Crosswood

Final Post, Final Thoughts

Crosswood — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Final post, final thoughts

I am back in New Zealand.
I was met, tired and bewildered, at Auckland Airport by my father. Mercifully he used his frequent flyer privileges to get my entire 40kg luggage home. He then took me to the FF lounge where I had a New Zealand breakfast of unsweetened Muesli and some potato fritters, before falling asleep on one of the chairs. I was tired. I am tired still.

New Zealand is nice. It isn’t raining, which it had been for days in Berkeley before I left. My body seems confused about if it is cold or not, because for a year I have lived in constant autumn and winter. I love the food – never let someone tell you New Zealand food is bad again. It is so fresh! Mum cooked a lamb roast and it was easily one of the best things I have ever tasted. My grandparents and sisters were there as well.

My presents that I brought home went down a treat – electronics are very cheap over there in the States, so I got a couple of things that would have been hugely expensive – and sleeping in my own soft bed instead of an airline seat was simply amazing.

Friends have been ringing me left and right to invite me to things. Thanks guys – you made my weekend. Sorry I was so tired.

I feel very loved, and very valued.
I am also really homesick.

Don’t get me wrong – I love New Zealand. It’s just after six months of living with the most amazing people, you get kinda attached to them. Think living in the world’s biggest slumber party, then going back to boarding school.

I got back to the Army yesterday. To be perfectly honest, only one or two people were genuinely interested that I was back (not glad because that’s a bit much to ask for) and the rest looked at me like I was something they’d found on the sole of their shoe. It’ll get better as I get used to it again, but I forgot how happy a simple ‘Hello’ can make you, no matter how exasperated it may sound sometimes!

So this is the end of this blog. For four months I have posted weekly updates on my trip. The trip is over now, and my life is back to how it was. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed posting about my wonderful experiences. Hopefully one of you guys will get to go to somewhere amazing soon, and then I’ll get to read about YOU having fantastic adventures.

Signing off, from Palmerston North, New Zealand

Margaret Harris
Berkeley Student (Golden Bear)
17AUG07 to 25JAN08

Last Week in Berkeley

Crosswood — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Well this is it chaps and chappesses. I am coming home on Thursday local time, and will arrive in Auckland airport Saturday.

You worked out I had a great time. This last week I watched two chick flicks, and hung out with friends while they did things like get textbooks. It's remarkably depressing watching people do things that you'd like to be doing... but that's all moot. On Saturday I'm home, and that's that.

The army hasn't said anything about me being enrolled in University, so I figure I'll ask them about it once I get home. I also need a haircut, which will mean most of you won't get to see my wild untamed locks before I army-style them again.

I'm getting ready to leave. I will post once more once I get home, and then you can ask me things yourselves!

Cheers

Margie

Berkeley

Crosswood — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Right. Quick run down of my activities since New York!

Day 1) Got back into San Fransico around lunch time, I went home and went to sleep.
Day 2) Woke up at 5pm, had a hamburger, and went back to sleep. Must have been REALLY tired!
Day 3) Went into San Fran with friends and walked around Union Sqaure. It was fun!
Day 4) Went by train to Sacremento, where I stayed with a good friend. Walked her dog, ate at a Texas BBQ and it was really nice.
Day 5) Left Sacremento (after Ice Cream) and headed up Chico by train to stay with Sarenna (the person I stayed with over Thanksgiving!) I had a great time. It was pretty chill.
Day 6) Chilled more.
Day 7) Woke up at some unholy hour and tagged along on a ride back to Berkeley. Basically just hanged with some friends today - Frozen Yoghurt, Pizza, buying Textbooks - typical geek good time!

Still thinking about going somewhere else, like Texas. I only have until next Thursday though, so it had better be quick.

Cheers, love

Margie

Back in SF

Crosswood — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Back in San Francisco

I woke up very early on Friday. I, because I wanted a cheaper flight, had booked the plane to San Francisco a mere day and a half after I arrived in New York, so I had to get round everything before I left.

The Hostel I was in was in the Upper West Side of New York, very close to central park and within walking distance of the upper city shops. New York is interesting in that it isn’t centralised – there are about four different nodes of tall buildings, each of which would qualify as ‘downtown’ in another, lesser city, but which are simply concentrations of businesses. Downtown proper is quite a wee way downtown, and the place is so big that you must take the subway.

I didn’t like the subway the first day, but it got better as I had more experience with it. New Yorkers are inherently selfish – I stood up to give my seat to an elderly lady (I guess my parents didn’t send me to that expensive school for nothing!) but she wouldn’t take it. She thought that if I wanted to give it to her there must be something wrong with it! And before I could overcome my surprise a young blonde women sat down in it nonchalantly instead. It was all a bit strange.

Anyway, the first and only day I got up at 5:15am. It was pouring with rain, and the snores of my ten roommates filled the room. I trotted softly to my locker, not putting on the lights or anything in order to not disturb them, and started to undo my lock. Suddenly there was a dazzling light and an outraged Chinese girl was demanding to know why I was going through her stuff. I was puzzled and not a little angry – not only was it 5am, but I was being accused of being a thief and I had stumbled around in the dark only to have this girl turn on the light and wake everyone up! It took me waving my backpack and my lock in her face to convince her that the stuff was mine, and even then she refused to talk to me again.

So at 5:45am I was out the door and swinging down Broadway to find a bagel store.

Broadway at 5:30am

I needed a bagel store because I had been ordered by a friend of mine to eat one while I was there. Stumbling into the nearest small bagel-shop I could find, I had the generic trouble of trying to order something in my New Zealand English before giving up and resorting to pointing and making hand gestures. The bagel was excellent though – it was so early in the morning the bread had just come out of the oven, so it was crispy and delicious quite apart from it being great anyway.

Bagel

By 6am I had reached the Rockefeller centre, certain that I would be the first person there and would get a great shot from my camera. Unfortunately I picked the day with some sort of high fashion show on, and the queue stretched all down the street. I just took a photo of the building I presumed was the famous one and moved on.

Rockefeller Centre

By 6:15am I had reached Times Square, as I intended, with just enough darkness left to make it impressive but no crowds. It was amazing – I loved it. It was like a fireworks display except more entertaining because the pictures moved and bubbled and shifted. It would have be tough to stick it out with crowds though.

