A Life Less Ordinary

It's always the small things

1. We got a composting bin today! I'm excited. I've already composted pencil shavings, snap pea ends, and a paper towel! We don't have a pail yet (they're coming soon) so we're using a pot for now. But actually, the pot might work better than the pail we get. We shall see.

2. Loose tea that you put into an individual metal tea strainer things - the one that I got myself when we were in Victoria for Dad's birthday last year! And the tea smells so good! Except I put it into a coffee mug because obviously we don't have any clean dishes, so I'm drinking tea that smells like coffee. Sorta disappointing, but what am I gonna do? Get up and pour it out? Sistah puh-lease. 

3. Socks that go up to my knees. Enough said. It's cold here too! (not down in the 20s though....sheesh that's brutal).

4. Trader Joe's is open 8am-10pm for some reason now. I went grocery shopping for the first time since  Thanksgiving....and there is FOOD waiting for me to eat when I choose to. Yum.

5. 3 o'clock class got canceled today. A-mazing.

6. Took a really hot shower with the heater on. Also amazing. 

7. Did I MENTION we have COMPOSTING now?!?! I'm so stoked. I'm SO stoked. Oh wow. I was so jealous that you could compost in your new apartment, but now I can toooooooooooo.

This is the most mundane post ever. But it really is the small things that make the difference between a good and a bad day.

Running and Thanksgiving

By Irene

Today, oddly enough, I woke up at 6am. So I decided that instead of falling back asleep until when the day is half over, I'd get up and do something. So I went for a jog - it was so quiet on the streets. Quiet and cold. And it was pleasant, really makes you appreciate the day, when you wake up so early.

Along the same lines, I'm really looking forward to go home for Thanksgiving. I was looking through some old writings, and found one from my first Thanksgiving home from college. And I think this last Thanksgiving home from college will be a little symbolic too. But what I REALLY want is turkey stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie. I love our Russian Thanksgiving variation ....but sometimes I just want the American generic stuff.

Riding the Bus is an Art Form

 Every Berkeley student has a spot in his or her heart reserved for the buses in Berkeley. We get a student pass too, so it's super easy to take the bus.

Riding the bus is a love hate relationship. My first year at Cal I thought I would never learn the city. It was always nerve racking trying to guess what stop I needed to get off at (and I usually got off at the wrong one). I mean, you know me, I get lost everywhere, plus it was my first time really using public transit. Anyhow, I actually did finally figure out the city and the bus system.  

Around here, though, I take the bus usually because I’m either really late to class or too lazy to walk up “heart attack hill” up to class. There are a lot of nuances to bus-riding in Berkeley. There is one line, the 51, which is has the great misfortune to service all the areas where UCB students live AND downtown Oakland. Which means that the bus is often late because there’s traffic in Oakland, and then late because five million students come out of class and are too lazy to walk home. It is usual to see two 51 buses one after the other. It is not too odd to see three in a row. Four is pretty rare, but….it happens. What happens even more than that though is an EXTREMELEY packed 51 bus lumbering down the street, the bus driver pleading with us to move back. Ok, sometimes we do take the bus NOT to class....like the bus that can take you (for free!!!) from Berkeley to San Francisco - that's pretty sweet.

Riding the bus can be a social experience like you said. The other day I was on an extremely packed 52L bus. I mean, this was seriously the most packed bus I’ve ever been on.  It was incredibly uncomfortable, but it was also pretty bonding. People helping each other out, showing where you can put your hand or foot, chatting with the harried bus driver, etc. I don’t really ever get anything done on a bus because the distances I travel are pretty short. Probably ten minutes max.

Often times though, bus riding is an art of extreme magnitude. The art of trying not to fall down, of not hitting the kid in the nose with you huge backpack, not making eye contact, not sitting in the seat with the weird goopy stuff on it….and my favorite: trying to not sit next to the crazy person. There is usually at least one crazy person on any given bus in Berkeley. Or homeless person. It’s difficult to say which I’d prefer – crazy or homeless. The crazies talk A LOT but the homeless smell really bad. Sometimes there are seriously drunk homeless people. Those are the most uncomfortable ones to be around.

