New Year, New Plans.

Happy New Year to all my lovely readers! 

There are some things in life which even the most expensive cameras will never be able to capture, and the view from the top of the International house, or when you’re heading way up into the Berkeley hills, is one of them. The bay stretches out like a piece of hammered grey slate from Berkeley across the bay, and San Francisco appears collapsible, made of cardboard or matchboxes, bleached white in the sun or lit up like Christmas after dark. Alcatraz rears from the tiny island in the middle of the water, and the Golden Gate stretches between the mountains on either side; little more than a dim, hulking shape rising out of the water when the fog rolls in, but with clear skies the scarlet paintwork strikes out at the clouds. 

On New Years’ Eve I stood in the cold with the Graduate, several inches deep in mud, and watched the fireworks flower over Westminster and the London Eye, and as the rockets burst overhead I felt a twang for the bridge and the bay. It’s strange being back in Blighty. Previous experience has taught me that once you leave a new place for home all your experiences immediately take on the consistency of a dream, and dim within moments of stepping onto the airport tarmac; and while I’m still carrying the faintest of tan lines on my back, the reality of what sun feels like has escaped me. Falling back into the old molds of life has been a strange counter-displacement. England is entirely unchanged, grey and oppressively damp. Having kicked my brain up into a gear I’d been previously unused to, I now have too much time on my hands, and am starting to pine for the West Coast. 

I have a new roommate arriving in the spring term. The wonderful Amy is leaving me, returning to sunny Australia. Her spontaneous twirling moments, personal boundaries confusions, and ridiculous antics have become so much a part of my Berkeley life, things will feel empty without her, but at least I have the Laconic Australian, Irish Aristocrat and World’s Greatest Lover to soften the blow. In any case, I’m now halfway through my year, and feeling the need to really start immersing myself in the American Dream. As such, here are some of my New Years Resolutions: 

  1)      Become less of a hypochondriac: Maybe it’s a means of compensating having to shell out $891 a term for student health insurance; but the number of times I’ve managed to convince myself I’m suffering from a fatal disease in the past few months is ridiculous.

 2)      Get out and see more of San Francisco. I’m determined to better get to know the place, outside of the basic tourist walks. Planning to start with a drink in a pirate bar...

3)      Go skiing in Lake Tahoe to beat the January blues.

 

4)      Start thinking about my dissertation. Requirements are that my large paper for my final year has to be in some way related to my year abroad, and I’m completely stuck for any ideas. Berkeley being such a hub of history, literature and art you’d think it’d be fairly easy to come up with some sort of idea, but inspiration is not striking.  

  5)      Have an All-American Spring Break. Last week of March. Beach, beer, bad behaviour.

 

 6)      Rugby-tackle Barack Obama.

May 2013 be prosperous to us all!