Times Sqaure

At 6:30am I reached the Empire State Building. I didn’t go in, because it would have cost me a lot of money, but I did get this wicked shot of it covered with mist. It is an impressive building.

Empire State Building

By this stage I had already walked about 20 to 25 blocks, and my feet were a little sore. I had walked a very goodly amount the day before, but still would have preferred to walk on the pavement as opposed to the subway. Unfortunately I needed to get about 60 blocks in

New York

less than an hour, so the subway was the only practical option. Today though the subway was better, perhaps because I had fortified my mind against what I knew was coming, or more probably because after one go on it I was as shocked as I was going to get. After a fairly pleasant ride to South Ferry, I jumped on the free Staton Island Ferry to Staton

Staton Island Ferry

Island. This took me straight past the Statue of Liberty for free, which was a darn slight better than paying $40 for the same thing. It was a lovely hour ride, dropping me back off at the bottom of Manhattan Island.

Statue of Liberty

I again braved the subway, but this time my sense of direction failed me. I got off at the right station to look for the WTC (I had carefully mapped out my route prior to the day) but walked the wrong way up the street (to my eternal shame.) This took me through Greenwich Village, and Soho, both of which were amazingly interesting. Another subway

WTC

ride later and I was at Ground Zero, which was not much to look at. Waking

The WTC

under it to get to the subway station was amazing though, because the station is the only thing that survives from the original structures. The people in that

Basement of the WTC

station were totally silent. Not a whisper, not a sound, and all out of respect for the signs telling people that they stood in the WTC. It was strange after the huge noise of the outside.

Subway Station

The WTC brought me to the end of my ‘tourist’ stops, so I jumped bravely onto the subway again for the journey to the Metropolitan museum of Art, travelling though Central Park again.

Myself in Central Park

The Met is amazing.

The Met

It has a real Egyptian shrine in it! It was Washington Crossing the Delaware! It has Salvador Dali, Picasso, David’s ‘The Death of Socrates’, it has a wing the size of an ordinary museum dedicated to arms and armour, another to classical statues, yet another to modern art. I was in there five hours and I

Egyptian Shrine, The Met

didn’t look at anything in detail – I actually just walked through and occasionally read a brief sign when interested. If I was to stay there for a week I wouldn’t get round – a month maybe more realistic. After my feet began to swell in my boots, I wandered down the road looking for the Guggenheim building, which is very famous. I took a photo of the building which is just cool, but the exhibits, no matter how famously amazing, didn’t really interest me at all - so I didn’t bother going through the hassle of turning off the flash every time I wanted a shot (this is why so many of my photos are overexposed. Sorry.)

After wandering around strawberry fields (the part of central park dedicated to john

Stawberry Fields

Lennon) I bought a hot-dog (again by the order of my friend. This friend lived in New York while growing up, and was invaluable in her advice on where to go and

Hot Dog

what not to do. It was so good, so relevant (I stumbled from crisis to crisis in pretty much the order that she wrote down instructions of how to get OUT of the situations) that I was printing it off for other people in the hostel). I then went to the hostel and sorted out my life to get through JFK airport security – throwing away everything that even resembled a bottle or something like that.

By dinner time I was again feeling adventurous, so I moved out onto Broadway to look for pizza (which was apparently amazing.) After having such luck with the ‘hole in the wall’ bagel place, I walked into a really dodgy looking pizza shop and ordered a pepperoni (you only get one topping for some reason.) It was the best pizza of my life. I ha#
I've a shot of it here to remember it forever. And it was HUGE!

Getting up at four this morning was tough – since I was in a dorm on a Friday night, it didn’t matter I got to bed at 9 because I couldn’t exactly turn off the light, or asked them to shut up. Also people were walking in an out every hour until about 3am (it was a Friday after all.) So I got no sleep. And then, after busting a gut to get to JFK by 6am, it turned out my flight was booked for tomorrow instead! I simply couldn’t deal with going back and doing the whole thing again, so I changed my flight while I was at the gate, and left as I thought I was scheduled for San Francisco. If you have to fly an airline in the states, fly JetBlue, because it was nice. Delta and American Airways are pretty average, but JetBlue was actually NICE, which lots of legroom and free eats and everything that used to be nice about plane travel (including good looking male flight attendants). We were a bit delayed, because as we were sitting on the tarmac during boarding a tire punctured, so they had to change that, but nothing to serious.

After that we were in San Francisco airport, and through a remarkable piece of misdirection I ended up in the international baggage terminal. I got out in the end, but not without having to go through customs, who held me up because ‘I didn’t have the proper paperwork to enter the US.’ I managed to convince them to show me to the domestic terminal eventually, and the manager thought it was pretty funny!
So I am back in San Fran, living in my basement, and I am pleased I didn’t give back my keys. I’ll have to give them back eventually, but not yet. The plumbing seems even worse, if that’s possible, from when I was here over the fall, which is impressive, but the place is simply too good a base to refuse. I am going to bed now, because I am so tired. Good night!

To New York

Crosswood — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Well I made it. After stress, another long train ride and wierd people looking at funny, I have made it to New York.

I actually like it, although I have only been here a few hours. It is choclablock with people who are all hurrying somewhere. I haven’t been pushed about like I thought I would be, but I think this is a situation where the general lack of anything approaching height is to be appreciated in the American. They part before my determined stomp, which apparently shouldn’t happen. Admittedly my habitual scowl, which is almost de rigur when I am slightly frightened, possibly also had something to do with the general parting of the footpath.

I have seen central park. I can see why they need it. This place is massive and filled with random tall buildings. And so many people! It feels alive, although I have to be honest, the subway wasn’t fun for me at all. I can stand it, though the first time I got on we were all packed in like Sardines and I simply refused to move away from the door. There was no space anyway, but I needed to be able to see the way out. It also meant I could get off the damn thing, when other people were trapped and frantically pushing for their station. That was actually one of the best bits of advice that a friend gave me!

Tomorrow I will try and do all the touresty things, but to be perfectly honest I have to get to my plane early Saturday, and don't really know how. So it might be an overnight stay at the airport for Margie, unless I can assuage my fears enough that I will stay at the hostel. Home to San Francisco! Mum, you would love it here in New York. I like it too, but I wish you guys were here to bail me out with your greater experience. I guess this is how you get the experience though.