My absolute favorite person is the Hat Lady. She does stuff on Telegraph (I don’t know what) – presumably makes/sells hats. She is a middle aged robust black woman dressed in flags and large skirts, and odd head gear…..helmets, hats, rags, ear muffs – you name it, she’s probably worn it on her head.   It takes this woman five hours to get onto a bus. And oh boy, she is talking the moment the doors open until the moment she gets off the bus (another 5 hours) because she usually has a cart with all her belongings with her so the bus driver puts down the special step thingy in the back of the bus. And by talking, I mean complaining. About the bus, about her arthritis, about politics, young people, her other health ailments, etc. When I see that she is about to get on the bus that I’m on, I get off – even if it’s far away. Because I will get to my destination before she gets on the bus.

Onto the topic of bus drivers. Bus drivers come in all shapes and sizes. A bus driver can make or break your day. There are the bus drivers (these are reserved for the 51 bus) who I truly believe get off at closing the doors and driving away RIGHT as you are about to maybe be able to make the bus. There are those that scowl, those that smile and help ya out, ooh there are bus drivers which like to honk at all the other bus drivers to say hello (or to yell at them to get a move on). There are competitive bus drivers (sometimes the 51 buses race one another). But it’s important to always say hello and thank you. I usually do. Unless the bus driver was particularly mean or the bus is particularly full. It’s tough to drive the bus in Berkeley. I think especially drivers who drive the 51 route deserve a reward at the end of each day for not killing someone.

The Mid-West

By Irene

California is far, far away from Indianapolis, which is where the Greening of the Campus VIII conference took place this year. Indianapolis is actually the 14^th largest city by population in the United States. The city has a beautiful state capitol building, a large memorial building to American veterans/soldiers with a mausoleum and everything (it was actually a little bit frightening), there’s a monument circle commemorating soldiers and veterans all the way back from the Mexican American war.

There are striking differences between Berkeley and Indianapolis. I think the differences might have seemed smaller had I come directly from the San Fernando Valley, without ever having lived in Berkeley.  Of course, I had very little time there, I spent most of it actually with people very similar to me (sustainability folks on campuses across the united states) and generalizations are often blind to specificities (by the nature of them being generalizations) but clichés and stereotypes are such for a reason after all.

There are more obese people in the mid-west than there are in Berkeley. Hearing statistics about the percentage of obese Americans, while sitting in a café in Berkeley, made me think the news was exaggerated. It’s not. A good 70% of people, it seemed, really are obese over there.

Stuff is cheaper and bigger: food proportions are bigger, refills are expected, drink sizes are humongous, cars are big, parking lots are endless, air conditioning is non-stop.

Life                 is                                      slower.

People are friendlier, but first they are more suspicious. So they actually seem less fake than we Californians are…more down to earth.

Sports. Fox News. Republicans. Soldiers.

No Asians, brown people, Mexicans, black people – or at least VERY few. And the black people are usually servers/waiters/custodians.

EVERYTHING is fried. Less fresh vegetables/fruit.

Didn’t see cute independent coffee shops I’m used to.

Indianapolis is not meant to be walked. There are few cross walks, sidewalks end mysteriously, there is nothing cool to look at while you’re walking down the street. It’s meant t o be driven through.

And, on the flip side, I got a taste of what folks at the conference think of when they hear California or Berkeley.

-          Forefront of the environmental movement – they look at us as leaders, inspirational, and forward thinking. When I said I was from UCB I felt I automatically had people’s attention and interest without even saying what we’ve done or are doing.

-          Hippie and liberal

-          Perfect weather

really really far away!

 

Meager Conference Insights

By Irene

I haven’t been to many conferences. I used to think conferences were just something old people went to kill time. There is a conference for everything – one time I saw advertising for a conference about conferences. I guess this past conference taught me what I should try to take away from a conference, and what I should incorporate into my own presentation if I am presenting (which my peer and I did at this one).

 

1.       Have several questions I’d like answered before getting to the conference: this makes it easier to decide among all the different choices there are

2.       Don’t be afraid to talk to anyone, everyone – you never know who you might meet. It’s less lonely that way too. Also, you can practice your elevator speech without ever suffering the consequences of messing up (you’ll probably never see that person again).

3.       If presenting, think about maybe a different spin on the presentation than what you’ve done before. For example, this conference, I think we could have presented more on a specific element of our program (Building Sustainability at Cal) rather than giving an overview of the program. For example, we could have even done a workshop on how to work with staff and management successfully, as that is one of our greatest strengths.

