This week when I was at military science class we were taught pepper-potting, which I've done before. Everyone who was in the army knows what pepper-potting is, but if you haven’t had that privilege then just remember that it’s the most basic training any army can provide. It’s one foot on the ground while the other is moving.

Anyway, it’s all about speed and aggression and throwing your body onto the ground to avoid getting shot. It’s very fun, but the Americans weren’t very good. Traditionally I haven’t been very good at this either, but since I’d done it before I was good by default. It was cool! I did the mean potting – everyone thought I either was hard-core or crazy.

Everything else has been pretty boring. Work, work and more work. I’ll talk to you guys when I’ve got something to talk about.

Cheers

Margie

written by  Crosswood on November 6, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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I have lots of work, and am struggling a little bit with it, but I'm pushing through. Yesterday was Halloween, which was fun. It's a very big holiday here in the states, and some of my friend's costumes were amazing! I'm pleased it's over though - it's not really my cup of tea. I don't like horror films.
I got heaps of chocolate though, which was gold.

Not much happening, except for me helping innocent firstyears become less studious.
Cheating is always wrong team, and that's why I don't participate in it.
No, I'm serious.

written by  Crosswood on November 1, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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As you might have heard, I can’t stay for an extra semester here, although I spun the army an excellent yarn. If anything was going to convince them it would have been that, so obviously it was not meant to be.

I’ve had a brilliant week though – after being stressed out about the vast amounts of homework due in this two week period, I got two out of the most pressing ones out of the way, just in time to be handed two more. Yay! At least the deadlines are far away now.

Really the week at university was very average – I sat in class, I did a couple of exams (‘mid-terms’) and generally worked my brain a little harder than it would have liked. Life is like that however, and the result will be worth it.

The weekend was the awesome bit. On Friday Westminster House North had a Karaoke party, which was surprisingly fun. Me and my friends ripped out ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ which is a great Karaoke song because it’s so easy, you can get everyone singing along with you. I also had a pre-made costume with my beret and a few other items of uniform. Yes I know it’s not strictly allowed, but I’m on a very tight budget, so I’m sure the Army has bigger issues to worry about.

After this we went out for dinner and I had a great time talking about nothing. I love talking with these Westminster House guys – the people that were with me at dinner are amazing people (you seem to have to be randomly talented to actually get into Berkeley, as opposed to just visiting) and dinner with them is a real treat. Dinner anywhere is a real treat – American food (even if it’s disguised as another cultures food) has really grown on me. I have a terrible sweet tooth though (you all know that) so this place is paradise.

On Saturday I got to go to Palo Alto. This was very exciting – we took a great train right the way down the bay, and I finally got out of the city of ‘Frisco (as much as you can.) Palo Alto is a suburb of ‘Frisco which felt a lot like Lower Hutt, except it was MASSIVE, and it never ended. I was relying on people telling me ‘and now we’re in Freemont’ to figure out where we were, because it was all one massive development. Americans don’t just build stuff – they engineer it. Noa’s father (who kindly picked us up from the BART station) drove us past this slightly disgusting mud-flat (which had nice Ibis though) across this beautiful bridge to the other side of the estuary. The Americans didn’t even notice, but I was mesmerised. Why don’t we get things so wonderful in New Zealand? Money I suppose – it’s easier to build something blocky and horrible than curving and with flawless lines.

After messing around town for a little bit (the best English Breakfast tea I’ve had in America was in Palo Alto) we went to watch a friend play rugby at Stanford University. Unfortunately we missed most of her games, but we caught the tail end of one and I got admiring glances from the coach of the Cal Rugby team for actually knowing all the rules, even the obscure one about travelling (lots of the players don’t, yet alone Americans.) The one time hanging out with all those boys is useful.
While at Stanford we also saw this statue garden with lots of famous cast-iron sculptures in it. Some people have problems – I admire his art, but couldn’t he have made it less angsty?

We then went to this super Halloween store, which was just strange. I know this is a little vulgar, but you could get everything there up to and including a giant penis suit. I’m not joking. It was the strangest place I’ve been in a long time, and I’d post the pictures of us in the big blonde wigs, except I know you’d laugh and then I’d have trouble living it down. So I won’t. But you can imagine.