I will post again tomorrow. Cheers

Margie

Philadelphia

Crosswood — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So after a slightly rocky start, Philadelphia has turned out to be great!
I jumped off the train in Philly station (I loved that train ride. It’s the best bit of travelling I have ever done. I recommend that line to anyone who wants peace for a little bit.) and then was in a pickle. Should I follow instructions and take the bus to where I wanted to go, or should I simply walk? I chose the latter option, remembering that Dad’s advice has always been to walk around a city to get its feel. So I walked about 20 blocks up from the train station, looking at suburban streets, the University of Pennsylvania, and large brick buildings everywhere. It was pretty neat, but my unintended stop in Delaware had pushed back the time and I was running dangerously out of sunlight. To compound my problems, the hostel didn’t have a sign out being right next to the ghetto area of town. This being the case, I walked right past it and into the less safe area of the city. After somehow managing to extricate my very silly self from a sticky dilemma, I wound up finding my hostel just as the sun set, for which I was impossibly pleased.

Today I went downtown and saw the Liberty bell (I always imagine these things to be bigger) and Independence Hall (where I was taunted by an 8-year-old about how little I knew about any of the important things that happened there. What can you say to an 8-year-old when she’s right?) My magic New Zealand army ID is great. I got free into all the museums, including unlimited access aboard another Submarine (they’re everywhere!) and throughout all the library’s. I don’t lie to these people – I never claim to be anything other than a New Zealand army officer cadet. By somehow I fail to mention I’m not here with the American army...

I took a few more photos of important things which I’m not quite sure the meaning of, and went back to the hostel before dark. I have learnt my lesson before NYC. I’m going to be bloody safe or I’m not going at all! But I am going, tomorrow, and hopefully I can get a lift with a guy who’s going up to check on his hostel up there. I am not staying at his hostel (I checked with a friend who used to live in NY before I made any bookings, and she basically guided me to a nicer area) but it would be good to save a bit of money.

Actually the whole trip has been remarkably inexpensive (relatively). I suspect that if I was a bit more experienced, or had been to some of these places before, then it would be even cheaper, but so far I haven’t had any trouble. The hostels and the train/flights are easily the most expensive (I have been living off left-over’s that people come and give me to get rid of. I trade them for a Muesli bar. And instant noodles! Yummy.)

So tomorrow NYC. I will tell you how it goes. I am nervous – people spin so many yarns about how intimidating this place is that now I am going I am worried. Will post soon.

Just passing through

Crosswood — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It is very nice out here in the East. The train ride today from DC has been grand, and winter is well and truly settled here.Wilmington is a very nice town, if a little small and puny. I like it though - the trees and gray ocean make it seem very bleak. Life is good though - not much to see here. On to Philly!

Last day in Washington DC

Crosswood — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

And so I come to the end of the epic visit to DC. I had a good time. I saw a lot of stuff.

I went down to Quantico for the Marine Museam (very interesting - lots of yelling. It was quite big and very well made.) and the library of Congress (WOW that is an AMAZING building. AMAZING.) I saw a REAL Guttenberg Bible. I also walked down Pensilvannia Ave and took photos of EVERYTHING, finishing with seeing the Declaration of Independance at the Archives.

Tomorrow at roughly 9:15am I'll go by train to Philly, which should be fun. I will tell you about it when I get there.

I will post some piccy's later - right now I am packing. Cheers team.

Margie

DC take 2

Crosswood — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Dear All

Today Gigi and Steve had their open home, and so I slept in. We couldn’t leave until the Real Estate Agent arrived, but his church ran over, so he was late. We went out for lunch and had a really good Chinese meal, before heading over to Arlington National Cemetery

to see all those famous monuments over there. My camera has been truly excellent – I am so glad I paid the extra fifty bucks to get the rechargeable batteries, because I would have paid twice that in AAA’s by now.

I saw the changing of the guard (which I saw with new eyes since being in the army), the

Kennedy memorial, the USS Maine memorial, the Columbia memorial, an

d the Lee House. Also the Air Force memorial, and the side of the Pentagon that the terrorist plane crashed into. It is actually a slightly different colour

than the rest of the building, so you can clearly see where it hit. Then we drove home

I’m heading up to Philly and New York Tuesday and Wednesday and hope to stay in New York for maybe three days? I know it’s not enough to see everything, but it’s better than nothing. Then a bus ride to Boston (a day or two there) and then either Chicago or home, sweet Home, to Berkeley. This doesn’t sound very adventurous does it? Well, it’s probably enough for me.

For more pics check out the pic page.

Monument Day

Crosswood — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday was a HUGE day. To start with I woke up at what my body considered to be 3am, but which locally was 7:30am. In fact here I am here looking tired and scruffy. And also sideways. Whatever. I am experimenting with embedding photos – tell me if they take to long to load, or they’re boring, and I’ll stop.

Myself at Gigi's place

Anyway, you agree with me I look terrible. I looked better after Bagels and some tea, before embarking on my great adventure around the United States Capital!

I left on the metro due to the kind help of Gigi and Steve, and headed in to the centre of town (‘the Mall’) for all those things to look at! I didn't realise it would be so hard to AVOID tripping over a famous monument. They made it awfully convenient for visitors, but you do begin to get jaded with fantasmic things after a while.

Anyway, I left with some sort of plan to see the Air and Space Museum, but walked the wrong way from the stop and ended up outside this grim looking building with a huge line outside. That looked promising, so I tacked myself on the end of it.

Holocusat Museam

It turned out it was the Holocaust museum, and is incredibly famous. A funny story about the Holocaust museum, or as close to funny as you can get after actually seeing the stuff in there, was that I rocked up to the building not realising there is always a massive line, not just to get inside through security, but also to get inside the exhibits full stop. So I went up to the reception to get a ticket (there were hundreds of people), and this sign said to present your military or federal ID if you had it. I figured you had to pay to get in (which you don't), and that being a military person gave you some sort of discount, so I pulled out my New Zealand Army ID in the hope that would work. The lady at the front desk looked at it, blinked, looked at it again and gave me a ticket to go up straight away, jumping over the people in the wait-list, the people who had tickets that said they could go in at that time, and even jumping to the head of the line to take the elevator. It turns out that New Zealand liberated a concentration camp and the people at the desk give priority to members of forces that did that. I looked like a student though, so I got some amazingly dirty looks from the people who had been there for ages but hadn't been able to get tickets. It was an interesting museum, in a horrible way. I was pleased and not pleased at the same time to be in that building, which was a strange feeling at the time, but even more so now that I'm trying to remember what it was like. Anyway.

