Finding Nemo. Finally.

I finally made it to Monterey Bay Aquarium! I have been dying to go there ever since I arrived in California last September. I was like a little kid, impatiently fidgeting in the back seat of the car the whole way there. We stopped along the way at a roadside market to pick up some cheap strawberries, cherries and tiny bananas as we knew the food was going to be super expensive at the Aquarium.

We needn't have worried. Whole Foods were having some kind of exposition that weekend so there were stalls all over the Aquarium giving out free samples of salted caramel ice cream, health drinks, kale chips, cheese, hummus, chocolate, all kinds of organic food! We ate well. I also got a $5 gift card for Whole Foods by answering a question on sustainable fishing in a competition! I felt very proud of myself.

The Aquarium has some of the most amazing exhibits. They have a 'Deep Sea' exhibit with sharks, tuna, big turtles, and rays, also a seahorse exhibit which I think was my favorite, two Jellyfish exhibits, one done in a 1970s retro style with quotes by Jimi Hendrix on the walls! They have the most crazy looking jellyfish I have ever seen. Some were shaped like tiny umbrellas from Mary Poppins, while others had flashing lights on the tentacles or would just pulse on the sand. Pictures speak a thousand words so I think this post will just be an array of fish pictures! Yes, the second picture is indeed a seahorse. Did you know that seahorses have this long, romantic, mating waltz that they do to impress each other? It looks like one of the dances off of Strictly Come Dancing/ Dancing with the Stars.

The number of kids I heard screaming "Look it's Crush!!" (from Finding Nemo) as a giant turtle swam past the window to the tank was pretty ridiculous. Though, I do love that movie and i'm sure if I was younger I would be screaming the same thing! Many small children creating havoc, and parents who have the worst parenting skills trying to wrangle them made for great entertainment at lunchtime. Again, I feel like my dad.

It was such a perfect day. We got in for free thanks to one of my friends being a member and having guest passes (that saves $40!), free food, gift vouchers, beautiful weather, perfect view of the feeding of the sea otters, I just love marine life. Monterey city itself is very cute and we spent some time walking down Cannery Row looking in all the shops and debating getting a Rocky Road caramel apple. We didn't on account of being so full from all the samples we had consumed!

Apart from that, this week has been all about the studying. It was the final college night on Wednesday though which was West African themed so we gorged ourselves on chicken, sweet potatoes, chocolate dipped strawberries  and peanut butter cookies, while listening to a West African band and playing Mancala. I am too competitive, and a little bit of a sore loser I am ashamed to say. However my skills at the drinking game, Chandelier, are rapidly improving.

This week I am hopefully going to Yosemite with some friends for a very quick visit! Some guy on a UCSC rec trip got lost there over the weekend. They came back without him on the Sunday, but the helicopters found him on Monday. 48hours alone in a wilderness where bears are pretty common. I am going to be sticking firmly to the trails.
Ok, I have to get back to my 25  paper on American Muslim women and their love lives. Yep. You heard. I find it very depressing that it is Memorial Weekend (Monday off!) and my plans are me, my laptop, coffee and the library.

Hey batter batter batter...Swwiinngg

A day early! Oh my god. Still ploughing away at all these papers. I feel bad that I want the next few weeks just to fly by so that they are out of the way, but at the same time that means that I would have finished at UCSC! I have bought my ticket home now as the camp never got back to me and I was just getting so stressed out about it. So, for those in America, the last time you will see me is July 4th, for those in England, I will be back July 5th:)

