Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice

I haven't made a post in such a long time... I am just always so busy. And I haven't really taken any new pictures lately. Maybe I should start making more shorter posts more frequently, though :)

The rainy days are finally over and I enjoy the sun. Spring Break is already in two weeks. Crazy! Annaise is coming frim Canada and we rent a car and do a roadtrip. I can't wait for our fun-girls-on the road-enjoying-the-beach-and-party time. But till then I'll have to work hard... I am involved in three research projects and working on a new reaerch proposal right now. Also, the classes are very demanding. It is almost impossible to finish all the readings assigned. I love how every Lab and Department at the University just collaborates. In Germany, you are basically stuck with your lab, whereas here, you can work with different Professors and students from different Labs on all kinds of projects. You just need to put some effort into it.

Last week, I went to the movies and watched the documentary I AM by Tom Shadyac (founder of Jim Carrey, director of Aceventura, Liar, Liar, The nutty professor, Bruce Allmighty...). Well, he had a change of heart and did this documentary including the topic: Whats wrong with our world and what can we do to make it better? Click here to see the trailer . Our UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Dacher Keltner is in it, since the movie is (among others) based on two of his books. It was a lovely movie. Although it might not be the newest idea, it was still inspiring. After watching it, we all went to Jupitor (one of my favorite restaurants), had some wine and discussed. A very memorable night!

I have to go back to my readings and essays, have a great day everyone.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

"You have such a crush on Berkeley" my roomate Ali said the other day. It is true. I love this city. Today is Valentine's Day, so here are the top five things I love about my new life in Berkeley.

1) Weather - It has been perfect the last past days. Sunshine and warmth, I can wear dresses and don't even need a jacket. I am pretty much outside all the time. It is perfect for running, hiking and sailing (which I just did the other day, it was amazing!!!).

2) San Francisco - Berkeley is so close to this lovely city. Last week I went there 4 times. You can do anything there. This week I went shopping (so many great stores), celebrated chinese new year in Chinatown, (having deliciouse Dimsum), went clubbing (at Vessels) and visited the Symphony (we went to Haydn, Schubert, Bach concert).

3) Food - ohhh I love the food here. Fresh fruits and vegetables everyday. Grocery shopping is fantastic. I just recently discovered Monterey Market. They provide an array of delicious seasonable produce. I have so much choice there on all kinds of fruits and vegetables, all grown here. I don't even want to think about normal supermarkets anymore. In our house we like to share meals and my housemate is a fantastic cook. What he cooks is really gourmet food. Once a week I also have a cooking night with friends. We rotate every time the location and 2-3 people prepare the dinner. Last time we were at my friend's new place (Aleks just moved into a beautiful wooden house, with view to the San Franisco Skyline and Golden Gate Bridge). It was such great food and we were up till 3.30 in the morning.

4) People - I have truly met great & inspiring people and made good friends. Aleks and I just recently discussed how lucky we are to have met such great guys. It is always fun :) I am so thankful.

5) UC Berkeley - the school is great. A few months ago I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay in psychology at all. Now I am all enthusiastic about my research & classes. I am reading journals like crazy and I already learned so many new exciting things.

Shout it out, scream it loud

So, classes have finally started and I have loads of work to do. All the students work really hard, it feels like some actually live in their lab. On the other hand, they also know how to enjoy their time after, and they definitely know how to party. I am very lucky with my courses. As a grad student you are supposed to take 2 - 4 classes and work on you research. At the moment I have 6 classes! It is a little crazy, but they all sounded amazing, and I got really excited.

my schedule
monday: 9am: lab meeting, 1-3pm: proseminar social psychology (taught by Christina Maslach)

tuesday: 10-12am: personal assesment (my Prof. is actually german, Oliver John, you couldn't tell, though. His accent is perfect!), lab afterwards

wednesday: 9-11am: attachment (by Mary Main...wohaaa she's amazing), 12.30-3.30pm: buyer behavior (favorite class :) by Leif Nelson), 4-5.30pm: research in organizational behavior (haven't been there yet, it is taught by a different Professor each week)

thursday: 12-1.30pm: colloquia (various types of psychological research are presented, next week: humor :) )

friday: lab

in between: lab!!!