After I got out, I was a little lost, so I strolled down the street and around the corner. The Washington Memorial basically demanded my attention after that.

Washinon Memorial

The thing is MASSIVE and the line outside to go up was just silly. I figured that my magic New Zealand Army ID wasn't going to cut it this time, so I wandered up the left-hand pathway that leads around the area.

Rodent, Washington

It’s just a tall building anyway – when I get to New York there will be plenty of those.

The next thing I saw was the new World War Two memorial. It's cool. What more can you say? It’s a little overdone, any it feels almost self-conscious in its attempts to tie-in to the neo-classical feel of all the other monuments. As I walked past it and the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Monument, I was beginning to get used to it, but it took me a little while.

Wahington Monument and Pond

The Lincoln memorial was awesome. It is apparently really good at night, but it was pretty nippy there during the day, so I didn't hang round to admire Abe much. If you look at my photos, you'll notice all the water is frozen. Yes. Hmmm.

Next I visited the Vietnam memorial, which is overhyped. I’m not saying it wasn’t a little moving, but it wasn't great like they say it is.

Brothers in Armys Statue

Veitnam

Perhaps what was missing was the people who were genuinely there to grieve, because while I was there all there was were a bunch of war protesters. Felt just like Berkeley, only less appropriate.

The Korea memorial was much, much, MUCH better. It has files and files of statues, each kitted out in a different allied countries’ battle gear, also marching in the same direction and with their names engraved into the granite. It is very cool, and I hung around there longer than I meant too

Korea Memorial

Roosevelt Memorial

Ice on the Roosevelt Memorial

After that was the Roosevelt memorial, which I ran into on the way to the Jefferson memorial. Both were awesome, and the Roosevelt one, which made copious use of flowing water, was totally frozen. It was also totally at odds with reality, portraying the man as honest, caring and kind. He lied about having polio for 10 years, to the entire country!! Moving along.
Jefferson's words, engraved around the edge of the building's dome, seemed to me to be admitting grand theft, but it might be impolitic of me to point that out. I certainly wasn't going to point it out there with all those patriotic Americans around! I did laugh a little though. It all turned out well in the end.

Jefferson

Jefferson Memorial and Pond

Jefferson Memorial

Then I ran into the John Paul Jones memorial. Long story, but a cool monument. Dad might fil you in if you ask nicely.

John Paul Jones

I know it seems like I went everywhere, and yes. Yes I did. Here is the White House from the back

White House

, here is the Sherman monument,

Shermon

and here is me being nice and warm with Washington’s Memorial in the background

Myself in Washington DC

AEROSPACE MUSEUM! Oh yeah baby! They had the American history Smithsonian closed for renovation, so all that stuff was in the Aerospace as well. Gold. Here is Sherman’s Hat.

Shermon's hat, Aerospace

Americans are so funny - they had Edison's light bulb, then the original telegraph, Bell's telephone, and then... Kermit the Frog. I laughed, but no one else did. Eee.

They had the REAL Columbia Command Module from Apollo 11, they had the Enola Gay hanging from the roof, they had everything and ANYTHING they could lay their hands on displayed in its glory. I was thrilled. I spent three hours there. I could go back, but won't, because I'd never leave. Here is a real FE-8 pusher biplane from the First World War, with a Spoilt Camel in the background.

FE-8 Pusher Biplane with Camel in background

I also went to the White House information centre, and then went home to spend productive time on a Wii.

Please think of my friends the West Coast this week - they got wacked by a huge storm. One was without power or communication when a tree toppled over the power-line onto the cell phone tower. They live in an orcharding area and apparently some have lost 50% of their trees. One has had a neighbour lose her house when a tree fell through it. A couple haven't responded to my emails or call, so I'm a little worried about that. I might cut this trip short if they need some help with the clean-up.

Cheers Team
Margie

DC

Crosswood — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I am at my mothers’ friends’ House in DC and I am not sure how I got here. The plane to DC from Phoenix was PACKED because a previous flight was cancelled, so there was no room on the plane for my bag. I had packed so it could all be cabin luggage, but that wasn’t going to happen. People were getting quite grumpy at each other for taking up ‘more than their fair share’ of the space, but everything was sorted out and we only left about 30 mins late. I was sitting next to a lady who seemed to be very grumpy to begin with (when I tried to put my backpack beside her bag in the overhead locker she snapped ‘Don’t touch my bag!’) , but was very nice and who had travelled all over Africa. This made the plane flight quite pleasant, and by the end she was keen to introduce me to her sons. Hmmmm. I was quite pleased when the plane landed in DC, after flying over all these famous monuments! I can’t wait to visit them.
I was instructed by Gigi, my mothers’ friend, to ring once I reached DC. This is duely did. I fully intended to stay at the hostel and I had all the instructions ready to ride the metro – but when I looked out into the night I confess I was a little daunted. The hostel isn’t in the best area of town. Somehow once I had rung Gigi I was staying at her House, for which I am pathetically grateful. I was trying so hard to avoid it coming to that as well, because they are trying to sell their House and thus have it beautifully neat. Luckily, after the army, I can do neat.
I am still a bit confused as to how this came about. I suspect Mum. Mum is a bit like the puppet-master sometimes in that she can see/shape the future, no matter how hard I try and avoid it. Possibly I should just give in and do whatever she says, but H’s have inconvenient pride, and so we make Mum’s job as difficult as we can. We still lose, but that’s beside the point.

Cheers everyone. I’ll tell you how DC is later.

