magneticjade

After years of denial, suppression, and delay, the United States government has finally officially recognized that greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The Obama administration has slowly worked on the decision, first sent to the White House by the Environmental Protection Agency in March, then opened for months of public comment through the summer. Less than an hour after the United Nations Climate Change Conference completed its opening day in Copenhagen, Denmark, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson made the “significant climate announcement” at 1:15 pm that global warming pollution endangers the health and welfare of the American public:

This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we avoid the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren. Today, I’m proud to announce that EPA has finalized its endangerment finding on greenhouse gas pollution and is now authorized and obligated to make reasonable efforts to reduce greenhouse pollutants under the Clean Air Act.



In 1992, the United States signed an international treaty to “prevent dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system” from greenhouse gases. Seventeen years later, after the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases have decimated the world’s glaciers and Arctic ice cap, acidified the oceans, intensified hurricanes and droughts, increased smog and wildfires, and driven species to extinction, the Barack Obama administration is recognizing its legal obligation to begin regulating this deadly threat.

Source

I have a bed to sleep on! Well, it's actually just two mattresses stacked on top of each other, but at least it gets me out of the living room and into my actual room, and is long enough for me. I've been sleeping on the mattress sofa thing for the last week and a half. It's not uncomfortable, but it's nice to have something longer than me so my feet aren't hanging off the end, and also so I don't wake up to the sun in my eyes.

I acquired my mattresses from the hostel - they had switched out all of their old mattresses for memory foam ones (a donation) and had moved the other ones out to the Fort Ord site in Seaside, where they are working on a new hostel/environmental education center. That place needs A LOT of work, so they won't be using these other mattresses for a while.

Fort Ord was a military post during the 20th century and was a major site during World War II, but the whole place has been abandoned, and it's kind of creepy/cool to walk through the buildings since the hostel can only work on one at a time. They have to do all kinds of things like put down new flooring (the old flooring has asbestos in the glue), take out asbestos from the window caulk, painting, carpeting, new plumbing for appropriate fixtures - one of the buildings used to be a day clinic - and all kinds of other stuff, so it's going to take a long time. I would have taken pictures, but I don't take my camera on Thursdays, so I wasn't able to. Hopefully I will be able to go out there a few more times in the future. There's a lot of work to be done, but it'll be a great place when it's all finished (in a few years).

Emily and I went out there with Aaron (hostel manager) and David (assistant manager) to get the mattresses (Aaron is going to be living out there), and ended up just hanging out on the roof of one of the buildings and playing with the wolves (Aaron's dogs). Apparently Jade - the girl, who is all white - took down a deer in the area a few weeks ago. XD So of course they've still got those instincts, but they're really sweet animals - Aaron raised them since they were puppies, and for the most part they really stick to him like glue. Scout is the boy (they're brother and sister) and he has two-toned eyes and husky coloring. The wolves are about 82% wolf, and the rest is husky.

But I digress. My roommate is in Panama visiting her boyfriend, I have a midterm test on Tuesday and then next weekend I'm going to San Francisco! It'll be fun. Emily and I talked about going to one of the Lighthouse hostels up the coast for Thanksgiving weekend, since we can stay for free 8Db So that would be fun, I think.

So there is a big storm coming in the next couple days. It's the remnants of the typhoon that hit Japan almost a week ago and it's blowing right for the California coast. San Francisco is going to get hit a lot harder than Monterey, but all of the news stations are talking about all of the preparation efforts that are taking place. SF is handing out 10 free sandbags to people who want them, Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove are bracing for possible mudslides from recently fire-ravaged areas.

It's been kind of interesting/amusing watching all of the preparation. I obviously haven't experienced this kind of storm and I don't know the terrain either, but that's ALL the news is talking about - sandbagging and possible mudslides and. LoL it's just kind of funny all of the hype, so I'm going to be really interested to see what actually happens. They're prepared for power to be going out (power here is flakey enough) and setting up emergency lines and all this other stuff, it's just seeming like a flurry of over-preparation and a whole lot of "better safe than sorry" mentality.

And, well. Better safe than sorry.

I emailed in and said I might not be going to the hostel tomorrow. I'm not going to ride my bike along the bay in the rain and the wind, and I haven't even really unpacked anything (just thrown things around), so I think it'll just work out for the better. I can go in and stay later on Thursday/Friday and go on Saturday if necessary.

I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes.

Well, hm. Class is class, and I've got a lot of projects coming up soon. I'm doing some research on whaling for two sets of papers and presentations, and yesterday at the library I found a couple of really great books so I'll be digging around in those today.

Oh yes! I'm moving to a new place tomorrow. This one just isn't working out for various reasons and one of my classmates told me his friend was moving to a different place, so the girl needed a new roommate. She's a second year IEP student and she's really nice. Also the apartment is still close to campus - but up the hill a couple blocks, so I'll be getting good exercise! It has a big living room, she's got couches and a TV, the kitchen has an ELECTRIC stove, oven, DISHWASHER, DISH DRAINER, fridge, etc. I'm so excited ;_; She says she doesn't cook much so I might have to buy a few cooking utensils, but that's no big, I can probably find some that'll work for a while for cheap. I'm just excited to be able to cook the way I want.