After decorating the yard (I knew I was tall for a reason! For hanging Halloween lights.) and going to a random supermarket (kids push a button and the puppets do a song and dance routine about how you should just say no to drugs.), we went out for tea.
Dinner – Oliver Garden. The waiter I thought was nice – when he heard I was foreign and didn’t know what the soups tasted like, he bought me them all in little sampler bowls. The others were slightly snippy because he should have kept them liberally doused in bread-sticks. I wasn’t adverse to this plan either to tell you the truth – the bread-sticks were pretty good.

We also made Halloween cookies, which were huge because the cutters were massive. Some of them were undercooked, but that was OK because the stuff was so sweet you couldn’t tell the difference. We iced them all pretty, and I drew a really excellent lobster on a pumpkin shaped one. Hey – a lobster is scary.

We carved pumpkins with what seemed at one point like the entire street plus friends and family, and I did OK. Not bad, but OK. I carved a dragon, and have it in my basement right now. I know I’m not artistic or anything, but pumpkin seems to be my medium (so long as I have a stencil!)

We came back, and today I also had a great day. I had a (for want of a better word) jam session with a girl in my house (who is lovely) and who taught me a new song about how that person (ie myself) isn’t the one you want/need. Then we tried to film it, and succeed a couple of times. She sounds amazing – I tried to sing quietly so she’d be more in the recording, but my voice is annoyingly loud. Why did no one mention this before? Actually, I think you might all have mentioned it a few times... I forget. And so do you.

Cheers Team, and have a good day

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 29, 2007 from Palo Alto, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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This week was pretty blank really – I have an awful lot of work to do and very little time to do it in. Nethertheless I had a mid-term on Wednesday that went quite badly, scored a goal in soccer on Thursday, and hardly slept at all over my weekend.

The mid-term was on British Social History, which I did study for. The things he wanted us to study were quite broad, so I had to read my entire note-book to get everything, but in nothing like the depth I wanted, so when I got in there and started to write my exam I was little disappointed with how little I could actually write about. Such is life I suppose

My soccer game on Thursday we lost again, mostly because our best player wrenched his knee really badly while we were playing. I scored a goal after that, and was so happy! It was a little cross in front of the goal, which I tapped in, and all the work was done by this blonde German guy called Matti, but still. I got a goal!

It’s the weekends that I live for – on Saturday I was supposed to go to Alcatraz, but I was silly and made a mistake with the dates. I showed up all fat and happy wondering where the heck everyone was, but it turns out that it’s next Saturday. I can’t go that means, because I am going to Palo Alto to carve pumpkins. You know my life is just awesome when I get randomly invited to carve pumpkins! Anyway, because that fell through I went to San Francisco and wandered around again. I ended up in the hippy district, and an anarchist bookstore. I really wanted to buy some of the stuff there – I’ll take you, Mum and Dad, if you get here. It was classic.

I also love donuts.

Friday night I was up very late – Noa suggested we make cookies, but we had no ingredients. By the time we’d walked to the all night supermarket, got a movie and done various things like that, it was 0130. By the time the cookies were one it was 0330. I thought of you Kippies, with someone stuck out in the field this late at night on sentry. Obviously I was having a better time than you though. HA! Suckers.
Saturday night I was up very late as well, because I watched the movies that we chose the night before. Freda (about this Mexican painter) and the Boondock Saints. Both were good in different ways – Auntie Donna, maybe you’ve seen Freda? It was both wonderful and horrible, which is a little like her paintings really.

I can’t really remember much about Sunday, except I watched a good football match which one of my friends was playing in, and then went to Catholic church because the protestant churches are useless and don’t have services at night. It was nice. We sang Slane, which is one of my all-time favourite hymns. And then we had donuts.

Don’t be surprised if I don’t update this for a wee while – I have so much work to do it is not even funny anymore. Cheers team,

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 22, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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OK – I’m going to describe it. Firstly, I was still awake at midnight, and then had a sweet conversation with Sarenna and Stephen in the Kitchen. There are very few people in the world who are as nice, or cool as Sarenna and Stephen, and pretty much all of these rare people also live in North House. I went to bed at two and got up at six. This may not sound that great, until you realise that I felt amazing when I got up (you know that feeling when you’ve hit on just the right combination of food and sleep?) and then I sat down and cranked out a speech which had been bothering me all week.
I presented it to some millionaires on Saturday! Nope, I’m not joking. I went to an EAP fundraising function, and gave this speech. American audiances are very involved with the speaker; I had people clapping and cheering while I was giving it! I think it went well.

