Possum Blood

Now. You may be wondering why I chose to put this horrifying picture on my blog. Well, if you had been there, as Madison was, scraping off the glob of blood from my J Crew pea green corduroy pants, you would choose this exact image too.

Last night, Madison and I went to the CLIF bar warehouse to see the Save Our Snow documentary, concert, auction, food, etc. Cheeseboard Pizza proved to be delicious (Berkeley food, I love you) and I won the $35 beanie for $16 at the silent auction. Oh and there was some great Fat Tire beer as well...I LOVE my recent drinking eligibility. Don't worry, I'm not an alcoholic, in fact, I don't like alcohol much at all nor does it like me (the life of a lightweight). Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves, watching the film, and listening to the extremely attractive and talented filmmakers (pro skiers and snowboarders in the flesh!) (Justin, you're WAY cuter than them, don't worry :) )

The environmental message was clear:

GLOBAL WARMING=WARMER EARTH=SNOW MELT=NO MORE SNOW SPORTS

STOP GLOBAL WARMING=KEEP SNOW SPORTS

See link below for film trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3T3Yx3_B8Y

Now, you're probably wondering, what does this all have to do with possum blood?

Being great environmentalists, Madison and I rode our bikes to this event (6.8 miles baby, yeah) and on our way home, I was crossing an intersection when I noticed my wheel approaching a mangled mess in the middle of the street.

It was a dead possum with blood oozing out of it's broken neck. Sorry for the grotesque description.

Without the time to turn back, I re-ran over this sad being. We've all done it in our cars, right? And we feel bad, but not AS bad as if we ourselves had been the original murderers of this innocent animal, yes? Well, I definitely felt bad, but this sympathy for the possum was quickly replaced with disgust. My bike caught some of the blood and splattered it onto my leg.

GROSS.

Like I said, Madison was kind enough to scrape off the glob leaving behind a subtle, yet DISGUSTING stain of possum blood on my pants. That's what friends are for!

Real friends are there to scrape the rodent blood off your pants when you need it most.

Caribbean Construction Materials?

For those of you unfamiliar with Berkeley, there are quite a few interesting people roaming the streets. Most of them may be characterized as "bums" or "beggars", some "crazies" or "weirdos". After being warned that La Jolla and Berkeley are very different in terms of crime and transients, I decided to keep my eyes open and be aware of those around me in order to avoid any run-ins with people who might see me as a perfect victim.

Today, I decided to get coffee at Peets on Telegraph and Dwight to work on my reading for CP 110 (the most reading EVER assigned in one weekend...literally). I was reading about shingles and other roofing types while strategically holding my valuables between my legs when the woman 2 seats away from me asked:

"What are you studying?"
"City planning", I said.
"Are you a UC Berkeley student?"
"Yes", I said.
"So you take your classes in Wurster?"
"Yes, all in Wurster Hall", I replied.
"I cleaned that building myself", the woman explained.
"Before I cleaned it, no one had before, and since then, no one has done it better".
I could tell she had some sort of accent or speech impediment, but couldn't put my finger on it.
She moved closer into the seat next to me.
All she had with her was a wallet and a paper coffee cup.
"What does your reading say?" she asked.
"It's about construction materials for buildings" I explained.
She then told me about her home in the Caribbean and how they build there for hurricanes, not for fires and earthquakes like in Berkeley. She said that concrete and metal framed homes are vital for withstanding the storms and that she went through a 150 mile per hour windstorm during a hurricane and the only reason her home wasn't destroyed....?

Was because she left a window open.

She explained that many folk's roofs came off because there was nowhere for wind to channel when it came through. By leaving her upstairs windows open, the wind came through her home and didn't destroy it. As she sat in her home, she watched out the window as her neighbors home turned 180 degrees and came off the ground, crashing into itself. Her voice trembled a bit when she described this detail. She started to get up and said,

"I was smoking marijuana and drinking Guinness while those houses were flying away".

HAHAHAHHAHA. Amazing. Unexpected. Perfect.

She walked away and as she left the shop she asked my name and where I was from.
"Good luck with your studies, Katie. And now you have a head start in your class because you know about Carribbean planning", she said.

These are the interactions I love. This is what Berkeley was and is in my mind. It's not everywhere that people from such different places in life can have a conversation. Sure, everything she said could have been bogus. But even if it was, I'm glad it happened.

On a different note, I got into my computer applications in environmental design class. HELL YES. I now have a full schedule.

Back to reading about Naglee Park in San Jose. WHY is the reading like 80 pages, I'll never know.

Peace.

A Brief Respite

It has been raining buckets here and the streets are filled with hoards of students in rain boots holding umbrellas alongside homeless folks hovering underneath awnings to get out of the downpour.

For now, there is a break in the rain. I don't know for how long. But it will make my bike ride to the store a lot more pleasant.

But speaking of homeless people...
I had a discussion about homelessness on the bus home from the party I went to Thursday night with a super nerdy guy who wants to be an aerospace engineer for Northrop Grumman. He mentioned his distaste with People's Park here in Berkeley and believes that the people should not be allowed to temporarily live and sleep in the park because it deters others from enjoying what the park has to offer. While seeing his point, I brought up the issues of drug abuse and mental illness among homeless people and that instead of displacing them from a community park, we should take advantage of their proximity and do what we can to help these people. Investing more time and money into mental illness research and substance abuse programs seems like a more effective solution. Many...well most people know what it feels like to have someone close to them with a mental illness or a substance abuse problem. These people should not be quarantined from society like dogs with rabies. Every person, in my opinion deserves the right to live and attempt to function in our world. Some just need more help than others in doing so.

