Berkeley Day 4

I slept in on my final day in Berkeley, which allowed Mary to work on her newest paper. After we got ready, ate breakfast and I packed my bags, we headed out for a few more hours of fun before my flight. First, we went to the new Cathedral in Oakland: The Cathedral of Christ of Light. Apparently, there is a lot of controversy about the design of the church since it is unusual and the cost because it was extremely expensive. The inside is better looking than the outside, but I wasn't able to take any pictures. Mary and I went downstairs to the mausoleum. It was a beautiful mausoleum and much more traditional than the cathedral above. Below, the first picture is the outside of the Cathedral and the bottom two are of the mausoleum.

After finishing up at the Cathedral, Mary took me to the East Bay Vivarium. Mary has been wanting to go to here for several years, but no one would go with her. Despite, my fear of snakes I was ready to go (she took me shopping at places that neither of us could afford the last time I came to visit, so I owed her one). One of Mary's roommates met us there and we spent a long time looking at all of the critters. I was only able to take one picture of one of the animals, which I believe is a red snapper water turtle.

Next we went to lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant near UC Berkeley. Mary had to meet her PhD advisor to talk about her upcoming paper, so I headed to a coffee shop. I grabbed an Americano and kept reading Ken Follett's riveting 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth. It was 973 pages of glory. It was an amazing book and I finished it in about two weeks. I can't believe that there wasn't a slow part in the entire book! Anyway, after Mary was finished with her appointment she picked me up and then we hung out at her house for a while before I headed to the airport. Mary dropped me off about three hours before my flight because she had to get back to the lab and I hung out in the airport reading until my flight.

Overall, it was a great trip and I had an amazing time.

Berkeley Day 3

On Sunday, we decided to head into San Francisco. Mary has a set of 5x7 cards that are walking tours of the city. We narrowed it down to three different walks and decided to go on two of them, because they were only six blocks apart and we could take the same BART stop (Bay Area Rapid Transit). We ended up in the Mission District of San Francisco, which has Latino roots, many murals, has many boutiques and tons of great restaurants. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the murals, but I did get a beautiful picture of the The Mission Dolores Basilica, which is a historic Catholic church in the Mission District.

We also went down in to the Castro District, which is where much of the Gay Rights movements have started. The Castro is a historical theater and from the outside it was beautiful--I only wish Mary and I would have had time to go into the theater. The Castro District had amazing little shops and also tons of restaurants. It was so much fun to window shop, especially since many of the stores had handmade goods. There were also tons of mouthwatering restaurants. Below are the pictures of the Castro Theater.

After walking in the Castro district, we headed into a nearby neighborhood with tons of beautiful Victorian row houses. Here are a few pictures of the homes and view:

After looking at all of the beautiful homes, we headed back to the Castro District and had a wonderful lunch.

After lunch, we headed back toward the Mission District and decided to walk down Valencia Street. Valencia is full of trendy little shops and coffee shops. It was another fun area to walk around, but it was starting to get dark and we needed to get back to Mary's house so we didn't get to stay long.

After we arrived back in Berkeley, we started to watch a movie with Mary's roommates. Then we headed out to dinner at a local pizza place in Berkeley. After dinner, we went to Mass with one of Mary's roommates at the Catholic Church near UC Berkeley's campus. It was a beautiful candle light service, but it reminded me why I always think I like candle light services more than I actually like candlelight services: I get super sleepy. Overall, we had an action packed day and lots of fun!

Berkely Day 2

On Saturday, we decided to go to Livermore to go wine tasting. We discussed going to Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley but Mary said that those are more commercialized and she had always wanted to go to Livermore. Livermore reminded me a lot of going wine tasting in Walla Walla: all of the wine owners were in their tasting rooms. It was so much fun to go to the wineries and speak with the owners and the wine makers. Everyone was so nice and it is such a great way to learn about wine. For example, I never knew before that one could make port out of white wine. Mary brought a yummy picnic lunch and Jakob was kind enough to be our designated driver for the day!Here are some pictures from the wine tasting.





After wine tasting, we headed back to Mary's house and she made a great butter nut squash soup from scratch--yummy! Later that evening, we looked through my pictures from being abroad and Mary's pictures from her trip to Spain.

Berkeley Day 1

I arrived at the Oakland airport on Friday night at about 7:30. Mary and her boyfriend, Jakob, picked me up at the airport and then we headed to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then we headed to Mary's house to have desert. It was so much fun to just sit and catch up after not seeing her for almost three years.

Berkeley

This morning when I was looking at flights heading home, I noticed that Southwest is having a super sale (though tomorrow). I wish I knew exactly when and where I'll be heading to in January, as I could have booked the ticket to the east coast for $100.00!! Isn't that crazy? As a coincidence, the other day I was thinking that it's been over two and a half years since I last saw one of my closest college friends, Mary. When I called to tell my parents that I booked my flight home after the Step, I mentioned the great sale and how long it's been since I've seen Mary. My Mom suggested that I call Mary to see if she has time for me to come down (My Dad, on the other hand, misses his little girl so much that he doesn't even want me to meet up with friends for coffee let alone go to California for a weekend). I assumed that Mary wouldn't have time for me to come visit as she is up to her neck in her lab work for her PhD dissertation. But, to my surprise, she said to plan the trip because she can arrange her schedule so that she doesn't have to go to lab much on the days I'm in town. In less than 24 hours, I went from not knowing exactly when I'd be coming home after the Step to booking my flight home and making a surprise side trip to see a friend.

I've been doing fairly well on the Step prep questions and feeling more and more confident the last couple weeks. But, the last two days haven't been so super, which can be at the same time discouraging and motivating. I also have the motivation of all the excitement after the Step. Assuming no two-day flight delays, I will be home for two Thanksgiving dinners (one at my Aunt and Uncle's house and the other at our neighbor's house) and I get to see one of my most beloved friends. I'm so excited about the fun to come after the exam that I feel like Popeye after eating spinach--I'm recharged, excited and ready to study!