The British Take Over

It hasn't help that for most of this week it has been cold and rainy. It just adds to that post-holiday blues feeling that I experienced after last weekend! Luckily the past couple of days have been warm and sunny, traditional Californian weather, so the blues have (some-what) departed. They have, however, turned into something else; stress. Stupid mid-terms. I do not want to leave UCSC at all, but I won't be missing the constant examinations and papers. I have a big Spanish exam on Monday which I have been working on but unlike the past two quarters, there is this voice in the back of my mind saying LOUDLY "Who cares? It's worth practically nothing towards your degree". This hasn't helped in the revision process! But you know what has helped...Frozen Mocha's from Coffeetopia.

Not much to report on this week. Apart from catching up on work, going to classes, gym and physio, it has been a pretty boring week. On Thursday a bunch of us went bowling down at the Boardwalk which was fun! I haven't been bowling in aggess. My score reflected this. I did have to explain to my friends who Take That were as Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow appeared on the big screens singing 'Shame' and my friends were wondering if they were a gay couple! By the looks of that music video, yes, yes they are. I have had to do a lot of explaining about British pop culture this week in fact. Not only is My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding airing on TV right now which everyone loves (they are even making an American version. Help.), but Embarrassing Bodies is about to start airing. The British version. We are taking over their TV's! After bowling, we went and hung out in Saturn Cafe, where, even though it was 11.30pm, they were ssooo slow at taking our order that we sat there for 30mins and just left. I really wanted soy ice cream as well.

On Friday I went for dinner with a friend at this pizza, pasta place that I can't remember the name of but it is something like 'Katniss'! Obviously it isn't as that is a character from The Hunger Games but for now that is what I will call it! They do the most gorgeous bbq chicken wings, and also put on a show a few times a night; singing and dancing to Eye of the Tiger, YMCA, and other such songs. Of course, being Americans, the waiters looked like they were actually really excited to be performing! Adds a bit of amusement to a meal at any rate seeing your long haired, slightly hippy waiter, dancing around with red, sparkly pom-poms!

Ok, well that is literally it. How boring. I need to go study for Spanish and head down to Coffeetopia! One of these days I shall post a photo of this most delicious drink. As I haven't really taken any photos this week I shall leave you with a picture of the most retro drinks machine ever. Oh and Happy 1 Year anniversary Kate and Will;)

Tally-ho!

This is late, but I warned you that it was going to be so don't be mad.
I hope this is going to be a long one, but I am so tired that I may give up half way!

Last week, nothing special happened. Work, frozen mocha's, physio, swimming, gym, work. That pretty much sums it up. On Wednesday we did attempt a group dinner which included strawberries and cream, salad, cheese-filled homemade bread, chorizo, and other random ingredients! A pretty good dinner!
On the Sunday before the one just gone, we held a surprise garden party for one of our friends for her birthday. Her birthday was in fact in February but lots of things conspired against us between then and now! We lured her to the Merrill garden by saying another friend needed her for her photography class...how sneaky. The roommate and I had spent the previous evening (not doing work as we had to lie and say we were doing to avoid hanging out with said birthday girl) making English trifle and lemon bars, along with more strawberries and cream, cheese and meats, while the guys made iced tea and pot stickers!  She was very surprised, and didn't expect a thing so I would say that was a success:)

Now, onto the main event.
This weekend I have been getting thoroughly wet and sunburnt all at the same time for I have been white water rafting! I think it has been one of the best weekends that I have had this year. I didn't want to leave at all! I went on a trip organised by the recreation department and it only cost $95 including food! Bargain.
We gathered at 11.30am on Friday, met everyone, played some names games, got our wetsuits, packed up the mini-van and headed out. Our destination was the Kings River, in the Sierra Nevada Foothills just past Pine Flat Reservoir if anyone wants to look that up on google earth. On the way we stopped at a place called 'Casa de Fruta' which was this massive indoor market full of fruits, nuts, chocolate, anything. We all stocked up!

The journey was about 5 1/2 hours so we didn't get to the campsite, after winding around the reservoir for miles and miles, until around 6ish where we set up camp, cooked some food and hunkered down around the fire, making smores, telling stories and playing games! I have never properly camped before and fully expected to not sleep but I was out like a light, to the sounds of the flowing river and frogs croaking.


