So today, I thought a lot about my future, and where I want to go from here.
I am done with Hawaii for now, I've decided.  And though I've said this before when I was in S. America, I will say it again.  Hawaii will always be my home but somewhere out there is calling me.  I love Hawaii, don't get me wrong, its the best place a person could ever call home.  

But then I went to Berkeley.

And honestly, I think if I had been a different person at 18 years old, if I had realized self-confidence at 18, I would have dared myself to go to UC Berkeley.  The pictures I have taken of my day in Berkeley do no justice to what I felt there, I just wanted to LEARN there.  

So I've just reviewed what Berkeley has to offer in terms of my directed field of study and they only offer a PhD in Information Studies.  Mari suggested that even if I get into UW I could defer my acceptance and wait to see if I got into Berkeley.  But now I'm thinking I should get into UW (fingers crossed or else who knows what I'll do with my life), finish that as quick as I can, and then apply for a PhD at Berkeley, I'm still young right?  After grad school at UW I will probably have a better idea of where I want to go SPECIFICALLY, because I don't think I've found that yet.  I can improve my GRE scores because although my analytical writing scores is above average for Berkeley my verbal and quantitative scores are below, so I'd have to work on that.  Caroline and I always talk about how awesome it would be to have a PhD and ever since I've considered my masters, I've considered a PhD.  So let's just say that Berkeley is out there in my ideas for the future.  I wouldn't mind seeing myself there and thats definitely a learning/intellectual environment I would love to "reinvent" myself in.

ANYWAY!  What you want:

In the morning Brian and I took the Bodhi & Gaia up the mountain to chill em out for the day, plus there was an awesome view, I think I'm going to just start blogging with higher resolution now that I'm taking photos with an SLR, so I hope you're brower is competent.







HAPPY PUPPIES!



Pizza @ Blondie's, hella good.



Mari's Meditterean Pizza!



Oh schnap!



This picture doesn't say so, but he was on crack! 





This artist's pieces were so damn crazy, we stared at it for a really long time.  









We then walked throughout parts of the campus proper.  Mari took us through her sociology department and we got to walk around and check out whats going on.  I peeked into a classroom and saw that there were talking about Gloria Anzaldua, author of Nueva Mestiza that I wrote a lot about in some of my 400 level classes at UH, I was stoked.



See, now this is going on on  a Saturday at Berkeley, I love that.  A stimulating academic environment.





Sather Tower



Old school classrooms, nice.



We took a ride up to the top, Mari had never been there either!  It was pretty, you could see Oakland City, the Berkeley campus and beyond.



Cute!









One of the many libraries, but unfortunately they all closed at 5pm.



We walked with Mari to a get-together for an old professor's retirement.  They had these really rad panels that show a lot of the department's history at Berkeley and beyond.





Awesome murals that depict protests they've had at Berkeley.  Beautiful!





We constantly go to record stores, which I love.  I've bought Of Montreal and the new Beirut album, Brian's bought a bunch of jazz.  Mari and I always look for Julieta Venegas.  



Another esquina.





Saw my favorite earth goddess Coatlicue.



After much walking around the Berkeley area, Brian and I followed our Tapia instincts and fell about this DELICIOUS, GREAT, WONDERFUL Thai place called Cha Am.





Crab dumpling things (SUPER GOOD), green papaya salad.



What we shared.  It was bass, shrimp, basil leaves, asparagus and you know.. Thai yumminess.



We ate ice cream with Mari and then headed home after a long day.



This is Gaia, she was a naughty girl.  She tore up some books!  Oh hell no!  She don't caya!  She do what she want!