Bart train

Someone on the Bart train rolled a blunt on her skateboard while the people behind her discussed the euthanasia of whole foods. A cop came, asked if she had a cannabis card and said put it away. This is a strange place man.

SF

These pictures are all mixed up, but they do not seem to want to cooperate on my phone.

San Fran Friday

I've fallen in love. Everything that I would want in a place to live is found in San Francisco, aside friends, family, and the Duomo... It's a smaller, cleaner, beachier New York.

I've explored Alcatraz, meeting Al Capone's grand niece. I've discovered the tunnel tank of the aquarium and tasted clam chowder and a cub of crab meat walking through the square listening to street music. I relaxed with a chrysanthemum bath and tea. What a beautiful Friday.

Today was another surreal day. I spent the morning exploring the California Academy of Science's rainforest, aquarium, and exhibits. After I checked out the de Young museum. Since the day was so overbearingly stressful (who says you can't understand sarcasm through written word$ I related in the Japanese Tea Garden with Miso soup and a dense Japanese pastry of sorts. I went on to thrift shopping on Haight-Ashbury, visited the painted ladies (homes featured in Full House), discovered the Palace of Legion of Honor and saw the Golden Gate Bridge.

I enjoyed my last sunset of the season with some sourdough and walked back to the hotel unbelieving that tomorrow I leave for home.

This trip has taught me a lot. Although I didn't have as many trips within the trip as I did in Italy, I really enjoyed the travel I've done here. I've met a lot of fun people, some I know I will turn into life long friends.

Way back in February, I had to decide where I would spend my last semester. I decided early to stay in California for my last semester, and I realize now that was definitely the best decision for me. Although I won't be playing field hockey, which I have a love/hate relationship with, I already played a decade and was one of the players of the game at our last game. We were also farther into the conference than we ever have been. We are getting a new coach in the fall, and it is only two months. Plus, I wasn't particularly happy with last season.

Although I have some friends at Ramapo, all of my best friends have graduated, transferred, or will be studying abroad. There's nothing holding me there and so much drawing me here.

I'll be excited to see my friends here again in the fall, meet the new study abroad kids, lay out on the beach in September and October, bike the California Coastal Trail, kayak, hike, and have my biggest responsibility be keeping myself healthy and going to three major classes. I'm really looking forward to it.

This summer I'll be interning in New York, interning online at a few places, doing some freelance work, taking an online class, and catching up with my Jersey friends. I love having so much to look forward to.

I've been sinking into this king size bed and feel my eyes closing, so I better cut short. I love that this bed is so big I could sleep in any direction. I definitely appreciate it even more after sleeping on a crappy dorm bed for four months.

Tomorrow I'll be going to a farmers market, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and wandering, and I can't wait.

San Francisco

I'll make this quick since I don't want to burn through my battery:

I've made it to my bus to San Fran, thanks to a buddy from school. Looking out the window, I realized looking at hills from a bus seems pretty familiar. This area doesn't look much different from the Tuscan hills. It blows my mind that places can look so similar but be worlds away, full of people who live their lives so differently. The only difference is these hills really do look like waves of green, but that's California for you.

Summer Plans

This week has been a whirl wind. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to have a plan. There are days I like to be spontaneous for sure, but I like to have an idea of what lies before me. The vision I saw of what my summer would be has been turned upside down, but I realized after the fact that it was for the better.

Last week I planned on taking a summer class at Ramapo (commuting), commuting to the city for an internship and trying to work as much as possible (for gas money). Then, all of my plans fell apart all within twenty-four hours.

I've been holding it together pretty well through finals and article deadlines, but between plans dissolving and my laptop battery dying out, I had enough. I spent some time stressing and the rest of the time sleeping. Finally, today the clouds parted.