4.       Don’t burn out – sometimes you just need to take a nap. This will make the rest of the conference much more pleasant. For you and the people around you.

5.       Be open-minded. Not everyone is on the same page as you. That’s the great thing – you get to talk to people you might not usually talk to.

6.       Workshops are awesome. The workshops I went to were the most successful aspect of the conference for me.  You get to break up into small groups, talk about your own problems, talk about other people’s campus problems, and get some concrete ideas or insight.

7.       Take advantage of your age: as students, we can get away with stuff that older people absolutely cannot. For example: wearing un-professional clothing, running around the hallways,  incessantly complaining that we haven’t woken up before 10 am since freshmen year, saying stuff like “oh wow that’s, oh my god, so cool! And that’s soooooo awesome!!!!!)…so on and so forth. Veteran conference attendees like our excitement and they get a kick out of.

a.       But this then comes with the responsibility of figuring out when you gotta grow up and stop doing that sort of stuff. 

8.       Go to as many conferences as possible. Again – good practice to talk about yourself, your program, public speaking, etc.

Perspective

I assumed that at Berkeley I would get a better understanding of my world. And I have. It just happens to be an extremely tilted view of the world. To my disappointment, I was not taught to think critically between (truly) opposing arguments from academics absolutely on the opposite side of a spectrum. Yes, we had to refute why one type of academic was more right vs. another same type of academic – but we were swimming in the same pond, not comparing different ponds.

Big ideas I think I was taught throughout my stay at Berkeley include:

1.    Big Business is bad. Local is good. Organic.

2.    Globalization is bad

3.    Genetically Modified Organisms are bad (unless you work in the science department, in which case they’re good)

4.    America  is responsible for the destruction of everything and therefore it is our responsibility to help the developing/third/”south”/non-industrialized world.

5.    Climate change is real

6.    Everyone is biased (except us – we are giving you the whole picture!)

7.    Privately sponsored research is bad

8.    Republicans are evil (sorry Helen)

 

I think people in other departments might have learned different things: this is only a representation of my experiences (both in class and out).

 

And – here’s the thing. I agree and disagree to some degree with the claims above. Yes. Climate change is happening. Big businesses (like Ikea) push other types of producers out of markets they used to inhabit, small, high quality specialty stores more an exception rather than the norm. A lot of Berkeley students think that. But guess where we get our furniture? From Ikea. Because it’s cheap. And guess what we do after we move with that ridiculously cheap furniture? We dump it.

 

I’m more a democrat than I am a republican. I am also an environmentalist. I can’t help it – I get angry when people use plastic water bottles and then throw them away. How can you throw away a plastic bottle? What is that plastic bottle going to do in a landfill? Nothing. It’s a complete waste of resources that could have otherwise gone on to be made into something else (like carpet, fleeces, books, etc). Lots of people are environmentalists but don't proclaim to be.

 

But I also know that I don’t know the whole story of any of the stories 1-8 listed above. I know that there are valid points that people from all sides of the spectrum can bring up and I wouldn’t know how to counter most of them. The point is to get a holistic grasp of the issues. And, apparently, you can’t really get that at a university either. You have to do it on your own time, reading newspapers, and books, and listening to people on the radio with whom you totally disagree. And then formulate a well thought out argument articulating why you’re right and everyone else is wrong. But..neither side can simply disengage. Every view point our professors give us has a counter argument from someone somewhere. Why don’t we read those articles?

Most importantly, we Berkeley students need to be open minded and learn to think critically. Nothing makes me more upset than close minded self proclaimed open minded Berkeley students.

Trash, Compost, Recycling

By Irene

You know nothing makes me happier than talking about trash. Pictures/diagrams to come with better internet.

1.       An ideal bin to compost in is a bin which has a very secure lid. Compost shouldn’t smell, but alas, you want to avoid any accidental unpleasantness. A friend of mine has a wonderful trash can – it is a circular metallic one, with a lid which you can open with your foot.  The nice thing about not having to lift the lid with your hands is that you’re often going to be scrapping food off of your plate, and this way you don’t have to touch anything.  It might be a bit too big for your needs (my friend lives with three other girls), so you might want to just get a smaller bin which you can put on your kitchen counter, but then make sure that though the lid is super secure, it’s also easy to take it off! Otherwise you’ll find yourself putting stuff in the trash, just ‘cause it’s easier!

