Spring Break

My initial plans for Spring Break were to go on a RV trip around California with some friends from ihouse.  However, I got so busy with classes a few weeks before the break that I realized I could not afford not to work on my thesis during that week.

My second plans were to stay in Berkeley by myself for a few days and work as much as possible on my thesis in order to enjoy the last days of the break with Pedro, here in the Bay Area.  He would come up on Thursday, and that would give us three to four days of vacation together.  Good enough!  However, everyone was planing to leave Berkeley and I was exhausted and in deep need of some fresh air.  So, I decided that the best plans would be to go down to LA, work from there while Pedro would be busy practicing golf, and then come up with him on Thursday to enjoy a few days up here.

I ended up not following any of the three plans.  I spent nine days in LA, and such good nine days...

I actually got lots of work done in the first few days.  I managed to correct the model of my building and to get the right results for the modal analysis, which is a big step in my research work.  Next week, I will start running nonlinear analysis and making conclusions out of it.  By achieving this goals, I also finished the final project for one of my three classes, since Professor Mahin let me use the first part of my thesis for that project.  I felt so good about my results that I presented me with a few days off work in the end of the break.

During the entire break, I got to spend lots of time with Pedro, spoiling him and being spoiled.  In the first days, while I was still busy with my thesis, we went out for dinner a couple of times, I cooked a lot at home, I worked out everyday, sometimes with him, sometimes by myself, he practiced a lot and played four rounds of golf with the team.

On Tuesday, it was Ludo's birthday so I dedicated the afternoon to him.  He came over with his Belgium friends to watch Belgium's soccer game at Pedro's apartment, and then we went for a touristic tour around Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard.  To finish the day well, we met our friends from the RV trip at the Dockerweiler State Beach, where we had a super cool and fun barbecue.

On Wednesday, after working the entire morning, I met my Sweedish friend Malin for lunch, got to gossip a lot with her and enjoy the sun at Urth Caffe Beverly Hills, where our boyfriends met us after playing golf together.  That afternoon, we all (Malin, me and the entire UCLA Men's Golf Team) went go karting and had dinner at Derek's house in Valencia.

On Thursday, I worked in the morning while Pedro played with the team, and we were supposed to leave to Berkeley after lunch but none of us wanted to go.  Instead, we spent the afternoon in Santa Monica and the evening in Westwood with our friends.

On Friday, something new happened!  Haha.  Pedro was invited to play in Riviera Country Club, one of the most exclusive golf courses in LA, and he asked if I could go watch them play.  The member who invited him said I would be more than welcome to go, since he forgot about Riviera's liability policy, according to which no one but members and guests can walk on the golf course.  I went, I walked with them for six holes, and I was kicked out of the golf course after that.  At least, I got to see how such a private golf course looks like, and how amazing are its facilities...  The members were feeling sorry for me and even offered me lunch and drinks but Pedro decided to leave the golf course too so we just went home together.  Later that day, we worked out, watched a tennis tournament at UCLA, had an amazing dinner at Beverly Hills with Matt's family and hung out with our friends, playing drinking games in Westwood.  Another great day...

Saturday was the best day of spring break.  It started with a tough but very pleasant hike in Runyon Canyon, Hollywood, went on with an amazing brunch at Salt's Cure, and continued with a fun, fun, fun trip to Staples Center to watch one of the games of March Madness.  Do you know what March Madness is?  It's the most important tournament of college basketball, taking place each spring in the US.  Alex had eight tickets for yesterday's game (Wishita State vs Ohio State) and took six guys and me with him.  After the game, we went to a Korean barbecue restaurant, where the men ate much more that what I thought that was physically possible.

Today, it was time to come back to Berkeley.  Not that I was looking forward to it...  However, I came back feeling happy and lucky for such nice days, surrounded by such nice people.

Happy Easter everyone!