UC Berkeley's very own Bear Talk Blog: Cal's campus ambassadors share the dynamic, golden experiences of their time here at University of California, Berkeley
There is only one thing I love more than the food, sights, museums, and shopping in San Francisco: the San Francisco Giants.
Last Tuesday, I was lucky enough to attend a Giants Vs. Dodgers game with a group of students from UC Berkeley’s Greek system. CalGreeks rented out the busses and preordered the tickets so all we had to do was show up on the day of and hop on the bus! It was great going in a huge group of Cal students – we even got a “Go Bears” chant started in the 7th inning.
When my friend asked me if I was interested in talking a Bridge class, my only response was, “I can get class credit for playing cards? Sign me up!”
This semester, I’m enrolled in the “Learn to Play Bridge” Decal, which meets for an hour every Tuesday. Each week, we learn something new about the game: we began with the structure and rules, and are now beginning to dig into strategy. After class, students are invited to stay and polish our skills.
Isha, who is both the DeCal instructor and the President of UC Berkeley’s Bridge Club, is a certified Bridge instructor. She was also part of a team of UC Berkeley students who won the collegiate Bridge national championship in 2014. UC Berkeley offers over 200 DeCal courses every semester – on topics ranging from “Introduction to Investment Banking” to “Knitting 101.” It’s convenient to add DeCals into your schedule because the classes are only one or two units, taken Pass/No Pass, usually in the early evening, and focus on a fun topic. Every week, I look forward to Tuesdays at 5 p.m. because I get to hone my Bridge skills with a group of new friends I’ve made over the past few weeks. That’s another great thing about DeCals – you get to interact with people from every department on campus, ranging from freshman to seniors.
Last Tuesday, I went to a birthday party for our campus clock and bell tower and –yes- you read that sentence correctly.
UC Berkeley’s Sather Tower, commonly known on campus as the Campanile, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015 and the campus is hosting events all year long to commemorate our beloved landmark.
Around 6:30 p.m., my friends and I gathered with other students, alumni, faculty and visitors to hear a truly unique carillon performance. Usually, Sather Tower helps keeps me on track by tolling on the hour to mark the time but tonight’s performance was unique because the Berkeley Center for New Media used data from UC Berkeley’s seismometer, which is located in the Hayward Fault, to produce a show with both lights and music mirroring real-time movement inside the fault. The performance was truly amazing – it was entertaining to watch, but also amazing to think about the amount of work and creativity that brought it to life. That’s one of my favorite things about UC Berkeley’s students and faculty – creative applications of science. 
It’s a Saturday morning at 10 a.m. and I hear the constant chant of “take off that red shirt” outside my window. That can only mean one thing: it’s game day, and the opposing team is Stanford. Known on campus as “Big Game,” the UC Berkeley versus Stanford football game is a beloved tradition for UC Berkeley students because it means going all out – getting to the football game early decked from head to toe in Cal Gear.
In addition to the student section being a great place to sit because you’re surrounded by other excited students, it’s arguable the best seat in the stadium. Students sit right on the 50 yard line behind the players.
Studying at your desk all the time gets boring, but luckily Berkeley is home to numerous coffee shops both on and around the campus that can satisfy your craving for a warm vanilla latte and provide a cozy corner for you to finish the last 20 pages of your reading. Here’s a list of my favorite spots to study and sip around campus:
1. International House Cafe (I-House) 
Located next to the stadium, I-House is situated at the top of Bancroft Avenue, which is a convenient location for students who live on the south side of campus. In addition to it’s array of expresso beverages, I-House cafe has a full breakfast and lunch menu. The best feature of I-House cafe is the window seating, which has an amazing view of the bay and, on a clear day, the Golden Gate Bridge.
One of the greatest parts of attending a school with over 1,400 student organizations is that there is always something to see or do on campus.
This past Sunday, I attended a performance of 12 Angry Men put on by BareStage, one of the many performance groups on campus. After a long afternoon of studying, it was the perfect study break. I’ve seen the play before (I’ve even been in it before) but this was by far the best performance of it I’ve ever seen. The show was put on entirely by students, including the directing, artwork and set design. That’s another thing I love about Berkeley – students fill every role in every student organization and you can dedicate yourself to absolutely anything you want – whether it’s acting, charity, volunteering or programming.