Sunset at the beach

Yesterday I went to the beach at sunset :-) It did not set in the sea, but between palm trees. Nevertheless it was quite beautiful! There were many people at the beach, playing volleyball, sailing or just sitting. I read one neutrino paper to understand how time and distance were measured at OPERA?!

Music

I brought my viola to campus and went to the music center to play in one of the practice rooms where I could practice etudes and technique without disturbing anyone. Besides, I could see the Pacific while playing :-)
I can also play in my room. My flatmates said it does not bother them. It would be quite nice to play together with Tia, but firstly her violin is still at the east coast and secondly she broke her arm.

Food

Also the food situation is different from Fermilab. Because there is no university canteen, I cook myself every evening. Santa Cruz has really good supermarkets even with lots of organic food and the coffee in the campus cafeteria is organic, too.
Today I tried bagels which exist in a broad variety and are really tasty.

Bike and bus

Traffic here is significantly better than around Fermilab: There are lots of public busses and most streets have bike lanes, which are sometimes even as broad as the car lanes. Yesterday I took on the challenge to cycle steep uphill to campus with one gear. A bit of physical exercise would have been okay, but the problem was that the chain kept falling off every few meters. It reminded me of the Fermilab bike. Besides I made by mistke a detour so that I arrived on the wrong side of the hill, at the literature and language department.
I visited the bike co-op again. Another nice volunteer checked the bike and was so sorry that I got it in such a bad shape. He wanted to give me parts of my money back, but I told him that I had paid nearly nothing. Unfortunately, he did not have a replacement for the sprocket, but built in a different back wheel. He was very friendly and helpful, however, the chains falls off even more frequently now...

Tomorrow I will try out the bike shuttle bus to campus and ride the bike only downhill - carefully after my flatmate Tia had a bike accident yesterday and broke her right ellbow.

Small talk and friendly people

Indeed there seems to be a "talkativeness gradient" from north to south. People in Finland talk less than in Germany, and Germans in turn less than Italians. Here it is really southern, people chat on the bus, in the supermarket,... But my flatmates told me that there is also a noticeable difference between the east and west coast.

For example, I overheard a conversation on the bus to campus. A man sitting next to a girl with nicely decorated boots.
He: "Oh, are your boots custom-made?"
She: "Yes, they were made for my aunt, but then she thought that because I'm a hippie they would suit me perfectly." A bit more conversation. Then she continues  passionately her pencil drawings on her sketch block.
He: "And what are you studying?"
She: "I'm studying to become a sculptural architect."  
A bit more conversation. Then he is about to get off the bus.
He: "Take care!"
She: "You too!"

Two days ago in the supermarket. I was carrying my viola with me because I had been practicing in the music center and I stopped in the supermarket on my way home from campus. Comparing different cookies and brownies in a large shelf.
Shop assistant: "Oh, is this a violin?"
I: "No, it's a viola."
He: "How nice, what a beautiful instrument!"
I: "I think so, too :-)"
He: "But I hardly ever see any musical instruments here in the shop."
And so on. Next he wanted to know if I study music, where I am from, if I like Santa Cruz,... Of course I do! :-)

From Chicago last year I was already used to greetings like "Hi, how are you?", but here they sometimes even ask "Hi, how was your day?". And in addition the longer conversations, always with a nice smile. Even though Germans usually only say the most necessary things in everyday situations, they could at least do it in a bit more friendly or enthusiastic way... On the other hand, I cannot imagine that the person at the checkout counter is honestly interested in the happenings of my day...

Furthermore, I had a good experience in the uni cafeteria of the marine and earth science department (SCIPP does not have one). When I arrived, they were just about to close and could not prepare another coffee (like extra grand latte with caramel). But when I asked for a small, plane black coffee, they were so kind to sell me one. I also wanted to buy the last oatmeal cookie, but they gave it to me for free because they had to get rid of it. It was delicious :-)

Getting settled

 My new flatmates are really, really nice! They are

1. TJ, PhD student in theoretical particle physics at SCIPP
2. Carina, his girlfriend, PhD student on solar cells
3. Tia, first year grad student, who just moved here from the east coast 6 weeks ago. She plays the violin and is also a vegetarian.

When I moved in, TJ and Carina had just come back from hiking over the weekend, too. Tonight the four of us went out together to an icecream parlor.
The apartment is quite big. TJ and Carina share a large room, but Tia and I have our own smaller rooms. We have a rather huge living room with several sofas and a well-equipped kitchen. My room luckily contains a little bit of furniture.

