Time flies

I'm less than two weeks away from finishing classes, exactly three weeks away from finishing all the final projects and exams, and less than two months away from going back home.  This has made me think a lot about my amazing experience here and also about some routines I am going to miss when I leave Berkeley.

Mainly, I am going to miss living in ihouse.  I am gonna miss the Wednesday 9 pm to 10 pm coffee hours, the meals in the dining hall surrounded by friends, the 12 pm happy-birthday cakes every time it is someone's birthday, the cultural experience and the people.

I am also going to miss my class.  We rarely do stuff together outside Davis Hall but the truth is that we spend so many hours a day together that we became incredibly close.  We know how to make fun and which reactions to expect from each other, so we end up having fun while working.

Another thing I am going to miss is the weekly Thursday lunch out with my classmates.  No matter what, on Thursdays after our CE227 class, we leave Davis Hall to have lunch somewhere in Berkeley.  If we don't have much free time, we eat something on Euclid Ave, right by Davis Hall;  if we do, we go and explore different places.

I am going to miss the college life in general, including the huge amount of people quickly walking in every direction on campus, the people laying under the sun in the afternoon, the frisbee dudes, the campaigns, performances and advertisements all over Sproul Plaza, the rollerbladers, the skaters and the runners annoying normal pedestrians, the backpacks in everyone's back, the coffee cups in everyone's hands, the caps in every guys' heads, all the athletes walking in and out Memorial Stadium, and so on.

I am going to miss my 7-day workout routine, mainly our Insanity workout sessions under the sun.

I am going to miss writing an e-mail to my family every night and a post on this blog every once in a while.  Even if I am going to be back home, I might miss the morning Skype session with my mom, while I am getting ready for the day.  I am definitely going to miss the constant chat in our family Whatsapp group.

I am going to miss getting a good surprise letter or present in the mailbox every once in a while.

I am going to miss cottage cheese.

I am going to miss much more.

From now till June 17th, all I have to do is enjoy the entire list of things I just said I am going to miss, and also stuff that I might not miss but that makes me grow by being very culturally different to what I am used to.

Three in one

Today was a three-in-one day for me, in many senses.

Three big events took place in Berkeley today: Cal Day, International House Spring Festival and 4/20.  Cal Day is the day of the year in which the whole university is open to the public, presenting everyone with over 300 free lectures, tours, concerts and different types of performances.  It is also the day in which all the brands one can imagine have their own booths on campus to give free stuff to people, and in which the fraternities get specially wild.  It is basically a happy day on campus.  I wish it was Cal Day everyday!

The International House Spring Festival, formally called the Edith Coliver Festival of Cultures "Springfest" is, as ihouse likes to claim, an amazing "celebration of the life and culture from all over the world", where "attendees are treated to tantalizing delicacies from Armenia to Zambia".  Neglecting the exaggeratedly elaborate description, that's pretty much the truth.  This springfest, among all the ihouse events I've been to, was probably my favorite one.  Seeing the residence totally full, being able to check all the booths offering info, handicrafts and food, watching all the performances, tasting all the different types of food, and being part of the multicultural fashion show, made me realize I actually live in the coolest place on campus and beyond.  I live in such an international place that I pretended to belong to three different nationalities during the springfest (three-in-one day again).  I was the only Portuguese person in ihouse, as I have been the entire school year; I pretended to be lebanese and helped Nathalie out serving mediterranean food to visitors for over an hour; and I modeled in the fashion show in a vietnamese costume.  The real vietnamese girls actually said I looked like them, except from the fact that I am a foot taller than them.

The third event of the day was 4/20, a famous event in the hippie Berkeley campus, since it is the cannabis counterculture's international holiday.  The festivities included fire alarms echoing throughout the dorms, students from Sensible Drug Policy trying to hold events at Sproul Plaza, and tons of people smoking weed in the Memorial Glade (one of the campus gardens) around 4:20 pm.  I guess I don't have to mention I didn't participate in the celebrations but I am happy to say that I went there to see how it was.

The weather was amazing and this was probably the happiest day I experienced on campus.

More trophies and stuff

Gosh, I wish I could start this post from the end of it!!!  What a weekend!

Friday after lunch, Nico and I headed south.  Both of us were looking forward to leave Berkeley for the weekend, but for different reasons.  He wanted to meet his (now our) Venezuelan friend Marco, and surf and party hard with him in Monterey, while I wanted to get some fresh air and watch Pedro play the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Golf Course.

