the yellow submarines.

so today was good. i woke up late and read stiff, by mary roach in the sun until our 10 am meeting. then at like 11:30 am, i ate with natalie, john, keara, and some of the students. at 12:30 pm i had office hours until 1:30's meeting which ended in 10 minutes. i finished my office hours at 3 pm. at that time, i walked with keara and mallory to walgreens and random stores. i bought two dresses. and i looooove them. then i took a nap before going to dinner with jess and katie. keara and alterrell joined us later and then we had a 7:30 pm meeting... it was a good time, though my girls are late and i don't know how to stress that it's important NOT to be late. we prepped for Color Wars and i lead the yellow team: the yellow submarines :) i loved my group! they were pretty enthusiastic, but sometimes there are debbie downers, like one particular student. it was tough to hear him spread pessimism. i guess it was an improvement to see that he was having fun, but putting a front. we had check in at 11 pm. curfew. what is their curfew is my curfew. sometimes i wonder what i just got myself into... high school students are mad difficult.

anyway, the only thing that worries me is that although each and every girl on my floor is spectucular - they are all so different. it's hard for me to figure out how to plan events for them when their interests are 180 degrees apart. at least i have my fellow RAs, they are pretty stellar.

"navigator, what's our next stop?"

this morning, i met katie and natalie at the foothills fitness center. it was a good work out, i've only been using the elliptical since i've been here. soon, i shall progress to the treadmill when my knee is more consistent and then possibly... the berekeley hills. i had a floor meeting with my residents at 11:30 am and then we had lunch and a scavenger hunt. vy was our navigator and michelle read our clues. we were done like an hour later and a lot more tired. that last hill up hearst ave was insane. then we hung out until 5:30 pm and met up with john and jess's group for dinner. it was fun to play an ice breaker (but a bit more difficult with all of the international kids who didn't quite understand what "trainwreck if..." was so we changed it to "meet in the middle if..." i had mac and cheese with broccoli and a salad. i met lauren a few other girls. lauren was homesick for the upper east side. new york represent!!! i had a good phone conversation with emily today and i got a bit homesick too. it was hard to stay nostalgic for long though... the california sun is wonderful (though i'm a little sunburnt on my cheeks from our scavenger hunt). then we had an evening meeting at 7:30 and then we went to the speed friending event. at 11 pm we had check in and tomorrow will be another day...

go bezerkley!

these past two days have been a lot of fun. yesterday i woke up early and went to the gym. i love having such easy access. then we ordered sandwiches for lunch but i had my leftover taco salad from burritas so i ate that instead. man, having buckets of chocolate and laffy taffy around me will certainly be my downfall. we went over administrative stuff and then for dinner, we went out. john, jess and i walked around music stores and book stores. there was a shakespeare & co. like the one in new york on broadway around washington place. i bought an "authorized edition" of the jungle book by kipling and a kerouac book... it was most appropriate. then we went to blake's and i stole some french fries from jess and john. we met up with natalie, katie, al, mallory and keara before going into a pub. it was really fun to just chat and hang before the kids arrive. we got back around 1:30-2 and as i brushed my teeth and washed my face. with suds still lathered on my cheeks, john, al and katie came to catch me up on my youtube haha. it was funny.

today, i did not wake up early. since we went to bed at like 3, i just woke up at the last possible moment before being late. i had blueberry poptarts from tj's and a banana. so good. natalie and i sat in the sun for a while and then we all worked on the monster calendar as well as staff photo stuff. for dinner we ordered from zachary's, which has the most amazing deep-dish pizzas. i had a red stripe to go with it, it was a perfect dinner. i moved into my room D from A and then finished hanging the door tags. now we're watching 500 days of summer. i LOVE that movie... sigh, i have to be ready at 7:45 am to go to sfo and pick up some students. i'm pretty pumped to get this ball rolling... it still boggles my mind: has it really only been five days since i've been here?

gutter balls, strikes, and spares - oh my.

today was fun. we had bagels and cream cheese, yogurt, bananas, chocolate muffins, and so much more for breakfast. we met the berkeley maintenance staff and hung out eating chocolate while telling laffy taffy jokes. we talked about rules and programming and acted out some role play. then we met the asa professors after some orientation stuff and lunch from a sandwich place. my pseudo greek pita was pretty good. we went to dinner at la burritas around 7. i got hungry early though and eat pita with tj's chunky peanut butter and a blueberry poptart-esque pastry so i barely ate 1/4 of my taco salad. then we went to albany bowl on san palo avenue and i bowled a 72... the lowest on my team :( however, i did get a strike and that is the one thing i aim for when i play.

i need to go to the gym tomorrow... too much free food. i just can't resist. i am pretty stoked to get my list of the girls on my floor and to start planning our activities. plus, my grandma is coming up july fourth weekend so hopefully i can hang out with her and the rest of the family (with a big IF i can get a day off).

