Berkeley!!!

Ok, as you guys have doubtless realised, my blogs are gonna be Berkeley-centric for a long time to come:):):)

I wanted to talk about the random quirkiness of this campus, and how it ALWAYS makes me smile. Let's disregard all the people for a minute; I should talk a little more about my professors. Apart from their obvious passion and easy competence, they care so deeply about their students that the humungous classes become warm and personal.

Professor Majda is my favorite of the lot. My Chem 1A professor, he looks very dignified-silver haired, bespectacled, formally dressed. In class however, he can be so cute! He freaks out if students use 'big' words while answering, and feigns ignorance. He played the James Bond title soundtrack before starting chemical bonding, and uses crazy cartoons and funny jokes to illustrate perfectly boring concepts. No class is purely theoretical; he tries to make students race against bromine vapor! While demonstrating how air pressure pushes a boiled egg into a flask, he screamed, "Where's my egg?" and seemed oblivious to the laughter that ensued. His theatrical shudders and gasps while heating something are amusing in the extreme-best of all, when lecture ends, he gets so excited he bursts a hydrogen balloon and laughs at the explosion:)

Ms.Bobo, my college writing teacher, admittedly has an easier task on her hands, since its a seminar with just 21 students(literally nothing by Berkeley standards). But her concern and enthusiastic excitement are a joy to the beholder-she kept asking about my sprained ankle, and asked me to change my single-strapped bag, because she knows I live all the way across in Foothill. She sits with us and discusses everything from Google to favorite colors. With her, everything is as comfortable and open as can be! I really enjoy those classes; especially because of the brilliant articles she encourages us to read, and the mind maps and other concepts we employ, I can literally feel my mind opening up to the vast vistas beyond.

David Presti, who lectures on 'Drugs and their effects on the brain,' has been awarded several times by his students, for being the passionate, unconventional man he is. He's written his own textbook, and it's such a personal thing that you can literally hear him speaking from the pages;he's even included the desperate emails sent to him by past students who wanted to pass or raise their grades. Haha. No wonder then, that his class is renowned as one of the BEST at Berkeley. He recommends books of plant poetry for reference, talks about witches and shamans, asks us to write papers on plant rituals....again, I can feel my mind embracing such 'weird' concepts(I'm an avid reader of Paulo Coelho).

Carly Stair, my Psychology professor, never ceases to delight. When our auditorium was full of sweating, panting students (due to non functional AC), she went, "Well, welcome to our personal sauna!" Today, discussing the nature-nurture debate, I was blanking when she switched to sexuality, and shot, "Men mate widely, women mate wisely!" Every lecture is such an eye opener...

Ah, I bet you've all had enough of my raving. But it's not all rosy. I don't think half the GSIs have any clue what they're doing (FYI, Grad Student Instructor). They're in charge of our discussion and lab sections, and well.... That part isn't working out particularly well for me! But I guess you can't have it all :/

Got so much homework to do, plus midterms next week. Yeah the work is killer-4 midterms PLUS 1 final PLUS weekly assignments PLUS daily quizzes... it never lets up!

And I love Berkeley for that:):):)