2.       Items that you can compost: I’m just going to assume that your collection services are like ours in Berkeley and collect ALL compostable materials – but, really, you should check. If your composting services are like ours, you can put just about anything into the bin:

a.       Napkins, egg cartons, newspaper

b.      Food scraps (banana peels, egg shells, meat fat, old lettuce, etc)

c.       Anything with a wax covering can go in, like half and half cartons. However, if there is a plastic screw top (like for OJ or milk) then you need to recycle that (if your collecting services accept those types of items)

d.      Pizza boxes: should be composted, not recycled

e.      Other paper items like paper plates or paper cups (sometimes paper cups have a wax lining, you can compost those. Pay attention when you’re buying paper one-use items to what type of covering they have, because sometimes it’s plastic covering, and you can’t compost that).

f.        Compostable-ware: more and more items like silverware and to-go cups are compostable.  To-go coffee cups from places like Starbucks/Peets are compostable even if it doesn’t say so on the cup– the lids are NOT compostable unless they specifically say so.

g. Plastic wrapping around food: (ie if you purchase cucumbers from Trader Joe's) needs to be thrown away. The little trays on which meat usually comes from  should be thrown away as well, because it's usually styrofoam.

h. The stuff you bring back from a restaurant: the food can be composted, but not the container in which you brought it back in, unless it's paper (ie the Chinese food to-go boxes can usually be composted).

Plastic bags: The bane of everyone’s existence. You should check to see if you can put plastic bags into your regular recycling, where you put your other plastic stuff. Often times, you can’t. In which case, A LOT of grocery stores have plastic bag drop-off sites. I’m not sure if Trader Joe’s does, you can ask there and some other local grocery store.  Bringing re-usable bags to the grocery store whenever possible: it’s inevitable that you’ll have plastic bags – I like to reuse them as much as possible if I have them, and then drop them off at my local Safeway.

As for recycling: again, it depends what your recycling facility can and cannot do.  This really varies from city to city.  It’s good to rinse out the sour cream container or pasta sauce jar before putting it into the recycling. And it goes both ways: it reduces the smell that comes from your recycling bin and might keep it cleaner longer, and it reduces the amount of work on the other end.

Easy ways to remember stuff: if it’s not plastic, it can usually go into the compost. Remembering what types of plastic you can put into your recycling is a bit trickier. If you’re not sure, it’s better to be safe and put it into the trash.  I don’t have internet currently, but a simple search that I just did can help you figure out what you can recycle: http://www.sustainablecapitolhill.org/seattle-recycling-resources.html

By the way, recycling is confusing. I’ve spent many meetings discussing with people what they can and can’t recycle. It’s confusing because we all come from different places, and those places have different recycling facilities. I bet Seattle has one of the most advanced recycling facilities, so you can probably recycle just about all of your plastics. All plastics have a triangle somewhere on them with a number inside the triangle. Don’t be fooled though – just because something has a triangle on it doesn’t mean it can be recycled.

McLaren’s

By Irene

On the show How I Met Your Mother, the five main characters always hang out at a bar called McLaren’s. The other day Charlotte discovered a bar near our apartment called The Meridian (funny, I know). On Thursday the three of us went there to celebrate Charlotte finishing her paper, the fact that it was $3 pint night, and to figure out who was going to do what chores. We played Texas Hold’em with matchsticks – whoever won got to choose first what chores he/she wanted to do. It was: bathroom, kitchen, and vaccuming. I won, so am vacuuming.

I think we’ll be back numerous times – the ambiance, the waiter, the $3 pints I think all won our hearts.

Summer in Retrospect

By Irene:

This summer has been a medley of events, so I thought I’d write them out here:

Berkeley: I guess the majority of my summer has been spent in Berkeley. I’ve explored San Francisco a bit, met up with Laura after he work was out, saw Harry Potter in SF, went to a night club called Ruby Skye, went to a couple happy hours (again, with Laura), took that long walk through the city, and walked the Golden Gate Bridge. Not too long ago a couple of us went camping in Tahoe. We jumped from large rocks into glacial lakes, we looked at the stars late at night and then got scared and ran away when we thought there were coyotes really close to us. We made s’mores and sat on the hood of a car. Then our apartment underwent a  major overhaul, and now I’m in the other room, and Nic is my old room, and Charlotte cuts up watermelon and mangoes all the time for us to all eat.

