My 1st Summer at UC Berkeley
Written By: Gen Nguyen | Read full profile
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I don’t really know how to ease this in but I went to UC Berkeley for two summers in high school. Nick was studying at UC Berkeley at the time and recommended that I, along with Chris, spend our summer with him. Back in 2014 and 2015, I took Chem 1A and 3A (Gen Chem and Ochem 1). Sounds exciting right? Sure, college life is fun, but these classes weren’t.
Before we dive in, What do you call bears with no ear?
UC Berkeley: located in Berkeley, California aka the scare-the-sh*t-out-of-my-16-year-old-a** city. My brother shared stories about how scary it was, ESPECIALLY at night. People getting mugged, sketchy people would follow you home, gangs around the area, hobo heckling, etc..etc… the list goes on. The first time I was out walking at night with my brother, I legit carried a frying pan, scared for my life but ready to knock someone out. It also doesn’t help the nerves when my brother constantly reminds me to keep watch of my surroundings and to walk faster. Think I’m exaggerating? There were bars on the windows of his apartment.
During the day is much nicer. There’s still mugging and hobo heckling, but at least there were more witnesses around to see my a murder take place. But I didn’t spend my summer at Berkeley just to get scared shitless. I spent it like any other good Asian kid: summer school.
Yes, I took summer classes at UC Berkeley. And not just any class, it was my all time fav subject: chemistry. (A lot of people don’t like chemistry and I guess I understand why, but I love it. It’s not that hard for me.) I still remember the deadly uphill trek to Pimentel and Latimer Hall every single day. It’s more painful than walking up Dean Keeton at UT Austin.
But, like any normal college day (at least for a student like me) I’d go to class, come home, sleep, eat, and do nothing related to school until the weekend. (Don’t be like me.)
Sometimes I’d hang out with my brother and his college friends. One time, we stayed up playing Mafia until sunrise. The following morning we went to San Francisco’s food truck festival to indulge in some good ramen but ended up eating good ol’ Chinese food because the line was too long (it wrapped around the parking lot 3-4 times).
I even went to a small house party and played beer pong (this is how I found out I was pro). I DIDN’T DRINK. . . (promise, mom). Afterwards, it was 1am, I walked home and once again, I was scared shitless. This time, I had no frying pan for protection. All I had was a scraggly nerd, a skinny brother, and a tiny girl (Okra who is smaller than me).
Other times, I’d grab free stuff with my brother. And thus, my love of free stuff was born. As a broke college student who went to a school a couple thousand miles away, my brother needed to survive somehow. Everything in his apartment was either second-hand cheap or second-third-fourth-hand free.
One morning we looted one guy’s whole apartment with his permission (clothes, kitchen utensils, school supplies, etc.) even though we only came for the mattress that he was giving away. Later that same day, there was a free queen-sized mattress down the street that Chris and I had to haul to the apartment.
The only place this mattress was able to fit was in their narrow A** hallway
Now let me tell you. I was (and still am) a scrawny, little girl. I had (and still have) no muscle. Exercise? Who’s she? Workout? Never heard of her. In nearly 80-90 degree weather, my limp arms carried a giant, thick, mattress up a hill, a couple blocks away, into my brother’s apartment AFTER already picking up another mattress and other sh*t that morning. In my brother’s tiny 600-sqft apartment, shared with 6 other people, was now cluttered with junk. My 16 year old, lanky, claustrophobic a** was dead. But you know, I’ll still go out and pick up free sh*t to this day.
Summer at Berkeley was fun… a little too fun. My grades were suffering because I wasn’t studying and I didn’t try to understand the material… for the first summer at least. I picked up a better studying habit the next year. Well, that or it just wasn’t as fun as the first.
Check out part 2! (Coming soon)
Answer: B s!