Saturday morning, up at 7am, made breakfast, wetsuited up (that took me a long time. I put it on backwards as well which caused some laughs but I couldn't be bothered to change it), then got back in the van to head 10miles up river where we were launching the boats from. There were 11 of us in total so we had two inflatable rafts with us. We doned our life jackets, grabbed an oar and clambered in. These rapids were a class 3, where 6 is impossible, so they were pretty choppy but ok for beginners! We had such an amazing time going down this river. My boat decided to go all British and our guides used 'tally-ho' for forward, and 'halt' for stop. In fact the whole weekend everyone was speaking in a British accent which was hilarious! I tried my American accent after being begged, but quickly shut-up! Along the way we stopped at some big rocks, climbed up about 12-15ft and hurled ourselves off which was pretty terrifying! It didn't look that high from the water! We stopped at an 'eddy' where we had lunch and floated around in the water. The weather was so so hot, around 80 degrees for the Americans and 29 for the British readers. The water was very cold so was pretty refreshing when you were splashed in the face on the raft, and thrown from the boat! And yes I am in these two pictures below if you can spot me;)

We got back to camp around 4, made water slides out of the rafts and just played around on the shore before taking a walk, playing frisbee and just messing around. That evening I was suffering from some severe sun-stroke so was pretty out of it until 9ish when the smores came back out;)
The next morning, we got up and did it all again! This time, everyone was a lot more daring and more people got catapulted from the boat over some rapids! We took an inflatable kayak with us as well which we got to take turns in. I was s**t scared of that but I did it! and I would do it again in a heartbeat! The next activity, I have no intention of doing again; swimming a rapid. We got to one set of rapids and one of the guides asked if anybody wanted to swim it. I said "hhelll no" but after seeing a couple of the girls in front jump in I decided I would give it a go. Unfortunately I decided a bit too late so when I was practically pushed from the boat, I was straight into the rapids, being spun around, swallowed up, spat back out, and repeated. Even though at the times where my head was above water, I just couldn't suck in air, just water! I was eventually rescued and pulled back to safety with everyone laughing at how terrified I looked! I was just grateful that I survived.

We stopped for lunch at the same place, had a round of 'helicopter' which involved spinning the boat around as fast as possible until everyone is in the water, got back in the boats and headed back to camp. We packed up and headed back to Santa Cruz, stopping at 'In n Out' in Fresno and again at 'Casa de Fruta', in between games of 'If I were a tree' and singing along to Backstreet Boys!

There is something about being in the absolute middle of nowhere, with people you have only just met but already formed great friendships with, no technology, no sense of time, just nature. It is so refreshing. The whole trip, not one person said no to anything, we all just grabbed hold of the opportunity and had the most amazing weekend. I thought I wouldn't be a camping person at all but I think I could be converted! I got used to the toilet that is a hole in the ground, no running water, the need to keep food bear proof etc, but, I was dreaming of a shower in the van on the way back! I think we all were! This trip made me re-focus on why I am here. It made me realise that I am in California to have new experiences, not just to study. It made me realise a lot of things actually; say yes to anything, being outside your comfort zone is when you have the most fun, new people are nice, and facebook and the internet isn't the world! There were some guys that pulled up on the second night, pulled out their guns, set up their tents, then got out their flatscreen TV and X-box, hooked it up to the car and spent the evening on that. Lame. You may as well stay at home. You are in one of the most beautiful places ever, mountains all around, and yet you are playing video-games. I couldn't help but laugh at them.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this weekend, so much happened but I won't bore you with all of it! Those who have to talk to me on skype will get those little gems;)

'The final mystery is oneself'