It is crazy how much you learn, the whole environment is extremely inspiring. The class sizes are really small, they range from 6 to 12 people. I can actually follow the entire class without losing focus, because it is so interesting (even my research methods class;) ). It is hard to keep up with the reading, for each class I usually hav to read about 4-6 Journals. The professors really make you think and it really helps in order to generate new research questions and to design new research projects. I wouldn't necessarily say that the level is higher than in Germany, but it is a totally different approach on learning. All the energy is very stimulating. At least this is my impression so far.

Last weekend we had a housewarming party and it was a real succes. Lots of people showed up, we had good music and fun :). I appreciate this house and all my housemates more and more. I also went to a piano concert last week! Jean-Yves Thibaudet (i.e. soundtrack Pride & Prejudice) played Liszt at Cal Performances (a hall right on campus). It was simply WOW. Crazy what this man can do with his fingers. I can't wait to go to the Symphonie in San Francisco. We're getting tickets next week!

Booth of several fraternitys and sororitys infront of the campus. I got invited by Alpha Kappa Gamma (or was it Alpha Beta Psi...??) and actually thaught about going just for fun...

First day of school :)

It is very busy on campus...

Partytime: The girls of the house

My lovely housemates

The concert :)
We were 7 people. Yes, at Cal you actually find people who enjoy doing those things ;)

The master!!!

This is where I study!!!

Please, University of Cologne, imitate...

Here you can actually take nap... the sofas are super comfy

Keeping up with my readings


This was a birthday party we went to the other day :)

If you wanna go and take a ride with me

The last past days were very busy. It was ALWAYS something going on - in a good way. Since classes hadn't started yet, I was able to visit some more places around the bay area.
On thursday I was actually lazy and hanging around in my pyjamas, when my roommate told me to get ready for clubbing in the city. First we went to a houseparty to visit some friends and have some food (really good homemade food) and drinks, and later three of us drove down to the city. We had a blast :)
The next day I had the first meeting with my advisor. It was such a pretty day, I came in early, so fortunately I had also enough time to hang around at the campus, lay in the grass and enjoy the sun. Perfect for me. My professor is super nice and everything he told me sounds very exciting. Afterwards I had early dinner with a new friend of mine and afterwards some housemates and I went to San Francisco again (my fourth time there already :) ). If you go by car, it goes so fast. Only about 20 minutes. There we joined another houseparty (located in an apartment from whcih you had an incredible view over the skyline of San Fran). At around 11pm we all decided party on in a club. Since clubs aren't allowed to serve any alcohol after 2am, people go out much earlier than in Europe. We went to Mightys, it had a cool San Francsico crowd, location and music. Have a look at the website for some photos of the location: http://www.mighty119.com/gallery/index.html After clubbing we felt kinda hungry, so we actually decided to get something to eat at Mel's Diner :) an early breakfast at 3am I guess...
On Saturday it was Berkeley-Day. We went to the Berkeley Marina, had a picknik and played some frisbee. A typical californian thing I suppose. Later on we decided to cook some lasagne at our place, it was delicious. We chilled the whole evening at house, had some wine and good talks. It is great to finally really get to know the people I live with. I like the fact, that we are so many people living here. You're never alone, but the house is big enough so that you can be alone if you wish to.
On sunday I went to Santa Cruz!! A mini roadtrip. I have never been there, we drove along the coast on highway 1 and it was beautiful. We made stops every here and there, took some pictures until we finally reached Santa Cruz (it's about 1.5 h away from Berkeley). The weather was great so we hanged out at the beach before we decided to explore the city a little more.
All in all I had a really great time. I have met wonderful people & now I am just really excited for schools to start. Nevertheless I am missing the boyfriend, family & friends!!!!

