Looking back at the last four years

Now that I’m leaving what has become more “home” to me than my parents’ place in SoCal, I’ve started noticing things about Berkeley that I’ll miss when I’m gone (and other things I’m glad to be leaving behind, to be honest). Here’s a fun little list that those of you in Berktown– or Cal alums–will appreciate:

Things I’ll miss:

• Gamedays. The thrill, the sense of community, and of course, the free food
• Sunny days on Memorial Glade or in Willard Park
• All the cute puppies that people bring to Willard
• Sandwiches from Sam’s Deli
• Speaking of food, Gypsy’s (mmm cheap italian), La Med, La Bu (for disgusting but cheap mexican food), Smart Alecs despite their health code violations, cheese from Cheeseboard
• The seediness that is Kips
• Bear’s Lair and Honey Wheat Beer
• Random streakers/naked people– while not so pleasant to see, it’s so stereotypically Berkeley
• Pointless protests and people living in trees (see above)
• Tutoring my athletes :*(
• Going out with athletes, even though I was always the shortest and most out of shape one
• Becoming great friends with a few athletes and then celebrating their athletic successes along with them!
• The Main Stacks– we have a love/hate relationship, but they’re just so pretty
• Memorial Stadium. I’m leaving my heart there.
• World-class professors: Dr. McQuade, Prof Moran, Prof Picciotto, Prof Justice, Prof Muller… definitely my top 5!
• Random adventures, like finding a steering wheel on Durant
• Telegraph Avenue… what more needs to be said?
• Beat the Clock!
• The laid-back college culture in general. This holds true much more so on campus, than in the townspeople themselves.
• It being acceptable to wear leggings, a sweatshirt, and Uggs to class. Guilty as charged.
• Feeling great when I’m the only one in class who did my hair/wore makeup.
• Having a set goal/purpose. That’s a biggie.
• Catching the 1/51/7 just as you arrive at the bus stops
• Seeing 3 51′s arrive at the same time
• Happy Happy man!
• The dude on Telegraph and Bancroft who always says “Good morning beautiful” and makes me smile
• The seagulls that fly in when the weather is nice
• Oh hai, Campanille
• The lawn outside of VLSB on sunny days
• The ever so creepy “Campaign for Berkeley” posters- I want one of me, damnit!
• Playing in Ludwig’s fountain, especially when someone soaps it
• Chicken strips from late night. Yum!
• Getting dressed up for Cal Day/Gamedays and reppin’ my school.
• Oski. Particularly when he hits on me. So inappropriately hilarious.
• The Big C
• Bonfire
• Big Game!
• Go Bears chants and Cal songs
• The Men’s Octet (so good!)
• Ridiculously-themed frat parties
• Shopping for said parties/halloween
• Having to explain to my mom “Where the rest of my costume” is (thanks, mom!)
• Huffing and puffing by the time I get to Wheeler, oops.
• Ready to die by the time I get up to Evans/LeConte
• The creepy owner at the Derby Mart who was always a little tooo friendly
• Sandwiches at Sacks coffee
• Natalie, my English bff for 3 years now and my source of sanity this semester
• The other friendships I made that will hopefully last for a long time
• Scheduling classes so I don’t have to be productive until 2. Man, I’ll really miss that.

Things I won’t miss so much:

• Always being accosted for money by street kids
• Walking everywhere in heels when you go out
• Naked hippies
• Hippies
• People who make you feel bad because you’re not a vegetarian
• People living in trees
• Ridiculous protests that interrupt class, grr
• Midterms
• Finals
• Papers (so, all the stuff I came here for)
• Telebears
• Waiting for grades to be posted
• The bureaucratic red tape when you need to get something done asap
• Students who flaked on tutoring sessions
• The lack of chain stores… I wish Target were closer!
• No parking. Oh wait, I’m moving to Boston… crap.
• The crazy lady who lives above me and calls her kitty at midnight every night
• Construction in the building next door
• High school dramaaa (yeah this is #1)
• Bipolar Bay Area weather
• Earthquakes!
• 9.75% sales tax
• $3+ gas
• The Tang Center. No, I’m not pregnant, and I’ve had mono twice, so I don’t have that either. Now can we figure out what the real problem is?
• Hipsters
• Driving behind bicyclists going .5 mph in a 25-30 mph zone
• Driving in Berkeley, period.
• Moving every few months. Also, roommates/housemates from HELL. Never again, I tell you!
• Comcast Internet. Hellacious and expensive. RCN, here I come!
• Rain in May. What the eff?
• Crazieeeees. Although they’re often good for a laugh or two.
• Did I mention homework?

I’ll update as I come up with more

• 

  One of my first ever gamedays!

Grad photo binge part dos!

There are gold ships and blue ships, and ships that sail the sea

But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be…

(courtesy of Andrew Wysong–> Josh Cella–> Annie Rakich)

If I had a nickel for every time I walked through Sather Gate...

Hooray!

Trying to be cute....

...but I ripped my gown in the process

English commencement… we need you, Jon Stewart!

