It's never too late!

So I made it after all! Even if I was getting a bit worried a few weeks back, I finally managed to get to Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful!

On Wednesday afternoon me, J.R, Kelvin, Alex and his friend Thibaut who was visiting from France, got our car from our usual rental place, after only a few minor difficulties - like them having lost our reservation. Luckily they still had enough cars and we left for Tahoe only an hour late. J.R. had booked us a great room in a cabin on the beach in North Shore Lake Tahoe.


It was a great trip. Mostly we just relaxed: read New York Times by the fake fire on the beach, went to the hotel pool and ate super well. We did also go on a crazy hike up a skiing slope (or actually next to it, in the bush, with ten million sticks and fallen trees to climb over, crawl under or walk through). I also learned a new word on the trip as the boys spent some "quality time" in a jacuzzi with the local hustler, ie. cocaine/drug dealer. They didn't stay long though, since we were too busy with our own, wild holiday plans: grilling marshmallows (or s'mores) by the fire, going to bed before 11 pm. and busting the almost loud youngsters spending their evening on the hotel grounds without permission to the hotel security. Me and Kelvin were slightly rebellious too though, and kept throwing giant pine cones into the fire to get some real smoke and crackling noise instead of the gas fire the hotel provided.


Then on Friday, it was time to head back to Berkeley. It turned out to have been a great idea to go to Tahoe in the midlle of the week, since the traffic going that way on Friday afternoon looked terrible; our 3,5 hour drive there on Wednesday would probably have taken us almost twice as long in that Friday traffic. And, I also got a new campus to add to my collection: UC Davis. We had a little break on our way back and said a quick hi to Kelvin's friend Melissa, who studies in Davis and frequently visits the infamous Berkeley restaurant Cheeseboard, where we have spent many a good night with and without her. UC Davis seemed really nice and flat compared to Berkeley. It was super hot however! And true, it can get hot here in Berkeley as well, so I think I'd better go and try out the Berkeley pools today, before it's too late!

It feels strange to think that the year here is almost over. Today we had our last Finnish classes and Saturday is the exam day for our course. I also finished all my own courses today. In a leisurely fashion it all happened: a little potluck, a little chitchat, a few relieved laughters and that was it.

Preparing to leave a place is always a little awkward, at least for me. At the same time you're happy and sad, relieved and anxious, in a hurry to go home but still wanting to stay and see a bit more. And in the end, what do you have left of the experience? Mostly memories, and if you're lucky, a few good friends. Mostly memories though. Fortunately, it's usually the good ones that one remembers.

And what have I learned from all this? Or from any of my previous years and trips and travels abroad? I don't know. I know I've learned a lot and that I wouldn't be the same person if I hadn't done all this, but what have I learned is a really difficult question to answer. I've written a few job applications in the past week and I think that is part of the reason I've been thinking about these questions. One possible conclusion I've come to, is that the things I've learned are things that could be labeled and put under the headline "hidden knowledge". I always seem to think that the things I know are things that everyone knows, and therefore I don't recognize them as something that has been learned and acquired.

It was the same thing when I started my last job. I was so surprised that they chose me over the other applicants, because I thought all the other applicants must have known so much more. I had only studied and hung out with the exchange students and been an intern for three months. But after a few weeks on the job, I realized that I actually had so much knowledge of the systems and procedures; that someone coming from outside of the university would have had to learn all that from scratch. All the things I thought were common everyday knowledge turned out to be information that has to be learned. It was pretty cool to notice, that there are these hidden things everyone can discover in themselves, when the right moment arises. One just has to hope that that moment comes around again someday soon!