A small selection of photos... I have so many now

San Francisco Sunset

Typical lunch in Berkeley

Dinner at home


On our way to Santa Cruz

The following pictures were taken by a friend:

Frisbee at the Berkeley Marina

Jumping over Golden Gate Bridge ;)

Beautiful view at the San Francisco Skyline from the Berkeley Marina


Sailing boats

Oh this has gotta be a good life

Today's rainy, so perfect to chill at home, listen to music, eat ice cream and make a new post :).
A few others and I actually went to Stanford yesterday! Stanford and Berkeley are old rivals, so of course I needed to have a look at it.
Standford is located in Palo Alto, it's about a one hour drive away from Berkeley. As soon as you walk into Palo Alto, you can alrady tell that this city is rich: Expensive cars, beautiful houses, elegant stores,... Unlike UC Berkeley, Stanford is a little further away from downtown. Almost every student lives on campus (I really don't know how they manage the grocery shopping without a car...). Everything in Stanford is perfect (the grass, the buildings, the plants; it is all perfectly acurate)... maybe almost too perfect. Nervetheless the architecture is extremely beautiful, have a look for yourself:That was about the only sign we found...

This is how it looks almost everywhere.

Easy to get lost...
I actually wore a red coat (that's Stanfords colour...) next time Iwill be going there definitely in a Berkeley hoodie.
So different from Cal...
Did you know that Stanfords mascot is a tree??? I mean, come on, how boring is that? Go Bears!

We had food at the cheese cake factory.


Of course I had to get one after our dinner. This is a $7.99 cheesecake and worth every penny.

Well, we had lots of fun at Stanford and decided we might check out the student partys over here every other week. It is so different from Berkeley.


A few of you guys were asking me about the university and what I exactly will be doing there. Well, I am a international student researcher. So on the one hand I will counduct research (in the field of social psychology), and on the other hand attend a few classes. It is so crazy to finally meet the Professors I have been writing papers on, when I was in Cologne. I.e. Prof. Christina Maslach. I wrote a paper on burnout (and the Maslach Burnout Inventory) last semester and she pretty much investigated it all. And now I will be actually taking one if her classes.
Oh another thing, I don't know if you know this, but students call UC Berkeley "Cal" (that's basically why a named this blog "cal blog").
You were also asking about the food... it is all fine. Some of the best restaurants in the US are actually located in Berkeley. And here are tons of asian and french places. I will post some pictures of my food the next time.

That's pretty much it for today. Have a great night everyone :)

California here I come

I am finally in Cali and it has been a blast so far. Berkeley is a very neat and pretty city. I am in love with the sun, the smell and the colours!
The house I live is quite big; I have nine housemates: six americans, one chinese, one norwegian and one swiss.
I have the feeling that everything's more laid back overhere, people are really open and easy going. Right on my first day I got to know new people. I just got out of the house in order to explore the city and I bumped in to them. The first one started to talk to me about the weather and we ended up exchanging numbers and e-mail adresses. When I walked further I ran into the second person (a PhD student from UC Berkeley) who talked to me because he noticed on my area-enjoying- and- exploring -look that I wasn't from Berkeley. We ended up meeting that same day in order to go to San Francisco! But before I had time to walk around the city and do a little bit of shopping. It was an amazing feeling to just walk through the city and have look at everything. Of course I had to checkout the campus, too! First thing I did was to go to the legendary Sather Gate. I had already seen it so many times on pictures and movies but to there eventually myself was just so special. When I walked through the gate I saw the beautiful campus of UC Berkeley. It was amazing. I can't wait the classes to start :)
And as I already told you above I went to San Francisco at night (joined by some of my housemates). At first we had delicious cupcakes, then we went out to eat at a french restaurant (yummy!!!) and afterwards we went to a bar in which I had the first dark chocolate beer in my life. San Francisco is only 30 min away from Berkeley, so totally doable. I think I will definitely come back quite often.

I gotta go now. It is time for the fleamarket, hopefully I will find a bike (:

Love, Sarah xxx





A few more pictures of the beautiful campus :


This picture was taken right in front of the Doe Library.
It is so green everywhere!



This is in the Doe Library. Thats probably where I will be studying.

Hello Sunshine

San Francisco has welcomed me with sunshine and warmth. I am really tired, but I wanted to post some pictures of the house and my room to give you an idea of where I will be living the next 5 months.
My new room. I love it. Of course I will hang up more pictures on the walls!!!

Isn't this need? Enough space for my jewellery and favourity make-up!


A closet I can even walk into. I am looking forward to do some major shopping.

The road I live on: Martin Luther King Junior Way.

My new home. Love it.

Talk to you later,
Sarah xxx