Old City, New Beginnings

"The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco."

-Mark Twain

It's been a week now since I started my year of study abroad, beginning in the far-off exotic locale of Berkeley California. It feels a little weird saying that I'm studying abroad right now, but everything has been different enough so far that I guess that really is the best word for it. Not to mention I really only have one more week left in this country until I depart for the "real" abroad experience. I finally feel like I've been in class long enough and have settled in sufficiently that I can give some more accurate first impressions of the whole thing. 

I flew into San Francisco on Friday morning, and spent a lot of the rest of the day in transit from the airport to our hotel in Berkeley. There is a very good Metro system in the Bay Area, and I had assumed that it would take an hour or less to get from place to place. Alas, that wasn't so much the case; what I hadn't anticipated was long waits for trains to arrive, and just how really, really big the Bay is. It ended up being closer to around three hours. Most of Friday was spent settling into our accommodations and getting to know other group members a little better (which was needed, because I'm terrible with faces). There's nobody else in the group from Middlebury College, so everyone is new to me. Most people go to private liberal arts colleges (like me), most are in their junior year of college (like me), and I'd say the majority are majoring in Environmental Science or something related (not like me). Overall though, I really, really like my classmates. We have a lot of different perspectives, and so far we've been getting along wonderfully.

Classes didn't start until Monday, so we had most of the whole weekend to ourselves to explore the Bay Area a little bit. On Saturday, however, we did have the option to take a tour of the EcoHouse, an ecologically-friendly home and garden in Berkeley that's used as a demonstration of sustainable living practices. The house itself is solar-powered, and they use grey water to water the extensive gardens outside. The gardens also have a number of other features that reduce their impact, such as using berms rather than flat grand, using a "food forest" type of structure, and focusing on permaculture rather than monoculture. I'm often pretty skeptical of individualized solutions such as these, and it seemed like there were several ways the installation wasn't living up to its full potential. However, I did learn a whole lot about more sustainable gardening practices, and it does seem like, if nothing else, cities would be a lot healthier (not to mention more attractive) if everyone adapted many of these practices. Predictably, Berkeley is fairly progressive in terms of encouraging composting, grey water gardening, and things like that, so it was nice to see that ray of hope. Anyone who wants to learn more about the EcoHouse beyond my poor description can find it here. 

In the garden of the EcoHouse

Following the tour of the EcoHouse, some friends and I decided to head into San Francisco to look around for a while. I've only been in the city once before this program, so it was nice to see some places for the first time, and get to know others better. It's been a while since I've been in a big city, and San Fran is one of my favorites. It's a great mix of cosmopolitan energy and West Coast friendliness. Plus the history of the city is really fascinating. I've always loved Spanish-style architecture, and it's here in abundance (of course).

Chinatown is one of my favorite parts of the city, mostly because of the really vibrant culture there. Oh, and cheap food. Really good cheap food. 

Really good.

After dinner, the weather was absolutely beautiful, so we tried to get a decent view over the city. Of course, this is San Francisco, which is shaped like a washboard, so that mostly involved a lot of climbing up hills that are really probably too steep to expect cars to drive them. 

Lombard Street, the famous Curviest Street in America. 

Lombard Street did offer some amazing views though.

The following day we went back to San Francisco, and explored some more places in the city. The subway let us off in the Mission District, which has a really great Latin feel. It's supposedly the closest you can get to being in Latin America while still being in the United States, and you can absolutely see that walking through. 

A famous alley in the Mission District covered in some really beautiful murals.

I think this is called the Casa de las Mujeres, and it's a women's center in the District. 

One of the most famous parts of the Mission District is the Mission of San Francisco de Asis (probably spelled wrong), the largest  of the Catholic missions in the Bay Area and the oldest building in the Bay Area. It had a number of interesting exhibits inside about Native Americans in the area and about the history of the Mission, and it also serves as a functioning church. We had to awkwardly make our way around a confirmation in the chapel, and then skedaddle out of the basilica to avoid mass. It was really a beautiful building inside though.

In the Mission cemetery. The average life expectancy in the area was around 35 years according to the headstones... Yikes.

We planned to make our way to the Golden Gate Bridge after the Mission, and stopped by the Golden Gate Park on our way there. One would think, given the name, that the park is close to the group. But alas, it was far, far away from it. We did stop by the botanical gardens for a little while though, which had some beautiful greenhouses and a butterfly house.

I love waterlilies. One of my favorite things to photograph. As you may have gathered.

Delicious lunch at a French café near the park

We finally made it to the Golden Gate in the afternoon, but we hadn't thought about the one omnipresent feature of San Francisco weather: the fog. Oh lord, the fog. The views were... less than spectacular. Hopefully I'll be able to return when it's at least a little clearer.

Yup.

Further into the Bay, however, it was a really cool mix of sunny skies and fog, which made the water look really beautiful. The America's Cup is going on as we're there, and though we didn't get to see the actual race, a lot of ridiculously expensive boats were still there. 

Alcatraz Island is in the background.

The famous sea lions of Pier 30.

I was intending to write a little more about our classes and how that has been progressing, but I don't want this blog entry to turn into a small novel, especially as the semester is only just getting started. I have some more pictures from recent field trips and things like that, so I may put those up on Sunday when I have a free day. Until then, thank you all for reading!