Shopping
So, wanna shop around Berkeley? Lots of places to go to. The closest shopping place is on Telegraph Avenue and on Bancroft Street. Besides some well known clothing stores like Adidas, Wet Seal, Urban Outfitter, and Hot Topic, there are unique hat stores, cafes, piercing & tattoo stores, and some local/ethnic clothing stores. Shopping on Telegraph is a great way to get to know the culture and history of Berkeley.

Another place for quick shopping is in Emeryville. You can simply jump on the F bus towards San Francisco and arrive in Emeryville in 20 minutes. Besides many typical stores like Ann Taylor, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap, Victoria’s Secret, etc, there is the AMC movie theater right next to a Barns and Nobles. To get back from Emeryville to Berkeley, you can take the 57 bus and transfer to a 51 bus to get back.

If you love shopping in large scale shopping malls, take the F bus or the BART to San Francisco! There are all kinds of shopping area in the city. In addition to shopping in SF, you can tour around the city. Some nice spots are Pier 39, Fisherman’s Warf, Ghirardelli, the Japanese Town, the China town, etc. If you are over eighteen/twenty-one, clubbing in SF can be another experience to explore.

Eating
Berkeley is known for its great and wide variety of ethnic foods. Besides the well-known “Asian Ghetto” food court on telegraph, there are a lot of eateries on College Avenue and on Shattuck. You can find almost any kinds of food, with student price, around the campus: Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Salads, Italian, Ethiopian, Caribbean, Korean….and lots and lots of good cafés!

Hiking/Sports
There is the Tilden Park next to Berkeley. I went camping with my friends on Tilden before. The view was beautiful and it was a good hiking experience. We also went kayaking in the park.

For rock climbing, I heard that Indian Rock Park at Shattuck Avenue is one of the best places to go to around Berkeley.

If you’re out of places to go to, go visit http://events.berkeley.edu. Daily and weekly events are listed there.