What I've Been Up To Lately

You can tell I am supposed to be studying by the fact that I'm doing the things I normally put off, like cleaning and updating my blog. Here are a few of the highlights from the last couple of months.

My Birthday:

Keegan and James bought and decorated a cake for me, I almost cried it was so nice.

It coincided with a beer-tasting party, which was tasty! I brought Maudite and Fin du Monde.

School:

Marc and I looking like a vine's worst nightmare.

The lab for my "Viticultural Practices" class is usually out in the campus vineyard pruning and training vines. It's my favorite class, I love being out there.

Keg Parties:

It wouldn't be college without the occasional keg-stand

Sightseeing:

I had a great day exploring San Fran. This is the Palace of Fine Arts

Coit Tower, just one of many sights I can show people when the come visit (that's a not-so-subliminal message)

Devo:

I've been busy with our student organization, helping make fundraising t-shirts and stuff. I volunteered to help plan our student trip to France this summer, which is very exciting. I'm having memories of the Hale trip to Spain!

Multi-tasking at the Craft Center on campus.

Immersion Trips:

Twice a year DEVO plans long-weekend trips to wine regions. We visit 2-3 wineries/vineyards each day and usually get to meet the winemakers. This picture is from Navarro, which is pretty much my favorite place ever.

Bonterra Vineyards

Rolling

Can you believe UC Davis has a bowling alley on campus? We even have a varsity bowling team! And since it's finals week bowling is half-price so I managed to roll a couple frames today for the low low price of $3.50. I think I'll be hitting this up more often in the future.

Fun Weekend

I actually got out of Davis this weekend! I've been pretty lazy and have been sticking around town on my weekends, which wasn't the plan when I moved here. I just haven't been that adventurous lately. But I now have a friend here who mountain bikes so I finally got out for a ride on Saturday in the Rockville Hills. I was completely out of shape, but the riding was fun and technical so I enjoyed it.

Yesterday I went to Berkley with Beth and James to do some thrift store shopping. We first went to this cool grocery store called the Berkley Bowl which has every kind of fruit and vegetable you could imagine, and some that you couldn't. Then we had with the homeless people in People's Park, which was interesting. From there we hit a couple of thrift stores where I got to splurge. I bought a pair of jeans, three shirts and a bitchin' pair of sneakers, all for $86! I have successfully satiated my shopping appetite for a little while. From there we went to A Donkey and Goat Winery where Beth used to work and got a mini-tour and got to taste some of their problem wines. Then we hung out with her old roommate for a bit and drove back to Davis.

It was really nice to get out of town, and has certainly inspired me to do so more often. I still don't have my camera so there are no pictures. Boo!

Pictures From Campus

I had my camera on me the other day so I took some pictures of things that are uniquely UC Davis as I roamed around lost on my bike.

Bikes as far as the eye can see. Davis is known as the city of bikes, with more bikes per capita than anywhere else in North America. It is the main mode of transportation in the city, and especially around campus. The campus is quite large, so having a bike to get from one class to the next is pretty much a necessity. It makes walking a bit difficult, as most bikers won't stop for you at a crosswalk, you either have to wait for a very long time or just make a run for it. I've also seen a couple bike-on-bike collisions already, both cases involving Freshman. I guess for a lot of kids this is the first time on a bike since they were little.


Cows. UC Davis started out as an agricultural school and to this day has a large Ag department. In fact, the department I'm in (Viticulture and Enology) is part of the College of Agriculture. The campus also has a highly renowned veterinary school. Apparently they even have cows with windows on their sides and you can actually see their inner workings.

The Arboretum. Putah Creek runs along the west side of campus. It features different collections of plants and trees from around the world, and a few different flower gardens. Bike paths run along both sides of it so it's a pleasant way to get around.


Water tower. It's just pretty. That's all I have to say about that.

First Day of School

It's kinda like being in Grade 1 all over again. I had my first three classes today: Intro to Viticulture (Grape Growing), Intro to Enology (Wine Making) and Biochemistry (Hell). I loved my two VEN classes, but Biochem scares the crap out of me. I am worried that I won't be able to understand it, as it builds on things I learned 6 years ago (and have only vague memories now). But, I'm going to try things I didn't do last time, like going to class, talking to the professor and TA's, and doing the assignments. We'll see how it goes.