I know. I know. I’ve been a bit MIA on the Food Spotlights. They will come. Patience is a virtue. 🙂
It’s Welcome Week at Cal. The atmosphere has entirely changed in the course of several days. I left for the weekend to go on a trip, and when I come back, Cal is Cal again, not Cal Light of the summer season.
The first thing I notice. There are tons and tons of people. Walking. Milling about. Sitting down in the restaurants. Chatting on the sidewalks. People are everywhere.
And the frat houses are in full swing. Finally, the drawbacks of living in an apartment complex on frat row, in between two frat houses, has reared its ugly head.
Music is blasting constantly, regardless of time, and the row is really lit up and packed at night. It’s feeling like a Friday every day with all these frat welcome week events.
Even the weather has joined in on the frenzy. It was consistently in the low to mid-sixties throughout the summer. I wore a jacket every morning because it was ridiculously cold.
Well, in the span of several days, the weather jumped a good thirty degrees. Today was in the mid-90s. I guess summer weather has finally caught up with the Berkeley climate. Except it’s now fall. Go figure.
School hasn’t started yet, but you can feel it in the air, to state it as cliched as possible. People are always talking about buying this and that book. I-clickers. Yadda yadda yadda.
And the freshmen. Crazy. It’s hard to believe that a whole year has gone by already. I look at them and I see myself in their shoes, exactly a year ago, excited but nervous, newly-independent but insecure.
I’ve talked to some of the South Hills peeps, and I know that they’ll do fine. College is a time of learning, and these are a bright group of kids. Here’s to an awesome year at an awesome university.
The things I’ve written about only scratch the surface of welcome week. There’s just so many things to do, so many things to see. It’s such a jubilant and optimistic time of year.
I love welcome week, and I love Cal.
Go Bears at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com.
