Memories I am afraid I'll forget

Day 24, Staff Council hike

When I won this scholarship, I swore that I would get to know the Bay Area (and beyond) as much as possible. You need to know that I am no fan of huge cities. Why then my dear Anita did you choose SJ? – you might ask. Well, among many different reasons, because of the nature. When on a different scholarship I was traveling to Los Angeles back in 2016, I took the bus to go to Las Vegas. Neither LA nor Vegas impressed me as much as the bus ride and the view from the bus. California has so much more to offer than just big cities, shopping malls, air conditioning, traffic, and cities with no borders. It indeed has a beautiful natural heritage. If you think history-wise, the US does not have as many historic buildings to offer as for example Europe, but on the other hand, it has the landscape and nature exactly as old as the ones in every other corner of the world. Many people fail to notice this here, though.

My eagerness to explore the history of nature in the US was somewhat satisfied with the fact that there are two hiking groups (at least that I know of) at San Jose State University. Two! I quickly joined both, so that I could go on as many hikes as possible.

Today is the day of my first hike in the Bay Area. I signed up for this hike organized by members of the SJSU Staff Council. My purpose of joining was twofold. One, I get to see the nature, while burning some calories. Two, I wanted to get to know fellow SJSU colleagues. Just as a bit of a spoiler, I managed quite well both in these matters.

When I received the first email invitation, I immediately reached out to the organizers that I wanted to join but needed to carpool. As friendly as they are, they immediately offered to carpool me, so today, at 8:30, Christine, this lovely lady from the SJSU Library picked me up. On the way to Jessica's house (the other organizer we then carpooled with, the three of us), I got to know Christine and I was immediately in love with her. It's amazing how much she has explored the area so far on foot and on bike, both. Imagine a lady with grey middle-length hair, extremely sporty and muscly in her late fifties (might be also sixties, but you cannot really tell). She already started making plans for the next trip so that I could see more and more, and the most precious parts of the area. Jessica then carpooled both of us to the venue of the hike, an equally friendly and open-minded person, originally from Vietnam (she does not remember it, though, as she was only 2 when they emigrated).

On the hike, I got to know a lovely young couple, who just moved back from Vietnam. The wife is Vietnamese, but looks like a student, so we had a good laugh about how people think we are both students at SJSU. Her husband is American but was first studying and then working in Vietnam when they met. Turns out that the wife works at the Career Center at SJSU, while the husband has a deep interest in international education – and had worked in this sector before. What a coincidence?! Again! We got on really well and arranged plans for eating out and doing things together!

There was another lovely lady, named Pat, who is working at her own nonprofit era and provides help for many in the area. She immediately invited me for next Saturday's event in the city. Too bad I already have plans, but next time, I'll join! Amazing how both my research fields were covered by people on the hike.

Another gentleman on the hike is working at the IT department of SJSU. He and his family are Indians, so he already started planning to introduce me to her daughter, who is a freshman at Berkeley, majoring in law.

Can you now understand what I am taking about? Can you feel what I am feeling? Do you see how many possibilities there are? How amazing people are? How friendly they are towards each other?

It is deeply touching.

I wish we met rattlesnakes, though. Tarantulas (the friendly and the black widow type) both live in this terrain, too. If you are lucky, coyotes and deer can also be spotted.

There was only one thing that bugged me: those crazy thieves were still trying to get money from my now-frozen bank card. It just bugs me as I despise these people already. I hope karma takes care of them – or maybe it already did. Go to hell, suckers!

Coming home, I made a huge brunch (at 2-3 PM), started the washing machine, washed my clothes, cleaned the bathroom, and then around 4, I just fell asleep. The 10k walk on the hills did the job. It put me right to sleep, just so I can wake up at 8PM and not be able to sleep the rest of the night well. I kept dreaming of hackers stealing my money.

17 September 2022