I feel that I have had an intellectually intense week, hence why Oscar Wilde has infiltrated this post title. I don't know if that makes sense but I shall try to explain. It isn't so much in my classes that I have felt this, in fact quite the opposite; I mostly just feel retarded in Spanish, confused in Key Concepts, and well my independent study is non-existent at the moment. More just through talking to people and random conversations I have been having recently. The most random of these happened on Tuesday. I was in Stevenson Coffee Shop on campus, with Spanish text books spread out in front of me and my head in my hands; a regular occurrence. This guy comes up to me and asks to sit in the seat opposite me and, being the nice person that I am, I said 'sure'. Ten minutes later he suddenly says "Oh, you are learning Spanish! what level are you at? I'm going to Ecuador next quarter and need to get better!" and thus began our conversation; a 2 hour non-stop conversation with a complete stranger. Now this conversation was not usual chit-chat; we did not mention movies, popular culture, music, majors, nothing like this. No instead we debated the merits of globalization, what would happen if we were to re-distribute the population of America, the pros and cons of higher education in both America and Britain, and so on. I have never had a conversation like it! With friends we may have skirted around these topics, but never in such detail, and never with a randomer! In fact, it wasn't until he had to leave for class that we finally introduced each other and learned each others names! It sounds really geeky reading that back but it wasn't. He was a completely normal, slightly surfer-y outdoors-y, 25 year old Californian. And well, I am me. So yeah, I felt very intellectual that day!

To counter-balance this feeling, the following day we preceded to go around my Key Concepts class and play word-association with the word 'America'. One girl said 'capitalism'. I said 'the White House'. I was tempted to say 'hot-dogs' but the guy before me beat me to it. This was after taking attendance when a girl named Sarah requested to be called 'Sparrow' as "that is what she goes by". Not a single person in the class seemed to find this odd, not even the professor who acknowledged it and carried on. I on the other hand was trying very, very hard not to burst out laughing! If someone did that in a seminar in Warwick, well they would have been laughed out the room or something! I was like "You just asked us all to call you by a species of bird?!" (of course I didn't say this). Santa Cruz.

Yesterday a group of us went and checked out the Mystery Spot; a 'gravitational anomaly' just outside Santa Cruz. It was the strangest thing! It is a wooden cabin on the side of a hill, surrounded by redwood forest, where nothing is as it seems. When you stand up straight, it looks like you are leaning, water seems to run uphill, standing in different places means you appear to grow or shrink! Here is the website (http://www.mysteryspot.com/) if you are so inclined to check it out, but I shall just leave you with the pictures we took that look so...odd. I am standing straight in the photo with my arms out by the way. And the picture below, the wooden plank sticking out is completely level. We checked.

Ok here is where I shall leave it. I am currently in Coffeetopia drinking a frozen mocha as it is pretty hot today. A stark contrast to the past week where it has been cold and rainy. We even had an EPIC thunderstorm a couple of days ago; fork lightening like I have never seen! I did not feel safe walking up the hill to my apartment at midnight with a friend! Next weekend I am going on a river rafting/camping weekend so won't make my Sunday deadline. I would apologise but I will be doing something far more fun!

Tie-dye is soooo last year

Happy Easter! I hope you are reading this with a slab of chocolate in one hand while the other is scrolling;)

Again, Easter is another holiday that I have very much enjoyed partaking in in America! My roommates mum/mom came down to Santa Cruz with Soxies of course (see Thanksgiving entry) with boxes full of Easter stuff; egg decorating kits, dye, cartons of hard boiled eggs, chocolate, drinks. You see, the tradition in America is not to have those big chocolate eggs that we have in England, but rather you dye and decorate hard boiled eggs, then hide them for an egg hunt. They do eat chocolate but it is mainly just the odd chocolate company who produce small egg shaped versions of their bars. So last night we had great fun dying eggs in multicolours, putting glitter on them, my roommate even made the globe out of one! I am not that creative. I stuck with swirls and faces. One of my friends decided he wanted his to have a mustache. Turned out pretty well!

Woke up on Easter morning and it was like Santa had been. I had a lovely Peter Rabbit bag stuffed with Easter goodies sitting on my desk from my roommate, and a homemade hollow eggs with chocolate inside from another friend waiting outside the door:) Guess whats for breakfast....

Aside from that, this week has just been about settling in to a new term. I have dropped my Asian American class in favour of an Independent Study where basically I just have to read 12-15 books/articles and write a couple of analytical pages on each one. This will give me allll the information I need to write my year abroad dissertation! ha ha take that Warwick. On Wednesday it was my roommates birthday so a big group of us went down to I Love Sushi for a lot of rolls (I had the Jimbo this time) and a lot of Sake. Not a fan if I am honest. It tastes much better cold than hot however it still tastes like a mix between nail varnish remover and paint thinner. We came back to campus, played some drinking games and ate the most gorgeous cake ever that her boyfriend had made from scratch!

