A few pictures

Not much time to write. Finals in just a few days! Here are a few pictures in place of an update.

A quick and hearty meal! I made enough of this sauce to last my through finals.

Fall at Berkeley is quite pretty. This is outside one of my classrooms.

Christmas decorations in the room. Notice the awesome laptop/tv setup and the Christmas tree on my desk.

Studying in the Haas School of Business library.

2 More Weeks

This semester has gone so quickly! I'm looking forward to the break, but will be excited to return in January as well.

This semester has been characterized by soccer injuries -- my roommate has started calling me "tiny Tim" since I'm always limping around with some new bruise or sprain. Overall (in sequential order) I have had a broken finger, large contusion on my leg, pretty severe ankle sprain, and "acute lumbar strain". I've had to don the dreaded and ill-fitting hospital gown and be transported by a gurney twice, and visited the campus health center 3 or 4 times.

Next semester I plan on playing on safer surfaces and adding some weight.

In other news, finals!

'Nother Injury?

I'm sitting in the tang center again, assessing another (seemingly mild) soccer injury. Two weeks back during my intramural the goalie and I collided twice (e.g., he railroaded me in a quite clumsily fashion) and the area above my ankle on the inside of shin has been a bit swollen ever since. It isn't terribly painful, but starts to hurt more at the end of the day especially if I've been playing soccer or biking or running much. Anyway, hopefully the dr. won't tell me to stop playing soccer.

I just finished my 4th exam of the week and am free for a while until a music test next Thursday. Feels great to be done!

I went to the top of Sather tower last week! The view was spectacular, and my tiny cell phone camera doesn't begin to do it justice. A couple pictures are attached nonetheless. =)

Well, time to catch up on some reading that I put off to study for exams. more later!

Giants!

It's been an awesome week! Expanded my cooking horizons (baked chicken!), got another exam out of the way, and got to go to ATT park and watch the giants win the NL west. I'm back to playing soccer with the innovating solution of bubble-wrap to guard my finger from more damage. I've also been exploring the libraries (see below) and went up Sather tower. Time to study! More exams next week.

Surgery

Had surgery this morning -- I now have a threaded pin sticking 1/4 inch out of my right ring finger. Hopefully this doesn't interfere with soccer too much! Oh yeah, and writing. ;]

Tang

I'm sitting in the University Health Center (the Tang center) waiting for the Dr. to interpret some x-rays for me. I sprained my finger playing soccer the day after I got here, and it hasn't really healed -- I now have a suspicion that it is broken. The nurse agreed and said that the tendon might be damaged as well. Hope not! I was planning on going to the Cal soccer game which is just across the street, so I came down here a whole 35 minutes before the game was to start. An hour and 40 minutes later, I'm still here and have no hope of seeing the rest of the game. =p

In other news, it's been a busy week! I had a quiz or a test for each class -- all of them went well, I believe, but won't know for sure 'til next week.

I'm still playing soccer a lot, on days where I get out of class early. I also got on an intramural team, which is exciting. We'll be playing 1 day every week from 10 to midnight. The guy who's running the team had to stay up all night outside the gym to get us signed up -- apparently that's a common practice with intramural teams, as there are a limited number of fields and many people wanting to play. I may also play on an IM dodgeball team.

I'm getting more and more into cooking! It's relaxing and fun (and cheap! and good!).

Cal Football!

I hemmed and hawed about paying for season tickets for the football here, and they got sold out (since when should students have to pay to watch their team play anyway, eh?). I got lucky though -- a friend of my roommates had tickets and wasn't able to make the game, and although I barely know him (just played basketball with him the other day) he gave me his ticket! Apparently one of the stipulations was that I get painted up for the game. So i did!

It was pretty exciting. The whole campus has this electric feeling on gameday. Our dorm had a special "gameday brunch" so everyone could get their gameday face on. Every single fraternity and sorority had a pregame party, and the streets were packed with students heading to the game. We had front row seats right on the 50 yard line, that were reserved for the "Game Day Spirit Club" which I am now a de facto member of. The game was Cal vs. UC Davis, and was a total blowout: 52 to 3. I got pretty sunburned, but I figured that was all part of the experience. I'm now back in my room doing some homework and listening to my roommates new album he made while brewing some black tea to put on my sunburn. It's been a good day! Looking forward to the rest of the weekend. :)

A Short Update

Today concludes my first full week of school. Next week is full of quizzes and tests, but I have a three day weekend to prepare. For now, my immediate homework is done and time to "relax" after a busy day of homework and classes.

My size one soccer ball came! I just finished playing some riveting hall-ball with some of the 2nd and 4th floor residents. Great fun! Now off to play basketball in the gym with some friends.

Cooking

I've become significantly more interested in cooking in the short week I've been here. I enjoy doing it, and am always thinking about things I want to make and how to make them. I went to Trader Joes today, and bought one tomato, one onion, a package of fresh basil, and three small garlic bulbs. Now I can make pesto this week, and (if I get more tomatoes) a huge pot of tomato soup as well.

Cooking suggestions are always welcome!

Berkeley

I'm planning on updating this blog occasionally for all ye (I make the assumption that there are more than one of you) who wonder about what I'm up to here in Berkeley.

This first week, the answer to that question has mostly been...soccer! I've played an average of two hours a day at an outdoor turf field called "underhill" a couple blocks down the street.

Other than that, I've been checking out various events (hint: the ones with free food) and getting to know people in my classes and dorm. There's a nice cooking community downstairs, and hanging out and talking about food while making meals is great fun.

My classes have been very good -- I think it'll be an interesting and rewarding semester, academically. For those of you who may not know, I'm taking Intro to Statistics, Comparative Politics, Intro to Western Music, and Greek Civilization.

Dorm life has been excellent so far. The room is really nice, with plenty of space, great decor, and an enormous tv, which is much envied by our fellow residents. All in all, life is great, and I'm excited about my new home. =)

-Joey