LA: For my birthday, though, I went home to LA. We did the scavenger hunt, and then you surprised me at that bar in UCLA with a bunch of my friends for my midnight 21 drink. The following day we celebrated with family over brunch, and you left back to Seattle that night. I hung around for a bit more but then went home.

The next time I’m in LA is with Laura from Germany. She meets Leo and Jules at our typical tri-family dinner night– afterwards we go bowling with mom and dad and Leo’s dad. And it is hilarious. Then the next day we go to Santa Monica, I get my hair cut, and we visit Miriam’s parents. That night we go to a jazz club with mom and dad and Leo and his dad. The music wasn’t fabulous, but hanging out with parents was nice. Mom got a mai tai. I was like…”mom….that has a lot of alcohol.” And she was like….yea,” I know”. Fabulous. Afterwards, mom and dad decide to take a mini walk around Pasadena (read as: mom was too tipsy to go straight into the car…, just kidding mom) and the rest of us went to In-n-Out. Did I mention mom and dad now make ice cream? It’s really good. Also, mom made french onion soup....also really good.

Santa Barbara: Shortly after that, I went to a conference at UCSB, where I got a dreadful cold, but also presented and went to our annual Berkeley-hosted tequila party. Also met up with Alex and his girlfriend at a Korean BBQ place for lunch instead of going to the last student event.

East Coast: And then we all went to Pennsylvania for the family reunion. There was a lot of eating and playing with babies, and walks. I just realized I didn’t go swimming in the lake this year, oh well. Seeing family was wonderful, and then we went to New York. We sat in Central Park (I ate a hot dog), and we saw Avenue Q, you saw your friends, I saw Ben, parents went to the Central Library. You found an espresso bar that dad took me to right before we caught a taxi out of the city. Our hotel room was on 65^th and 7^th (ish?) and the street was really a long way away and people across from our hotel were going to bed in their hotels…and the bellboys were still outside.

 

Las Vegas: And when Laura (from Germany) came to visit, we ended up going to Las Vegas to use our timeshare points. We took Highway 1 down to LA – it was beautiful. Anyhow, in Las Vegas, I guess there are only several main points:

1.       1.Outlets: we shopped. I bought perfume for the first time ever. Surprisingly, it’s Burberry.

2.      2. Heat: It was usually above 100 degrees. The coolest it got was probably 70, and because I was so accustomed to the heat by then, I thought it was cold.

3.       3. Show: We watched Le Reve. It was a very ‘las vegas’ show.  A water show, theater in the round, there were acrobatics, fanciful ideas, fire, monks…..it was cool.

4.      4.Nightlife: the first two nights we pooped out early, got home around 2ish). The last night, after the show, we went to a nightclub called Tryst, where we stayed until it’s closing time. It was a really nice club, we got in without waiting in line or paying the cover charge because we had special tickets from our hotel. The dance floor was packed and spilled out into the patio where there was a large fountain, and small couches and tables on the side. There were probably 3-4 bars in the club. I was surprised the place closed at all, but now we know, it closes at 4:30….

5.      Valley of Fire: is about 1 hr north east of Las Vegas. The red rock formations pop out of nowhere, I still don’t know why they’re red. I thought we’d be the only crazy ones to be there at noon in the middle of summer. But we weren’t. It was beautiful – my shoes are still covered in red sand.

6.   Loneliness: Las Vegas has everything over the top, everything is taken to the nth degree; the lights, the colors, and interiors, and people’s emotions are all extreme – the highest highs and the lowest lows. 

 

Golden Gate Bridge

By Irene

Yesterday, Brindha, Emily, and I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. It's 1.7 miles long in one direction, and the best time to visit is May/June and September/October. The bridge is incredibly majestic, the fog and wind make it only more so. When we started walking across, the San Francisco side wasn't completely enveloped in fog, which we could tell was moving in fast - too bad pictures can't convey movement. It took us about 45 minutes to get across to Marin, which was totally clear - there were a ton of sailboats and people para-sailing, and it was quite nice.

Our trek back was completely in fog, and for some reason, going back to San Francisco was a lot more tiring than going in the other direction. The wind, the loudness of the cars passing by, and the fog all around us was somehow draining. So when we finally reached our car, we were windswept and tired, but happy that we braved it.

 

San Francisco side                                            Marin side