Phoenix Airport

Crosswood — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Here I am in Phoenix, Arizona! Well, really just the airport. The flight I am on to DC has a stop-over here of about an hour and so I am quickly typing to update on the plan of attack that I (briefly) outlined yesterday. I am sorry for the curtness of the post – I was in a hurry to get it out of the way so I could spend time with my friend before I left.
Again, I got up very early (after talking all night) and hung around waiting for the flight that morning. My friend was a little dopey, but wished me luck before falling (exhausted) back to sleep. I was thrilled she woke up! After being dropped off at the airport, the security men threw away every bottle I owned (despite them being clear and almost completely empty) which was a hassle, but there we go. The flight on US airways to Phoenix was very nice – not as nice as a big new Airbus like Air New Zealand has going to San Francisco, but almost empty and therefore we got good service. The captain was making jokes over the intercom as well, so it was kinda cool. Right now I am sitting looking out the airport window at the flat desert, and the huge town. They had plenty of space, so everyone has an acre it feels like. The roads a big, straight and stretch on to the horizon.
The plan is that I will get to DC and go by train to the hostel. I have directions! Hopefully it will work out OK. The time zones are different there, but I am worried about my phone. I destroyed it by dipping it in water, and it only turns on if I leave it on. But I had to turn it off for the flight! So we will see. I will write when I reach DC!

Tardy

Crosswood — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So I've been a little tardy in writing. Sue me! I've been having a great time.
I jumped on that train that morning (after Andy and Lisa rushed me to the train station as the train was coming in) not knowing what to expect of San Diego. I sat there in the train, and as is my wont, thought about all the things that could go wrong. Was leaving the safety of Andy and Lisa, and the comfort of familiar family friends, really a good idea? I have looked into my travelling habits and I have

My friend met me at the station, and when I saw her smile I knew it was going to be a good trip. American’s seem to be incapable of being unkind, and in the week I have been here I have had one of the best times of my life. AGAIN.

The first day we drove around San Diego, and went on board the Star of India tall-ship in the harbour. We also went on-board a Russian Submarine, which was really fascinating. I felt bad however, because my friend had injured herself playing rugby, and she wasn't able to walk very well.

The second day we went to the museum of man (it was amazing how much the Neanderthal looked like Uncle Paul) and then to a New Years' party. You'll be proud of me - I mingled, conversed and had a great time. I also got to drive on the wrong side of the road - ie the Right-Hand Side - which was very exciting.

Yesterday I went to a kind of Hippy Beach colony, which was also very fun. San Diego is gorgeous while the sun sets. That morning we went to Mexico just for a look, but it was pretty dodgy, so we came back quickly (after some trouble from the border guards).

I went to the zoo today as well. It was fun. I leave tomorrow for DC. I’ll talk more later.

Exam Results

Crosswood — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Exam results:

Department Course Units Grade
HISTORY 151B BRITAIN, 1660-1851 4.0 A-
HISTORY 155B MEDIEVAL EUROPE 4.0 A-
HISTORY 171A Russia 4.0 A
MIL SCI 141 LEADERSHIP & MNGMNT 3.0 A
SLAVIC 147A EAST SLAVIC FOLKLORE 3.0 A

So I had a pretty good semester. The only reason I am posting them here is because I am vain and my folks weren't going to give in to my ego. Fair enough?

Christmas at Andy’s

Crosswood — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Well, I made it down to Orange County, but not right away – first I headed out after my exams to a friends’ house and hung out with her and her friends. They (both Noa and her friends) were really nice and I hope I see them again sometime, although this seems unlikely. For four days I did very little and relaxed. I also celebrated with my friends over their exam results – some of them were a little frightened by what they would get, but they turned out great. I don’t have my exam results back yet, although everyone else does. It is slightly annoying!

While in Palo Alto with my friend I basically did nothing, but at the end we went to a New Zealand pub in the middle of nowhere so I could feed her pavlova. I’m seriously not a good enough cook to even THINK about making one of those little monsters, so I figured I should leave it to the experts. (Yes – a New Zealand pub. Random yes?) Then I went back to the house. I am still having problems with the landlord (who made a mistake on my contract) but I’m sure it will be solved by move-in day of next semester. The house was very empty – I didn’t like it like that.

I also managed to work myself into a fine state as because I didn’t have a social security number I couldn’t buy a train ticket online. Also, the holidays changed all the bus timetables. Of course I checked online, but I was still worried about getting to the station on time, because the buses are ALWAYS late. So I didn’t get much sleep, but I got down to the bus stop in enough time to recognize that the bus wasn’t going to arrive, and so I got a taxi to the station and all was well. I jumped on this very flash double-decker train with big comfy seats and lots of leg room – but the guy next to me wasn’t impressed. This man was very large and took up all of his set and some of mine as well. He was also, at various points, bored, angry at things, restlessly fidgeting and rambling about how much he hated America.

I enjoyed my train ride – I know the man above seems a little strange, and he was, but there were some other real characters as well. Like the man who kept walking up and down the aisle until someone gave me a beer. Or the man who was standing at the front of the coach ‘reading peoples’ auras’. I’d definitely do it again. It’s an experience. And the train ride itself was wonderful – no vibration, really VERY fast (we were going at 79 miles per hour in places) and lots of space – plus you own food. We stopped for freight in a couple of spots, but one of those spots was in the middle of the big restricted air force base, so I got heaps of time to watch the fighters practicing overhead. It was gold.

I got to LA at 9 and was very pleased that Andy and Lisa were waiting for me. My phone had died because I had gone out of my calling zone, so I was again unable to call anyone. Luckily they were outside. Union station is very nice – they’ve taken good care of it.
Andy’s house is bigger and cooler than I remember – he has two computers, an Xbox 360, and Xbox and a playstation 1 & 2. He also has a TV with 700 channels. Actually I’ve been spending a lot of my time sleeping (I am very tired for no reason) and reading books I bought for the train ride. I also had some wonderful pizza (garlic chicken – one of my parents doesn’t like garlic so I never get it at home). Then we went to Andy’s parents house for dinner. I had a wonderful time (LOTS of food) and this morning (Christmas day) I have eating with Lisa’s folks. Andy gave me some very excellent DVD’s, and I gave him a bowl that looks like a shell (thanks Mum and Dad for sending that!) so I am as happy as the cat with all the cream. Tomorrow we will go to the pistol range so that I can fire a .45 – I’m in America! How could I conform to the stereotypes without firing a gun?! I will write again when I reach San Diego – that is the next step.

Go Bears!

Crosswood — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Tonight was a great.

Everyone has been trickling away from the house. Person by person they’ve said their farewells and left – gone after four and a half months of friendship and living together. Every night was like a sleepover at a friends’ place. We had parties for Halloween, parties for peoples’ birthdays, parties for kicks, parties for footballs games.

