University: University of California Berkeley
City: Berkeley
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: entrepreneurship
Study type: Summer Sessions
Just for introductory info, this was my first trip ever to USA – San Francisco and Berkeley. In general, studying abroad at Berkeley is highly recommended. Since there are several foreign students as well as American students on campus, who are very sociable, you can get to know a lot of students from other areas of the country. Visit mcat-test-centers.com to get information about University of Victoria.
The students, like the rest of the roommates in Berkeley and San Francisco, are very open, not only for conversations but also for other activities. They are very nice and helpful in every sense. I like that the most.
What I also missed is the fact that people in Berkeley and San Francisco don’t give a damn how the rest of the roommates dress, how they act, they don’t care what someone looks like.
I had a trip to Santa Cruz with 4 different students (American, French and 2 Chinese) from the course, as well as my girlfriend, and visited various fabulous places. Since there is a beach in Santa Cruz, we dared to jump into the cold sea. It was very cold and I guess the temperature varies between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. The area is very beautiful and there are a lot of “SURFERS” in the area (I know this because a colleague from the course went surfing in Santa Cruz).
Personally, Berkeley is a college town, and it offers plenty of opportunities for various physical activities, such as: fitness center (you pay $10 for annual use), various restaurants and eateries (Subway, Papa Johns, Indian, Persian, American, and much more), playgrounds for playing football and much more.
Berkeley itself is by no means a dangerous area, but it’s still highly recommended to look at and print out a backup connection through the campus webpage.
As for the student ID service, they are very fast and you get the ID immediately when you show up at the right department. Student ID allows free travel on the F bus to San Francisco, as well as all bus routes in Berkeley. As said in San Francisco, you can only ride the F bus line for free if you have a student ID!
As I attended a business administration course at the University of Berkeley, I liked the way the professor’s learning system worked, as we had a lot of homework and a final presentation in a group of max. 3 students (I was with a Spanish woman and with a Chinese).
In my course (“Business and Social Entrepreneurship”) we were about 40 students and we had a lot of conversations with the professor as well as with the different students regarding homework and various topics related to the course.
As for the lodging, I stayed at a hotel called the La Quinta Inn Berkeley (located at 920 University Avenue) and the service was excellent, as was everything else. The most things I liked about the accommodation are the cleanliness (they change their sheets every day, as well as towels, etc.), the helpfulness of the waitress for everything, the breakfast, etc.
The connection between the hotel La Qunita Inn and the Berkeley campus takes about 7 minutes with the bus line 52B and the bus station is immediately in front of the hotel. ).JAs I said, the hotel is top notch and doesn’t cost that much for a 3 week stay (highly recommended The hotel was only rated 2 stars on the website, so I assume it’s not too expensive. As I said the hotel is definitely recommendable.
There’s only one thing I can say about San Francisco: it’s an amazing city!! Being a civil engineer, the most thing I was looking forward to was the Golden Gate Bridge. Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is recommended, but you need to dress very warmly as the wind is super strong. The next thing you should definitely visit is ALCATRAZ, but I would recommend booking an appointment via their website before arriving in Berkeley or San Francisco.
As for American food, I would recommend Mission Pie on Mission Street in San Francisco (they have a variety of pies), as well as other burger restaurants.
The only thing I don’t like is the water at all, the tap water is very unhygienic on the one hand, and on the other hand I recommend buying European water in the markets (I don’t like American water at all, it has a strange taste).
Then definitely you should visit Golden Gate Park, Presidio, Castro District, Lombard Street, Market Street.
For shopping I would recommend TJ MAXX, it’s very cheap and you can find very nice things there, it’s on Harisson Street in San Francisco (you can find it very easily with google).
All in all it was heavenly.
It was Awesome in Berkeley and San Francisco!!: )
