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. 

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.