All good things must come to an end. And hopefully, that makes room for even better things!

I have been planning on going to Istanbul, Turkey for a few months now, but it is all finally starting to hit home that I will probably not be back in San Francisco for a long time.

It’s funny how we take things for granted. There are so many things that I have been wanting to do here, but I keep putting them off thinking that I have time to do them later. Perhaps this is an analogy for life as a whole. We think that we have all the time in the world and never manage to get to the things that we really want.

I have approximately one month left in San Francisco. I am taking the LSATs on Saturday, February 6 (wish me luck) and then I am compiling a list of everything that I want to accomplish before I leave the city.

I am also working on flexing my blog muscles. After months of not traveling or writing, they have become quite rusty and I need to get them back in shape if I want to keep track of all my crazy traveling adventures.

So check back soon. I am going to be uploading fun videos and photos of my adventures around this fair city. It should be fun!

I am back in Berkeley, thoroughly enjoying the weather. It’s a balmy 60 degrees here while my family and friends are freezing in -20 temperatures in Alaska. Sorry guys!

The post holiday come down has been nice and relaxing. There are only three of us at CouchSurfing BaseCamp this week and it has been lovely having the place to ourselves. Jim and I have decided that we are probably going to be here for another three months so we have started getting settled in. Before December I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to the Costa Rica collective or not, but if I do, it won’t be until March. Since I lived in Costa Rica during college I think I would rather save my money and go to the next collective, especially if it is someplace that I have never been before.

So with that in mind Jim and I went to the Berkeley Public Library and got Library cards. We also applied and were granted financial assistance at the YMCA. I am really excited about working out there. It’s a really nice facility and they have three pools! I’ve been feeling so lumpy and out of shape lately. I can’t wait to start feeling fit again!

I am also coming to the realization that if I don’t make an effort to actually do the things I want to do while in San Francisco, they will probably never happen. With that in mind, I have been hounding Jim to walk the Golden Gate Bridge with me for a week. The weather was finally sunny yesterday so we drove into the city. Of course, it happened to be sunny and a Saturday so the place was packed. Luckily, we found a free parking lot and walked a little through the park and then up the hill onto the bridge.

The view from the bridge was fantastic. It was nice and warm with a bit of a breeze. We walked half way across the bridge dodging pedestrians and bicycles. Took a couple photos and contemplated what it would be like to jump. We recently watched the documentary The Bridge in which a camera filmed the bridge 24/7 for a year and captured various people committing suicide. The director interviewed the families who talked about the victims.

Being on the bridge and looking over the railing to the water hundreds of feet below made me think about how desperate those people must have been feeling. Just looking over the railing made me nauseous. I can’t imagine any person having the guts to climb over and let go.

Jim and I were wondering how long it would take for a person to fall so we started spitting over the edge (immature, I know). It took the average spitball about 11 seconds to hit the water and when it did, it had picked up enough velocity to make a noticeable splash. I can’t imagine knowing that you are going to die for 11 seconds! It would feel like eternity.

Luckily our day was a bit more lighthearted than just contemplating the affects of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove through Golden Gate park, which is beautiful. We stopped for a few minutes to check out the Dutch windmill that is sitting next to a lawn of poppies. It was all very beautiful.

I am trying to come up with our next adventure. I’m sure there are some other activities that one must accomplish when living in the Bay Area.

Life has been an amazing rollercoaster ride lately. After two weeks in Europe I spent a week driving the Cassiar with Jim to arrive in Berkeley, California last Monday.

Our drive on the Cassiar was incredible! I was worried that there wouldn’t be many gas stations and most of the road would be unpaved, but we didn’t have any problems. The fall colors were vivid and gorgeous and, except for a blizzard north of Glennallen, the weather was beautiful. We got to see a lot of different animals included a herd of buffelo, a wolf, foxes and I almost hit a black bear when it ran in front of my car. We only spent two nights in Canada. Sunday night in White Horse with a couchsurfer named Pam and Monday night in a hotel.

The road trip was without incident except for the time that I took a wrong turn and we almost ended up back in South-East Alaska. Luckily Jim is a good sport and we were able to laugh it off. It also allowed us to see a beautiful glacier that ran into a lake right off the side of the road.

My week in Berkeley so far has been relaxed as I settle into the life of living in a huge house with 15 other people. I am starting to get into the swing of things and will soon be working on Fundraising with Kelly and taking more menial tasks off of Casey’s plate. I’m also beginning to look for jobs in the Berkeley area. I’m not sure what I’m interested in yet, but hopefully when I find it, I’ll know.

Living in the CouchSurfing house has been a blast. It’s wonderful living with such fun people who are never boring! There’s always so much going on. Communal living also has its trials and tribulations. We have a chore list on which people are assigned to teams of two and have a chore to complete each day. For the most part this has been working really well except that the floors tend to get forgotten. Oops! We are also lucky in the fact that we have a volunteer, Derek, who cooks for us five nights a week! Most dinners are the equivalent of a four course meal with yummy desserts each night! Have I mentioned that we are a bit spoiled? I love that we all sit down and eat together family style. Derek also brings volunteers from the community to help with dinner so we are meeting new people every night.

Being so close to San Francisco makes our social calendar pretty full. This weekend was especially busy. We went to a potluck at Jay’s house Friday night. A house party at a mansion Saturday night that included AcroYoga, all you can eat Sushi that was being prepared in the kitchen, full bar and a dance floor. There were also a ton of people in the swimming pool and hot tub, but we never made it in. Sunday was the most fun of all! We all dressed up and headed to Decompression in the industrial part of the city.

Even the drive to Decomp was amazing! We were crossing the bridge to the city and the Blue Angels were buzzing the bridge as part of fleet week. Kelly was asleep in the back seat when they first flew right over our car and it woke her up with a start!

We went ahead and paid for parking in a lot so we didn’t have to worry about the car. When we were walking into the festival a car pulled up and asked if we were going to Decomp. Kelly, being a smart ass, said, “No, we’re going to church!” I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically since we were all dressed up in some pretty interesting costumes. Jim was wearing red velour pants with fur, I was in a bright pink wig, corsette and tutu, Weston was wearing tiger print chaps and Kelly was looking adorable in a dirndle.

The driver of the car ended up being Stephen from the band Third Eye Blind who I met this summer when they were up in Alaska. I said, “Hey, I know you! Weren’t you in Alaska?” They parked the car and ended up walking with us to Decomp where we let them cut in line with us because our friends were already there.

The festival was so much fun! I’m lucky that Shameless Heather let me raid her closet for my costume. She lives in SF in a townhouse and the closet for her costumes is bigger than her bedroom! We spent the afternoon and evening walking up and down the boulevard looking at the art cars, art installations and watching the performances. Heather MCed a variety show at a club that included a political satire from the Butt Hole Puppet Players. I would go into more detail, but it’s impossible to describe.

I had a great time looking at what other people were wearing as well. Some of the costumes were incredible! There was a group of men who were in these metallic multi colored outfits that they obviously have spent a lot of time on. They all matched from their head to their toes. There were also some people who wore nothing at all. We went to get shaved ice at the Lost Penguin tent and the woman serving it was completely naked. I’m sure that’s against food regulation, but hey, it was free and delicious!

As the night wore on and Decomp began to wind down. We headed over to a club called Retox where a lot of Burners were hanging out. We had a great time dancing and meeting people. Hearing people’s stories makes me excited about going to Burning Man next year. I’m going to have to start accumulating costumes now!