Winchester & Berkeley

 

For a long time My goals have been set and my eyes have not looked away from my dream school, UC Berkeley. I had heard many good things about the bay area and how prestigious UC Berkeley was, so I told my mom that I wanted to visit the campus! She told me that she would make a reservation for August and we would go a couple days before my birthday. I was stoked!

I was finally going to have it all become real! My future was becoming materialized. I am only two semesters away fro going to Berkeley! Finally I will be able to dorm!

I told one of my friends about my trip to Berkeley and she threw me the news that she Also wanted to go to Berkeley. Of course, I quickly invited her to come with me and my family to Berkeley. Our parents chit chatted and soon enough everything was planned out!

My step-dad was actually excited to go up north because he had been wanting to see the Winchester House for a long time. This was finally going to be his chance. haha. We left about 9 am on Wed off to Berkeley!! My friend and I could NOT stop talking about how nice the campus was going to be and how the people were going to be so sophisticated that we would not be able to slap off our smiles. About 5 hours into the trip we finally arrived to our first destination. The Winchester House!

The Winchester house was actually pretty cool, yet creepy.

Basically the lady that owned the house had kept building on to the house because she thought she would live forever if she kept constructing and constructing. The house was really weird because it had stairs that were really low and some of the stairs would lead into walls. Some doors even opened up to drops! Like two story drops! it was almost cartoon-like. It still was a very gorgeous house. That lady was rich as can be. She owned many acres of land and married a very wealthy man. You might know about the Winchester Rifle. Her husband was the son of the owner of the Winchester Rifle. 

The next day we headed off to Berkeley quite early. I was stoked.

So was my friend. We kept talking about music and dorming and how nice the University campus was going to be. We got off the freeway and I wasn't expecting a nice area...but it was pretty ghetto.

There was bums and weirdos everywhere..I suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable, but I knew the campus wasn't going to be located RIGHT on the ghetto part. So I brushed it off and waited until I arrived to make judgement. We arrived, and I didn't feel any better. The campus WAS literally RIGHT on the ghetto part. You walked out of the school and BAM it was right there. It was gray, and wet, and cold. I began seriously thinking about whether I could go to school there or not.

We went inside the visitor area and waited for out orientation. The orientation was helpful in learning what kind of school I would be going to. It seemed so, boring..and serious. 

But that's school right? 

When I went to UCSB it was quite the opposite, and UCSB began to seem more appealing to me. 

I wanted to get away from the city and go to a place that was peaceful and a campus that is easy to get around. Berkeley was so hilly, and the beauty of the campus was not easily seen because it wasn't flat land. Then they told us about the housing. . . it was off campus housing and the tour wasn't going to show us where they lived. . .

I was just slapped with disappointment. But I'm sooo glad I went.

It definitely opened my mind to applying to more than just 3 colleges. 

I will still apply to Berkeley, because I know its a good school and it has its perks.