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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I liked the recording, i got it to work at work but didn't tell anyone so don't worry, well andrew wandered over and a pointed out which of you was my sister but thats all

written by  Rebecca on October 31, 2007

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