Anyway, then Sarenna, who had asked to be woken at 7am, come into the picture. Goodness gracious me, she’s hilarious in the mornings! Firstly I crept into her room trying not to wake Noa (which was a high priority for me, but I needn’t have worried, because Noa apparently can take care of herself) and gave S. a shake. She let out this random high pitched whine, rolled over and tucked up the coverlet. Her cellphone alarm then went off, and without a pause, S rolled over and gave it a practiced smack. I was a bit surprised by all of this kurfufle, and was a bit bemused, when finally her alarm clock went off. Say what you want about S, she knows herself really well, and wasn’t going to let herself stand in the way of... herself I suppose. I mumbled to her ‘It looks like you’re going to get up if you want to or not.’ To which she replied ‘MumblemumbleI’llbedownstairsintenmintuesmumblemumble’ and I left. 20 minutes later a very tired and grumpy looking S wandered into the kitchen and demanded we eat Tuna. Yep – this was pretty random to me also. And then when she got going with the can opener, she couldn’t seem to stop, and she opened two Tuna cans and a can of soup. She mucked around with the soup on auto-pilot for about ten minutes, pouring it into a bowl and adding water and doing all sorts of things before she looked at her hands, got really confused and said to me ‘Why am I holding soup?’ It was so funny, but I didn’t laugh because I would have suffered swift death.
We got going eventually however, and S looked so tired that I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

Next I went to an Army class, which was pretty boring, but I got to get out early because I was supposed to have a supply meeting. In this class it turned out I knew what I was talking about, and the other guys didn’t, which always makes me happy. Enemy intent is not ‘resist strongly’ like the other cadets suggested – that’s what their morale PRIOR to battle is going to make them want to do. When they realise I’ve attacked their four men with an entire 30 man platoon plus mortars they’re going to want to get the hell away from there. Duh!
I was very good – I didn’t say a thing as the Sergeant explained I was very, very right. Dad, you’d be proud of me.

And the supply appointment? I’d mixed up the dates and it is next Tuesday. This is so gold – I didn’t have to waste an hour and a half of my life and I STILL got out of boring class.

I then applied for a scholarship, for which I have just enough time to apply before the deadline. I’m so pleased I got onto it yesterday because that means I can still apply today! And I wrote a cover letter in an hour and so it’s done, and I’ve sent it off. Wish me luck team!

I got a mid-term back and got another A. I thought I was going to be a bit slow in comparison to all the smart people here, but the serious amount of extra work they make us do really drags up your average. Possibly doing no work in New Zealand was a mistake?

I love medieval history full stop. That’s an awesome class. I’m going to see what else that lecturer teaches because she is awesome. It’s not that she’s a great teacher (except she is) it’s just that she loves her topic so much that you can’t help but love it as well. It’s like positive illness – it’s infectious, and makes you happy.

I also got a public library card, which was so easy as to be silly. I just had to give them my passport and proof of my address, and I walked out of there with four books. I love books.

On Saturday after that speech I also walked from the Bay bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge. For those of you that don’t know, that’s a seriously long walk. It was gold – 7 hours of walking made me feel a little less cooped up. And spending time with some of my favourite American people? Priceless. The pictures of us on the Golden Gate are magic (well not of me obviously – I don’t photo well) and I had lots of interesting experiences. Like cheap and wonderful bread! Like Reeces Cups (peanut butter covered with chocolate... Nope, I’m not kidding – it’s incredibly rich and probably so bad for you as to be stupid. Tastes GREAT!) and ‘In-and-Out’ which is a burger place which sells amazing food. The highlight was the walk though – I travelled the whole length of the San Fran waterfront. Next stop, the interior!

