So we’re supposed to write about our first week in Berkeley, but this is actually my fourth so I’ll start by talking about my first week then I’ll go through the rest real quick.
I arrived on Friday 21st of June and stayed for the whole weekend in San Francisco before coming to Berkeley. I’m currently staying at I-house(international house). So first thing I saw was the physical cultural diversity. There was people from all over the world. It was so promising. My next step was my first day at UC Berkeley and the first thing that surprised me before even getting there was the ways of transportation. I saw cars, buses, bikes, skateboards, scooters and the “e” version of each one. I walked there since it was pretty close but I’m currently also using bikes and buses, which are free to students. So the next thing that was great was the environment which is so student friendly. Everything here is done so the student feel extremely comfortable. Even courses are made in a way to maximize learning. For example, my Artificial Intelligence course has a weekly homework where you keep trying to answer a question until you get it right. Moreover, everything is available and usually at short proximity. If you need anything or have any questions there is a lot of people who can help at the university or even at I-house. I was kind of expecting that because of stories I heard about Berkeley and the US. I’m also expecting to get better at English and interacting with people. However, I did not have any major culture clash just surprised by some things like not having instagram or facebook in China. I couldn’t neither relate to The big sick a lot except hiding some things which are kind of “little lies” when it’s necessary or not the right moment to talk about it.
Now, for the rest of the week I was enjoying being overwhelmed by all the new things I’m discovering, the new friends I’m making from all around the world and this new experience. I don’t think I need to mention the food which is great in California but I would like to mention the food at I-house which has to accommodate for all people’s tastes and diets which they are doing perfectly. For any upcoming Berkeley summer student I would totally recommend I-house which is great to live the full experience. I met people renting airbnb apartments or other Berkeley housings and you can ask them about I-house, they spend every night there.
Even if I was having a great time at Berkeley I spent my second weekend at Lake Tahoe. I had to visit California especially because it was my first time in the US. It was an amazing trip and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Pure nature. I even saw a bear. I’ll try to upload pictures with this so you can get more involved in my story. We had a hike for about 4 hours then we arrived to the bottom of the lake where only some of us could swim because the water was so cold. We stayed there for a while enjoying the view and the water then we headed back to the house we rented where we sat and had a cozy dinner followed by a cards against humanity game.
The next couple of weeks were also great. The best thing was my trip to Los Angeles one of the most famous cities in the world. I actually didn’t find it so amazing. It was certainly great but it was not that mind-blowing. To give it justice we should look at it from 2 different perspectives: a normal person’s view and a student’s view. I will talk a little about my experience being a student. First of all, transportation is very bad and this is a serious issue since LA is very big. We always had to use Ubers and get stuck in the traffic which was a waste of time and money. Second of all, LA is always a little more expensive than Berkeley and UC Berkeley is better ranked than UCLA. Finally, UC Berkeley offers more interesting courses than UCLA. So all in all, Berkeley has the real student experience and I’m very glad I chose it because UCLA was my second alternative.
English Through Film 