Tonight we had a party for leaving. My leaving.

In another three days I will cancel my meal-plan, I will pack up my room and I will sign a termination letter. Then I will leave. It is a very real possibility that I will never be back to Berkeley, or see the people that made Berkeley such a great place, again. I contrast this to my experience of leaving for America that day – I can still remember everything. It was a sunny Tuesday - I practically skipped out of the barracks door and haven’t thought of it fondly since.

They gave me a gift, my house-mates. A blanket with the Golden Bear on it. It’s magnificent, and it’s without question the best thing I have ever been given by friends. I can’t imagine being half as pleased with something from the Massey Student store – Cal is something special, even for a temporary visitor.

Here in Berkeley is Westminster House, and here the others will be back, most of them. I won’t be, but I wish them every success. This was a sappy post, but hey – I won’t get another chance. Later I might be in New York, or San Diageo, or various places in between, but I’ll remember that I’m a Golden Bear, and that Golden Bears from Cal are the sweetest creatures on the planet.

Go Bears.

Dad's Trip

Crosswood — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Dad came over this week!

I know it seems a little odd, but it was so nice of him to do it and I appreciated it a lot. On Friday I was told he was coming Monday, so I didn't have much time to stress about what to do. It all worked out well in the end.

I rode BART all the way to San Fran airport, which is quite a trip. Then Dad drove us back to Berkeley in this huge American car with the greatest Sat Nav system I've ever seen. Even a child could use it, it was so simple. Dad was staying in San Fran, in a hotel on one of the main streets, so he and I wandered through town a couple of times having a look around. He saw a lot more without me, as obviously I had class in the build-up for exams, which start very soon. I had to quickly re-schedule a final exam from the Wednesday morning (when Dad and I went up to Sacramento) to the Tuesday before (luckily the SSgt who controls that class wasn't to fussed.) I got an A, which is a shame because I took it pass/not-pass. Oh well, such is life. He gave me American rat packs, which is nice, but I'm a little afraid of eating them. We'll see...

Sacramento was misty, and I had a doctor’s appointment there. I also got up really, really early after going to bed late. The combination of these factors meant I didn't really look around much while I was there, but I did enjoy a home-made sandwich with Dad before a breakfast Parfait and a cup of tea in McDonalds.

I also had a military ball on Wednesday because it was a pretty full-on day. Dad and I went up to Macy’s to get a Bow-Tie, because Dad had left his black one at home, and it was interesting seeing the psychology of selling. The man at the first store we went to had no intention of helping us – I looked like a Uni student and dad was wearing a serviceable, but hardly Christine Dior, jumper. This is obviously stupid – Dad was going to spend money, and since he doesn’t like to shop if they give him a good pitch he’ll probably buy it. They lost out – their customer service didn’t compare to my little sisters’ – so we went down the street and got one from a place where the person was marginally more interested in us.

The military ball was fun. I was on a tight timetable already – I got back from class at 1730 and the ball started at 1800 – but there was an accident on a bridge in San Fran and Dad was a few minutes late. I was wearing my full Patrol-Reds, the formal uniform of the Corps of Officer Cadets, and looked pretty good. I also had a New Zealand flag to present. Dad always looks good in his dinner jacket, but he has an unfair advantage in that he goes to more of these things than me and knows how to make small talk. Luckily I didn’t need small-talk past ‘I’m from New Zealand! Look how red my uniform is!’ and other similar comments. They thought I was pretty flaky I think, but that’s cool. Dinner was nice – beef and stuff like that, and the company was good. We saw a sword arch (it wasn’t very good, but it’s hard to hold a sabre out above your head for a long time like they were forced to, so hats off to them), heard a good speech from a Brigadier (he saw I was in the audience and changed his speech to include Phil Goff’s nephew who was killed in Iraqi a few months ago.) and then it was my turn. I was supposed to go up onto the podium and make a speech about something and then give the flag to the Lt. Col, but she didn’t stand up to get the flag, she stayed at the table. So I simply walked up to the top table and started to ramble at her. I said something about New Zealander’s and Americans fighting together, how we were friends and how I had no doubt they’d look after our flag. They liked it – I am so lucky. It was pretty simple and was big on the nervous babbling, but the Americans seemed to appreciate that it was sincere. Dad (in his cynicism) was surprised. I had a really good night anyway – the Golden Bears gave me a Commander’s Coin, which I have to carry with me, and if I don’t have it when they check I have to buy everyone a round of beer. Fair enough!

Today was great, until I left my backpack in Dad’s rental car and he drove off to the airport with it. Hmmm. I’ll get it tomorrow, but I was stressed there for a while until I went to the gym with my friend, who is also stressed. I feel tired now.

Tomorrow:
Get Backpack with all my notes and my cellphone in it
Talk to Marine Guy about Marine Corps in America
Talk to SSgt Smith about SSgt Smith’y stuff (he’s a great guy)

I think I was supposed to talk to either the Navy guy or the Air force guy as well... I’ll find out. Cheers for reading guys

See you in six weeks

Thanksgiving

Crosswood — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Dear All

Thanksgiving was amazing – on Wednesday last week (although it wasn’t a public holiday) we all got time off university to travel up. Well – time off might be stretching the point a little – it was more like we held the lecturers to ransom and they didn’t hold classes because no one was going to arrive.

The mother of my friend Sarenna, whom I stayed with, travelled down an awful long way to pick us up (our hat’s are off to you, Mrs S!). While we waited a wee while for Sarenna to pack (Sarenna is famous for taking a long time to get ready), myself and another friend went out for coffee. After this we were off!

Traffic is absolutely APPALLING on and around Thanksgiving, with everyone trying to get back to their family for the holiday, so Mrs S. Drove off to the other side of Berkeley first to get Mexican food. I love Mexican food, but I wasn’t so thrilled with the rice drink that is traditionally drunk with it, because it tickled the back of my throat and made me want to sputter. Still – it was a really nice evening, and after a small diversion to a cheese store we hit the road again and (after a frankly amusing couple of tries at getting back onto the ‘freeway’) we were on our way to Chico!

