You Blink And You Miss It

Well, that is it. My time at UCSC has finished. I can't quite believe it actually. In some ways it has just flown by but at the same time I feel like I have been here forever.
My sister has been here since Wednesday which has kept me occupied and not thinking about the fact that I have to leave. But today she went home and when I got back to the apartment to start packing, a wave of melancholy hit me and I have been feeling down ever since! I love UCSC, I love Santa Cruz, I love California, I love America. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to see my friends and family, I have missed them so much and I wish I could have shared this experience with them. However, this year has just reinforced the feeling that I already had before I came here; I want to live here permanently! Now I need to get working on that! I'm not leaving America right away, I have about 3 weeks left so I am going to leave my year abroad epilogue till I actually leave...

Finals were over and done with by 11am on Monday, and I was at the beach with a friend not too long after that! It was gorgeous and sooo relaxing. Just what I needed after all the work that had just been done! In order to get a two day extension on my housing contract I had to do some volunteering on campus so Tuesday saw me picking through recycling bins with the 'Zero Waste' team. Mainly we just stood around in the sun and chatted!

On Wednesday my sister flew down from Seattle to spend a few days seeing the sights of Santa Cruz! It was a great excuse for me to do all the things that I loved one more time before I left. The first thing we did was stop at Burger and get food! Everything involves food I have found. After we gorged ourselves, we did a bit of a walking tour of campus, then went swimming where I was teaching her flip turns, surface dives, and showing off my butterfly (which turns into 'wounded waterbeetle,' as my coach calls it, after about 50 yds!). I have become a real waterbaby since being here and can't wait to get back into it when I am home. If anyone knows of a diving team, as in springboard, not scuba, let me know! That night, my sister got to re-live her undergrad days at the dining hall;)

Thursday I had my final physio appointment, and I got a t-shirt for 'graduating'! Again, going to miss that place and the people. I need to find a PT just like it. The rest of the day included walking on the wharf, checking out the sea lion pups, eating a ton of nuts from Nut Kreations, sushi at I Love Sushi, and a party over at the guys house where we played numerous rounds of flip cup, chandeliers, and then rock band!

Friday was the best day...another kayaking adventure in the Bay. Started the tour by nearly going headfirst into the ocean as I tried to get in. Embarrassing. The sea lions were very active and were leaping around all over the place which was a bit terrifying at times as I was fully prepared for them to leap onto the kayak! Lots of Sea Otters and their pups too:) So unbelievably cute. But then what baby animal isn't? It was a private tour and the woman who took us out was very nice, though when she told us she had three jobs, and we said "Oh but this must be your favourite", completely out of left field she said no, hre job at a sex shop was. Fair enough! Don't quite know how to respond when someone says that! The evening was spent at the beach, playing frisbee, building sand castles, taking photos, and watching the surfers do their thing.

This weekend is graduation weekend so there are a ton of people on campus! So Saturday morning we got up pretty early and headed down to the Arboretum before all the buses got too busy. Plenty of flowers, hummingbirds, lizards, and even a rabbit, kept us occupied for an hour or two, while we quickly fried to a crisp in the 90 degree weather! Air conditioned buses are the greatest invention ever. That, and ice water. My sister went back to Seattle that afternoon and I returned to campus to start the daunting task of trying to fit my life into two suitcases again. I have waaayyy too much stuff. I am holding a yard/garage sale in my bedroom as we speak.

It was a great final week at UCSC. God I am going to miss this place. But for now, onwards and literally upwards to Sacramento for a night on our way to a friends cabin in Lake Tahoe! Then to Seattle, then down to Skamania Lodge for a family reunion weekend with my bro-in-law's family, then back up to Seattle, then home! I'm glad I did the recycling session this week; I feel I need to give back to the environment as my carbon foot print is going to be pretty hefty.

Big ones, small ones, some as big as your 'ead: Meteors and Pumpkins

Again it is Sunday, end of week 5. Another busy week of studying and random American-ness!

At the beginning of the week I, and another friend, were dragged by my roommate to a ballroom dance class. I have to admit it was really good fun actually! We were taught how to rrhhuuummmbbaa and  American tango (what makes it American I don't know!) and I definitely got into it! A real mix of people there. We kept swapping partners throughout the class so sometimes you were dancing with a tall, dark haired, dancing Ben Affleck, other times, you were not. Got my dancing shows ready for tomorrow:)

Each college on campus has a college night about once a month where the dining hall is given a theme and they serve food and provide entertainment etc. Cowell's college night was a medieval night and I have never seen turkey legs that big before! Seriously they were like the size of my arm! They put loaves of bread on the tables to share and candles and crowns. They even served bread pudding and apple cider while we watched sword fighting and juggling! It must of cost the University a shed load of money but we paid nothing and enjoyed an evening of ye olde feasting and festivities!

On Friday night we heard rumors of a meteor shower happening between midnight and sunrise so we bundled up, stopped at Safeway for snacks and beer on the way, and headed down to Natural Bridges beach at 3am to lie on the sand and watch shooting stars! It was ffrreeezzziinngg cold but we saw lots of shooting stars, made lots of wishes and we were the only ones on the beach which made it the setting for some cheesy horror film (especially when Kelsey kept  'seeing' things moving). Having never seen a shooting star before it was pretty cool and though it wasn't the biggest meteor shower I don't care that I almost froze to death!

Two friends and I went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze yesterday (in the 30degree heat btw!) to pick out our pumpkins for Halloween which the Americans go crazy for! When I ask people what they are doing for halloween they reply by telling me what they are dressing up as. I say 'I'm guessing you are going to a fancy dress party then' and they reply with 'oh no, I don't know what i'm doing yet'....and yet you are dressing up regardless? I'm not a massive halloween fan but the pumpkin patch was fun! I have never seen so many pumpkins and you just walk down loads of rows of them, all different varieties and colours, to pick out the ones you want, put them in your wheelbarrow and wheel them up to the hut where you pay! I have great plans for the carving of my pumpkin however i'm pretty sure the image I have in my head will not translate onto the side of a pumpkin. The corn maze was hard, we found our way back to the entrance thinking it was the exit, but at least we made it out!

 In other news, I have booked my plane ticket to the OC to stay with a friend at the end of term! On our itinerary is Disneyland, LA and Laguna Beach so I am very excited for that! Ok, I will leave it there as I have an exam tomorrow that I have to revise for. It is ironic that back at Warwick week 6, for a humanities student, is reading week. A week off basically. At UCSC it is mid-term week. A week of exams, papers and altogether will be no fun. Though at least it is hot and I can revise outside in the sun! ahhh the silver lining. Perhaps I will order a take away...Dominos? No. Nite Owl cookies...Yes!