Thanksgiving was amazing – on Wednesday last week (although it wasn’t a public holiday) we all got time off university to travel up. Well – time off might be stretching the point a little – it was more like we held the lecturers to ransom and they didn’t hold classes because no one was going to arrive.

The mother of my friend Sarenna, whom I stayed with, travelled down an awful long way to pick us up (our hat’s are off to you, Mrs S!). While we waited a wee while for Sarenna to pack (Sarenna is famous for taking a long time to get ready), myself and another friend went out for coffee. After this we were off!

Traffic is absolutely APPALLING on and around Thanksgiving, with everyone trying to get back to their family for the holiday, so Mrs S. Drove off to the other side of Berkeley first to get Mexican food. I love Mexican food, but I wasn’t so thrilled with the rice drink that is traditionally drunk with it, because it tickled the back of my throat and made me want to sputter. Still – it was a really nice evening, and after a small diversion to a cheese store we hit the road again and (after a frankly amusing couple of tries at getting back onto the ‘freeway’) we were on our way to Chico!

The coastal route is beautiful at night, so as my friend dozed off in the front seat I chatted away to Mrs S, who is a lovely person and who knew a lot about the area we were driving through. This was useful; I knew nothing about what or where we were driving through, and was only mildly interested in how flat it was before Mrs S started to elaborate on the history of it. Petrol is really cheap over here, but it’s all ’87, ’89, and ‘91! No ’98 at all, and diesel is more expensive than Petrol.

After about 2 hours we reached Chico, which is an agricultural/university town that specialises in crops like nuts and fruits. The friend I stayed with lived outside of Chico in the middle of an area of cropland, which was gorgeous by night (the first night we took the dogs out for a walk around the place) and was simply stunning by day. Rank upon rank of almond trees! I’m actually sitting in my basement now eating almonds from that area (they’ve been roasted with orange peel and honey and taste amazing). It was all a little overwhelming at first, but the place is fantastic.

The second day was Thursday – Thanksgiving day. We had dinner at about 1 o clock because if we ate earlier then we’d pop when we tried to go for a traditional walk afterwards. Turkey was abundant (those birds must be massive!) and doesn’t taste anything at all like chicken – but the real treat was the vegetables. Yes – I know. This is me, talking about liking veggies more than meat, but if you ate at the dining commons every day you’d realise why I desperately desired those peas and yams. I ate so many veggies I didn’t even want to THINK about dessert – lots of pie. Americans love pie – Pumpkin Pie, Coconut Pie, Pecan Pie (that’s REALLY good), Marionberry Pie (kindof like Blackberry – my friend sitting next to me tells me it IS a blackberry that’s a weird mutant and that comes from a state in America called ‘Oregon’) and, of course, Apple pie. Why so much pie? The family is WAY too nice for their own good, knew I hadn’t eaten most of these pies before and got them for me. Americans are THE NICEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. The walk was really nice as well – we went to a different area that we wandered around in the night before. My friends’ sister disturbed me mightily – we went in a car to the general area and I didn’t realise that she didn’t drive very well until she exclaimed ‘Oh – A corner! Lets see how this goes!’ I was more than slightly concerned after that. She also couldn’t get the keys out of the car because she put it in neutral instead of park (snigger). After our walk (we saw hawks, lots of trees and had a great time) I drove back. I laughed at that girl too soon. I actually thought – ‘gosh. Putting the steering wheel on this side of the car makes it a lot easier to align yourself to the left hand side of the... uh oh.’ Luckily the road was a farm road and there were no other cars!

Chico proper, which we visited the next day, is really great. It is a ‘small’ town – 100 000 people is small in the states – and has literally everything. The Farmers Market is very much like the Lower Hutt market, except the stuff was heaps more professional – there was a nut stand with all sorts of types of almonds – honey roasted, orange roasted, chocolate covered, ect - and various fruit stalls. I love mandarins!!

We also went to the gym, not once but TWICE. Dad – you’d be proud. The second time was very fun – a man named Mika taught me how to use Kettle Bells and we violently swung them around, and also attacked random tractor tires. My friend is very strong and fit, so I had to work hard to keep up for the honour of the New Zealand army. It wasn’t pretty.

We came back, and then I went off to ANOTHER thanksgiving dinner, this time in Los Altos. The family is a family of engineers, who proudly showed off their awesome robot like other families show off a prize dog. It was a fricken’ awesome robot. We also did Tie Dye, ate lots of good food, and headed home tired and full. I slept through my alarm the next day.

