A few pictures from Santa Cruz and a few thoughts.

I realized I hadn't posted these few pictures from Santa Cruz yet, so here they are:

 

My iPhone has a camera on both sides, so I was trying to take a picture of something happening in front of me and ended up with this one, which I actually kind of like!

The first day after I got here, I went to Rockridge (an area right near where Oakland blends into Berkeley) with my friend Erin. Among other things, we visited the amazing and fantastically expensive store Market Hall, where they sell more delicious looking things than you could imagine. Everything from goat to duck to raspberry maple syrup, handmade gluten free pasta, and of course - what I was interested - so much amazing cheese! Needless to say, I didn't buy any, but I took a picture of it. :)

I also have to post here this picture below. Erin, one of my closest friends, gave me an incredible birthday present: earrings that are guitar picks with MATH written all over them! Take a closer look! :D :D :D

Now, I have two other thoughts that I wanted to write here. Number 1: I notice now (and I feel like I'm getting older as I say it) that since I'm living in a dorm room again, I sit on the floor a lot more than I used to back in the days of apartment life. My knees are noticing it!

Number 2: I was freaking out a bit the few days that I've been back here, feeling like I won't be able to keep up with my German with no one around here to speak it with. Then, thanks to some help from C, I had an idea - I still am obsessed with listening to audiobooks when I run or exercise but I have some issues with listening to books that were written in English in German - it just feels odd, if I could read the book in its original language (like Lord of the Rings, etc.). However, there are LOTS of books that I cannot read in their original language - such as Smilla's Sense of Snow (Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Verblendung). For those books, I might as well listen to them in German - and so far, it's been lots of fun! Especially today in the relatively hot sun it was great to be hearing about piles of snow in a tiny town north of Stockholm...

However, far too soon, I'll be done with those books and will need something else. I'll be on the lookout for more!