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September 27, 2004
Gomez @ Catalyst
I've been hanging out to see a concert at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz for quite a while now. On the recommendation of some of my fellow international students, we headed there for Gomez! While I haven't heard any of their music before I have found concerts that have been back to back with them namely Jason Mraz, when he was playing at the Fillmore, San Francisco in October 2002. The first band last night was The Zutons
Then they brought on Gomez!
We had a fantastic dinner at Kate's apartment over in Kresge College. Here is the 'family' photo...
Automatic timers are great eah?
Posted by Simon at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2004
Relaxing downtown
My classes haven't started in earnest yet. Which afforded me some time today to relax downtown now that all my living arrangements are arranged and I have all the bare minimum things a person needs in a new place. I even bought myself a nice bike, pictures will come soon enough. Here is my humble abode...
and here I am
Here is the clock-tower downtown...
and some more views down Pacific Avenue.
Posted by Simon at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
Old School?
I went to my first fraternity party last night. The fraternity is the UCSC chapter of AEPi. It was a toga party no-less... which came to a rather abrupt end. Sorry no pictures, you'll just have to take my word for it. Everything you've seen in movies like Will Farrel's Old School are true.
Posted by Simon at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
Broadwalk frolic
Tonight was the annual broad-walk frolic, where the entire campus got bussed downtown to the beach-side amusement park. This is the California sunset across the Santa Cruz wharf across Monterey Bay.
Tonight seemed a lot like a high school campus excursion to me only in much larger... Some more photos will appear here tomorrow.
Posted by Simon at 10:52 PM | Comments (1)
September 18, 2004
Movin' in... UC Santa Cruz
Today was "move-in" day, when anxious students and their even more anxious parents arrive on campus and magically transform their bare dorm rooms into reflections of themselves. I have never seen so many SUVs before in my life, each filled to the brim with consumer electronics and all manner of white-goods... freezers fridges, TVs and stereos. For me at least, it was a first-hand taste of what each American university student experiences on their first day of university.
You see, attending their first day of "College" is a pivotal moment in their lives. Aged 18, they leave home for a University far from home and are expected to navigate the chaos of university programmes on their own. They are expected to "fit-in" get along with their room-mates and ultimately look after themselves. At least when finding flatmates there is some negotiation to find like-minded people. Here, you are mated with anything from one to three roomies and well, thrown into the deep end. How does this contrast to my first day of uni? I think I spent it in a massive line outside Carslaw and filling out my HECS paperwork. I didn't worry about financial aid, what my majors were to be or thinking about what I do with my life. I think I might have had a free lunch of either pizza or fruit (thanks to Judy) in the computing department afterward. I certainly didn't end up living there...
I took some pic of where I'm living, and of the view from my house and room so you can see for yourself the fantastic view I was talking about in my last post...
This is my house... Casa 7, room 205.
And downtown Santa Cruz, the beach broadwalk and wharf off in the distance... squint, you might see Australia! :-P
Posted by Simon at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2004
Arrived... exhusted.
Yesterday afternoon I arrived at Cruz, truly knackered. So zonked-out that after unpacking having a bit of a bite and meeting a few people here at Stevenson all I could do was unpack the few meagre possessions I brought with me and then hit the sack. Which is not surprising since I spent over a whole day travelling from the other side of the planet.
My room is spacious much larger then my bedroom at home, and to boot my window has a view out through the tall redwoods, across a grassy field and out to the Montery Bay and beyond that, the Pacific Ocean. In fact, Stevenson is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Santa Cruz. It is very tranquil here, at least for the time being. Tomorrow and Saturday will see the first arrivals of the 'real students'. This isn't to say that I am all alone in this place, I have been helped along by my "Resident Assistant" who has shown me the ropes of the college, who's who and where is what. In fact, she was the same person who gave me all the tips about Cruz, while I was still in Aus. They use a IM client for student advising, which I this is a really great and novel idea. I for one, made use of it. Today, was spent on operational stuff... primarily buying all the gear that I couldn't slog with with me from home. Lamps, mobile phone, monitor and that sort of stuff.
Posted by Simon at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2004
Let's go...
Today I leave for Cruz, in a few hours I'll be roaring towards New Zealand. Yes, I know that's the opposite direction, but for reasons unknown to me it's a whole lot cheaper. Am I nervous? am I excited? Well, I'm both. Yesterday I was more nervous than excited, today it's defiantly the opposite. So now all that left to pack is my PowerBook, tapuach and hop in the car for the airport. See you in Cruz.
Posted by Simon at 06:45 AM | Comments (0)