The trip was fine and relatively short, which gave us the chance to enjoy a late afternoon and evening in Monterey.  We went to the beach and stood by a bonfire, chatting, drinking bears and eating hot dogs and s'mores (ew!!!) - exactly my idealized idea of an evening in that area.  That was the only thing I did in Monterey, apart from being awaken and made fun of by tipsy Marco and Nico both nights, around 2:30 am, when the clubs closed and they went back home.

My ride to the golf course both on Saturday and Sunday was with my favorite Pinizzotto family, meaning Matt's mom and dad, the ones who welcomed Pedro and me in their place in my the first weekend in California last summer, and who took us out for dinner in El Pastaio in Beverly Hills during spring break.  However, on Saturday, we arranged to meet at the 101 Highway entrance so I made Nico wake up at 6:45 am to take me there.  He did it.  Gracias amigo!

Let's move to the most important part of the weekend now: Pedro's performance in the tournament.  The tournament took place in an amazing golf course close by Santa Cruz, Pasatiempo Golf Course, designed by the same architect that designed Augusta.  Coincidence of the coincidences: this tournament took place during the Masters Weekend!  Who cares about the Masters if they have a champion playing another tournament during the same weekend?!

Saturday, they played 36 holes without stopping between rounds.  They arrived at the golf course before 7 am, had breakfast and practiced for a while, played from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm, had dinner at the golf course, and went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for Sunday's 18 holes.  Fans like me did pretty much the same, except from the fact that they arrived slightly later and did not hit amazing golf shots.

UCLA and Cal, respectively my favorite team and the team from my university, played together both days.  Pedro played incredibly well throughout the weekend but mainly between holes 4 and 20 of the first day and holes 2 to 18 of the last day.  He shot -5, +1 and -2, behaved like a gentleman and made me super proud.  There are some interesting facts of the weekend that I would like to point out.  1) Pedro played in the same group as the #1 player in college golf, Michael Kim (and, yes, he beat him!).  2) Pedro started the last round of the day in second place, one stroke behind his teammate and friend Pontus, and made double boogie on the first hole, which made the scenery look not so good.  3) UCLA started the last round leading by quite a few strokes but lost to Cal by a lot of strokes.  4) I don't think I have ever been so nervous in my entire life.  5) Michael Kim started the third round four strokes behind Pedro but he made it to hole 17 only one stroke behind.  That was the hole in which, in my opinion, Pedro won the tournament by making a great putt for birdie, pressuring Michael and making him miss his putt, which was shorter and easier.  6) It was the first time I watch Pedro win live such a good tournament, and I couldn't be more proud.  Way to go Figgy!!!!!

Dad in Cali

I'm chilling in my room and it seems way too empty.  Why's that?  Because Dad just left Berkeley after being here with me for two short amazing days.

Dad had to travel to Atlanta for business and decided to make a pit stop in North California to visit me first.  His plans where to arrive on Saturday late afternoon, be my date at my graduate program 1920's party, spend two entire days with me and leave to Atlanta on Monday evening.  The trip did not start quite as planned, since he lost his connection flight in Newark and consequently couldn't come to the party.  However, that was the only part of the trip that didn't go well.  I just wish he could have stayed here with me...

On Sunday, we started the day by walking around campus and getting to see a few of its most famous parts: Telegraph Ave; Sproul Plaza and its invisible monument to free speech; the campanile; the whisper bench; a few libraries; Haas School; Memorial Stadium; International House; and more.  Before leaving Berkeley, Dad had his first experience in ihouse's dining hall: the weekend brunch.  I think he liked it.  I used to like the brunches here too but, after a while, they get way to repetitive.  After that, we drove to two different outlets, did some shopping, and got to see very nice and diverse landscapes.  From herds of sheep to herds of cows, from farms with horses to agricultural lands, from flat areas to hills, and from vineyards to towns, we saw a lot.  We had lunch in the Oxbow Public Market in Downtown Napa and came back to Berkeley, where we went to 4th street before heading to ihouse again.

The evening was as good as the rest of day.  We did some food shopping in College Ave (drinks at Safeway, pizza at Zachary's and fruit tart at La Farine) and had dinner with the Villas-Boas family at their place.  It's impossible not to like going there, seeing how happy that family is, listening to the kids' jokes, and getting to enjoy a portuguese style meal, meaning a meal with no rushes.