The coastal route is beautiful at night, so as my friend dozed off in the front seat I chatted away to Mrs S, who is a lovely person and who knew a lot about the area we were driving through. This was useful; I knew nothing about what or where we were driving through, and was only mildly interested in how flat it was before Mrs S started to elaborate on the history of it. Petrol is really cheap over here, but it’s all ’87, ’89, and ‘91! No ’98 at all, and diesel is more expensive than Petrol.

After about 2 hours we reached Chico, which is an agricultural/university town that specialises in crops like nuts and fruits. The friend I stayed with lived outside of Chico in the middle of an area of cropland, which was gorgeous by night (the first night we took the dogs out for a walk around the place) and was simply stunning by day. Rank upon rank of almond trees! I’m actually sitting in my basement now eating almonds from that area (they’ve been roasted with orange peel and honey and taste amazing). It was all a little overwhelming at first, but the place is fantastic.

The second day was Thursday – Thanksgiving day. We had dinner at about 1 o clock because if we ate earlier then we’d pop when we tried to go for a traditional walk afterwards. Turkey was abundant (those birds must be massive!) and doesn’t taste anything at all like chicken – but the real treat was the vegetables. Yes – I know. This is me, talking about liking veggies more than meat, but if you ate at the dining commons every day you’d realise why I desperately desired those peas and yams. I ate so many veggies I didn’t even want to THINK about dessert – lots of pie. Americans love pie – Pumpkin Pie, Coconut Pie, Pecan Pie (that’s REALLY good), Marionberry Pie (kindof like Blackberry – my friend sitting next to me tells me it IS a blackberry that’s a weird mutant and that comes from a state in America called ‘Oregon’) and, of course, Apple pie. Why so much pie? The family is WAY too nice for their own good, knew I hadn’t eaten most of these pies before and got them for me. Americans are THE NICEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. The walk was really nice as well – we went to a different area that we wandered around in the night before. My friends’ sister disturbed me mightily – we went in a car to the general area and I didn’t realise that she didn’t drive very well until she exclaimed ‘Oh – A corner! Lets see how this goes!’ I was more than slightly concerned after that. She also couldn’t get the keys out of the car because she put it in neutral instead of park (snigger). After our walk (we saw hawks, lots of trees and had a great time) I drove back. I laughed at that girl too soon. I actually thought – ‘gosh. Putting the steering wheel on this side of the car makes it a lot easier to align yourself to the left hand side of the... uh oh.’ Luckily the road was a farm road and there were no other cars!

Chico proper, which we visited the next day, is really great. It is a ‘small’ town – 100 000 people is small in the states – and has literally everything. The Farmers Market is very much like the Lower Hutt market, except the stuff was heaps more professional – there was a nut stand with all sorts of types of almonds – honey roasted, orange roasted, chocolate covered, ect - and various fruit stalls. I love mandarins!!

We also went to the gym, not once but TWICE. Dad – you’d be proud. The second time was very fun – a man named Mika taught me how to use Kettle Bells and we violently swung them around, and also attacked random tractor tires. My friend is very strong and fit, so I had to work hard to keep up for the honour of the New Zealand army. It wasn’t pretty.

We came back, and then I went off to ANOTHER thanksgiving dinner, this time in Los Altos. The family is a family of engineers, who proudly showed off their awesome robot like other families show off a prize dog. It was a fricken’ awesome robot. We also did Tie Dye, ate lots of good food, and headed home tired and full. I slept through my alarm the next day.

Today I also did a Military Lab in preparation for the formal Military Ball next week. I showed up in my Patrol Reds, which are very red, and tried to learn how to dance. I was mildly successful at this! The boys were less successful, but they tried very hard.

Tomorrow I have a formal house dinner, which should be fun as well.

That’s pretty much everything that happened over the last week – I had a great time in Chico - wish me luck for getting a friend to go with me to the ball!

Cheers everyone, sorry for how unfunny this post was

Margie

Come on people!

Crosswood — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Come on people! I write stuff for you, you write stuff for me! Does anyone read this blog? If so, then comment, or I'll become depressed and give up...

LA Road Trip

Crosswood — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

It all started Friday night. I was looking forward to the long weekend – the normal round of homework, sleep and friends, punctuated with the occasional drama by one of my houses’ many teenagers. It looked boring, but nice. Until I opened my email inbox.

A couple of international students from my soccer team looked like they were flying down to LA for the weekend – they were asking if anyone else wanted to come. I was vaguely interested – I’ve been to LA before, but not on this trip. I sent an email reply saying that it would be cool to go. Those friends said there weren’t any seats, but some people might want to organise a car to drive down there. About three minutes later, I got a call on my cell phone and I was going to LA for two days, spontaneously.

Two magic words – Road Trip. It was great – I woke up at six am, walked down to Telegraph Ave and was picked up by this German guy named Adrian and a Canadian called Joanna. Us three were the only ones going down by car, and I couldn’t drive because I was under the age for insurance, so those two were the only drivers, and they quickly showed their worth. In two days they ran four red lights (none of them on purpose, but one in front of three lanes of oncoming traffic), went the wrong way down two one way streets, got a speeding ticket for going 92 miles an hour in Merced (60 mile per hour zone) and generally swerved back and forth over as many lanes of the freeway as possible to take up. Never let anyone tell you that New Zealander’s are inconsiderate drivers again!

Needless to say I was the fun-Nazi voice of reason in all of this – but what in New Zealand would be broad hints aren’t at all hints in the more direct American culture. For example, five minutes before the speeding ticket I spotted how fast we were going and said to Jo ‘If we get a speeding ticket, who is going to pay it?’ Pretty obvious right? Apparently not.
‘Margaret! Why didn’t you say anything about me going too fast?’

The crossing in front of the three lanes of traffic thing was done by the German guy, Adrian. He saw the green light for going ahead, but not the red light for turning, and so just turned. It was pretty frightening for me, and I still can’t help but laugh as I talk about it now, because Adrian didn’t even notice until after we were safely through the intersection. He was then so horrified that he lost concentration and almost took out two pedestrians on a zebra crossing. All in all, not one of the more successful driving experiences of my life.

We drive 350 miles down the central valley from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which was a nice drive but quite boring. The landscape is very flat, devoid of all vegetation aside from a very short brown scrub, and occasionally farms. Every 30 or 40 miles, so regular you could set your clock to it, there was a ‘town’ that consisted of three or four fast-food joints and a motel. I suspect they cater for the truck-drivers that come up and down this route, but it was amazing how none of these ‘towns’ had a supermarket or anything. It was literally just some fast-food places and a place to stay.