Long story short- the UC Berkeley English department was all set to have an author speak at our commencement on May 23rd. However, unions have decided to picket graduation to get some sort of political statement across to the administration… which means that our speaker will not cross the picket lines and we, therefore, get screwed (for lack of a more eloquent term).

Here’s where Jon Stewart comes in: we want him to be our graduation speaker! So far, our facebook group has gotten 320 members in less than 24 hours. We want Jon Stewart to be the crowning glory of our graduation ceremony! We’ve offered couches, cookies, bribes, our first born children (that was my contribution), and naming our graduation after him. What better way to show what he believes in than to speak about it to the up-and-coming leaders of the future?

To help us out, join the facebook group HERE…  and INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!! Tweet it, blog it, share it, whatever it takes.

We’ve all spent 4+ years slaving over Milton, Shakespeare, metaphors, irony, semantics, Proust, and everything in between… not to mention the countless hours spent writing impressive, handcrafted essays. We deserve this!!

See, he even looks like an English major!

Cathartic Post?

Disclaimer: while I normally try to remain positive on here, I am so upset that I’m physically shaking right now. This entry will be passionate, and I certainly cannot claim to be unbiased, because, simply, the situation does affect me as both a Jew and a Cal student. The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not represent all other Jews, all other Cal students, or even all others objecting to the bill. Just me (and Finn, because he’s sitting on me while I write).  Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I have been to Israel, I have interacted with Israeli citizenry and IDF soldiers, and I have been following the conflict through various news sources. Also, I do NOT think that Israel is blameless in their actions; however, I do believe that they do act to defend their country and their citizens, and not out of hate, unlike Hamas and other Palestinian groups, who have directly and publicly stated their hatred toward Israel and Jews in general.

Background: here’s the Daily Cal article from Pres. Will Smelko’s veto of the original bill. In a nutshell, the ASUC (at Berkeley) senate passed a bill that called for UC’s divestment from United Technologies and GE because they have purportedly been supplying Israel with the weapons with which they have been committing “war crimes.”

Tonight, the ASUC held a meeting to attempt to overturn the veto, which would require 14 votes in favor. The meeting was open to the public, in the Pauley Ballroom. I attended for about an hour before I was both too upset to stay and also too stressed about my online class’s final tomorrow… but here are my thoughts on the speakers and audience behavior that I did witness.

Bonding… over Hello Kitty

I made an amazing new connection today, and it was all thanks to a Hello Kitty binder at Target. I’d gone there to do some shopping as a treat for getting a bit of work done on the online class from hell (ironic, since it’s run through BYU, no?) and was in the day planner/binder section when this gorgeous blonde woman literally shrieks with joy over a Hello Kitty binder. Mind you, I currently have a set of three file folders in my cart with fat little birdies on them, so I can completely identify. She looks at me sheepishly and I start laughing, mentioning to her that they have more adorable folders where I found mine. We part ways, and then about 3 minutes later I run back into her in the folder aisle. We’re standing there debating what to put in our respective carts, and I make an off the cuff remark about how I’m “only buying what I want to take with me when I move.” She asks me where I’m moving to and why, and suddenly it comes to light that she, too is a Cal alum. Not only did she go to Cal, but she’s getting her second masters (!) in web design AND she’s president of the San Francisco chapter of the Cal Alumni Network.

It was a completely random run-in, but, as my grandma would say, “beshert” (loosely translated as fate/meant to be). What are the odds? We stood there in the folder aisle talking for a good twenty minutes about school, the challenges of job-hunting, how we feel old when 13-year olds are surpassing us in tech-savvy, and how CA really is the best place to live, even if we wind up moving. Eventually, we traded information and went our separate ways, but it just goes to show a couple things:

1. the world is an extremely small place

2. being nice to strangers really can pay off

3. Cal alums are AWESOME!

And, just because it’s cute, here’s a picture of me and the monkey working by the window yesterday afternoon:

NCAA upsets…GO BEARS!

(Disclaimer: I am a diehard Cal fan. Bleed blue and gold diehard. So if you don’t like the California Golden Bears, you might not want to keep reading!)

As a Cal senior, last night was one of the best sports moments in the last 4 years. Other than our 2007 football win in Eugene, OR (which was absolutely EPIC), our men’s basketball team’s victory over Louisville last night was completely amazing to witness.

yeah, it went like that all game (pic from espn.com)

I love our sports teams.  That’s been one of the best things about coming to Cal- we have both world-class academics AND world-class athletes.  I was never athletically talented (understatement of the century), but now that I’ve got the awesome job of tutoring some of our athletes, I’ve gotten to live vicariously through those who I’ve tutored, and those who I’ve become friends with during my time here.  It’s pretty amazing getting to work with someone on their papers on Tuesday and see them winning a championship game or scoring a touchdown that weekend.  And that doesn’t even cover the admiration I have for the guys I know that have been to the Olympic trials, and the Beijing Olympics (Guy Barnea and Nathan Adrian, I’m lookin at you!)… talk about an incredible feat.