Today was THE day!  We had breakfast in ihouse with some of my breakfast buddies, so that Dad could actually experience my daily life here.  After that, we drove North for a big adventure.  We went to Muir Woods National Monument, with the initial goal of going on a 1h/2h hike.  However, we missed the trail we wanted to take and ended up walking for three hours and a half.  We walked up, up, up and down, down, down the hill, on a muddy slippery ground.  We saw huge trees in a dense forest first and the bay under the sun later on.  The adventurous part of the hike included the sense of being totally lost, taking a non-active trail as a shortcut for a few minutes, and seeing a few animals (including a snake).  In the end, we were exhausted but kind of happy for having one more story to tell.  Haha.  We're sore already so I don't want to imagine how our body is going to be tomorrow.

At 1:30 pm, we were back on campus and had a grilled panini together before I headed to Davis Hall, for a class I could not miss.  Before 5 pm, we were back together and spent the last hours together organizing stuff and enjoying each other company.  How I wish I had Dad, Mom or Pedro here with me every week...

Thanks Dad for managing to come visit me.  It's good to show the people we love the most we are happy and safe.  Now, I'm happy to say that Mom, Dad, Mico and Pedro all can imagine correctly the descriptions I make when we talk through Skype, Whatsapp, Viber or e-mail.

unCivil Bash

Believe it or not, there are only 4 weeks left till the end of classes.  What does it mean?  It means it is time to have a big party for all the civil engineering graduate students!  That's what happened last night, at the beautiful Hearst Memorial Mining Building, very close to our not-so-loved Davis Hall.  Many graduate students from Environmental, Structural, Materials, Transportation, Systems and Water showed up wearing 1920's outfits and the night could not have been more fun, as you can see in the following pictures:

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!

Midterms: check! Blog update

Now that the 8 huge homework assignments and the three midterm exams that filled my past three weeks are over, it's time to update my dear blog.  Hello social life.  Hello spring break.  Hello world.

These past few weeks were intense, so intense that not only did I break some personal records but I also missed a few important social events.  The personal records beaten have to do with hours spent in Davis Hall in one day (over 15 hours on March 18th, from 7:55 am to 11:00 pm), and incapacity of solving past exam exercises (when studying for CE221 - Nonlinear Structural Analysis).  This class (CE221) is a pain in the neck.  The average of past years midterm exams grades was about 30%.  After doing that midterm on Thursday, I guess it won't be much different from that this year.  I'm likely to be able to beat the curve so don't worry, I won't fail.  :)

In what concerns to the social events I missed, the biggest one was St Patrick's Parade, on March 16th.  Saint Patrick's Day is an Irish national holiday on March 17th, in the name of a Roman Briton slave who is told to have brought Christianity to Ireland.  However, its festivities (at least in America) include everything but religious celebrations.  Instead, they include public parades, people wearing green attire and drinking like crazy.  Because it was a lovely sunny day in SF, they also included lots of red faces in the following day.  Hehe.  I missed the parade in the city but didn't miss the super cool event organized by the irish residents in ihouse, which included irish food, celtic music and traditional irish dancing classes.  Oh, I love ihouse and how it gives us the opportunity to experience cultural events...!  Who doesn't know that all that the Irish people are known for is drinking, drinking and drinking?  The Irish guys in ihouse, one of them being my good friend Rob, made a big effort in showing that Irish people know how to have fun without being crazily drunk, and they did a great job.  

Another social event I missed this week was the Portuguese Father's Day.  I sent Dad a small present and tried to text him throughout the day but missed a proper post on my blog, wishing him a very, very good day.  I guess Dad could tell I was super busy struggling with CE221 and decided to give me some great news that day: Dad is coming to visit me for two days in two weeks.  It is going to be a short visit but it is still a visit and I couldn't be more excited about it!  I'm already making plenty of plans for us, including going to my "prom" party, going shopping in an outlet, making a little tour around campus and going out for good food.  Yummy!

After the big exam on Thursday, I took some time to relax, partied Thursday night with a surprise birthday party for Courtney and came down to LA yesterday.  I had initially planned to spend the first part of Spring Break in Berkeley just working for my thesis but then I realized I would probably feel lonely and depressed, specially because today is Mico's birthday and all my family except me would be together.

Mico's birthday is the final topic I wanted to cover on this post.  My big brother turned 26 today.  It's still weird for me to think about it.  Isn't 26 already a respectable age?  Isn't he already getting close to being 30?  Yes, he is, but he is aging in a great way.  On one hand, he got much more mature in the past few years.  Mainly due to Rita's influence, he is a man now, and a great man.  He's the best friend someone can ask for, he's been successful at work and has good goals for the near future.  On the other hand, he will be always a child, with an amazing sense of humor, even when he turns 100 years old.  He has the both of the two worlds, right?  Happy birthday Mico.  Hopefully, this will be the only birthday of one of us we spend apart from each other.  I love you.