Exchange to University of California (Berkeley) S2 2015 Summary Third year BSc (Microbiology) Living Arrangements/Casa Zimbabwe I had been advised to join the Berkeley Student Co-­‐ops from the start, but my campus confirmation came through pretty late, so I ended up being pretty far down the wait list and ended up in interim accommodation at an apartment 8 blocks from campus for the first two months, which was relatively expensive and a little difficult to land because most landlords really want you to sign a full year lease! The apartment was a little less than perfect (took a while to convince the landlord to let us use the oven for example), but it felt safe and was relatively clean. However, eventually a spot opened at Casa Zimbabwe and in general the whole exchange experience bloomed after becoming part of that household. Casa Zimbabwe (or “CZ”) is a shared communal house (essentially a flat) of 124 residents (the largest house in the co-­‐ops, the smallest of which has 17 residents). All food is communally bought, and all major household tasks are divided up among the residents as work-­‐shift (compulsory 5 hours a week) – I generally opted for cook shifts and ended up also with a snack shift where I made bagels and focaccia and challah for the residents. There are also elected positions which carry with them either work-­‐shift hours or an amount of paid board (e.g. house president, kitchen manager), and operations within the house are voted on democratically at a weekly council during dinner. The culture of the house was about as chaotic as you would expect for 124 fairly liberal people with large levels of control over their domestic surroundings, and I found this to be very enjoyable personally, but it also definitely carries with it a fair degree of uncleanliness and the occasional clash of personalities, which may not be comfortable for all. The house is covered in wonderful variable artwork, and full of amazing people who do amazing things. It is like a giant, wonderful, messy family. I highly recommend the co-­‐ops as the ideal Berkeley living experience. School The main difference to Otago in terms of classes (within science at least) was the general layout of the course. Generally speaking all the papers I took had 2 – 3 midterms worth 20 – 30% each, about 20 – 30% worth of homework or essays and the final exams were only worth about 20 – 40% and sometimes only covered the last portion of the course (as compared to Otago’s ~30% internal and ~70% final exam science format). This meant that there had to be a lot of constant revision of course concepts, but also meant that there was less pressure for the final exams. While this makes it generally easier to get better marks, it is also very high maintenance, and I found it very overwhelming at times, especially when I had three or four midterms within a two-­‐week period. I was doing senior courses so class size was fairly variable – one class had about 12 people in it but another had 50+. Make use of office hours if you need to! Based on the papers I took, I think the difficulty of many courses is not too far different from that of Otago. I managed to get an undergraduate research position through the URAP programme (which I recommend looking into very early on in the exchange if scientific research interests you so you can pick projects to apply for), which taught me a lot of techniques and increased my patience for long-­‐term experiments. It was definitely a big time consumer, but worth it. There are also more informal classes called “DECals” that I didn’t have enough room to sign up for, but they looked pretty fun and included such things as ‘Pokemon Anatomy’ classes. I did not really engage with much of the university culture outside of school and the co-­‐ops, but there seemed to be a lot of interesting and fun stuff going on and I regret not checking it out more. Adventures Most of my adventures around Berkeley itself involved feeding and talking to the homeless population, which is a lot larger than that of Otago. They are such wonderful people and even in a liberal place such as Berkeley, they are often not given the time of day. I went to Yosemite National Park shortly before classes started, and it really is a beautiful place (although covered in pines – it took me a while to get used to seeing these as native forest). The rock faces are truly stunning and the pine forests stretch out as far as the eye can see. I met some amazing musicians who played with me a few times and took me to some shows out in Oakland, usually in old houses covered in drawings with a fairly small but intimate crowd. I know there are also more major events happening frequently, especially in places such as San Francisco, but this was really what I wanted. I regret that I let studying take up as much of my time as it did, as I would have liked to have more time to explore and go to more shows. I also met some amazing artists who were generally very excited to collaborate and connect, and there are many fascinating art studios spread out in places such as Oakland. There is a degree of social conflict surrounding Oakland – it is currently undergoing gentrification as a result of many wealthy people moving in as part of the growing tech industry nearby, and the wild unbridled culture of the area is being gradually suppressed by evictions, upmarket emerging businesses, and increased police callouts. Advice for future exchange students Have adventures! Meet people! I didn’t do nearly enough of this, but what I managed really increased my love of people and expanded my horizons. Join a co-­‐op if you can! I am pretty introverted and grumpy, but managed to hold my ground in a very large house of people and I ended up enjoying it immensely. Your workload will probably get pretty heavy at times, but don’t let it run your life, there is really something to be said for a good balance. Thanks This was an amazing part of my life, and I am truly thankful to Otago for providing me with the means to experience all that I have experienced. I am so lucky to have met all of the people I met and shared a fraction of their lives. L: House in Oakland, R: Artist studio in Oakland TL: Charlie helps me make bagels, TL: My hallway at CZ, B: Common room at CZ