Today I also did a Military Lab in preparation for the formal Military Ball next week. I showed up in my Patrol Reds, which are very red, and tried to learn how to dance. I was mildly successful at this! The boys were less successful, but they tried very hard.

Tomorrow I have a formal house dinner, which should be fun as well.

That’s pretty much everything that happened over the last week – I had a great time in Chico - wish me luck for getting a friend to go with me to the ball!

Cheers everyone, sorry for how unfunny this post was

Margie

written by  Crosswood on November 27, 2007 from Chico, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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I know it seems a little odd, but it was so nice of him to do it and I appreciated it a lot. On Friday I was told he was coming Monday, so I didn't have much time to stress about what to do. It all worked out well in the end.

I rode BART all the way to San Fran airport, which is quite a trip. Then Dad drove us back to Berkeley in this huge American car with the greatest Sat Nav system I've ever seen. Even a child could use it, it was so simple. Dad was staying in San Fran, in a hotel on one of the main streets, so he and I wandered through town a couple of times having a look around. He saw a lot more without me, as obviously I had class in the build-up for exams, which start very soon. I had to quickly re-schedule a final exam from the Wednesday morning (when Dad and I went up to Sacramento) to the Tuesday before (luckily the SSgt who controls that class wasn't to fussed.) I got an A, which is a shame because I took it pass/not-pass. Oh well, such is life. He gave me American rat packs, which is nice, but I'm a little afraid of eating them. We'll see...

Sacramento was misty, and I had a doctor’s appointment there. I also got up really, really early after going to bed late. The combination of these factors meant I didn't really look around much while I was there, but I did enjoy a home-made sandwich with Dad before a breakfast Parfait and a cup of tea in McDonalds.

I also had a military ball on Wednesday because it was a pretty full-on day. Dad and I went up to Macy’s to get a Bow-Tie, because Dad had left his black one at home, and it was interesting seeing the psychology of selling. The man at the first store we went to had no intention of helping us – I looked like a Uni student and dad was wearing a serviceable, but hardly Christine Dior, jumper. This is obviously stupid – Dad was going to spend money, and since he doesn’t like to shop if they give him a good pitch he’ll probably buy it. They lost out – their customer service didn’t compare to my little sisters’ – so we went down the street and got one from a place where the person was marginally more interested in us.

The military ball was fun. I was on a tight timetable already – I got back from class at 1730 and the ball started at 1800 – but there was an accident on a bridge in San Fran and Dad was a few minutes late. I was wearing my full Patrol-Reds, the formal uniform of the Corps of Officer Cadets, and looked pretty good. I also had a New Zealand flag to present. Dad always looks good in his dinner jacket, but he has an unfair advantage in that he goes to more of these things than me and knows how to make small talk. Luckily I didn’t need small-talk past ‘I’m from New Zealand! Look how red my uniform is!’ and other similar comments. They thought I was pretty flaky I think, but that’s cool. Dinner was nice – beef and stuff like that, and the company was good. We saw a sword arch (it wasn’t very good, but it’s hard to hold a sabre out above your head for a long time like they were forced to, so hats off to them), heard a good speech from a Brigadier (he saw I was in the audience and changed his speech to include Phil Goff’s nephew who was killed in Iraqi a few months ago.) and then it was my turn. I was supposed to go up onto the podium and make a speech about something and then give the flag to the Lt. Col, but she didn’t stand up to get the flag, she stayed at the table. So I simply walked up to the top table and started to ramble at her. I said something about New Zealander’s and Americans fighting together, how we were friends and how I had no doubt they’d look after our flag. They liked it – I am so lucky. It was pretty simple and was big on the nervous babbling, but the Americans seemed to appreciate that it was sincere. Dad (in his cynicism) was surprised. I had a really good night anyway – the Golden Bears gave me a Commander’s Coin, which I have to carry with me, and if I don’t have it when they check I have to buy everyone a round of beer. Fair enough!

Today was great, until I left my backpack in Dad’s rental car and he drove off to the airport with it. Hmmm. I’ll get it tomorrow, but I was stressed there for a while until I went to the gym with my friend, who is also stressed. I feel tired now.

Tomorrow:
Get Backpack with all my notes and my cellphone in it
Talk to Marine Guy about Marine Corps in America
Talk to SSgt Smith about SSgt Smith’y stuff (he’s a great guy)

I think I was supposed to talk to either the Navy guy or the Air force guy as well... I’ll find out. Cheers for reading guys

See you in six weeks

written by  Crosswood on December 7, 2007 from Sacramento, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Everyone has been trickling away from the house. Person by person they’ve said their farewells and left – gone after four and a half months of friendship and living together. Every night was like a sleepover at a friends’ place. We had parties for Halloween, parties for peoples’ birthdays, parties for kicks, parties for footballs games.

