several breaks of singing songs, and later stops to sleep in a different place every night — RVs, churches or even strangers’ homes.

The thick blisters that have developed on his feet after walking 250 miles beg him to stop. But this semester of learning has only just begun. Along with three other immigrant students, Matos, 23, is trekking 1,500 miles in a five-month campaign that launched Jan. 1 from Miami and will end in Washington, D.C., to rally in support of “education not deportation” for undocumented youth and their families.

“It was hitting home and it was time for us to get up and act,” said Gaby Pacheco, 25, an undocumented immigrant living in Miami, whose family is in deportation proceedings. “Our communities couldn’t wait anymore,” said Pacheco, a music therapy student at Miami-Dade College.

Four youth will walk the entirety of the trip — Pacheco, Matos and two other students, Carlos Roa, 22, an architecture student at Miami-Dade, and Juan Rodriguez, 20, who recently became a permanent resident and hopes to study sociology in Chicago.

Named the “Trail of Dreams,” the walk has four guiding goals: a pathway to citizenship, greater access to education, workers’ rights and the end of the separation of families. The campaign was launched by Students Working for Equal Rights, the Florida Immigration Coalition and presente.org, a group that works to promote the political empowerment of Latino communities.

“It’s courageous and inspiring what these young people are doing,” said Norman Eng, director of media relations at the New York Immigration Coalition. “It’s been a very effective way to highlight the plight of immigrants like themselves. I think we’re all marching with them in spirit.”

The Trail of Dreams comes at a time when immigrant-rights groups across the country have mobilized to reinvigorate the push for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) introduced in 2001 to offer a route to legal residency to graduating undocumented high school students living in the country for more than five years.

A report by College Board Advocacy, “Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students,” found that 65,000 undocumented students living in the country for more than five years graduate from high school annually. While they can legally attend most colleges, they are not eligible for financial aid.

The laws vary by state and are a source of confusion due to constantly fluctuating state and local policies. Only 10 states allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates. Current New York policy states that undocumented youth need to be enrolled in an in-state high school for two years to be eligible for in-state tuition. Higher education is just not an option for many undocumented students who have no access to financial aid and no legal authorization to work.

Approximately two million undocumented children live in the United States, roughly 15 percent of the entire undocumented population.

The Trail of Dreams marchers stop every day at lunch to meet with churches, organizations, schools and state and local representatives to exchange stories of struggle and words of hope.

“Listening to little children that [are] five that understand that their parents could get deported and they could be torn apart from them,” says Matos, is so far proving to be the hardest part of the journey.

While the march is inspiring organizations nationwide to continue working for comprehensive immigration reform, the organizers say they are not campaigning for any specific law or policy.

“What we’re setting out to do is change the hearts and minds of people,” Pacheco said.

Still crossing through northern Florida, the four students will continue to walk until arriving in Washington on May 1, a national day of worker and immigrant rights.

Pacheco said that it’s time for young immigrant communities to stop living in fear.

“We’re coming out of the shadows, we’re going into the light and saying, ‘Here we are, the undocumented youth that have so much potential and so much desire to make this country a better country.’”