New favorite place to study

I woke up around 8:30 today and got ready to eat breakfast. I'm constantly amazed by how many choices of fruit we have at the dining commons. In my freshman year, I would go crazy and get eggs, potatoes, pancakes, an english muffin, about three bowls of oranges, and then a donut. I learned to control myself, and because there is just so much fruit, now I end up eating eggs (a must), potatoes (unless they're tater tots, which I think are very disgusting), and then one-two grapefruit depending on its sweetness, two bowls of oranges, two bowls of strawberries, a nectarine/peach, and then I steal a banana. Some days there are plums and there have been plumcots from time to time, which are a happy surprise. There are also cut cantaloupes, honeydew, watermelon, and apples that I never bother with. Breakfast at Crossroads is $5.50 which I now realize is very cheap when I have such a large selection of fruit right in front of me. But this only happens in the summer and towards the end of the year when most fruits are in season, so I won't be fooled into getting a meal plan next year.

When I left for breakfast, someone in the house next door began blaring music. I didn't mind so much because I actually liked some of the songs. When I came back, they were still blaring music, and now I suspect that someone had been playing Guitar Hero, but I don't know how Guitar Hero sounds like, so I can't be too sure. I went out to Berkeley Bowl, which I now am more certain is not as cheap as Yelp makes it out to be. A lot of comments from Yelp also go along the lines of "people here are crazy with their carts!" "really rude shoppers!" but I don't see this at all. I think grocery shopping in 99 Ranch makes you desensitized to "rude shoppers." After watching several episodes of 30 rock (I STILL can't find the episode I want, but it's been fun searching for it) I decided to start reading for business. I was in for a nasty shock, when I opened the pdfs and found out that the readings were not one or two pages, but about 40 in total, not counting a thick packet assigned by my GSI which I will skim through tomorrow.

The loud music was still blaring six hours later, plus this room is too dirty and distracting to study in. So I stood in my room deciding whether I would go out and I'm SO GLAD I did ... because now I have a new study place that I love.

It's ... THE GYM. HAHAHA

So I basically spent five hours at the gym today, and I never exercised. I have two chairs picked out that are my "favorite spots" and I can tell I am going to become very territorial over them. So ... why the gym is a great place to study: first, imagine me studying at a small "cafe" within the gym, not in front of the ellipticals or anything. It's like a small space where they set up tables and chairs next to an area that sells food.

So why RSF is a nice place to study:

1) It's indoors so there's free AC when it's hot, but it's warm enough when it's cold
2) It's fairly close to where I live but far enough that I won't easily get up and leave
3) I'd be too embarrassed to sleep in the gym so I force myself to stay awake. The same cannot be said of the library
4) There's food that I can buy with meal points if I really get hungry
5) There's wireless internet
6) But there are too many people walking by so I'm not tempted to look through facebook or youtube
7) The women's locker room is just down the hall, so I have clean toilets and clean drinking water at my disposal, which is more than I can say for my sublet
8) The background noise of all the exercise machines is loud enough to drown out conversations but not so loud that it becomes distracting
9) The machine noise also keeps me awake without needing to listen to music, which is usually the #1 way I distract myself while studying (going through my music library usually leads to hours of downloading music)
10) I sit at a counter with stools, and I really enjoy sitting on stools
11) The counter is in front of this really nice view of the swimming pool, which also gives off natural light and gives me something peaceful to stare at when my eyes begin to get strained from the computer screen

Negatives:
1) The indoor lighting sucks so I can't really study in here at night, not that I would really want to
2) While the pool is beautiful to look at, there are also men in speedos constantly going in and out of the pool, so when I stare out (AT THE TREES, I swear) it probably looks like I'm just being a giant pervert

Now it's late. School tomorrow! Week 2 of 6. Kind of insane.