So this weekend I'm researching and packing, as much as I want to go to the Aquarium again. There's not really anything special going on, I just want to go - my pass came in the mail! So now I can go any time I want and get 10% off at the gift stores.

Monterey is getting chilly, but the weather tends to start out cold in the morning and then work up and be 20 degrees warmer in the afternoon. Right now the fog is drifting away off the mountain so there's some sun coming through, but it's bouncing off the clouds so at the moment it's blinding. Erk. I'm trying to convince myself to get out of bed, maybe take a shower and then eat lunch and go to the library or student center to study/research. I was doing some reading just a bit ago so at least I've done something yet today.

I'll take pictures of the new place (and the view!) tomorrow :)


Also - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM (for tomorrow, since who knows if I'll post tomorrow).

So, here's another thing I don't understand about things people do in California.

Monterey is in N. Cal (I actually would personally call it central, buuut whatever) - the weather is much cooler here than in, say, LA.

Being from the Midwest, I don't mind cool weather. Given that I'm used to dealing with frost from at least November - April, temps in the lower 60s don't usually bother me.

What I DON'T understand is why people here with their ~not as well insulated houses~ leave the doors and windows open all the freaking time. It's 58 degrees right now according to my google desktop, and when I walked out of class earlier, the door to the building was propped open. I came home and while the front door wasn't open (sometimes it is), the window to the kitchen? wide open. Also a lot of the windows at school will be propped open when it's cool outside. I don't get this at aaalllllllll.

I keep the window in my room and the door to my room closed. If it's sunny during the day (which it usually is), the sun warms up the room and keeping it closed traps the heat, so I don't have to sit in a room colder than 60.

Maybe I'm just crazy and used to things like indoor temperature control, but seriously! What's the point of having a building with a supposedly controlled, closed environment if you're just going to leave all the windows open all the time? :|

On Fridays I work at the Hostel, and I changed my schedule so that I have 3 hours on Tuesday and Thursday (since I only have one class), and four hours on Friday. This I think is a better arrangement than splitting it 4 and 6 on Thursday and Friday because it keeps me out of trouble on Tuesdays and also doesn't take up as much of my time on Fridays.

If I haven't said so before, I'll say it now: the hostel is an awesome place to work. It's quiet, the other staff are really nice and friendly, and I can work at my own pace. They're really laid back and I think I'm making good progress, so I'm really hoping that enough people will show up for the work days next weekend. I've contacted Target, several schools and churches, put up ads online at different websites, etc. I even tried adding it to the community calendar for Monterey on a website, but I'm not sure if it was the appropriate spot. I kind of wish there was a page for community events, like the Gazette for back home has. So far I've had a couple of people directly respond, so that's pretty encouraging.

I finished work around 2 PM on Friday and went to the Ghiradelli cafe down on Cannery Row since I had a coupon for a sundae. I looked around for a few gift ideas and I think I know where I'll be doing some Christmas shopping ;) They have a seating area that overlooks the bay, so I sat out there, ate my ice cream and tried to do a little bit of reading for class. It was a really nice day - on the warmer side for Monterey. After that I went down and sat on McAbbe beach which was just below the shop and outside of one of the hotels. Since it was Friday afternoon it was pretty quiet and not crowded at all. I sat on some rocks in the sun and did some reading while watching the waves come in. It was great. Eventually I had to move on, though, because I hadn't worn or brought any sunscreen, and I've already had one sunburn since coming here, so I didn't want to risk another. I biked down around near Fisherman's Wharf and sat in some shade and did more reading.

Eventually I made it back home long enough to leave my bike and grab another book to go study in the reading lounge at the student center. I've discovered that this is probably one of my favorite places to study and read, because it's warm and very quiet, usually. Not many people go in there, particularly on weekends. Although I had forgotten that it was Friday, and the school has a weekly sponsored Happy Hour (yes, literally) that happens on the patio of the student center. So they had that going on, and it was a little loud, but hey - I went out and tried some stuff (they only serve beer and wine, and Hansen's sodas and then snacks), and then went back inside the reading room. Honestly I get pretty burned out pretty fast when I'm in a large crowd of people. It's way too hard to carry on a normal conversation when you're squished in with 100 other people in the same space.

One of my friends from a couple of my classes - another IEP student - came in and invited me to dinner with some other people. I didn't really want to spend more money on food, but we went to a Thai restaurant and it ended up being really good. Although I feel the need to make another comment about how I've noticed that people here are weird about doing split checks - as in they don't really do it or even think to ask. Usually at the very least in Iowa city, since they're used to students most waiters/waitresses will ask if you want separate checks or not, and if they don't offer, you can ask for them and it's not a problem. But for several places I've been to here in Monterey and elsewhere, it seems like for some reason there's an issue trying to get separate checks. Now at the Thai place it was a little different, because they didn't even have a computerized system for processing orders - which okay, it's probably a family owned place so that's fine, but I've been to other restaurants and they just. I don't know, don't seem to get the concept of we're students, not a family, so we tend to pay for ourselves. There are several higher-education schools (and high schools) in the area, so I just kind of wonder.

Eh. California culture shock, or something.

