By Madeline Sharpe

The best part about studying at UC Berkeley is the many events for students! It feels like there is something fun to attend every day from outdoor movie nights, craft events, free concerts, international food night markets and so much more. 

It has been such a great way to experience student life in America, meet new people and try new things. Here are some photos of my favourite events this semester. 

One of the challenges of my exchange was eating healthy. As cliche as it is, food in America is a lot more processed and sugary than New Zealand. All the frozen food is so convenient and almost everything comes already made in a frozen packet but it is so unhealthy and processed. It was definitely hard to buy ingredients for meals that would make me feel good without being too time consuming and expensive. I am also just very fussy when it comes to eating in the first place so I found it hard to find things I actually wanted to eat in general.

Another challenge is transportation. The bus system around Berkeley and San Francisco is good but you really need access to a car if you are going somewhere outside of the city. Renting cars is basically impossible if you are under 25 years old and gets very expensive. Even going to the supermarket becomes a whole mission and carrying back groceries can be a pain. I missed the supermarket trips offered by the Waikato student halls. 

Lastly, another challenge was feeling safe walking around at night. In the first few weeks I found myself unwilling to go out of my apartment after dark unless I was meeting someone right outside my building. This was mostly due to the ‘Berkeley Warn Me’ emails I started receiving a few months before arriving. These emails detail crime and other incidents that occur close or on campus to warn students about areas to avoid. This mostly just made me very nervous about the safety of the area. In my experience now it has been fine but I have heard of people being mugged and attacked so I still avoid walking around at night alone. The catalytic converter on my car was also stolen once. I learnt about a really awesome resource called Safe Walk which is essentially the same concept as Uber where you place an ‘order’ on an app and a volunteer will come to your location and walk you to your destination. They operate all through the night and the volunteers are trained on what to do in dangerous situations. 

Overall this exchange taught me how to be adaptable, independent and open to new experiences. It has been an incredible experience and I have learnt so much about the rest of the world, other cultures and different living experiences. It has also been a very interesting time to live in America with the current political landscape and all of the protests going on. I definitely think this has enhanced my understanding of how policy in America affects the rest of the world. 

In the future I will take every opportunity I get to travel and meet new people. I hope I can better understand people with different experiences to me and be an inclusive leader in any of my future jobs.