Berkeley, Davis, Muir Woods.

I'm really tired at the moment so this will be really brief:

On Sunday I met up with a friend of mine in Berkeley area, and she showed me around that neighbourhood. Berkeley seemed like an interesting student area where everyone has an opinion and is willing to stand up for it. I really liked the feel of Telegraph Street, the little book and record shops and likeness to an oriental bazaar.

My next stop was Davis, a lovely little rural student town located in the middle of corn and tomato fields close to Sacramento. The train there took about 1.5 hours, so it's not too far from SF. I had a walk around the town, which appeared very clean, safe and full of lovely restaurants and pubs, although in a very small and concentrated area. I stayed at a hotel which had a complimentary happy hour, and very soft huge beds, which meant I had a really good rest.

So the reason why I was there is that I interviewed at UC Davis for a job. The interview went really well. I surprised myself with how calmly I managed to get through the long day of meeting people and presenting my work, as I usually get very nervous. I love what I work on, and I love learning about what others work on, but closer to 9 hours of paying attention really exhausts me! So in the evening I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow (back in SF).

This morning I woke up and started chatting to one of my dorm mates, and it turned out that she was headed out to Muir Woods to see the redwoods with some friends of hers. There was space in the car for one more, so I joined the group and had a really good day with kind, friendly people who I had never met! So most of today was spent walking in the restful woods and driving around beautiful scenery; beaches, coastal cliffs, hills, forests, and of course the Golden Gate bridge! It was wonderful to get out of city properly and get some fresh air!

Tomorrow is my second interview at Stanford, so I'll need to go and prepare (=sleep).