Today I again played soccer with my team. I like them – they’re all really cool. And we’re getting HEAPS better – we’re definitely going to win this time, I can feel it! After that I bought soap, which was interesting. I decided I was going to get something American, and bought soap called ‘Ivory’. Apparently this floats in the bath. Since I don’t have a bath, I’m probably not going to be able to test this theory, but it smells really nice. American soap is a lot more crumbly than New Zealand soap, as an aside.
I also went to a study group thingy, and met some really great people there as well. We studied for ages (I was useful because I had actually studied British history at school, and they were helpful for me because they knew the history of America like the back of their hands. The best type of study.) and got quite a bit done, which was unusual for me. And then we went for dinner, and I had some Mexican do-it-yourself food. The food here is SO good, but I think you got that picture four or five posts ago.

Cheers team, wish you were here

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 14, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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This week has been another one of those exciting Berkeley weeks that just make me really happy.

Firstly I had another massive assignment due which I put off due to other things – but I got it done again. I did a lot of hanging out with my friends, which may not be really exciting to read about, and it may not help me do my assignments, but I do it anyway.
I watched a very boring movie for ‘Russia to the 1700s’ called ‘Aundri Rublov’. It was really depressing, but it was banned by Stalin for years and years so it was worth watching just to spite ‘em. It was about a famous Russian painter, and his angst over the violence and bleakness of the country in which he lives.

Tuesday was interesting – I did another Army Training day thingy, but without all the water this time. It was land-nav, and I think they’ve finally figured out that I don’t need to do it, because they stuck me with the Cadet (who used to be a Sergeant in Iraq) who didn’t need to do the land Nav test. We taught another guy (who had joined that morning) how to read a map. It was mildly entertaining. Another thing that was mildly entertaining was an American Officer Cadet who was trying to show off his skills by claiming that he had perfectly calculated his position with only two resection angles. This wasn’t just on the map you understand – he was trying to tell me that he did this feat in the field. For those of you who don’t know, this is obviously ridiculous. It’s like claiming that you’ve shot down a helicopter using a rock.

Wednesday I was supposed to have a supply appointment with a Mr Perry. Mr Perry was sick that day, but it was cool because I got out of Army class early. This army class was being taken by another officer cadet who had, as they say, gone mad with power. He said things like ‘You listen to me when I take this class!!’ and ‘Popdoski – give me twenty for insolence!’ I just sat there and smiled at him. Yes, ok, I basically dared him to do it – I hate bullies. He didn’t though – he obviously has some small sense of self-preservation left. Maybe next time...

I tried to have the supply appointment today, but it didn’t happen. Mr Perry was confused as to what he should give me (obviously they don’t want to give me the new expensive equipment) and so it was decided that they were going to bring out some old stuff so I still look very different from the rest of the Officer Cadets. The Lt Col is also going to introduce me to a Brig, and I will be perfect and salute a lot and put on a good show. That’s what I’m here for. Maybe I can weasel an invitation to visit Westpoint out of it, which is the next goal. The entire plan is to not disgrace my uniform in front of the brass though – so that’s the focus. I’ll use up the last of my boot-polish on Monday just before I go in. I want to go to Westpoint and Annapolis eventually though, and take some notes for when I write a paper on comparative training institutions.

Also yesterday I had a study group. I got invited to join these girls randomly as I was walking around campus. It turns out my accent is very distinctive and so these girls realised I was in their class right away, even though they had never met me and I had never seen them before. It’s pretty gold – I’m not that great at this particular class, and so I am pleased that they asked. A burned shared is a burden halved, as they say.
Today was another class, that supply appointment with Mr Perry, and this house dinner. I ate WAY to much, cleaned up a lot and had a great time. The people here is this house are amazing.

More random friends then: Sitting next to me right now is Noa, a girl is who is just so nice that it is hard to credit it. She has brown hair so dark and shiny that it is almost black, is about 5’7” and has really great taste in clothes. Noa can suggest things to do so successfully you generally end up thinking it was your own idea in the first place, and if you do realise that is wasn’t your idea, it’s generally such a great idea (and she’s such a nice person) that you don’t mind doing it for her. And she’s really funny. She also has a sweet last name, which I’m not going to tell you, because then you’d be able to find her, which isn’t cool. Just trust me that it’s wicked, and spelt in a really funky way.

