SF Day 3: Berkeley Visit= Success

Friday, June 15th, 2012:

So after the failed trip to Berkeley the day before, luckily the BART recovers quickly and all lines were up and running the following day. (They have to be, because the BART is a main commuting method for most people. Needless to say traffic the day before was terrible. Some people were forced to resort to taking the ferry to work...I mean, what? The ferry? Oh geebus.) 

Nothing a little rescheduling couldn't fix, so I met up with Kevin for lunch and then Cindy later in the afternoon. First time visiting Berkeley! Since I never really had an interest in attending the school after college admission results came out  senior year (Berkeley Regents Scholarship gives the least money boo), I never really found a reason to visit, so this was exciting for me. :)

Also, I was warned that it would be warmer inland (I'd been so cold the past few days in SF! Definitely didn't bring enough warm jackets), but it was so warm that day!! Like hot, really. o__o

Berkeley is actually very beautiful! Photo of the University Library

The famous Campanile pictured on all of the Berkeley brochures they send
high school studentsto get them to come to Cal...and yes I still remember this. baha.

Lunch with Kevin at Northside Cafe. Nothing like a classic Chicken Caesar Wrap to make me happy.
Also, in retrospect I totally forgot to take photos of/with people during my visit...oops.

Campanile from a different angle! :)

I just thought this was a pretty shot. :D

Sather Gate! Famous Berkeley landmark. 

Some nice-looking building I forget the name of.

I was sad to learn there is no Berkeley bear statue equivalent of the Bruin Bear at UCLA,
so this bear statue had to suffice. I told Cindy she should donate a bear statue to Cal when she grows up  haha.

Self-explanatory :P 

Loved this cute little creek running through the school

Big science building!! 

They have a dinosaur in their library!! COOL.

Ice cream sandwich for the hot day.  

The Norcal equivalent of Diddy Riese haha

Apparently this was a separate campus mostly for athletes?
It was so pretty! Why do athletes get all the good stuff?!

We climbed way up!! The view from the top. The fog sort of ruins it though. :[

Kevin, Cindy and I hung out for a little bit when we visited the other campus and climbed to the top of some big hill, but after that Kevin had to head back to MCAT studies. So Cindy took me around...pretty much everywhere: different streets I forget the names of, more of Berkeley, her place, etc. Berkeley actually has a really nice college-town feel in the immediate area near campus, with all of the stores and shops and restaurants nearby. I guess I forget that this is probably more of what a college should feel like, rather than the on-campus bubble that is my USC home and then the isolated oases of food and grocery stores immediately off-campus.

Anyway, Cindy insisted that I eat something really special in the Berkeley area, so she took me to Cheese Board for dinner. She was so enthusiastic about it!! haha. Apparently their pizzas are always vegetarian and they use organic and local ingredients. One type of pizza daily, but different every day. Sounded healthy and delicious to me! My feet already hated me, but they were about to hate me more because it wasn't a short walk...but chatting with friends makes everything better, so I lived. xD Even though she was super enthusiastic about it, she didn't want to get my expectations up too much...but by that time I was so hungry from walking that I'm sure I would've thought it was delicious anyway. :)

Passed by the UC sign on our way to dinner,
so here's proof I went to Berkeley!! Hey there UC!!

Cheese Board pizza! Huge thank you to the wonderful C-squared for treating me to dinner too :)
Such a good host keke <3

After Cheese Board, we talked about food some more, and Cindy had mentioned before how she loved this ice cream place near her apartment called Ici. The flavors change daily and everything is handmade, also using fresh, local and organic ingredients. (I'm liking all of the organic food options!!) After I told her I went to Cream earlier, I feel like Cindy was disappointed so I thought heck might as well get dessert after dinner too, so we went to Ici anyway. It was on the other side of the campus though, so I got a lot more walking in!

Thought this was a nice little bridge on our walk back through campus.

Made it to Ici! Super cute little ice cream shop :)

Me and my ice cream hahaha :D So much food that day ><

Close-up! I think the flavor I picked was like a hazelnut dark cherry ?
I forget, but it was yummyyy :)

So I learned that even though I have heard some of my friends not totally love their Berkeley experience that it's actually a really nice campus with a cozy college-town feel! I guess for some reason I always subconsciously thought Berkeley was not that nice haha. oops! I also learned that your leg muscles can actually get sore from walking too much. I woke up the following morning with aching calves and thighs.

But was it worth it? Yes!!!