Looking for a spontaneous adventure around Berkeley that does not consist of grabbing boba and chilling at the Asian Ghetto? Are you limited on funds and time? If so, check out the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden!!! With aromatic flowers in full bloom this summer, our botanical garden is the place to explore with a few buddies or that good looking lab partner. The 30 minute hike up the hill to the garden is a fabulous way to bond and warm up before touring our:

"...worldwide collection [that] features plants of documented wild origin from nearly every continent, with an emphasis on plants from Mediterranean climates (California, Mediterranean Basin, Australia, South Africa, and Chile). The arrangement of the outdoor collections is primarily geographic by continent of origin or by region including Asia, Australasia, California, Eastern North America, Mediterranean, Mexico/Central America, New World Desert, South America, and Southern Africa. The Garden holds one of the largest and most diverse collections in the United States."

Admission : $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and $2 for children ages 3 through 12. The Garden is open daily from 9 AM to 5 PM year round, Tropical House closes at 4:00. However, UC Berkeley students, professors, and staffs get in for free :)

For more information, please visit:
http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/mission.shtml

Continue reading "Best place for the first date... and it's FREE!" »

Posted by Amelia Nguyen at 5:29 PM | Permalink

In the spirit of fully using my resources, I followed Susan Kishi's advice and set up an appointment with one of the career counselors at the Career Center today. The career center really is as far as it looks on the map; I panicked halfway there because I wasn't sure whether I'd passed it or not. However, it does happen to have a flag in front of it that says "Career Center," so it isn't actually very difficult to find.

Although I scheduled a 15-minute appointment, my counselor actually ended up talking to me for 25! Truth be told, after talking to him, I was even more confused, because he opened up my possibilities. I expect that this'll all make more sense to me after I take one of the tests that help students find direction.

The career center's a nice place despite how far it is; if you want to make an appointment, however, do it soon! There's a three-week waiting list for the 45-minute appointments, which are needed if you want to take one of those aforementioned tests.

I'm kind of worried again. What if I end up wanting to be something totally out of my discipline, like a fashion magazine editor? Unfortunately, just about any girl who's watched 13 going on 30 or The Devil Wears Prada wants to be a fashion magazine editor, and there just aren't enough great fashion magazines to go around.

Posted by Katarina Makmuri at 4:20 PM | Permalink

Today was my first formal meeting with my major advisor, Susan Kishi from Environmental Sciences. For the past few weeks, I've been worried sick about the general direction of my future.

Meeting with Susan reminded me of why I love CNR so much. I'd e-mailed her with some tentative times this week, and she responded quickly. Even though I'd wanted to meet early in the morning, before her office hours began, she was willing to come early just for me!

We sat in her office, just the two of us, and talked about... me! She knew the right questions to ask - about my classes, professors; and the right follow-up advice to give. I'd been torn between taking an R1A class and scuba diving (a follow-up class taught scuba diving for research!), and she gave me great suggestions for deciding. What I liked was that she didn't give the usual "Just do what you're interested in and you'll be fine!" talk - she was realistic, pointing out that my schedule was only going to get more difficult, and that it was a good idea to quickly finish my R&C requirement. As for scuba diving, she suggested that I talk with my Oceanography professors during their office hours to get an idea of what they did for their research to see whether or not I'd like doing scuba diving for research.

To help me get over my general feeling of lack of direction, she pointed me to the career center website; it had these neat applications that I'd completely missed before!

We didn't just talk about academics. She also wanted to know how I was doing Student-Life-wise, asking in which student groups I was, and suggesting others that I might like.

I came from a big public school, and I'd never recieved this kind of attention before. We talked for a whole half hour, and never did I feel rushed. I came out relaxed, with a plan in my mind, feeling like I had a great source of support.

Posted by general at 1:21 PM | Permalink

So today was the ESPM Ice Cream Social. I was planning on making an announcement here sooner, but I totally blanked on it yesterday. Sorry about that. For today, the ESPM department was giving away free cones of Ben & Jerry's ice cream to anyone who stopped by outside of Mulford. Some of the professors were scooping cones for people; it was pretty cool get a cone from Keith Gilless, acting dean of CNR. I wasn't able to stay for too long (I had to go to class), but just getting the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather and talk with some friends was great. The Strawberry Kiwi sorbet was pretty good, too. This event reminds me of why the ESPM department is pretty cool (and CNR as a whole).

Yeah, CNR is a pretty chill place to be.

Posted by Joel Kim at 3:02 PM | Permalink

I love my little bath sponge. I love it even more now that I know where it comes from.

I bought a new loofah sponge Saturday, since mine died a sorry death in French Polynesia months ago. As I pulled it out of its packaging, I noticed a seed. Then I stared at the placentation. I thought, "This is Curcubitaceae." And I wondered why I hadn't noticed that about my last sponge.

This image shows the placentation:

Always a curious sort, I put it on my list of things to look into. Did you know that you're scrubbing yourself with xylem? Here's a great step-by-step how to prepare your own loofah article written by Aaron Newton, who grows his own Luffa :http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=689 In this article, Aaron describes the simple process of "milking" the Luffa fruit, to remove the fleshy fruit and seeds, leaving just the fibrous xylem that makes the exfoliating sponge we all love.

Here's a Luffa gord dried out on the vine:

Many species in the genus Luffa, within the Curcubitaceae, are grown for use as sponges. This is the same family as cucumber, melon, and squash. Luffa cylindrica, Luffa acutangula and Luffa aegyptiaca are a few of the species that are grown for this purpose.

Here's a flower with a bumble bee:

Click on "Continue Reading" to see references for further reading, and my sources for all of the photographs of this entry.

Continue reading "Loofah Explained!" »

Posted by Christina at 7:42 AM | Permalink

Grab your student ID, hop on the Hill Line at the Hearst Mining Circle, and get your bum up to the Botanical garden. Yeah, I realize it's raining.

Ok, if you don't go, I won't hold it against you.

I might shed a tear or two for you, though, since you'll miss the orchids that are going crazy right now in the Fern and Carniverous Plant House, which is a little, almost invisible greenhouse right by the main gate to the garden.

Posted by Christina at 9:25 PM | Permalink