Tonight we had a party for leaving. My leaving.

In another three days I will cancel my meal-plan, I will pack up my room and I will sign a termination letter. Then I will leave. It is a very real possibility that I will never be back to Berkeley, or see the people that made Berkeley such a great place, again. I contrast this to my experience of leaving for America that day – I can still remember everything. It was a sunny Tuesday - I practically skipped out of the barracks door and haven’t thought of it fondly since.

They gave me a gift, my house-mates. A blanket with the Golden Bear on it. It’s magnificent, and it’s without question the best thing I have ever been given by friends. I can’t imagine being half as pleased with something from the Massey Student store – Cal is something special, even for a temporary visitor.

Here in Berkeley is Westminster House, and here the others will be back, most of them. I won’t be, but I wish them every success. This was a sappy post, but hey – I won’t get another chance. Later I might be in New York, or San Diageo, or various places in between, but I’ll remember that I’m a Golden Bear, and that Golden Bears from Cal are the sweetest creatures on the planet.

Go Bears.

written by  Crosswood on December 15, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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While in Palo Alto with my friend I basically did nothing, but at the end we went to a New Zealand pub in the middle of nowhere so I could feed her pavlova. I’m seriously not a good enough cook to even THINK about making one of those little monsters, so I figured I should leave it to the experts. (Yes – a New Zealand pub. Random yes?) Then I went back to the house. I am still having problems with the landlord (who made a mistake on my contract) but I’m sure it will be solved by move-in day of next semester. The house was very empty – I didn’t like it like that.

I also managed to work myself into a fine state as because I didn’t have a social security number I couldn’t buy a train ticket online. Also, the holidays changed all the bus timetables. Of course I checked online, but I was still worried about getting to the station on time, because the buses are ALWAYS late. So I didn’t get much sleep, but I got down to the bus stop in enough time to recognize that the bus wasn’t going to arrive, and so I got a taxi to the station and all was well. I jumped on this very flash double-decker train with big comfy seats and lots of leg room – but the guy next to me wasn’t impressed. This man was very large and took up all of his set and some of mine as well. He was also, at various points, bored, angry at things, restlessly fidgeting and rambling about how much he hated America.

I enjoyed my train ride – I know the man above seems a little strange, and he was, but there were some other real characters as well. Like the man who kept walking up and down the aisle until someone gave me a beer. Or the man who was standing at the front of the coach ‘reading peoples’ auras’. I’d definitely do it again. It’s an experience. And the train ride itself was wonderful – no vibration, really VERY fast (we were going at 79 miles per hour in places) and lots of space – plus you own food. We stopped for freight in a couple of spots, but one of those spots was in the middle of the big restricted air force base, so I got heaps of time to watch the fighters practicing overhead. It was gold.

I got to LA at 9 and was very pleased that Andy and Lisa were waiting for me. My phone had died because I had gone out of my calling zone, so I was again unable to call anyone. Luckily they were outside. Union station is very nice – they’ve taken good care of it.
Andy’s house is bigger and cooler than I remember – he has two computers, an Xbox 360, and Xbox and a playstation 1 & 2. He also has a TV with 700 channels. Actually I’ve been spending a lot of my time sleeping (I am very tired for no reason) and reading books I bought for the train ride. I also had some wonderful pizza (garlic chicken – one of my parents doesn’t like garlic so I never get it at home). Then we went to Andy’s parents house for dinner. I had a wonderful time (LOTS of food) and this morning (Christmas day) I have eating with Lisa’s folks. Andy gave me some very excellent DVD’s, and I gave him a bowl that looks like a shell (thanks Mum and Dad for sending that!) so I am as happy as the cat with all the cream. Tomorrow we will go to the pistol range so that I can fire a .45 – I’m in America! How could I conform to the stereotypes without firing a gun?! I will write again when I reach San Diego – that is the next step.

written by  Crosswood on December 25, 2007 from Orange, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Department Course Units Grade
HISTORY 151B BRITAIN, 1660-1851 4.0 A-
HISTORY 155B MEDIEVAL EUROPE 4.0 A-
HISTORY 171A Russia 4.0 A
MIL SCI 141 LEADERSHIP & MNGMNT 3.0 A
SLAVIC 147A EAST SLAVIC FOLKLORE 3.0 A

So I had a pretty good semester. The only reason I am posting them here is because I am vain and my folks weren't going to give in to my ego. Fair enough?

written by  Crosswood on December 28, 2007 from Orange, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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