Berkeley Wanderings Pt. 4

Today, after more or less lying in bed and working on a clinical report for the International Human Rights Clinic for the last two days straight, I decided to go on a walk.

My walk took me down Cedar where I passed by many a uniquely Berkeley home, including the rainbow home that I remembered from my childhood!

I lived on McGee when I was 5 or so and this house was my favorite

After about a mile, I got to a big street and on the street corner was a line. What was everyone lining up for?

I skipped the line and went straight to the window

Was too enthralled by all the amazing looking bread, but did remember to get a picture of the sign!

 I love acme bread and seriously considered getting a $17 whole pan de mie and making bunny chow--something I haven't had since South Africa! It's basically a whole loaf of bread with the inside somewhat scooped out and curry filled in (under $2 at the Indian fast food hall near where I used to work in Cape Town, mm... but I digress).

I have driven (well, mostly been driven) by this street many times, but walking down the street revealed many interesting shops I had missed while sitting in the car.

Unsurprisingly I stumble into a dark, brick building and it turns out to be a wine import shop!
No tastings for me, this time. 

Not too far down the street is a shop that sells wine and beer making equipment

They also have stuff for you to make CHEESE!
If I didn't live so close to cheeseboard (and if I had a lot more time on my hands) I might have given it a whirl

Did I buy this or did I not? Either way, that's none of your cheese wax! Heh, heh, heh.

There were really cool, sharp things in here.
There were also signs everywhere saying not to touch because the oil from my hands would dull the blades!

 I walked into almost every other shop walking down this street and so it took me nearly an hour to get to my actual destination--Tokyo Fish Market! Once at the market I got to work buying the most delicious (and cheap) things I could find for dinner. That included: grilled salmon skin ($1.60 for deliciously grilled goodness??), frozen edamame (only $2 for a giant bag versus $2 for a tiny box of non-frozen ones; I was giddy from my penny pinching cleverness), a small thing of ikura (ok, this was pricy, but I do love ikura), some toasted seaweed ($1 and doubles as a snack later, mm), and quail eggs (they're so cute! Only $2! How can I resist?). Finally satisfied with my purchases I caught a bus home, trying not to crush the little quail eggs along the way.

Man that quail egg yolk was a pain to isolate and then place inside my wrap.
I made 3 of these before giving up--delicious nonetheless.

Overall a great success! And it all came together so nice and happily in my belly.

SCVMUN 2015 Speech

Yesterday I gave a speech to an auditorium full of high school MUN participants. It was fun, transcript below:

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Good evening, everyone and thank you, Sam, for that generous introduction. Today I don’t have a normal speech for you. But what I do have are three short stories from my own life.

The first story took place at this very conference, my first Model UN conference. When I was in high school, I was deathly afraid of public speaking. I decided to join Model UN to challenge myself and get better at it. When committee started, I was incredibly nervous. For the first few minutes of committee I did nothing but repeat what I was going to say over and over again in my head, basically tuning everything else out. And then my moment came: my turn to speak. “PRESENT!” I said. Nailed it.

The rest of the conference was a blur. Did I say anything after that? Who knows! Now, I’m not encouraging you to go comatose during committee or anything, but what I learned during my time in Model UN is that improvement comes from constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, wherever that may be. The happy ending to this story is that I did become better at public speaking, one step out of my comfort zone at a time. Also, don’t feel bad if you’re not amazing at Model UN right away—I sure wasn’t.

My second story takes place in college where I ran WorldMUN—a 5-day model UN conference of 2,000 international college students from around the world—certainly not an easy task. At some point during day 3 of the conference, when it felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong, a delegate from Venezuela stopped me as I was running down the hallway.

“Thank you” he said. “Thank you for organizing this conference. Without WorldMUN I would not be allowed outside of Venezuela.” It was his first time out of his country and his first time interacting with so many people from around the world.

Even though I had a million things to attend to I stopped and we stood there for a while speaking about Venezuela, its politics, and policies and I remembered that Model UN at its heart is about the amazing and interesting people that you will meet and the conversations that you will have. The rest of the conference had its ups and downs, but to this day what I remember most about that weeklong whirlwind was the people I met. So take the opportunity this Friday and Saturday to meet someone new. I guarantee it will be worth your time.

My final story is still ongoing, and it’s happening in law school. I went to law school eager to learn more about international law, after all, I had worked in South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore and was familiar with injustice abroad. But during my two years in law school, what I began to feel most inspired by were issues within the US itself, barely contained under the surface.

After the grand jury decisions in the Ferguson and Eric Garner cases, Berkeley law school and the city of Berkeley erupted in protest. This reminded me that as riveting as warlords in Africa or human trafficking in Southeast Asia are—there are still many issues in our own backyard that need the skill, time, and passion of people like you. Train your critical eyes toward your own community, state, and nation—what bothers you and can it be changed? After all, the US is part of the GLOBAL community that we are all so invested in.

In the end, my three stories are more like three challenges that I know you each have the capability to successfully tackle.

CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE: step outside your comfort zone at least once during this conference—if it’s embarrassing, so what? People who make mistakes have better stories to tell, trust me.

CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO: meet someone new this weekend. The more people you know from different schools, the more proms you get invited to. Again, trust me.

CHALLENGE NUMBER THREE: you’re probably tired of hearing about how you are the leaders of tomorrow and blah blah blah, but it’s TRUE. You are already pushing yourselves to think about difficult issues that many people your age don’t even know exist. Take that knowledge and critical thinking and change your communities for the better.

There is no way for me to hold you accountable for fulfilling these challenges, but I hope that you will hold yourself accountable. Plus, you’ll thank me when you get invited to three proms. I wish you all the best of luck.

Winterbreak 2014 Recap

As winter break grinds to a halt and spring semester slowly but surely ramps up, it's time to reflect a bit about the past few weeks.

It's been really great to have the high school gang back together in the South bay. We certainly had our share of shenanigans--from highfiving each other from moving cars, to getting pulled over by bored Cupertino police officers, to setting up the epic Marriott suite bar (I think someone even used the Angostura bitters), to making Japanese octopus balls and beer towers (something I haven't done since my days with T-chan in Japan).

As my mom pointed out, this was also the longest amount of time I've spent at home for years! Although being at home can be restricting at times, it was great to spend some time with my family. We went horseback riding by the beach, vacationed at an amazing mansion in Paso Robles (essentially the less commercial Napa), got some legit shopping done (my sister and I made sure to check out all the ridiculously sparkly clothing gracing the racks these days), and got fat off of some yummy holiday food.

Finally, winter break was a good time for me to reconnect with my hobbies. I finished We are All Completely Besides Ourselves, Ocean at the End of the Lane, and American Gods. Currently reading Slaughterhouse Five. I also became re-obsessed with Deviantart and spent hours admiring (and being somewhat jealous over) all the amazing artists on the website. Determined not to be left behind, I took to pencil and paper and sketched quite a bit. With art, more than anything, it's easy to see my shortcomings because when I envision in my head is never what translates to paper. This makes drawing incredibly frustrating but it also makes the places for improvement crystal clear. Hopefully I'll find time next semester to improve my craft.

I also finished almost all three seasons of Bob's Burgers--so there's that.

But what's a first post of the year without some forward looking? Except that next semester is shaping up to be incredibly busy. On the stressful side of things: I'll be working at an international human rights clinic where my project is around the rights of tipped wage workers. I'll also be working with my highly-motivated professor to turn my really, ah, sub-par paper into something readable and perhaps even publishable. And on top of that, my journal responsibilities ramp up this semester as I work on organizing a symposium for an amazing keynote speaker from the Hague. I'll also be taking three regular classes on top of all that so... woohoo?

On the less stressful and more funfull side of things: I'm flying down to LA to visit MB and go camping at Joshua Tree National Park. Though I am not necessarily the biggest nature gal I do so love new experiences so am looking forward to it (and korean BBQ, haha)! A (steadily growing) group of Boalties have also booked a trip to Vegas for the end of February so it's time to hit the city of clubs and chubs once more. Fingers crossed that SW and I will book a trip for spring break--Puerto Rico? Jamaica? Oaxaca (ok, that's my dream, not SW's)? Cuba??? Only time will tell.

Looking forward to a stressful yet fun semester!

Tl;dr: winterbreak was low-key but funtimes at home; next semester will be busy with fun traveltimes interspersed in between. 

Bus Stop Lessons

Jessie stood outside at the bus stop that would take her from school back home, just as she had done for the past two years. She fiddled with her phone and thought about what she would make for dinner once she got home. Another student approached her asking which bus she was waiting for. Jessie answered. The student moved on and asked another person further down the block. An older woman approached and asked her how long she had been waiting for the bus. Jessie was surprised by how unusually inquisitive people were today and answered "7 minutes" as she kept her gaze toward the intersection where the bus usually rounded the corner. Hearing no response from the older woman, she turned her gaze toward where the woman had been, but the older woman was already gone. 

The bus was taking longer than usual. The same student who had asked about which bus Jessie was waiting for earlier approached her once again. Had he gone in a circle to approach her again from the same direction? Again she answered and again he went down the block asking other people the same question. Jessie had just finished pondering how strange this student was (some sort of compulsive disorder maybe?) when the older woman approached her once again. Confronted with the same question, Jessie was flabbergasted. Her upbringing didn't allow her to ignore the woman, so she answered truthfully, “14 minutes.”

In an instant she was back in her professor's office, where she was just before she left the building to wait at the bus stop. Something odd was afoot. Her laptop was in her hand as she was putting it away in her backpack. Her professor was looking at her expectantly and Jessie remembered she had been asked a question right before she left--what was it? Ah yes, yes, she answered, she did enjoy her vacation and was ready to go back to lab. The professor seemed relieved—maybe Jessie wasn’t a completely vacant graduate student after all. 