A few interesting things happened this week. Firstly, we were learning how to dive on Wednesday in my swim class, off of the starting blocks which felt very professional! A few belly flops, a lot of bruised shins from dragging yourself out of the pool for an hour, but by the end I had it perfected...the coach even said so herself;) Watch out Tom Daley.
Also on Wednesday I went on a rec trip to watch a Giants game at their stadium, AT+T Park, in San Francisco! I love baseball. I love the atmosphere. I love the chants. I love the food. I especially love the entertainment. Kiss Cams, where they zoom in on couples in the audience while the rest of the crows chant 'Kiss Kiss Kiss' and show it on the big screens, the mascot (a giant seal) paddle-boarding in the bay just next to the stadium, sing alongs to Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing', such fun! There is no half time as there are 9 innings and people just come and go as they please which means...no lines for toilets, small lines for food stands (mexican, sushi, burgers, hot dogs, churros, pretzels, nuts, hot chocolate, soup in bread bowls, chilli, anything). It was really foggy in San Fran that day so it was pretty cold and the fog was billowing into the stadium creating a great atmosphere! Pictures include the stadium, a bunch of kayakers who were hanging out waiting for 'out-of-the-park' balls to come their way, chili bowl, and a video of some chanting and a guy resembling a serial killer waving a flag. The Giants were playing the St Louis Cardinals and lost 4-1, I didn't mind. By that time, it was really cold and they had been playing for 2 hours 45mins.

Thursday I was up early to get to physical therapy. I use that zipcar service that I have talked about before. The car that I use is parked in a parking lot by the gym but when I walked down to try and get to it, a cop was standing in the middle of the road, yelling at people to move away, and that the area would be closed for a number of hours. I was like ooohhhkkaaayy, how am I going to get the car then? His attitude was 'not my problem'. I walked round the back to the gym where loads of people were just standing around and this one girl told me that it has all been evacuated because they found 'a suspicious package' in the gym. I scoffed. What constitutes a suspicious package anyway? I was more worried about how to get to physio. A few phone calls, another car booked on the otherside of campus, I got there 45 minutes late. I was pissed that this 'package' had messed me around. Turns out it was a grenade! I felt bad for my skeptical attitude. The university were quite open to what it was as well. They send text alerts, emails, even call you to tell you to stay away and what it is! I was too busy trying to re-route my morning that I ignored these alerts. Never again!

Last night was spent at an outdoor movie screening of Ferris Buellers Day Off. Free popcorn and hot chocolate, blankets, a VERY young Matthew Broderick and a cameo by a stoned looking Charlie Sheen (nothing new there then) made for a relaxing end to the week.
Tomorrow I am hopefully off to Monterey Bay Aquarium! (Hence why I am writing this early) I have been wanting to go there for months. Stay tuned for numerous pictures of fish. I'm sure you are excited.

Majestic Big Sur

A tinsy bit late on this post, but I have only just returned from a weekend camping in Big Sur!
It definitely ranks up there as one of the top 5 most beautiful places I have ever seen. And it is pretty much on the door step of Santa Cruz, well, it is just south of Monterey Bay and only takes about 90minutes to get there! It is about a 90 mile stretch where the Pacific Coast and the Santa Lucia Mountains reach so it is full of steep valleys, waterfalls, mountains, forest, everything naturey.
It was another UCSC Recreation trip I went on, like the rafting trip a few weeks ago, so didn't know anyone. A stranger mix of people this time, the majority of them were really cool and great fun to hang out with, but there were 3 who ironically were taking the trip as part of a requirement for this leadership program they were doing, and yet they were the most reclusive, non-cooperative people! Oh well, we just let them do their own thing.

We drove down to Pfieffer State Park which is known as 'Little Yosemite' and covers a fair bit of Big Sur. This is where we set up camp. I was convinced by a new friend that sleeping outside, under the stars (i.e tent-less) is way more fun so I tried it! I was slightly scared about being mauled by a coyote or mountain lion but actually it was a couple of wild turkey's that were the most annoying; a 5am mating ritual. LOUD. (As well as a couple in the next camp site. Enough said.) Sleeping under the stars was really relaxing and definitely worth trying if you haven't already. A bit cold, but camping always is! I think I would camp more if I could bring like a portable heater or something so I could stay warm all night. Ah First World problems. Along with the humongous marshmallows that we had bought for s'mores that were so big that they just would not cook! The burritos were good though.

The day we arrived we went and checked out Big Sur River, where we took off our shoes and climbed over rocks and through the rapidy parts, and just hung out in the sun. A bunch of people got pretty far up the river, but I had to stop as my knees were hurting. I hung out with a fuzzy caterpillar while lying on a big rock over a waterfall. I didn't complain!