Anyway, I was glad I went because I got to talk with a few of my classmates and such. Marissa (the girl who invited me out) also told me about a fellowship that will fund your studies for a year abroad if you get accepted, and not many people know about it so there's less competition than for something like Fulbright. Apparently eight students from MIIS last year received this fellowship, so I'm going to do more research and apply for it. The application is due at the end of February, and if it goes through I would probably be doing a year abroad in Japan (since that seems logical) and then finishing up in Monterey later. She said you could go even just for language study, but I already had a few ideas as to what I would do in Japan pop into my head, so I just need to do a little more research on the kinds of things that I'd want to be doing. Also on how I would even do research over there, or what kind of school I'd be affiliated with. I'm not sure, as a female foreigner, I'd get very far on my own, so I'd need some kind of ally to help me through the system.

So that was Friday.

Saturday I got up around 8 and walked down to the beach to Monterey Bay Kayaks to meet Emily to do some trash cleanup. Eventually we got into wetsuits, windbreakers and lifejackets (seems like a lot for Kayaking, but I wouldn't want to accidentally fall into that water with only a swimsuit - no thanks, yo. We paddled out to around the aquarium, which was a good mile plus, and roamed around the kelp beds looking for trash. There had been a few groups ahead of us that I think got the most interesting stuff (a kid found a frisbee and another guy two hats), but I managed to pull several cigarette filters, masking tape, candy wrappers, and a plastic bag out of the water before we went home.

Although let me tell you, if you want to experience wildlife in Monterey? You have to go Kayaking. There's seals, sea lions, sea otters, pelicans, jellyfish, seagulls, etc. that you can see so candidly. I had a small seal just pop up literally a foot off the end of my Kayak. He was maybe a foot and a half long and super cute. But since all of the marine mammals in Monterey Bay are federally protected, you have to actively try and keep fifty feet away from them. If they happen to come up next to you, you have to move away. I got about ten seconds of OH THAT'S SO COOL before I had to start paddling away.

So yes, you get several animal encounters when you kayak, and be careful of curious sea otters. I was told that they can easily board Kayaks if they want to, but you know, they're still wild animals, so even if they're curious, there's still a possibility they'll get spooked enough to attack or bite.

It was really fun. I would totally go all the time if I could.


We got done Kayaking around 12:30 or so, and there was a small art fair going on at Portola plaza. I went to go check it out. One thing I like about Monterey/California is that it's really easy to find people selling jade. I found one booth that had jade from all over the world and these really gorgeous solid pale lavender bangle bracelets - that were $90. Erk. Some of them were really gorgeously carved with dragons. There were also a lot of really gorgeous pendants and earrings. (Also apparently all jade from China is Burmese?) There was one pendant shaped like a whale fluke in a really gorgeous dark green. But, I have jade around my neck already. I moved on and looked at some other stuff - I tried not to look too hard, really, because as much as I like art, I can't afford anything original and I have no place to put it. But then I came across another booth that had these really gorgeous bracelets with carved pieces of jade and very pretty rope weaving. I bought one for myself and went back later in the day to buy two more for gifts. I'm halfway tempted to buy more, but trying hold that back. I'd buy ten more if I could, they're all very very pretty.

The rest of yesterday was more reading and studying. Today is more reading and studying because I have a couple quizzes tomorrow (at least one) and more reading to finish. The sun's out and I'm hoping it's warm enough to go find a nice sunny place to sit so I can get out of the house.

Haven't posted much this week, not really much to report, actually. I've sort of fallen into a routine so there isn't a whole lot to talk about. Classes are going pretty well for the most part, but I think I will be getting a lot buisier in the next couple of weeks. I have a couple of assignments due at the end of the month so I need to make sure I stay on top of things. I'm going to start spending less time at home because there are a lot of distractions there and more time out at the student center or other places. The only thing is that Monterey's coffee shops aren't very study-condusive, or the coffee sucks (like Peet's coffee. Yuck). That and they only give you a limited amount of internet access :| I can understand wanting to limit it only to paying customers...but only for 1-2 hours? Lame.

Tomorrow I think I'm gonna stop at one of the cafes along the bike trail and do some reading after work. If I can find my coupon for the Ghiradelli shop I'll get something there too >3

On Saturday, like I wrote earlier, I'm going to be helping with the Coastal Cleanup day. Hopefully I can get to Kayak while cleaning up the bay. That would be awesome.


Work study is going well, the environment is really great at the hostel. Still not sure how much of the work I've done to recruit volunteers will work since I've never done it before.


LoL today I fell off my bike. Nothing too serious other than a scraped palm so far, though I'm a little worried I might have done something to my left thumb by snapping my wrist too hard too fast.


Hum. Not sure what I should have for dinner. I bought spaghetti the other day, but not sure what I'm going to do with it if I can't find the right pan to cook pasta with.

It's been a while since I've posted - I've been pretty busy with starting class and other things. Hm, guess we'll start with last weekend.

( San Francisco )

The next day I stayed at home because I was tired from the whirlwind weekend and hellz no labor day in a tourist spot like Monterey. No thanks.

Classes for the most part are going well. I need to work on getting a little more organized to keep track of things. One of my friends mentioned google calendar and I'm going to look into that this weekend. I also need to clean my room 'cuz it's getting cluttered (big surprise) and do some more laundry.

( Work Study at the Hostel )

Tomorrow I think I might go to the Aquarium - they do animal feedings on the weekends, and they got a Great White Shark not too long ago, so I want to go see that guy, too. I'm going to buy a student membership, because it's a steal at $50 for a whole year, and I should get two free guest passes for if/when people come to visit.

