Monday, April 21, 2008

Cara's weekend- Playing in Berkeley with Patrice


















































FRIDAY: Fashion Design and Illustration Class. Great teacher. We started working with oil and chalk pastels. My drawing is improving and I really enjoy the class. Hence why I am still in the class and not taking Fridays to relax/ do homework! The in the afternoon I spent time with my digital girlfriends (aka: I watched Sex in the City) and then in the evening I worked taking photos in clubs...it's my newest and latest job! I got my friend Jude to come along with me and away we went to Petaluma where I took 150 photos...I get paid per photo...we'll see....?


SATURDAY: Managed to awake at a somewhat respectable hour and proceeded to take care of some of the business of life; there is so much of it and it just will not go away- banking, cleaning, filing, organizing, calling, emailing, applying, researching.

Then I drove the hour and a half to Berkeley in my teal green Tacoma pick up truck that I have affectionately named 'the boat' due to it's ghastly size. After an hour and a half of driving on insane American freeways and traversing the double decker Oakland/Richmond bridge (using my motto: 'Don't get off the freeway, Don't get lost'- because you'll never find your way back onto the madness that is the freeway') I made my way through traffic riddled Berkeley to Patrice's apartment. Patrice is an Aussie gal I worked with at my University in Melbourne who is currently living it up on exchange in Berkeley.

We spent the afternoon planning, plotting and indeed scheming (rubbing our hands together) in regards to our upcoming road trip. The trip is scheduled for May 23rd until June 18th....or at least Patty's section...i'm still deciding if I shall go on or stop there. After our planning pow wow finished we walked around Berkeley which was teeming with people on a sunny but breezy Saturday. I was surprised at how cold the wind was...I guess I am not used to it coming off the ocean.

In the evening I had dinner with an old friend of my Mum's, Lew. We enjoyed a great dinner at 'La Mediterranee' and then Patty, her friend Ashley and I went to the Afterparty for Patty's hip hop dancing group which had performed earlier that day. We walked into a bar/club that looked like it was having a slow night, went upstairs to the private party on mezzanine level and were instantly engulfed in humidity due to sweaty hip hop dancers. Ashley commented that 'Feels like we're in a mosh pit! and I couldnt help but giggle in my head at the idea that to me it was more like 'Feels like we're in a midget pit! Me, a white girl in my boots, towered over almost everyone at the party. I guess the majority of dancers were asian and if they happened to be any other race they were petite or short. Not that I am not height-est...I am happy to admit I'm a giant

SUNDAY: Patty and I went for a power walk/jog behind Berkeley University. We are very proud of our efforts and enthusiasm and as strangers in a foreign land (ok, I was born here but it's worse because you over eat those childhood foods you can't get overseas) are both trying to be active and fight weigh gain. We walked up into the Berkeley hills where we had a great view of San Fran, the golden gate and it's surrounds. We then met Lew and I played chauffeur and drove us all to Walnut Creek to see a post secret exhibition. The exhibition was not there after all to my disappoint (hey...I deserved it after more freeways, including a multi-lane, multi directional, multi traffic tunnel) but we stayed to see the gallery anyway and then returned to Berkeley. Patty and I made an divided up and agreed upon what each of us will be researching this week for the road trip.

My list:
1-Stops on the 2nd half of our trip and how long to spend at each place
2-Converting a car to run on canola/veggie oil
3-Finding other travellers for the trip by posting in couch surfing

Then I headed back to Sonoma County and my beloved Santa Rosa after stopping quickly at an op shop/thrift store on my way out that has a huge $1 rack on Sundays. It's called 'Out of the Closet' and it raises money for HIV treatment. They have some great stuff...although most thrift stores do in America...it's pretty incredible what you find.

1 comment:

Mr David said...

they DO have great thrift stores in America! I still have to track down one of those military jackets! :)

Keep enjoying yourself in Sonoma! Bring me back some wine! hehe..... nah I know you wont have space for it in your luggage with all the stuff you'll be bringing back. We'll just buy good Australian wine and pretend it's from Sonoma County......

xoxo