On another note, catching up with old friends is great and wonderfully nostalgic. I'm off to eat lunch with Julius, my friend Sophia's ex who game me my original tour of Berkeley way back in high school. 3 of closest friends Senior year of high school-Talene, Sophia, and Cara traveled up to Cal to see what we hoped would be our future home. The week was fantastic--filled with food, frat parties, friends, and feelings of excitement for college...and spending it together. Julius showed us Rasputan, Naan n Curry, BART, Top Dog...all the very "Berkeley" parts of Berkeley.

Unfortunately, none of us got into Berkeley. and none of us went to college together. But hey, that's life...you can't plan it out.

I must go get ready because in true Katie fashion I'm in my pajamas and have to be at the corner of Channing and Ellsworth in 15 minutes. HA HA HA.

Whoever is reading this...here is a good song to listen to sometime you want some mellow tunes:

"How Bout You?"-Yonder Mountain String Band (Yes, it's bluegrass music)

Herky, Madison, and Me at a concert in SF

Escape to the Hills

First of all, "Georgia" is my favorite font. So this blog-site already gets my stamp of approval for offering the use of this fantastic font. Now onto more relevant things.

The city of Berkeley is a wonderful place. Thus far, I have eaten some delicious food at Naan N Curry, Smart Alecs, Cafe Intermezzo, and tasted some sushi at Akosoko (best name EVER) which is conveniently located 2 blocks away. Also 2 blocks away is Berkeley Bowl, a huge market with the cheapest produce I've ever witnessed and every type of orange/tangerine/satsuma variety on the planet. Heavenly.

I am blown away with how close food, shops, museums, and CAMPUS is to me.

I ride my beautiful $60 road bike from Craigslist (vintage French Mercier bike from the 70's in great condition) everywhere I go with a jerry-rigged light (helmet + head lamp=bike light) because until I get a job, I can't afford to spend money on anything but food (I miss my Outback Gear Shop income).

The Berkeley career website brought me to an internship with the Geography Department working on digitalizing Aerial Photos and Topographic Maps...after 1 hour of work I decided that working in the basement of a library with no human contact is very NOT ME. This inspired me to take a visit to Disneyland AKA REI to apply for a part-time job. We'll see if it works out.

Today was a frustrating day. I think UC Berkeley has a mission to make my life a living hell. Okay, so that's pretty extreme, but I feel much less than "welcome" in the College of Environmental Design. With hardly any access to classes and roadblocks to enrollment at each attempt, I may end up having to take meaningless courses unrelated to my original reason for coming here. I find that when I get super frustrated I just start to tear up (a wonderful confirmation of my womanhood) which only proved to the staff at CED that I am a scared and lost child. BUT I am determined to get what I want, so have no fear! I WILL take the classes I want which are:

1. Computer Applications in Environmental Design (GIS, basically)
2. Transportation Planning

I am already enrolled in:

1. Intro to City Planning
2. Intro to Landscape Architecture
3. People and the Environment
   

Classes up here are packed with more material than UCSD classes (semesters are longer, so it makes sense) which is slightly intimidating and also exciting because I really get to absorb myself in the subject instead of skimming the service. Most classes involve papers, projects, and field trips (sick!). The professors are great so far, but it's week 1...so they may be trying to impress us.

Roommates are awesome. Jennifer, Madison, and myself are Berkeley students and Mary, Anna, and Anna are CCA (California College of the Arts) students and are SUPER talented in their various specialties. We stay up late drinking tea and watching movies most nights so far. We all appreciate good food and have ZERO cabinet and fridge space...literally.

Weather here is frigid. I am getting used to it as the days go on, but it doesn't get above 55 degrees. I miss you San Diego sunshine!! The rain is inconvenient to ride around in, but I thank my NorthFace raincoat for being a loyal friend and keeping me dry. Last weekend the weather was GREAT and Madison and I went hiking in the Berkeley Hills which is where the picture was taken. It was breathtaking. There were so many people outside enjoying the views which made me so happy. I miss the beach, but the change in scenery is refreshing.

Last night I went to a show in San Francisco with Madison & Herky (Psycho ultimate friend) at the Rickshaw Stop on Fell St. and saw The Buttercream Gang (from Napa)---they were awesome! Also awesome was being able to buy drinks, yeah Kamikaze soooo good. Although drinks are pricey so I don't think it'll be a regular occurrence.

Whenever I miss home or want to relax, I listen to James Taylor's Greatest Hits album and it calms me like a hot cup of tea. He is a golden god.

This weekend is the Sonoma Environmental Film Festival where "Meat Jim", mine and Madison's film will show on Sunday. We get free passes to the whole festival, so we are going to hit up some great films on Saturday and Sunday YAY!

I'm off to read and be a good little student. Then to a party with Jenn Westhoff (Y&G friend from LC).


"How sweet it is to be loved by you"-James Taylor,

Katie