The next day we packed up our stuff and headed further south to Julia Pfieffer State Park (not the same place!) as there are some great hiking trails and vista points. When we first arrived the weather was pretty overcast and misty but this made the views really dramatic and eerie. We saw an 84ft waterfall cascading onto a beach as well as a bit of a view down the coast. Breathtaking.

But after we had spent a couple of hours hiking inland, along a creek, the sun came out and after stopping to watch some condors (there are only 100 left in the wild so it was amazing to see them!) we headed back out to look at the waterfall in the sunlight. It looked like we were in paradise! When I am rich I am buying a property on the Big Sur coastline!

I would write more, but I am so tired. And I smell like a bonfire.

Meat, Fish, and Baked Goods

I am writing this with a freshly baked hunk of bread in my hand! I woke up this morning to find a note written in the kitchen telling me that 'Breakfast is in the oven' and wollah I open the oven door to find 3 freshly baked, plait loaves! I wasn't that surprised to be honest. My roommate has been making lemon bars and bread for the past few weeks and they are gorgeous! Couple that with the fact that I woke up at 4am and our room smelt like a bakery! Hard to go back to sleep after that.

This week included a Spanish exam (joy), a presentation (double joy) and the deadline for my dissertation plan. I am not looking forward to writing that beast. On Monday three of us went to have dinner at Burger, which, as the name suggests, makes burgers. They are so nice and they all have great names like 'The Snookie' which is a burger patty in between two grilled cheese sandwiches. Or 'The Adam Sandler' which is a sloppy joe! When you give them your order, instead of giving you a wooden spoon with a number on it to take to your table, you get a mugshot of a celebrity. We had Elvis, Macauly Culkin and Jack Nicholson, I think!

Found myself getting a bit emotional and feeling like everything was getting on top of me this week. I'm still waiting to hear back from this camp I want to work at; I NEED SUMMER PLANS! I think I am just going to have to make a decision on what I am doing regardless of whether I have heard or not. Damn Olympics and the resulting high plane tickets! Friday was definitely the lowest point however Aquirefest put a smile on my face that evening. Who doesn't love a good acapella showcase! It is a two night event with Universities from California bringing their acapella groups for a concert. There was of course songs from The Lion King, a staple for any group I have found, but also a Hindi group from UC Berkeley did a remix of Party Rock Anthem half in Hindi and half in English! On the Rocks from University of Oregon were performing on the Saturday night and I was bummed that I would miss them because that is the school my sister went to 10 years ago and we have been listening to their CD's in our family car since then!
Midnight movie on Friday was the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. Extended edition. Great fun and pretty epic but it didn't finish until 4.30am. Enough said. We did have fresh bread and lemon bars and ice cream (I had found a brand that is 150kcals for a PINT, talk about guilt free. And since it is Santa Cruz, it was organic. Win.) to keep us going.

On Saturday (Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday) me and a friend went to San Jose to go to the Boiling Crab for lunch. We had been to the one in LA (see blogpost from December) and were in love with the seafood by the pound in a bag thing. Their sauce was definitely spicier in San Jose. I got a pound of shrimp and half a pound of sausage in my bag which was a mistake. I'll explain why in a minute.
Me and the roommate, after blasting music and cleaning the apartment, went on another Moonlight kayaking adventure (again, see October blogpost) Saturday evening. It was even better than last time! We say all the seals and sea lions up close, saw baby sea otters, watched the sun set, saw the moon rise which is at it's brightest and biggest at the moment, and had a pod of 6 or so bottlenose dolphins come check us out! We were on the water for a few hours, and at times it was a bit choppy. You may guess where this is going. It is no fun throwing up spicy seafood in the toilets of the supermarket, Trader Joes! Anyway the trip was amazing and just reminded me how much I love the ocean. That is one of the things I am going to miss most I think.

Ok I have to go do some work. I want to get as much done as possible as tomorrow night it is the season finale of Castle and I am pretty sure that I won't be able to function for at least 24 hours after it as the promos look explosive! If you aren't watching it, you should.