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| Surfliner Route |
California is a car culture, "California was designed for cars; nearly all tourist facilities, shopping centers, and workplaces are built with the assumption that everyone at least has access to a car." Luckily, Amtrack can help you travel pretty far up and down the coast. It's navigating how to get on and off the train. 
Amtrack's Pacific Surfliner was actually the best possible way to see California coast. It was one of the most memorable, beautiful train rides I have ever been on. It treks literally right along the coast of California. Riding along side the ocean for long stretches. It was an gorgeous experience to see the waves crashing in for miles while your on a train, a once in a lifetime experience. All the passengers around me stirred when the waves looked like they could almost touch the train. Then we coasted through beautiful undeveloped landscapes with the occasional city in between. California is so big and pristine the landscape is so different from anything I have ever seen on the east coast.
I never thought a train ride could be so purely scenic and pleasant, even though it was a 5 hour long ride. And that was just the train, after I arrived in San Luis Obispo, I had to take a 3 hour bus ride the rest of the way, to finally arrive in the the second-most densely populated large city in the United States after New York City, San Fransisco. It just buzzed with excitement.Berkeley, it was worth the wait.
Berkeley is a really interesting academic university, set up perfectly for that intimate campus feel, yet so close to San Fransisco you can see it. That is you can see it most of the time when it's not cloudy. Grey May and June Gloom do exist in San Fransisco, either that or it could just be the fog from the mountains. The temperature is also a LOT colder than sunny Long Beach, California. Something I was not so fond of. The days were pleasant but at times almost too hot then plummeting at night getting incredibly cold. 
The school has so much to offer. Which helps explains it's impressive reputation. What I loved the most about Berkeley was that it instilled in it's students that any thing is possible. If you put enough effort and brain power into what you are truely passionate about will happen. Co Ops
The Co ops offered at Berkeley are a really neat alternative for housing. I wish more schools offered them. They are nonprofit and student run making housing affordable for students that want to live near campus. Respectively, housing for students should not be as expensive as most schools make it. 
The Co op is a great opportunity within itself to be a part of you're living community and to get an experience that is one of a kind, as well as resume worthy. Talking to one of the residents, they told me someone landed a job as a chef at a high end restaurant based on their experience at preparing community dinners for the co op . There are other job positions such as the events coordinator, putting on entertainment for a large amount of people is not an easy task and takes a lot of coordination and skill. 
There are ups and downs to a co op, the students have to maintain the building therefore the students had a lot more respect for what type of a mess they made. However, it is housing run by college kids meaning not everyone's standard of clean is the same. Regardless puke, clogged toilets and backed up sinks do happen. Each resident must sign up for work shifts at the co op to help maintain the ability for the co op to function, at the same time keeping the price of the co op low. These jobs range from dish washing, bathroom duty, hallway vacuuming, to cooking for the whole co op during the school year. These jobs increase the amount of respect the students have for their living community, not taking their living arrangements for granted. Yet it is one more thing to balance under the pressure of school. 
I personally loved the dynamic of the co op, it was very open and easy going. Giving the students the freedom and responsibility including a big influential voice in how they would like to live. While helping to develop and great opportunities and learning experiences during your college experience.
On top of it all the co op I stayed in was very eco-friendly they had recycling, trash and composting cans readily accessible in the kitchen. The obtained their basic food supplies (ie flour, sugar, eggs, milk, soy milk, oil, spices) in bulk from wholesalers and local community farms. The students have access to all of these basic cooking necessities making cooking even more affordable and eco-friendly while supporting the local community.
The Co op facilitates the students to unleash their creativity, allowing them to paint the walls of their rooms and hallways. Promoting all forms of self expression and limitless aspirations. The paintings set an overall relaxed artistic tone that kept your humor and childhood in check. Relieving the stress that a top rating university can have on a student.
We took a long long walk to to see the golden gate bridge. I made the mistake of wearing shorts, silly me I thought I was in California during the summer. I heard they can tell who the tourists are by who wears warm weathered clothes on the bridge. It was FREEZING on the bridge as we walked towards it, the farther the temperature dropped and more more the wind blew. The bridge is an extremely iconic land mark and a large tourist attraction known across the world. Yet it is the one site in the world that the most people commit suicide at. "The deck is approximately 245 feet (75 m) above the water. After a fall of approximately four seconds, jumpers hit the water at around 75mph. Most jumpers die from impact trauma on contact with the water. The few who survive the initial impact generally drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water."
It intrigues me that this simple structure draws in so many people from all over the world with one-way airplane tickets to commit suicide, however 83% are Bay area residents. "The typical jumper is a 40-year-old, single white man. More students hurl themselves over the railing than any other occupation." The fatality rate is 98% the ones that do survive usually land feet first in the water and usually survive with server injuries.
The Bridge a documentary filmed by Eric Steel captured 23 suicides on film in 2004 that occurred at the bridge within a matter of months. The documentary features the families, loved ones and spectators of the victims that ended their lives at the bridge. The approximation of the total number of suicides committed at the bridge are 1,400 to 1,500.
The good news: "The bridge is fitted with suicide hotline telephones, and staff patrol the bridge in carts, looking for people who appear to be planning to jump. Iron workers on the bridge also volunteer their time to prevent suicides by talking or wrestling down suicidal people." I find it intriguing that the iron workers of all people are the ones luring people off the bridge. It takes a lot to save a life especially when people are trying to take their own. Why are the iron workers the only ones with this responsibility? Because there is no one else. More good News: The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District has been trying to raise $50 million for construction of a suicide barrier that district board members approved in 2008. Despite engineering difficulties, high costs, and public opposition of cost, aesthetics, and safety. Fortunately the suicide prevention barrier should be in place by mid-2014. But it makes me wonder what will happen when it's in place. Will it just become more or a challenge or will is completely change the world renown suicide pit.
On a less depressing note we also visited the fisherman's warf, Lombard street see photos below:
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| super cute yet super smelly! |
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| Alcatraz |
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| Lombard Street |
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| View of the whole San Francisco area |
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| Beautiful beaches known for the surf but also great whites! No bueno. |
Botanical Gardens at Berkeley
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| Map of the Gardens |
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| Redwood Forrest |
Back to the LB
My visit at Berkeley was a lot of fun and quite pleasant but the ride back was pretty tiresome and long. Unfortunately I wasn't on the Surfliner on my way back, so the train ride wasn't as pleasant. I was hesitant to go back after a week but my wallet was hurting after a week and I really just missed the warmth and surf of the beach. 
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