NEXT weekend I'm going to help out with the Costal Clean Up day, which is all up and down the entire California coast. The effort in Monterey is starting out at the Monterey Bay Kayaks, and if you go volunteer you can go around in Kayaks for free out on the bay picking up litter, and you can even get out of the boats and dive in. You get to use all the equipment and everything for FREE essentially for most of the day, which is amazing because usually Kayak rentals from that place are about $30/day. Which - for me - isn't all that bad, but if I can do it for free and help the environment? Heck yeah I'm totally there!


I think that's all from me for now. I'm hoping to get pictures up this weekend.

6 hours of class in a row = no brain power.

My books aren't coming until tomorrow and Wednesday, sigh.

I need a bike.

The remainder of my student loans that I get to live off of comes to me on Thursday.

Interview tomorrow at 1:30 for the Hostel work study.

The advising staff are going to discuss the problem with the Records office on my behalf tomorrow at their staff meeting, ha ha ha.

I need to somehow get to San Jose or San Francisco to get my Japanese text book because it'll take too long to get here and cost more than I want to pay online ._. (although if you factor in paying someone for gas and possibly buying lunch on a day trip, it'll be about the same. But...that means I'll have gotten to go on a day trip to SJ or SF, which is worth a lot more than buying it online).

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday had a heat wave go through. I think it might have gotten over 80 degrees for all three days at one point. I managed to get sunburnt on Thursday, so I didn't go out too much the other days. Friday was a Values workshop for the GSIPM students, so that kept me inside for most of the day. Later in the evening I went to a bonfire on the beach that some other students were throwing. It was kind of fun, but still pretty tiring since it was more of "meet people and talk a lot" kind of thing. I don't mind meeting people and talking to people, but doing it in large groups several times a week gets a little strenuous.

On Saturday I decided I'd walk down to the Hostel to see about their work study positions. It's a pretty far walk - about 30 minutes - but it's all that bad. However it was pretty hot on Saturday. Usually I take the bike/walking trail around to Cannery Row and then just up the hill. Not too far off from Fisherman's Wharf I saw these seals and pelicans sunning themselves on the rocks:





(More at the end of the Flickr gallery here)

The hostel ended up being closed until 5 (no one at the front desk), so I wandered over to the comic shop I'd been meaning to hit up. They didn't have the very next Fables chapter I was looking for, but I picked up some random ones (and the newest one, I think?) and called it good. It was like $7.50, so eh. Then I let myself have a small indulgence at Baskin Robins and wandered down Cannery Row for a bit. Stopped to watch the waves off an overlook and eventually made it over to catch the Trolley at the Aquarium to get back to downtown since it was hot and I was wearing jeans. I stopped by Troia's Market on the way home, which sells a random variety of american/mexican/asian foods and picked up some curry rue for curry rice that I will have on tuesday after a trip to farmer's market for vegetables. Yum!

Today I went with my friend Emily, who has a car, to Target. I picked up some food things to throw in for lunches since I have to make mine before class on Monday/Wednesday because in theory I have class straight from 8 AM to 2 PM (we'll get to the "in theory" part in a bit). I also got a set of four tall cups for $2 because apparently my landlord doesn't believe in cups taller than a coffee mug? I dunno. It doesn't work well for iced tea. I also got a couple more containers to use for food for class, and then some supplies for class. I probably shouldn't have waited so long because I couldn't find any loose-leaf paper at Target...and I forgot to go to Walgreens on the way back, so hopefully Walgreens will have some tomorrow when I go after class for milk and bread.

After the Target run, we went over to the Hostel since there was an open house. I got to talk with a few of the people who worked there and luckily they remembered me. I don't think I ever met the manager who will be interviewing me while I was staying there a few weeks ago, but I chatted with him on the phone on Saturday about the position and sent in my resume. I have an interview on Tuesday afternoon. Emily thinks I will probably get it. I'm hoping so, because it's only about 10 hours a week and $14/hour, and they're willing to max out the $2000 I get for the work study a semester. That will be a big help. I applied for their Volunteer Coordinator position. It's not expressly related to IEP, but I think working with non profits and volunteers is something that I've done before and will probably have to do. That and it's just a touch more professional/organized than AnimeIowa, so it'll be good experience nonetheless.

I'm still debating on volunteering at the Aquarium, because that might get me a shoe in the door for a summer internship.


Anyway, class starts tomorrow. The advising office never officially got it worked out so that I would be enrolled in the Public Policy course with the IEP professor, but my advisor and other students have told me to just show up and go with it. I talked to the professor briefly at a meet and greet, and hopefully there won't be too many people trying to squeeze into the class. :| I'm also going to try and sneak my way in to another class that's Tuesday/Thursday at 10 AM, because I think 13 semester hours is just too few to start out on. :| And I'm also frustrated with their course registration system in general.

If I can't make it in, I'll have class from 10 AM to 2 PM and from 4 PM to 6 PM on Monday and Wednesday with Tuesday/Thursday/Friday completely free. I could potentially take this other class, but it's on Monday from 6-9. I'm not sure I can handle 9 hours of class all in one day and not feel overly burnt out by the time the last class rolls around. I have a lot of "if than this" scenarios floating around in my head, so I'll get it figured out.


