in the valley

I learned this joke from my dad while driving back from Yosemite.
How do you know if a Scottish man is wearing underwear?

See if he has dandruff on his shoes.

If you don't get it then think about it, or don't.
Here are some pictures from yosemite. It was a pretty day. There was snow on the ground and it was pretty much raining the whole day. It was misty also. The mist blocked out a lot of the cliffs, but gave the valley a very mysterious look.



I thought this was cute. Mom and Dad with umbrella.




This one is me next to a bouldering problem called midnight lightening. I didn't get to try it. It was wet outside. You can see the snow.

ballrooms

I just watched Take the Lead. It is a movie about innercity kids learning how to ballroom dance. It was entertaining. I really want to dance now though. Especially Tango.

high school dreams

my old high school, Paly, just won the state championships in basketball last night. good job guys.

Bancroft

I finally skated Bancroft tonight. It is pretty fun.

conversations and music

Today I had a taste of what it is like to talk to strangers. Tiffany and I went around for a little while just asking about people's thoughts on spirituality. Wow, it was really interesting, and after doing it, I don't feel nearly as nervous as I did when I started out.
On another note, I'm trying to decide whether to take one of my classes pass no pass.
And for some reason I'm listening ot country music right now.
It's a nice day.

from the farm to the market

So this past Saturday I went on a field trip with one of my seminars that explored where our local foods came from. We started off the day pretty early. We were on a BART train to SF before 7:20 am, and arrived at the SF Ferry Building by about 8:00 am. After a short info session where we learned about farmers markets we got to explore and shop around the farmers market. My group was in charge of finding desserts. Although only a couple places really had dessert foods, I still had a lot of fun.










We then got a charter bus to bring us to various places in Marin. First, we went to Mike and Sally Gale's ranch in Cileno Valley. They raise grass fed cattle that is supplemented with Alfalfa. They have a neat looking house on a restored farm. They also have an apple orchard. It was really cool just listening to what they had to say about ranching and farming, and learning about their specialized method of raising cattle in a low stress environment. You can actually order a quarter of a cow from them. I hear it's really good.



Next, we went to the Cowgirl Creamery at Point Reyes Station. We got to eat some artisan cheeses. They were pretty good. I'm not a cheese loving person.

The final producer we Visited was this guy named Russ Santori. He is a farmer that used to be in the dairy business but now grows strawberries. It was pretty awesome listening to different farmers talk about the food that they make. It makes me want to be a farmer.

At the end of the day, we went back to Lynn's ( one of the professor's) house and ate all the food we bought at the farmers market. Wow. It was really good food. We started off the meal with some bread and crackers that were complimented with various cheeses. The rest of the meal consisted of veggies, a wicked salad, really good burgers (beef and bison), sausages, pork chops, and then desserts. I don't think I've been so full in a long time. (As a side note, I've been eating a lot lately without doing much exercise.)

We got back to the dorms almost at 10pm. It was pretty awesome

So, if you are going to be a freshman at Berkeley, take this class. Natural Resources 24. Or just get some friends together and visit a farmers market or try to get in contact with some local farmers.

the doe traverse

here is a video of 'the doe traverse'. It's this climbing thing at UC Berkeley that is pretty well known. The quality of the video isnt very good but it pretty much shows how the traverse goes. For most of the time i'm standing an a small 1.5-2 inch ledge. The rules are no holds that cause you to pull down, and no climbing shoes. I still haven't gotten the last move. I'll be sure to post when I get it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetslfTCqps

Surviving

We had our first epidemic fear of the semester earlier this week when two people on our floor supposedly got pink eye. The immediate reaction from most people was paranoia and an elevated sense of hygiene. At least this got me to wash my hands more during the day.
On another note, today marks my first lateness to class in my Berkeley career. I woke up this morning and thought to myself, "hm... It's pretty bright right now." Then I turned and looked at my alarm clock and it read 8:45. My class started at 8:00. It was pretty bad because we were doing peer reviews and discussions in class for our papers. As of now, my paper is really sucky so I missed out a lot.
Midterms are over for now. I'm still surviving, or so I think.