Indeed, at the moment she was the opposite of vacant as all her gears churned. She had just, most likely, gone back in time, but she had to make sure. To test her hypothesis, Jessie quickly excused herself from the professor’s office and made her way down the school steps to the bus stop where she waited as patiently as possible for the next 10 minutes. The same student walked down the same path and asked the same question. Unwilling to break the chain of events that had led to her time-skip, she answered. Then, the old woman approached. “How long have you been waiting for the bus?” she asked, without a hint in her voice that this was the third iteration. Jessie took a deep breath and answered, “24 hours.”

She was at dinner with her other graduate school friends, bemoaning their last day of freedom. She listened carefully to the conversation. It was, without mistake, the same one they had the day before. Barely believing what was happening, she took out her phone and checked the time and date. It was 6pm the day before the school year officially started. Reeling from her discovery, she excused herself from dinner early and went home. The possibilities of what she could do with this time-skip ability, or circumstance, or whatever it could be called, was tremendous. What if, what if she could go back two years and choose a different life for herself coming out of college. So long as she made it back to that bus stop on that date at that time she would be able to try anything she wanted without fear of failure. She had thought about a career in music or theater—now she could try that for two years without repercussions. Or maybe spend a year making money and then another year traveling the world. Or she could even try to invent products that she knew became successful within that two-year period and go into business. The best part was that she could try all of those options and choose whichever one she liked best. She slept fitfully that night and decided not to go to class the next day—there was no time for that when planning the rest of her life was at stake. She got the bus stop thirty minutes early and awaited her future.

When the student came around the corner she could hardly contain her excitement as she quickly answered his question. The older woman approached her once again. “How long have you been waiting for the bus?” Jessie tried to still the quaver in her voice as she took the first step toward the best years of her life, “Two years” she answered, and waited for the time-skip.

 “That’s a long time,” the older woman said, looking at Jessie with sad eyes, “maybe you should stop waiting" and walked away. 

Thankful for...

After almost a week and a half in India, and my first experience of culture-shock in a long time, I realized that I have much to be thankful for. So in the spirit of (post) Thanksgiving & relating a bit about my trip, I am thankful for...

- The ability to rinse my mouth with/drink tap water again
- The fact that Americans actually drive inside lanes and (usually) use turn signals
- The existence of a US welfare system
- My education (seeing so many children on the streets, weaving between cars while performing acrobatics for spare change on a school day made me sad)
- My continued (goodish) health and the ability to travel
- The delicious vegetarian Indian food that was served at the wedding--who knew vegetarian could taste so good?
- The gorgeous and still relatively preserved sites around India (Agra fort, Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Amber Fort... lots of forts)
- The variety of food in the US (I could only eat naan and curry for so long...)
- Good roommates (unrelated to the trip, but thankful none-the-less)
- The liberal and, what I would deem, progressive nature of Berkeley
- The ability to wear shorts/dresses that go above the knees
- Technology that captures and memorializes every moment of an eventful trip
- Having the sense to put the technology away every once in a while and just fully enjoy the moment

Now it's 2 weeks of finals where I need to crank out three exams and one 25-page paper. See you on the other side. 

The Worst Kind of Fan

The worst kind of fan is one who wields their season pass status as an indication that they are better than you. The worst kind of fan is one who talks disparagingly about their own home team the whole game saying things like "they've got no killer instinct--they suck" or "oh come on, I've got more balls than they do!" or "they're going to lose right here--I guarantee it" over and over and over. The worst kind of fan is one who would rather have an unobstructed view of the game for the two seconds it takes you to get to your seat right as the game starts than to exercise some human decency. The worst kind of fan sat behind me and my friends at the Sharks game today.

But we managed to have fun (and even sometimes lean forward in our seats juuusttt the slightest bit without getting yelled at) regardless. 

Lost in the South Bay

Scene 1: wandering around a dark cul-de-sac with MB in Palo Alto while carrying a big cake. MB is asking shadowy figures that materialize from the darkness where to find 18 Brooks Place (not real location, obv). K tries calling W, J, L, and KS. Finally, MB picks up.

K: Hello? Hey where are you guys?
MZ: Third apartment on the left when you turn in.
K: What... [looks around at the very nice houses]
MZ: Hold on, I'll run out and look for you guys..... okay I don't see you.
K: It's 18 Brooks place... Palo Alto right?
MZ: No, it's Menlo Park.
K: Oh, we're in Palo Alto

Scene 2: MB and K get back into MB's car and start driving over to Menlo Park meanwhile joking that at least they didn't end up in East Palo Alto or somewhere potentially sketchier than the upscale neighborhood that was Brooks pl., PA. Halfway there K gets a call from W.

W: Hey, sorry I didn't pick up, I was driving.
K: No problem, we were just lost but we figured it out already
W: Oh okay good, yeah we're a bit far we're walking around 300something Brooks Street. What's the address again?
K: It's 18 Brooks Place. We actually accidentally thought it was Palo Alto.
W: Oh that's funny
K: No one told us it was actually in Menlo Park!
W: ...... Wait. We're in Mountain View.

Eventually we all arrived an hour after we were supposed to. But it was a fun night sans getting lost. Happy Bday L!