Our men’s basketball team plays Duke tomorrow, who’s the #1 seeded team. Yikes. If we win, we’ll be in the Sweet 16… holy moly. I may liveblog the game, but either way I will be knocking on wood, holding lucky rabbit’s feet, crossing my fingers and toes, wearing all of the Cal gear that I own, and most likely holding my breath through the entire game. I’m sending good luck texts to my friends/students on the team in hopes that maybe it’ll make a difference It would be so amazing to beat Duke, but either way, our guys have done such an incredible job this season!

For California, for California,
The hills send back the cry,
We’re out to do or die,
For California, for California,
We’ll win the game or know the reason why!

Some thoughts on the job market…

I’ve been applying to jobs for post-graduation lately. We’re talking multiple job applications per day (if I can find that many openings). One thing I’ve noticed, though, is how I almost NEVER hear back from employers, even if it’s just a simple note of rejection. Yesterday, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Brace (mouthful!!) sent me what I consider to be a very kind, albeit somewhat cookie cutter-esque, rejection letter. It really made me think about the number of jobs I’ve applied to versus the number of replies I’ve actually gotten.  It makes sense, I guess, because so many people are applying for jobs… but it’d be nice to know that people have actually looked at my resume/cover letter once in a while!

I’ve also been discovering the importance of connections and wishing I had gone to a school like U$C simply for said connections (although my Cal education far surpasses anything I’d have gotten there, go bears!). School rivalries aside, it’s really interesting just how nepotistic industries can be, especially in today’s economy where jobs are so hard to come by. Moral of this story? Make connections. Ask around. Twitter searches for hashtags like #media jobs are also coming in handy for connecting to new people.

We’ll see if a job actually comes from any of these connections. Knock on wood!

blood donation fail

Today, I was walking on Sproul after I picked up lunch and noticed they were having a blood drive. I’ve never donated before; I used to weigh too little in high school (miss those days!) and then in college I’ve gotten piercings and tattoos so I was always in that 12-month post body mod period where you’re not supposed to donate. Anyways, I decided to donate blood today.

I walk upstairs to the Pauley Ballroom where they’re doing the drive. I get my sticker, fill out my form (some of those questions were a little strange) and sit down to wait for the intake sesh. As I’m sitting, I feel a little queasy because I can see all the people who are getting their blood drawn, but nothing too serious.

Now, this is probably the time that I should mention that, although I have 9 piercings and 2 tattoos, I am terrible with needles. If i see them, I pass out. Same goes for blood, most of the time.  I take after my dad in that respect, and trust me, it’s not pretty.

my first tattoo (after the touchup)

tattoo 2, done by Mike @ Industrial in Berkeley (only took 3.5 hours!)

Moving on with the story. I finally get called up to the intake nurse. She asks me what my weight, height, allergies, etc. etc. are. She makes small talk as she takes my temp and my pulse, and then she does the little finger prick thing to test my iron levels. Now, it doesn’t hurt at all. I mean, it’s a little pinch, like if you pinched your finger in a drawer or something minor like that. But something about that, knowing I was about to be hooked up to an IV for 10 minutes, finally gets to me.

I look at the nurse and go, “I need to put my head down.” She looks at me quizzically, looks at the iron count machine, and goes “your iron level is fine…” but I must have gotten very pale because she goes ok, “I’m gonna pick up your stuff, you follow me.”

So I get up, and she grabs my 3 bags (oops), and one of my arms, and calls to one of the nurses to help get me to a chair. The last thing I remember clearly is breaking into a cold sweat and then all of a sudden they’re lifting me up into this pseudo-recliner and burying me in cold compresses.

I anticipated passing out once I started the blood draw, but this was just ridiculous. I actually asked them, once I was feeling better, if I could donate blood then… figured I’d already passed out, might as well go through with it! (They said no.)

So lessons learned today- I’m not anemic, don’t bring so many bags with you to a blood drive–just in case, and I am one of those people who’s just not meant to donate blood. Luckily, I think I have one of the more common blood types, so it’s not so bad. I just hope I’m not like my dad, who passed out when he and my mom got the blood test for their marriage license… that didn’t bode well!

In other news, applying to publishing jobs in Boston, New York, San Diego, LA and SF. It’s terrifying, but necessary. Working with Ariane Doud, Patrick’s wife, for PR for The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin, so here’s to hoping that’s a productive work connection!

Also, I finished the first 10 (!) pages of my first thesis (30-35 pages total), and my second thesis/research paper is in the research still, but at least I’ve got a topic.

Oh, and to the 2 people that read this, visit knockoffwood.blogspot.com, will ya? She has an AMAZING blog that I’ve been following, where she makes her own original plans inspired by furniture that costs HUNDREDS/THOUSANDS from companies like Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teen, etc. What she does is incredible, and Williams Sonoma (booo) has decided to send her a cease & desist notice, because she references their names/pictures. I’m sorry, but if people are going out of their way to MAKE this furniture, they weren’t going to pay 10x the cost to buy it in the first place, so it’s ridiculous that they think it would harm them. If anything, this whole thing will help HER to increase her blog traffic. So yeah, check it out. Maybe you’ll be inspired!

And to finish it up with a fun graduation quote: At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards. My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros.
Paul Freund