In other news, I'm thinking about getting a bike. People have suggested finding used bikes on craigslist and my landlord says I could pick one of these two bikes and have them repaired, but buh. I don't want to spend too much money on one, but on the other hand it would be nice to have something that works reliably. I'm going to be visiting a couple of bike stores in downtown. Hoping to not spend more than about $300 total for the bike/helmet/lock/lights/etc. Here in monterey you have to have a light on your bike if you go riding at night, otherwise you can get a ticket.

Having a bike would make getting around town easier, especially going to the hostel. I could also go down to the trail and go for a ride if I felt the need to get out of the house.


Edit: So apparently, as I was checking my schedule online to be sure I knew where I was going tomorrow, the one class I asked to be put on the waiting list for I'm already registered, and actually has three open spaces. So now I'm technically up to 17 semester hours, and this makes me MUCH happier. So even if in the event I can't get into that Public Policy section I want, I'll at least have a full class load.

Also it seems as though my Contemporary Texts: Japanese class will be moving from 12 PM to 2 PM on MW, which will be nice, because then I'll have two hours for lunch (and hopefully not get in the habit of spending it screwing around on the internet). So the ideal schedule would be 8 AM - 12 PM, then 2 PM - 4PM.

We'll just have to see how tomorrow goes.

So the last few days have been adventures of a different kind. I'll first say that yesterday I went with my housemate to the beach and got sunburnt on my shoulders and back, but it should be fine in a couple days. I think we were out for only a little over an hour and that was enough to make me a little crispy. Definitely won't be going anywhere for longish periods of time without sunscreen anymore.

( In which the MIIS registration process makes me go >( )


On the up side, my computer is configured for the wireless internet on campus, so I typed this whole thing outside.

Now I have to run off to a GSIPM (GPISM? I have no idea how these letters go) orientation activity that supposedly runs for 5 hours.

I'm so glad I have the weekend off.

This morning was the Academic Advising Overview for all students, where I got the "Advising Syllabus" that would tell me the classes I need to take what semester. It only briefly mentions "concentrations" in IEP, so I'm still kind of wondering how big of an issue that really is. My advisor made it out to be like I needed to make up my mind about a concentration for that semester, but in the syllabus it says that it should be incorporated by the end of the first year. I've already decided what I want to concentrate in, but even so, it's a little frustrating.

After that I went with Tetsuko who was showing another Japanese student who needed a place to live an apartment. It's being renovated, so it might still take a couple weeks, but this apartment we looked at is GORGEOUS. It's going to have new tile and new carpet, and it's a two-level unit with two bathrooms. The kitchen is on the upper level with lots of windows, and it's a corner unit. The best part is that it's a lot farther up the hill than my current place, and so there is the most beautiful view of Monterey and the bay from the kitchen.

The rent is $1600/month and I wish I knew someone else who was looking for a place to rent and wouldn't mind paying that, because it is GORGEOUS and I would totally sign a one year lease and stay there for the two years of my study.

I don't know all of the details, but it's unfurnished, so I'd have to get something to sleep on, and I didn't remember until later to ask about laundry. It's in an apartment complex, so it might have laundry in the building. If it did? It'd be perfect.

I kind of feel bad, because I don't want to snipe it out from anyone's nose, but. It's SUCH a nice place.

Man.


Anyway, after that was the Japanese oral test. Eh. It went okay. At the end the Sensei said that based on my score and on the talking that she'd put me in the upper-300 class. So, not the lowest, but not the highest either. Works for me. Only thing is that it might conflict with one of my other classes, but I think she said it might be possible to switch the time for the class.

Although if it gets switched to 2 PM on Monday Wednesday?....yeah uh. That'll be six hours of class.

In a row.


OTL


I have the afternoon off, it's a nice day so maybe I'll do something outside. Ah! Farmer's market again today. I need to remember to pick up some chili powder at Trader Joe's, too.


Big box of doom just arrived from mom! Thanks mom!

Just got done with the Japanese placement test (after some issue finding the room) and...well it wasn't too bad. Most of it was fairly easy grammar and such...I didn't look at the 400 level test, but I probably wouldn't have been able to pass that one since I've taken a year off language study as it is. The kanji would have eaten me. But, everyone else in the class took the 300 level, so I'm probably okay. The only thing that was really a disaster was the small composition paragraph we had to do at the end. My kanji was really horrendous (I couldn't remember the compound for "high school" despite having learned that IN high school, you'd think I'd know by now), and the grammar was eeeehhhh...but hopefully that alone won't kill me >_>

I've got about an hour to kill before the "Community Building Activity" which is 2.5 hours, and then I'm good until 5:30 since I don't have to take the economics exam (woohoo).

Hummm...not much else to report. I need to run down to Walgreens at some point to buy bread and chocolate.

Today was the last day of my econ class- Hooray! All done with that. Now if I can get my schedule figured out and survive the language placement tests. I'm a little terrified.