Our first stop on this road trip was at one of these places, called Wasco, where we had Denny’s. Denny’s is an American fast food chain which is somewhere between Cobb and Co and McDonalds – very unhealthy, huge portions. It was very crowded when we went in, and every single person there was overweight – it was like the America you see in those bad movies about the ’hollowness of life’. We quickly worked out the reason for everyone being overweight – I took one look at the menu and ordered a side-order of toast for my meal. (A side note: everything in America is about choice. When I ordered my toast is wasn’t just ‘white or brown’ it was ‘do you want rye, sour dough, white wheat flour, corn flour, ect. And this was at a fast food place!) I scraped a lot of the butter off and it was quite nice. The other two picked the mega-breakfast and it was massive and covered with grease. They enjoyed it!

Then it was back on the road, and I had to work very hard to prevent us stopping within the hour at the International House of Pancakes, better known as iHop. This decision to not go to IHop right then and there was a mistake which later came back to haunt me – but that’s a story for later.

After about 4 hours a line of hills appeared up from the horizon. These hills are pretty random, because there is nothing but plains before them, and nothing but hills after. Through these hills more and more green began to appear, until we entered into LA county and from there to LA proper.

Driving along the freeways is a hassle – and although I kept telling the driver which exit we were to take we missed it anyway. Honestly – this is the last time I take a trip with fully spontaneous people! No... it wasn’t that bad – they’re brilliant people. They’re just a little flighty. Anyway, we ended up in Venice Beach, which isn’t very nice. We got all the way down there to go and stay with these other two people from our soccer team, but they’re a couple, and they weren’t that keen to have us around. They ‘suggested’ we’d find more accommodation in Hollywood than in Venice Beach. They’re funny people. Anyway, we drove for another hour to get to Sunset blvd, which was very dodgy. My car-mates told me ‘the first place we find to stop and stay the night we’ll take’ and so I delighted in pointing out all the tumble-down, paint-flecked ‘hotels’ with hookers standing out the front. Eventually to my disappointment we found a motel 6, which was pretty much fully booked except for a double room in a smoking section, and a single room in a non-smoking section. We went for the double first, but it stunk so badly we moved into the single room. I slept on the floor in my army sleeping-bag while Jo and Adrian slept in the bed. Perhaps this sounds a little odd – why would one girl sleep on the floor while another girl and a guy who don’t date or anything sleep in the bed? By this stage I had come a-cropper of the dreaded lurgy, and was sick with the flu. I didn’t want to give them it, so I stayed away from them. We met up with our friends and strolled down Hollywood Blvd, which was nice. The stars on the walk were fun to watch, the stores were all very cool (if a little touristy) and the Chinese Theatre especially was worth a visit. All those hand-prints were excellent! My favourite was the harry potter actors’ handprints. The whole courtyard with all the handprints was smaller than I expected though - What happens when they run out of space?

We had hamburgers for dinner, and then I went home to bed (because I felt like rubbish) whilst my friends wandered off and visited famous nightspots, and Sushi restaurants. My University American Football team also lost (which was a big disappointment), but the floor was surprisingly comfy. The next morning, well rested, we went to see the Hollywood sign. We followed the directions given to us by Adrian’s iPhone (which is amazing by the way), but the directions that it imported had a large flaw. It didn’t realise that some of the routes were ‘authorized’ vehicles only, so in the end we had a great tikki-tour of the Hollywood hills, but saw no Hollywood sign. We did see it in the end, but only from a great distance away. Such is life.

We then swung by Muscle beach and the Santa Monica pier. It was Veteran’s Day in the USA and they’d placed thousands of crosses out on the beach to commemorate Iraqi war soldiers who’ve died, and they were holding a ceremony on the beach. We watched them until a protest group showed up with ‘9/11 was a fake made up by the govt!!!’ signs. There were quite a few of them, and the memorial service didn’t acknowledge that they were there, but I still thought it was in poor taste. We didn’t go on any of the rides on Santa Monica pier, but it was interesting to watch other people do it.

After this we went to see UCLA, which was very nice (but it looked like someone had designed it using a huge ruler) It was conveniently right next to the Bel Air gates, so I got a photo of that as well. Jo was trying to find the UCLA store so she could buy stuff, and I pointed to some blue parasols in the distance and said ‘that looks like food, and so the commercial area. It’ll be over there in the commercial area, surely.’ Jo and Ad decided to check the map and settled on the Student Activates Centre as being the most likely place, even though I said it was likely to be the gym. So we walked over the campus to the gym, discovered it was a gym, and then walked down to the memorial fountain. Jo went and asked someone where the store was, but she didn’t speak English. I pointed out to Jo that the lady had a UCLA store bag, so we just had to walk in the direction from which the lady came to find it. Jo’s response? – ‘This is why we keep you around Margaret.’ So we followed the trail of people carrying UCLA bags to the courtyard with the blue parasols in it. It turns out the blue parasols was the student store. There Jo spent money and I wandered around looking for something that I could give to Annabel. Eventually the money ran out on the parking metre, so we went back and headed out of town.

We didn’t go back the same way we drive in – we went up the coast towards Santa Barbara and stopped there. The scenery was much nicer on this leg, but I wasn’t impressed by SB. It was like I thought America was going to be like all over the place when I arrived – very two dimensional. American flags lined the recently brick-laid streets, pseudo-Spanish architecture dominated the area, and the main street was like an outdoor mall for chain stores. The food we had was very good though, and it was interesting to visit three University of California towns in a couple of days.

From here we drove to Santa Monica. Remember how I said I regretted not going to iHop on the first day? Well, the other two got obsessed with the idea of going there, so I pulled up Adrian’s iPhone and we went on a mighty hunt for them. We probably went an hour out of our way, and 100 miles further, to find one, and only then by heroic efforts on the part of the iPhone. We did find one however, and the food was good – massive MASSIVE portions of pancakes which made me VERY full.

I was pleased to get home to Berkeley but I had a great time. I hope everyone else had a great weekend, and I’ll talk to you guys about everything going on later.

Again, if you’ve got questions it’d be good, because then I’d have something to write about.