Trails around campus

Because Berkeley is built on a hillside, with two creeks running through it, and because it has grown up slowly over 150 years, it does not have the same feel as a lot of the more formally-designed campuses in the US and England. Instead there are buildings kind of randomly placed in and amongst groves of trees, with paths and stairs and bridges winding in various directions. It takes a while to figure out the best way to get from point A to point B.

I am pleased I have figured out which ones are dead-ends or take me in the wrong direction, even if I am not always sure which ones take me in the right direction. Hmm, sounds like a metaphor for my dissertation, or for learning in general.

Anyhow, I was thinking about that just now, looking out my window, and realizing that if I had wings, I could literally paraglide down from the roof of the house I live in and swoop right down to the building where I teach, whose roof I can see from here.

I have the same sort of view from my apartment in Iceland down to Vikingaheimar, but somehow there the only thing that occurred to me was that I could ride a horse there. Guess I knew the winds are too tricky there.

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