After class I came home and grabbed a PB sandwich, then took a nap for a bit. Around 3:45 I went out to see if I could find this comic book shop that was theoretically closer than the one on lighthouse (same store, though). And. I walked and just kept going until I thought I saw a place, but I never did. I didn't think it would be too easy to miss...but I didn't find it and ended up walking all the way to the corner of the Post Naval Graduate school before I decided to turn around and head home. When I checked the map again I remember walking past that point and...who knows. Boo. Maybe I'll get to the one on Lighthouse eventually because I know where that is, and I've been wanting to venture over to that part of town again. I'll see about going sometime next week.

Anyway, here are a few more photos from around town:


HUGE Victorian House on the corner of my street in the way to class. The blue one in the background is about as big with different detailing. I'll get a picture of it sometime.



The house itself. I live in the back, at the end of the driveway.



Shot from the front of the house. City hall is on the other side of the house which roof you can see in the background there.



The Underwood-Brown Adobe, now Monterey City Hall. Across the street (to the left of the photo) is the Police station, and then on the corner is the Fire Station across from the Public Library.



The Lara-Soto Adobe, a former residence of Steinbeck, now the Admissions office for my school, MIIS. XD



Quick shot of my room. Not much on the walls yet.



The kitchen



Del Monte Beach - it spans a good mile or two, I think. This is at the southern end. There's a Kayaking rental place right there, I want to go Sea Kayaking so bad ;_; Not sure how expensive it is, though. The beach doesn't have a whole lot of waves because of the bay, I think.



The day I went to hang out on the beach (last Sunday), I wandered over to Fisherman's Wharf again just to enjoy the weather, and this guy had set up a little stand with all of these exotic birds that people could get their pictures taken with. I'm not really sure why, but the birds were cool.


Hmm I think that's it for now. I wish I had pancake mix, and sausage. I really want pancakes for dinner :| Too bad I didn't think of this until now, because my friend had already offered me a ride to Target this afternoon and I didn't think there was anything I needed. Sigh.

Yesterday I went to an advising appointment to see if I could get my class schedule figured out early and out of the way. I didn't actually end up getting anything set up, but I'm glad that I went because...wow. I can't imagine having to make a snap decision in 15 minutes of time.

I pretty much found out that there are actually different concentrations within the International Environmental Policy (IEP) program, and that I should take this one class if I wanted to do this track, or this class if I wanted to do this one, but be careful because it'll be hard to switch later!

I just. What? There is NOTHING about different tracks on the website (I went back and looked yesterday), and there's at least four or five. I was a little annoyed because really...that's a big deal! It makes no sense for them to not have that information up on the website about the program. I would have definitely gone into the appointment with a better idea of what I really needed if they had. Also it would be helpful for anyone considering the program in the first place, you know?

Luckily I've been following environmental news sites since about April (and watching way too much Animal Planet. I miss Animal Planet ;_; ), so I figured I wanted to do something with like ocean conservation or alternative/clean energy to help reduce dependency on fossil fuels and work against global warming. But if I hadn't been ready for that? Man. I would have really been frustrated.

My advisor suggested I go find the syllabi for these two classes that I needed to take one of for the semester (and would probably decide what track I do), and gave me a list of environmental organizations to look at. I've glanced through the list, but I haven't gone to check out any of the websites. Also, I figured out how to get to the syllabi, but only one of the classes is up. :|

The two concentrations I'm considering are Conservation and Sustainable Development. Right now I'm leaning more towards Sustainable Development, because I think there will be a ton of opportunities for getting into that kind of career. I've already got a sort of business background, and since there's no way America and so many other modernized countries can cut back on the consumer culture, it'd be worth it to at least work to make that consumption less wasteful and more environmentally friendly for everyone and future generations (for both people and ecosystems). In a way SD encompasses conservation, so I think at this point that'd be the best route for me.

I'm also hoping to maybe do the Development Project Management Institute program, since it'll be particularly pertinent if I do Sustainable Development.


That way, also, when I've paid off all my debts and have saved some kind of money, the BFF and I can work on opening an entirely eco-friendly coffee shop/bookstore someday.

I am also a little frustrated because I would like to take International Econ. this semester, but that would make the schedule a little weird. I just wanted to get it out of the way while I was still in the economics mode.

Speaking of Econ, tomorrow's the last day of the whole spiel, and I'm soooo glad. It was getting pretty exhausting. Except now I'm not going to know what to do with all of my free time, fff. I think on Sunday or maybe tomorrow afternoon I will call up Tetsuko and ask her to help me practice my horrible Japanese. One of my friends in the econ class said they were going to ask you questions about like...career goals and stuff and I'm just. Terrified. LOL my vocabulary is awful and who knows about my sentence structure. I need to find an online thing to help me refresh or something. Where did I put my grammar notes, anyway?

Hm, I should see about figuring something for dinner. One of these days I need to get my posters on the walls and liven this place up.

So, there's a wildfire burning near Santa Cruz, not too far from here.

I can smell it outside. It smells like a campfire everywhere, and if the wind is blowing in the right direction, we get wispy things that look like clouds, but are dirtier, so it's actually smoke. Today has been especially bad, because it's been pretty hazy.

It doesn't smell bad - actually it smells kind of good - but it just sucks to know that there's a forest burning.

Fires are important to ecosystems, as they return a lot of necessary nutrients to the soil, but they're still not so fun to deal with, and a forest takes years - decades - to grow back.


I have no chocolate :| this needs to be fixed. But it'll have to be fixed tomorrow.