Anita is the youngster in our house – only 17. She’s Indian, is quite tall and is just a really calm person to be around. She has dark blue/black hair as well, and when she smiles you really can’t help but smile back, even if you’ve had a rubbish day. You know those people who are just really nice to sit and talk too? Trust me, sometimes after the weirdness that is our house, calm is so nice! She’s really proud to be at Berkeley, which I think is the best way to be. Some people here don’t realise how lucky they are. It’s the Promised Land, I’m sure of it.

Tonight I have a sweet game of soccer at 10pm (early tonight!) but I am not looking forward to it because I ate way to much, and running may be a problem. On the other hand I am looking forward to another chance to get a goal. I’m going to get a goal if it kills me!

Edited Note: We drew our football game! YAY! I didn't get a goal though, I did get close a couple of times.

I know tonight’s post wasn’t very funny, but I’m not in a funny mood. I’m full, calm and pretty much content. I’ve been invited to about six things tonight, so I feel very included, and I’m just typing away surrounded by people who I admire. It’s gold.
Tomorrow I shall finish off my EAP lunch speech (I am talking to a group about EAP and how important it is. I shall tell you how that goes.) and on Sunday I have that sweet study group thing. I shall tell you how that goes as well.

Again, sorry for how boringly unfunny this post was. I shall try harder next time. Until then I still,
Wish you were here

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 11, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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It’s time for some social studies team! After all, that’s what I’m here for isn’t it? To learn about the mysterious American Culture! Gold.

Right first thing’s first. In New Zealand we have HEAPS of personal space – Americans don’t have quite so much. Admittedly some of the people I apparently hang out with have no personal space whatsoever (creeped me out big-time when I first arrived, but you get used to it really quickly). They hug a lot. A lot. That’s fine, but I’m getting used to it, and who am I supposed to hug when I get home? No one, that’s right. Everyone will just look at me funny and edge sideways out of my reach.

Americans don’t mind people being randomly happy. I’m happy all the time – in New Zealand someone would have gotten grumpy by now and told me to shove it. I love the American accent – it just makes me happy. It’s so light and smooth. My vowel sounds are heavy and dropped in comparison. I like the way they say Margaret – with three syllables. I’ve realised that NZ’ders put ‘ie’ on the end of every name (eg Margie, Bexie, Annie) because it makes the primary vowel sounds longer and nicer to listen to. Try it out – or maybe you need a living breathing American to appreciate the difference.

Americans understand your cultural stupidity. I went to the waterfront in San Francisco today, but was freaked out by the number of people. No, really, I was really uncomfortable. Stupid isn’t it? And we were watching the Blue Angels Jet fighter team who were AMAZING but every time they buzzed the crowd I wanted to dig a hole to hide in and then fire something into the air. And I was paranoid about where they were going to come from next. Gah.

Americans are really nice. I haven’t met one I didn’t like yet. And they seem to like me, or at least they don’t tell you when they hate you. It’s gold.

They do have opinions. Often I’ll be uncomfortable about how strongly they voice opinions. And they’ll argue with you because they want you to have their opinion. I suppose we figure in NZ that the other person just isn’t worth that?

Americans are polite with actions, not words. They’ll stand aside for you in the door, but they won’t make a big deal out of it. NZ’ders are polite, but they’ll draw attention to it with ‘excuse me’ or ‘I beg your pardon’ or something like that.

Anyway, back to my life. Homework is intense – I have about four very large essays due in a very short space of time. Church over here is a bit unusual as well – it’s very Catholic feeling, which is fine, except I go to an Anglican church because it’s different from Catholic churches, not because it’s similar. And they don’t sing. Perhaps there is another Anglican church around here somewhere...

I went to another Mexican restaurant today and had more Mexican food. It is lovely. Someone should start a wee business up and see what happens. I love ordering things that I don’t know – but only if someone that does know what it is knows if its good or not. If that makes any sense. Possibly I’m just like that because I can’t pronounce what I want to order. And the company was good as well – two lovely people from my house came along and we talked about everything and nothing.

