12/23: Balmy Alley, panaderias and cafes

During break, I admitted to my friends a disconcerting feeling that had me dreading going back to school: I was not looking forward to my journalism classes. It seems shameful, I know. As a journalism major, I would imagine that I would always be at the edge of my seat, ready to jump at any opportunity I had. To some extent, I am excited and open to opportunities, but four years of high school yearbook and newspaper taught me that my passion and love of journalism does have a bittersweet tint that mainly comes from overwhelming stress.

Yet, my dread and lack of excitement lifted the minute I sat down for my first journalism class of winter quarter. Oddly enough (or not-so oddly enough), the minute I step into these journalism classes or hear of any exciting opportunities, I feel my heart lift because I am genuinely interested in my field of study. It seems too simple to be true. Perhaps that is where the stress and overwhelming workloads come in. Regardless, I'll face it head-on because, until proven otherwise, this is what I want to do.

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On to photographs taken from my winter break. Before Christmas, I got a chance to hang out with a few dear friends of mine. Of course, I had to go to San Francisco with Natalie. After all, she is my excursion buddy. Chiraag and Neil tagged alone and I am glad they did. Natalie and I showed them around the Mission District, walked through the Financial District and explored the city our way.



Balmy Alley. We found new murals we did not see last time we went to San Francisco, which I find interesting. These murals are surely time-consuming and are gorgeous art pieces in themselves that I wonder what compels someone to paint over them.









I love this photograph of Natalie. We were walking close to a gated children's park and Chiraag decided to walk in so that Natalie could take photographs for her photography final. We all just cracked up and started laughing as Chiraag fell into a pile of leaves.





I just love this picture of Neil. There is just something about it that says something about his character. He can be such a bottle of fun, yet when he used to stand in front of the entire student body during weekly Monday meetings, this is how he seemed.