Luckily I haven't burned through the second book that I checked out from the library today (bad pun, sorry), so I'll have something to read tomorrow at the beach 8)


(lol two hours later I push the post button :|)

I walked a few miles to the Del Monte shopping center yesterday. I took my smaller camera with me to snap some photos along the way, only to discover that it's broken. When I turn it on, the lens is open and everything, but it doesn't display anything on the screen. Not sure when this happened - possibly on the plane or earlier. But it doesn't work, so I didn't get any photos.

I went to the shopping center for two main reasons: one, to get a book because there's no regular bookstores in the downtown area (wtf), and two, to go to whole foods thinking that they had different stuff than Trader Joes and I could find more things that I wanted to use.

Luckily my trip wasn't entirely fruitless, as the Border's express had the book I wanted (which I have already finished, given that it was only about 260 pages and a quick read), but Whole foods? Is another organic/natural food store.

I wouldn't be complaining except that they had ONE kind of cream of mushroom soup, and that had all this extra stuff in it. They had ONE. KIND. Also one kind of brownie mix.

I about had a mental breakdown (not really, but I was exceedingly frustrated).

Also - none of these places seem to have canned tuna. Or bacon. I don't understand.

So instead I bought some peanut butter and some honey mustard and a box of organic mac and cheese.

The mac and cheese was all right, but it was pretty bland :|

Just a few minutes ago I decided I'd make myself a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I opened the jar and took off the seal and. The peanut butter? Was runny. Like it was melted runny, even though I'd just kept it in the jar at room temperature.

What. The. Crap.

It tasted okay (obviously not as sweet as, say, Skippy), but. Runny Peanut butter. Who the hell can eat RUNNY peanut butter on bread? You don't melt butter in the microwave before putting it on most things, right? WTF. Ugh.

I put the peanut butter in the fridge, and now I'm just exceedingly frustrated that I can't find some of the kinds of things I want to buy without excessive amounts of trouble. Now I'm pretty much stuck having to take a bus to go grocery shopping, because the only other place I know about is over by the youth Hostel, and then Target. Nob Hill is walkable, but not with groceries. It'd take me 40 minutes to get there on foot, probably. Target just isn't walkable period.

At this point it'll be worth the $5.00 round trip just to get the things I want :|

Guh.

Last day of Microeconomics was all right. I missed more questions on the quiz than I had on any of the others, but my cumulative points missed all together ended up being only 3 since there were extra credit questions on one test, so that cancelled out my previously missed two and gave me an extra point, then today I missed four. But considering we've had five tests of 21 points each, I'd say that's pretty darn good.

I have the rest of the afternoon off - I plan to go to the library to check out the next book of the one I just finished, and then read or watch movies, and tomorrow I'm planning on hanging out at the beach for a bit, maybe doing some laundry.

Macroecon starts on Monday. Uggghh I'm going to be so exhausted by the end of next week.

Economics is going really well so far - I've only missed two points total out of 3 quizzes (aced today's quiz) so I'm sure that passing Micro won't be a problem. I find it kind of funny that it's coming so easily to me, because it seems like there's a lot of people struggling with it, I don't know. It's not like I sit in my room all day and study, so. I dunno. There are two classes left, and I'm definitely ready for a break on Sunday. Five hours of class a day really wears you out mentally. Orientation/regular class will be a breeze compared to this; I won't know what to do with myself, lol.

Tomorrow during break I'm going to turn in my work study forms so that I can be ready to go when one that I can actually do pops up. There's one position that would be a good alternative to my "dream job" of working at the aquarium, but it requires that you have your own transportation to and from the site (wherever it is, because conveniently enough while they say that, they don't give you an address), and other places you'd have to go (possibly around Monterey county), so that one's out as I don't have a car, obviously. That's particularly frustrating.

But, I'm checking the work study page every day to see when new things pop up. I really do want to work at the aquarium :(

Otherwise there are office jobs on campus I can do, but those won't get me the experience that I want :\

I'm also a little frustrated with the fact that there is not an actual bookstore in the downtown or even New Monterey area. There's some used/old/rare bookstores around, but the closest thing that has just a regular bookstore with new books is the Del Monte center, which actually isn't that close to me. There's a Borders Express there. The regular Borders is over by Target, but that's a $5 bus trip.

What's really kind of ironic about the whole reason for me wanting to go to a bookstore in the first place is that there's a book series I want to look into/start, and I checked the Monterey public library because it's literally just a couple blocks away, but it doesn't have the first book of the series. WTF. Super lame.

I could probably use a trip out there anyway, since there's a Macy's and a different grocery store other than Trader Joe's that maybe has some normal things that don't cost an arm and a leg :| I want things like wosterchier (sp?) sauce and regular rice and cream of mushroom soup to make stroganoff and also to not have to pay $6 for a pound of hamburger.

I also think I might need some kind of new regular walking shoes, because I discovered a hole in my sketchers the other day :( It's not noticable but...yeah. Errggghh. It's just annoying and inconvenient and I don't really want to buy another pair of shoes, but there's a hole in the toe and. Augh. Sigh. I'm going to put that off until I really need them. I almost bought new shoes before I left home, but the only place I really like to buy shoes is Khols, and their selection sucked as did Famous Footwear next to it, so I just didn't deal with it.

Mph.