GO USA.

Go TEAM USA. I didn't wake up at 6:30 to watch the game, but I'm super proud of the US to have scored a goal and make it through to the next level. The time difference is a killa.

Today, the ASA team had breakfast and meetings. We had ice breakers and hung out outside. Some of us went to Bongo Burger on Euclid and I had a falafel :) Then we had some team builders and went on a scavenger hunt in San Francisco via the BART to the Embarcadero stop (Millbrae line). We went to the Ferry Building and took a team 2 picture (Natalie, John, Jessica, Keara and myself) with the clocktower in the background. Then we went to Pier 35 to take a picture where the ferries depart for Alcatraz and walked over to Pier 39 and walked around Fisherman's Wharf. We saw the seals and took pictures everywhere. Walking to Jefferson, we went to In N Out burger and John ordered an Animal Style burger (burger fried in mustard with onions) and I totally took a time out of my vegetarianism to try it. Then we walked to Lombard and Hyde to take a picture with the crookedest street. It was really awesome. We hopped on a bus and went to City Lights Bookstore where the beatniks of the 50s used to hang out. Tim Wise was having a reading there, it was pretty cool. It was an exhausting day, but we went to Vesuvio across the alley after ordering a medium Greek pizza from Nizario's. Since Vesuvio didn't have food, they let us bring it in. Chris and Katie joined us from the other team. I sipped on Pyramid's Audacious apricot ale (locally brewed in Berkeley), which was delicious. Better than the pear sparkling cider I had at Blake's. We walked for hours, up and down hills. It was such a great day in the sun around campus, but also a little brutal in the fog and howling wind near the bay.

Go Cal BEARS. I'm so happy here.

fulfilling my west coast envy

i'm exhausted.

monday, my parents and i drove up to hanover, nh to apartment hunt at 7 am. i found what i needed in a four-bedroom house. unfortunately i will be the only girl living with three boys, but hopefully they will be clean. my neighbors seem nice, and it's a fifteen minute walk away from campus. i look forward to getting a bike up there to peddle. we bought some dartmouth clothes and then had lunch/dinner at molly's. i had the maple glazed salmon and snow peas. my mom had primavera penne and my dad had chicken carbonera linguini. it was delicious. then we drove back and got home around 11 pm. the drive lasted 13.5 hours. the visit itself lasted 2.5, but it was worth it to soak up the crisp new england air.

this morning, i woke up at 4:30 am after going to bed at 1ish and drove my parents and me to laguardia via the gps. it was straight forward and i got us there in an hour and 45 minutes, right on time for my flight to my connecting flight to denver, co via frontier airlines. i never heard of them. it was a little sketchy. then i flew into san francisco. the bay was seafoam green and i could see the golden gate bridge in the distance. danny came to pick me up and we went food shopping at trader joe's. i have plenty of pita, hummus, bananas, and chunky peanut butter to satisfy any food needs outside of the dining with staff. i met the senior staff and my fellow RAs. everyone is really nice and friendly, i look forward to getting to know them better and for the high school students to arrive. tonight, we went to raleigh's to eat. i had a veggie burger topped with cucumber, hummus, bean sprouts and tomato AFTER nachos. the large mug of hot green tea warmed me up. and then katie and i shared a cheesecake and strawberry frozen yogurt twist before a bunch of us went to blake's for a beer to chat and occasionally glance at the world cup game going on. korea was up 2-1 against nigeria from the last i saw. i had the pear cider, it was DELICIOUS and light and bubbly.

tomorrow, we're going to have an outing to watch the game at 6:30 am. i may or may not be up then, but it would be a good time to watch the us play. we'll see....

"you must be a real new yorker"

As I picked at my pasta salad with my fingers down broadway, I hear a "how you doin' girl?" It was business as usual in NYC during the late night so I kept walking without acknowledging the voice behind me. Then I hear someone to my left asking me what I was eating. I told him pasta salad and he asked me "no fork?" Of course I would have eaten like a barbarian...but I slightly complained that I had forgotten it. Then his friend who already started crossing the road told the guy to leave me along. I only smiled graciously in response. The one across the street said, "I like how you handled that, you must be a real New Yorker."