A great recipe my friend made me eat today – get plain yoghurt, dump walnuts on top of it and drizzle it with honey. I know it sounds kind of yurgh but it’s really good! Apparently it’s a Greek thing. Those Greeks really know what they’re doing then. I also had chicken that wasn’t covered in sauce. I loved it, but the Americans thought it was a little bland. Obviously I haven’t lost my taste for the simpler things then – this is probably good. If I got a ‘rich palate’ then NZ food would be hard to swallow when I get back! It’s going to be hard to swallow enough as it is after all the yummy stuff over here.

You guys already know that I went to SF and saw the blue angels, but before that I had another soccer practice. We lost our game again the other day – I think I might have already posted that. The upright on the goal is now first-equal in my teams’ goal scoring ranking! And this random bush is the best goalkeeper we have on our team – it didn’t let a single thing through. I have a problem with hand-balls. I leap into the air to try and catch it, but of course I’m on the field now so it is a bit of a sticky habit.

I also got lost on the way to SF and ended up in Oakland. Hmmmm.

Nothing much else happened. I don't want to know about the Rugby.

Cheers

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 7, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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It’s Friday morning in the basement library, and I’m typing on a computer here instead of my own machine. My own machine is fixed and healthy (barring accidents)! Here is the extended version of my labours in that regard. Skip past it if you don't won't a tale of woe.

I rose extremely early (5am. On my sleep-in day!!) on Tuesday morning to get on a bus that went to Emeryville (the place where the call centre said I could fix my computer.) After a seriously heart-stopping trip (if I stayed on too long I’d end up on the motorway and in San Francisco) I reached the place I needed to go - BDI computers. Unfortunately the call centre was a year out of date and the company didn’t exist anymore (the lady inside the office seemed exceptionally surprised to see a New Zealander with a computer stroll into her lounge.) Hmmmm.
Going back to the call centre, they then told me to head for the nearest radioshack. This I duly did (after my classes). This was a mistake because I was supposed to be a speaker on a discussion panel talking about comparative higher education. I missed that while I was arguing with the radioshack guy. (The machine was under warranty and he still wanted to charge me heaps of money.)
So I rang up the call centre again, and they hung up. After wailing and gnashing my teeth, I tried again. And again. And again. Never buy a HP product, their service is rubbish. Finally I got someone who could speak English, and by this time I was pretty hacked off, so I basically told them to give me a new power-cord or else. Again they tried to fob me off onto the non-existant BDI computers, but I was adiment.
The conversation went something like this.
"You should..."
“Let’s not do that. Give me a new power cord. You will send me one.”
“Ok Ma’am. I’ll send that out to you right away.”
“How long will it take to get here?”
“About 1 to 2 weeks.”
“No, that isn’t going to happen. How about tomorrow?”
“………… Thursday?”
“Ok. Thursday then.”
So finally by being rude/decisive I got what I needed and now my computer is working like a charm.

On Thursday I played another game of soccer, (again at 11pm) and it was much better. I really need to figure out how to score – my team-mates describe me as a ‘moving wall’. I head in one direction until I run out of space. The Australians keep laughing and saying that the only reason you’d have a New Zealander on a soccer team would be to rugby-tackle the opposition. hey - I was pretty good. I'm a ruddy goalkeeper for goodness sake! My entire life is spent getting cracked on the noggin with the ball! I can't change the habit of a lifetime just because I'm now doing way more running than normal.
A guy on our team was very funny though – he showed up as the game was ending, but he thought he was on time. It turns out his watch started to go backwards instead of forwards, which is a little unusual. Poor guy - he cycled for an hour to get there.
Moving on.

Another large essay was due today, so I scrambled to make something up that sounded right. The topic was Slavic Folklore and its effects on the individual perception of Heroism. Good fun!

Today I also have a coffee thingy with a few friends, was invited out for drinks AGAIN by my soccer team (but you can’t drink here unless you’re 21! I don’t even want to drink, just to hang out, but they won’t even let you in) and also have a couple of admin things to do (like figure out how to apply for a California Drivers Licence.) I mentioned that I was invited to the Brizilian dance party, yes? It sounded like fun, but only for over 21's. Those Brizilains were very lucky.

