La Primavera!

Frau Löwe

Meerkats!

Spring Break
a break to catch the fine mornings of spring
and forget those things that are insignificant
for things that I forgot were mammothly most significant
like sunshine, frozen yogurt, geese, and sake.

Oh, I'd be remiss if I don't first tell you how the conference went. My research partner and I stayed up late drafting a comprehensive overview of our research findings, having surveyed our student body about what they thought about ethnic diversity at our school. Come conference day we stressed over our presentation drafts and practiced our speeches and then piled into our panel room, which was...the size of a closet. It was so small that we sat with the attendees around a table. So much for big formal presentation. So we talked about our findings. Then some sociology students talked about what it was like to be a woman of color in soc. The panel didn't all relate to itself, but I guess that's ok. The conference was about changing the culture of the academy to allow for more diversity as a means for achieving excellence. The cheese at the reception afterwards was glorious.

On to Spring Break!

(Oh yeah, I took a 3-hour test for San Fran County child welfare. Gah, I want to know the results. Will I have a job?)

- Oakland Zoo. Animales! A pretty small zoo, but fun to see the giant fruit bats and lions and chimpanzees and alligators and tropical birdies and sun bear. And this male baboon that totally sexually assaulted a female baboon. She just deflected and started grooming him. It was more of the ppl going, "Oh god!"
- Lake Merrit. The land bound lake in Oakland with lots of high-rise condos scattered around. Grimly beautiful, with many geese. Cute shops and lots of ppl in abundance.
- Scharffen Berger Factory. Our local chocolate factory in Berkeley! I ate more chocolate in samples that I have all month. Delicious chocolate though.
- Takara Sake Factory. Our local sake factory with free tasting. I wasn't that taken with the standard sake, but quite delighted by the dessert ones. Plum sake is smooth and delicious. yum yum.
- My apartment. So clean now that I took the time to clean it with my roommate. How it sparkles!