I've realized I didn't even need the course I was planning on taking. I will be taking an easier online course with a professor I've had before just for the credit. Along with the creative writing course, I will be able to intern in New York City three days a week instead of two. I will be able to juggle more online internships. Although the paid internships will sustain my commute and coffee addiction and not much else, I am excited to be getting paid to do something I love. That's what matters.

Voices

As I have continued to meet new people while setting up summer plans, I have noticed once again a difference of voices from the east coast versus he west coast.

Aside from terminology and slang, California voices are generally softer and slower. I wouldn't typically describe New Jersey voices as gentle or calm by any means. For the most part, we are louder and talk faster.

It seems like there is a difference in how we view others as well. During the day, Californians tend to see strangers as friends. They seem more likely to spark conversations with people they meet out and about. People in New Jersey tend to have this attitude of fearing strangers that most likely stems from the motto "stranger danger" that we grew up with. At night, both coasts seem to watch their backs in the same way.

I'm excited to come back home, listen to my friends and really hear the difference between coasts when I come back in the fall.

Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes

It's about that time again for us college students everywhere.  We swap are devil-may-care attitudes for migraines.  Buried in a hole of final papers, articles, projects, presentations, it seems as though every attempt we make to crawl out into summer sunshine backfires.  We slip and are back to start with just one cold, one night out, or one quick nap.

The bright summer light at the end of the next two weeks seems to be shining brighter these days.  (Sidenote: there will be a "super moon" on Cinco de Mayo where the full moon will seem to be larger and glow brighter than any other full moon this year.)  After my spring semester at Cal State Monterey Bay is complete, I will be heading up to San Francisco to spend a long weekend exploring Alcatraz, finding The Pink Ladies, and discovering a new city.

After a quick night flight back to the East Coast (quick as it is only five hours to fly from SFO to NYC but eight going NYC to SFO due to wind), I will be enjoying the week off I reserved for catching up with friends, sleeping, cooking, eating, and working out only.  

Unfortunately, one of the things I think about in the middle of finals is that when I get home, school is not over.  I will be taking a summer class this fall at Ramapo.  There is a silver lining in the fact that I will then be spending more time with friends living up north and with my grandparents.  

The cherry atop my perfect summer sundae is that I will be commuting a few days a week to New York City for an internship!  (I won't be getting into details as not to jinx anything.)  I can't believe that soon I will be trading Monterey's mountains, bay and beaches for sunrises and skyscrapers.

I've seen so much this semester, discovered things and became interested in things I never have thought much of before.  I got to kayak in the Monterey Bay, do yoga on the beach, hike up mountains, camp next to the Carmel River, became a local at cute coffee shoppe downtown, relaxed on the Lover's Point Beach, had some fun times with really interesting people, the list goes on and on.

Making the decision to come back in the fall was something that left me a bit uneasy.  I realized that this was probably because it is such a drastic change.  I will never be playing field hockey at Ramapo again.  I will never be seeing the mountain change color in the fall.  I will never be hiking up the Reservation.  There are many things about Ramapo College that I will miss, but the things I will be gaining in California is far greater.

Next semester I am looking forward to meeting the new NSE students, having my own room again, biking to downtown Monterey, going to Yosemite, trying to make a trip to Southern California, taking another outdoor sports class, and continuing to write.  This is another list that doesn't seem to end.

Taking a second to step back, see where I've been and where I'll be going is exciting and essential.  I vividly remember doing this multiple times in Italy.  Two of my favorite moments here was looking at the sand dunes and the beach for the first time and standing in the Ventana Wilderness looking out into the dense woods thinking that just last year I was on top of Florence's Duomo saying goodbye to an enchanting city and now I'm camping in California preparing to pack up and go back home.

Saying goodbye this time around is nothing to dwell on since I will be back, although I will be missing some friends I've made.  Leaving people at the end of every semester is something I always dread, but its a part of life. 

I've got memories to look back on, an exciting new few months ahead of me, and a chance to relive some California fun in the fall.  At this point, I couldn't be happier.