Yesterday on the administration side I applied for a social security number, so I can get paid from the job fair. It’s pretty gold – whenever I come back to the states that number will always be the same. I also looked into getting a part-time job somewhere so I can start to save money and go on a bit of a travel adventure. A Social Security Number is also useful for those types of things.

I’ve got a couple more friends to describe, and then I’ll let you rest from the blog. You know how in every dorm there is one person whose got more ‘go’ than the Energizer Bunny? Stephen is that man in our house. He doesn’t walk – he bounces. When I’m in my basement I can hear exactly where he is in the house because the noise is quite distinctive. He’s about 5’7”, but works out a lot, so he is almost shaped like a triangle. When he doesn’t smile the mood of the entire house plummets – I know because he had is mid-terms, got tired, and then everyone got cranky. Weird how these people infect others eh?

Speaking of short (well, not really) we’ve got a 4’10” girl in our house. She studies way too hard, and gets a little stressed about the whole thing sometimes, but if she wasn’t like that she wouldn’t be Arielle now would she? She is the friend who introduced me to the ‘Numa Numa’ song which is possibly the most disturbing song in the entire world. It’s sung by Romanians. She also knows the entire score of every Disney song ever produced, and will sing them at the drop of a hat, forcing you to join in. I would never have got to Emeryville without her – I was so confused! Public transport here isn’t the greatest.

I have also been invivited to speak at an EAP lunch thingy for a small group of people, about EAP and golbalisation. That's cool - I'll just talk about how America was nothing like I expected it to be from the media. It makes everyone happy, because then I can throw in a few good jokes about what I thought America would be like.

Again guys, cheers for reading. If there is anything you particulary want me to talk about or describe for you, post it on the comments thingys (which I do read!) and I'll do my best to get it up here for you.

Wish you were here

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 5, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Evil and mean.
Yeah.

My computer still isn’t fixed, so I am writing this on a friends’ computer. That is why some things are disjointed. Yes… they’re not disjointed because I’m not that great at typing. It’s all to do with the lack of the computer…

This week has been interesting, as has every week since I have been here. You know what I was up to before Wednesday, but that day was boring and you don’t want to hear about that, so I’ll start with Thursday.
On Thursday I played my first game of soccer for real. I can’t quite remember the score now – it wasn’t important – but lets just say my team played much better in the second half than the first. I was also quite embarrassed – a cry went up before the game ‘They have too many guys on their team!’
Nope, sorry other team. We had three guys and three girls. One of the girls just happened to have short hair. Moving right along.

Friday was the day of the EAP fair, and I had a paying job to do! So I skipped out on a class, showed up very early and started to help out. I was cheerful, I spoke to people about New Zealand, and I did all sorts of random work to do with checking people in and out of the hall in which it was being held. I was there nine hours. Myself and another New Zealander even gave a short rendition of ‘God Defend New Zealand’ for a crowd of students who wanted to go to Australia. After the nine hours I and another bloke (an Italian named Tom) went back to the office to collect our pay. It turns out that since we don’t have a social security number we might not be. This is silly – they advertised among the international students for the fair. If they can’t pay us, then why ask us?

The saga of the computer is this – it has stopped charging. I rang up a call centre in India who were quite keen for me to be someone else’s problem. After several frustrations, I managed to get a name and an address for a repair company in Emeryville, which isn’t that far away from Berkeley. It’s a mission to get around by public transport here.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to find this place. Firstly I couldn’t find anyone to go with me, and then my friend asked me if I wanted to go with her to San Francisco. How can I refuse that type of thing? SF is great – it’s a fantastic place.

I went to an American restaurant, which can be quite stressful. I had no idea what I should be ordering (neither did the Americans I was with however, so I felt better.) so in the end I got Turkey. It tastes nothing like chicken! It makes you really sleepy.
I got ranch dressing on my salad. Ranch dressing on a salad defeats the point of a salad. It’s very nice, but it’s really heavy, so go easy on the stuff if you’re offered it in the States. The food they serve is in massive quantities as well, so if you can don’t finish and get a little plastic doggie bag. It’s not considered bad or rude at all (although I still have problems with it – cultural programming is hard to break). I also went to Union Square to a “Candy Shop” that sold mostly chocolate. I had ‘peanut brittle’ which was absolutely fantastic (don’t eat too much of it though because you’ll be huge) and some chocolate in a bar. The chocolate wasn’t very good, but they tried very hard.
New Zealand chocolate is a hard act to follow I suppose.