Today I went on campus by bus with Tia. The administrative coordinator of SCIPP welcomed me, showed me the office I am sharing with other visitors, among them an exchange student from Poland and introduced me to many people. My supervisor will only arrive next week, though.

I found the "Bike Co-Op" (cooperatively owned, non-profit bike shop and help to repair your bike, run by volunteers) on campus and was lucky enough to rent a bike for only 25$ for the entire period of my stay.

The campus is very large, steep and green, basically in a forest and from some places with a view on the Pacific! Even mule deers live here. Cycling downhill downtown was a pleasure (but through the hills which are even a mountain lion habitat!), however, uphill will be a challenge with my single-speed bike...
I found the music center with practice rooms! Maybe I will take my viola to the institute to practice there. But today I could play a bit in my room.

In total, I must say that all people I have met here so far are really friendly, open and willing to help, e.g. my flatmates, people in the institute and the bike co-op. I guess I will not fully feel "at home" here by the end of the 5 weeks, but I am pretty confident that the next month will be nice and interesting!

 

Santa Cruz

On Sunday evening we arrived at Santa Cruz in my new shared apartment. We went to a bar in the evening and walked to the beach in the morning before Alissa and Peter left.
Santa Cruz is a nice, little students' town, famous for hippies and surfers. There are broad bike lanes, colourful houses, solar systems on the roofs, it is located directly at the beach and the huge campus is on  a steep hill. The city makes a nice impression, I am sure I will enjoy living here during the next month - not least because of the bright sunshine all the time :-)

Seal and pelican at the pier:

 The beach. Cows look different here, their longer horns remind me rather of buffaloes.

Yosemite Day 2

 Early in the morning, the valley is still full of fog - and smoke: there are regular fires needed by the forest to recreate.

 These mule deers are not shy at all!

Steep hike up to Vernal and Nevada Falls! They were already very impressing, but in spring they have even much more water.

Yosemite Day 1

Hiking in the Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains is gorgeous! The landscape is stunning and really diversified owing to the elevation ranging from 4000 to 10000 feet (over 3000m!). Watch out for black bears and mountain lions (= Puma)!! That's why you should never ever leave any food in your car or tent overnight, but store it properly in dedicated bear boxes.

We arrived on Saturday morning after a long drive over curvy mountain roads. The guide book says that the majority of tourists never walk more than half an hour in the park. Although I have to admit that we enjoyed indeed some magnificent views while driving through the park or stopping at several of the vista points, it was clear that we wanted to explore more by hiking around. Our first walk was in Sequoia Grove. Sequoias are huge and up to several thousand-year-old redwood trees with amazing diameters, amongst the oldest and hugest living things on earth!

 Later on, we drove higher and higher and reached Tuolumne Meadow, a plateau lined with steep rocks. We saw squirrels and mule deers very close by!

Despite a heavy hailstorm (I was wondering how this could be in sunny California?!) the sun came back and we stopped at a beautiful lake. Peter even went swimming.

We spent the night in a tent on a camp ground directly in the national park, made a campfire, stored our food properly and woke up at sunrise.

Flight

Everything started on Friday, September 23, the longest day of my life = 33 hours due to the 9h time shift between Central Europe and the Pacific. First, I flew from Hamburg to New York which took 9 hours. Luckily I had a seat at the window so that I was able to enjoy the view on the East and West Frisian Islands before clouds covered UK. While the flight to Chicago last year crossed Greenland, this time I only had a glance on its southern tip, but at least I could see snow-covered rocks at the horizon. Most of Canada as well as New York were hidden in the clouds.

We arrived with a delay of 45min so that I missed my connection flight to San Francisco :( The immigration officer did not only take fingerprints of all my fingers of both hands, but he also wanted to know all details about the purpose of my stay, including how many hours per week the exchange program would comprise. After I had told him that I would be a visiting student without any fixed courses, he stoppped being so strict, but made jokes instead and told me I should not run my heart out while trying to catch the connection flight which was about to leave in 25min. Amazing to realize that small talks are even common during the passport control at the airport.
2.5 h later, the next flight left. I did not see much during that 7h flight, but still the Rocky Mountains! Then I arrived very tired at San Francisco where my friends Alissa and Peter picked me up. Good to meet old friends in the New World!