Anyway, I might go to the Del Monte center tomorrow after class to get that out of the way.

I guess there's a forest fire on the other side of the bay. I thought I smelled something burning last night, and the clouds look kind fo dirty. My landlord told me there was a fire, so. I don't think there's a danger of it coming over here though (and if it did it'd be a tragedy, Monterey has a lot of historic buildings).

I want to go to the beach on Sunday.

I just got back from this HUGE farmer's market in downtown Monterey. It was amazing! So many people there selling fruits and veggies, flowers, and some of the local restaurants had stands. I almost got some Lamb Curry for dinner. There were also people selling jewelry and clothing and all kinds of nifty stuff.

I ended up buying a few peaches, a couple of tomatoes (one of which got bashed in by something on the way home :( guess I'll be eating that soon lolol), blackberries and raspberries, walnuts, homemade salsa, and an orchid. I've wanted an orchid for soo long, and I thought it would be a nice thing to put in my room, so I got a small one for about $10. It's so pretty!

The berries are effing delicious. I'm never buying berries at the grocery store again, particularly after the last batch I bought at Trader Joes was AWFUL (although their cottage cheese is the best cottage chese I've ever had). Ugh. I ended up throwing half of them away :| I'm just not doing so well with food here for whatever reason, but this stuff is awesome. Next week hopefully I'll have a better idea of stuff I can make and can buy accordingly. There was even a stand selling fresh fish (in coolers), so maybe if I ever aquire some teriyaki marinade I can get some salmon. Mmm.


The economics class (micro) started yesterday, and it's actually not so bad. I remember a lot of the concepts from before, and I think taking International Econ helped put a better perspective on things. I can tell I'm not having a hard time with the concepts, unlike some of my classmates who ask the most WTF questions (like if a Market Power, aka Monopoly, was the concept behind Obama's national health care plan. DUDE. WRONG CLASS a;ewjfaowiejf). Also people have a hard time with the simplicity of the models, because they bring in all of these outside ideas to the problem and just making it more complicated than it is.

Anyway, I got 19/20 on the first quiz, and you just have to get 80% average on the quizzes to pass the class, so hopefully it won't get too difficult along down the road.

Although the power going out in the house last night? Kind of made it difficult to study :| I guess this house, and just a couple on this block are on a municipal grid, so everyone around us had power, but ours didn't. I'm not sure what happened, but I ran into one of my friends on the way to the farmer's market and he said that another part of downtown was out too. Weird.

But, anyway, I think time to do some more studying while I munch on berries and cottage cheese.


P.S. I keep meaning to take pictures of the campus and such, hopefully I'll remember to do so tomorrow.

I went shopping at Trader Joe's yesterday for groceries...and let me tell you, that was an experience. We don't have a Trader Joes close to anywhere in CR and I've never been to one regardless, so it was a little bit difficult finding exactly what it was I wanted to buy.

It's great that it's organic and natural-foods oriented, but really...I don't much fancy paying $5 for some parmesean cheese or sliced turkey breast for sandwiches and pasta. For most of the trip I felt kind of frustrated because I knew what I wanted but had a hard time actually finding it. And sometimes their selection quite frankly sucks - like salad dressing. If you didn't want balsamic vinaigrette or just plain olive oil, you had little choice :| I ended up with Cesar, but what I really wanted was either just straight Italian or rasperry vinaigrette. Sigh. And I don't much care for the bread, as I found out after making a sandwich for lunch once I got back. It's just...hard around the edges like it's stale or something, and after a while just isn't pleasant to eat at all. But now I have a whole loaf of it and. I don't know what to do with it. I'll probably just make due and eat what I can during these first couple of weeks and make sandwiches to take to lunch during econ or something. For the most part their fruit is okay - peaches and apples are really good, actually, but the Driscolls raspberries were terrible :|

Sigh.

I did make a trip to walgreens today to pick up a few more necessary things that I didn't grab at target - notebooks/folders and one of those collapsable laundry hamper things, because my clothes had just sort of been strewn across the floor otherwise. I want to buy an electric kettle because I know once it gets perpetually colder I'll be making a LOT of tea, and frankly the gas stove freaks me out, so it'll be easier to have it in my room. But anyway, walgreens didn't have the tea kettle, but I did happen to notice that they have milk for either the same price or cheaper than Trader Joe's, and also a few things that I actually recognized (again, for cheaper), so I can probably do some shopping for things there when necessary.

Hopefully I will make buddies with someone with a car (I think a couple of the students whom I met on Friday night at a mexican restaurant had cars) and we can make trips to Target or Costco for other food things (because I mean really).

Oh yes - apparently my suspicions have been concerned, and generally there are NO classes scheduled on Fridays, which is awesome. 3 day weekend to do things.


Tomorrow my Econ class starts, so I'm thinking I'll skim through the first few chapers to get a heads up on it. One of the students that was staying at the hostel was an Econ major, so he says if I need help I can ask him XD He'd been having a hard time finding a place to live because a lot of places had preferences for girls, but luckily he found a place close.

I'm thinking I might try looking for a bigger place for next semester. Not that I dislike the place I have now, but it is small everywhere. It's a good place to get started, but I'm not sure I want to stay here for the whole school year. I'll keep my options open and what not, but obviously I won't go anywhere if I can't find another suitable spot. It's just a thought.