Time for more of Margaret’s Random Friends:

One guy in my house is a computer genius, (Austin is his namo) who kinda looks a little Australian around the edges. His father is a rocket scientist for NASA and his mother is a consultant for Nuclear Power Plants. This probably gives you a wee hint as to where his interests lie, yes? He has short brown hair, which you hardly ever see because he’s always wearing a floppy hat with the two sides done up, and you won’t see him without his IBM workstation because apparently it kinda attaches to his arms. The tie-dry shirt, the tramping shorts and the hiking boots complete the picture of what he wears every day. Building robots since you were three does that to a person I’m told.

There is also this girl who is very patriotically Mexican and American at the same time, and she lives downstairs in the Library Suite. (Dyana.) She is short (ish), speaks Mexican Spanish (which is ruddy cool) and wants Obama (the African-American running for the democratic vote) to win the presidential campaign. Being in the library suite must be tough sometimes – everyone hangs out in the common area till really late, but I’ve never heard her complain, which is either very self-sacrificing, or she can sleep through a hurricane. She comes from Merced (which looks very nice in the photos, but most everything does) and I have no idea where that is, so I normally just guess on a map.

Cheers team

Margie

Ps. Flowing tresses.

written by  Crosswood on September 30, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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This’ll be a really short post, and the next couple of posts will be as well, because my computer cord has broken and won’t charge my machine. Every time I want to use the computer now I have to ship myself and my gear to the library. This is not good team! I am in the middle of mid-terms!

Briefly updating:

1) I felt a bit sick over the weekend, and figure it’s just that America has different nasty buggies than NZ. I’ll bring some home for you to all try later.

2) My cellphone stopped working (ref previous post) because I got it very wet. It randomly buzzed, spent three days looking pathetic, and then started to work again. I thought it wouldn’t receive or phone other people and was quite disappointed, but it turns out that the phone bill hadn’t been paid and they’d simply disconnected it. Easily fixed!

3) I got my first couple of assignments back from Berkeley. I was terrified I’d be out of my league here, and I kinda am, but at I’m getting OK grades. Not fantastic, but OK.

4) Robert Jordan, the man who wrote books about a million pages long and who was half-way through the final book of the longest series in history, died. Now I will never know what happens to the two thousand characters I have read about for the last eight years. I feel sad and pathetic.

5) I acted as private security for a football game on Saturday. It was very boring – they told us ‘come with a white shirt and black pants.’ Then they gave us a clip-on tie, dressed us up in this suit jacket that was about nine sizes to big, and told me to guard the press-box. I looked like Charlie Chaplin, and I was about as scary as him as well, because I got randomly abused by people who weren’t allowed into the press box, but had tried to come in anyway. It made money for the ROTC program, so I figured I’d do them a favor and show up.

6) I am getting itchy feet and want to go somewhere else. Not that Berkeley and San Francisco aren’t the best places on planet earth, because they kind of are, but I want to go and see other places now. Utah – Salt Lake City is apparently worth visiting. New Mexico – my friend’s dad works at Los Alamos. South Dakota – Mt Rushmore. Washington - Seattle.

7) I’m going to get to Seattle if it kills me.

8) Tonight I have a soccer practice. Last one before the big game!

9) I also have Military Lab tonight. Land navigation – blurg. The most boring thing ever created. Our protractors are a riot though – they’re made really badly. If you put two of them together, the degree bars are out of sync with each other by as much as five degrees. I’ll tell you how finding our way around with them goes.

10) I got a job working as the student assistant at the EAP fair all day on Friday. I’m going to either buy new jandels (I have exciting holes right through the soles of mine) or buy snacks for a week. I’m leaning more towards the jandels, but something might come up so that I can use it better.

And that’s all’s I can think of. I did a map quiz today, and I didn’t study, but found all the places on the map no problem. Normally I hate people like me.

Cheers team, and keep warm over there (I'm thinking of you in the glorious warm sunshine.)

Margie

written by  Crosswood on September 25, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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