Oh and I have nearly finished The Hunger Games trilogy. I have spent many hours either outside on a bench soaking up some sun, or in a coffee shop with a caramel macchiato or a frozen mocha. This was what I spent the majority of yesterday doing:

Ok this has been fairly short! I'm too distracted by the big bag of chocolate in front of my face so excuse me will you.

Me, Myself, and I

This week has been officially Spring Break, though I had an extended one due to finishing finals on the Tuesday of finals week! It has been really really nice to have some time off from doing any form of work or studying. So much so that I have a massive case of the sunday-night feeling in preparation for tomorrow when we start all over again. New classes, new books, new teachers, new schedules etc. None of my classes are as exciting as the ones from last quarter; Spanish 4 (Lord help me), Key Concepts in American Studies, and Asian American and Pacific Islander History. Better than any choices we have back at Warwick. Sorry, my home home university is not on my good side at the moment. The modules for next year look shocking, and all the ones that looked any good aren't running. Boo.

So my last days in Nashville were very chilled. We went for breakfast/brunch on Sunday to the Pfunky Griddle (yes that is how it is spelled) which was such a cool place. You are seated around a bit hot plate and then they bring you jugs of pancake batter and toppings for you to make your own! You would have thought that blueberries and peanut butter doesn't go together, but it does!

After brunch, my friend and I went to check out the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum which was brilliant. So well put together. You had all the costumes from past country music stars, the boots, the manuscripts, Elvis' old car, everything! We had great fun wandering around and stopping to dance under the big speakers! We put our line dancing skills to the test on one occasion and we looked sooo cool. I think the best part was the woman working at the front desk though. She greeted us so warmly and with a heavy southern drawl told us to "boot scoot on over there darlin'", I almost hugged her. That is just such a southern thing to say!


We got back from the Hall of Fame and hung out, with our iced caramel macchiatos, in the Vanderbilt radio station, where my friend works. We listened to a lot of music while burning them onto our laptops of course!

On the Monday, I was left to my own devices while my friend was in class, so as it was a really hot, sunny day I decided to walk around campus with my camera. Now as I have said before, Vanderbilt is a beautiful campus, full of gardens and old buildings. I was getting artsy with my camera and loving it, but ended up embarrassing myself as always. I was crouched in a bush taking some photos of flowers when a friggin campus tour stopped right next to me. I couldn't just stay in the bush for the next 10mins so I had to untangle myself from the branches and walk past them as though everything was normal. I got some really strange looks. I was very tempted to yell "I'm British" just to give them something to think about! I got some nice photos though:)

That afternoon we went to see The Hunger Games, even though neither of us had read the book and been told not to see it until we do. I'm glad we did, it is a brilliant film! I urge everyone to go see it! I'm waiting to get the book from amazon as we speak.

Monday night was my last night so we went and had some great seafood food, got some Ben and Jerry's (I tried the Jimmy Fallon one which included chocolate covered chips/crisps. Not a fan), watched My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and Toddlers and Tiaras, then just hung out chatting with her friends. A great end to a great week in the south:)

Argh, the journey back was annoying. It involved 2 planes and 4 buses, and it all started at 3.30am. I was happy to get back to Santa Cruz and just flop on the couch. And that is pretty much where I have stayed for the past 5 days! I have been on my own as everyone is at home for Spring Break and I have actually really enjoyed myself! I have read some books in the sun, been to coffee shops, been for walks, watched movies, done some writing, all those things you feel you don't have time to do during term time. The only interaction I have had has been with the physio and the baristas in Starbucks! So although I have had a great time by myself, I am starting to go insane from lack of human contact. My friends need to hurry up and get back so that my final quarter at Santa Cruz can get underway!
Oh would you look at that, my friend is calling. I bet she has just got back and wants to go to Yogurtland.....
I will leave you with a visual metaphor as to how I am feeling about my future. I don't want to have to start making decisions yet.