Finals Week before Spring Break!

Two gruelling three hour exams separated by half an hour, followed by a final three hour night exam ending at 10pm gave me a desperate need of some sort of reward at the conclusion of my first academic quarter at UCSD. One brief highlight during this week was going to the tip of Point Loma, where the views of San Diego's harbour and skyline were spectacular. This place is famous because it is apparently the very ground that Spanish explorer, Juan Cabrillo, stepped ashore onto American soil. The Cabrillo National Monument is one of the most famous in the US, a tribute to the beginning of the Spanish colonisation of the west coast of the country.

As another brief highlight, plus to get some much needed air, we had an attempt at a SoCal (Southern California) tradition called grunion running. Grunions, if you don't know (I'd thought it was just a funny word till this time) are the only type of fish that spawn on land, mothers wiggling themselves up the sandy beaches to lay eggs after a weird mating ritual with the father, who in turn injects the sperm. The eggs in the sand are thereby protected from predators until they hatch. This procreating phenomenon is commonly witnessed in warmer SoCal beach shores a few days after the full moon (after high tide), but unfortunately we failed to see a single one of these interesting fish at La Jolla Shores Beach.

This is what grunion running is supposed to look like:


Finals week ended not only with a condensed timetable of exams, but with farewell dinners and parties for those whose time had come to return to their home country. Sad but memorable times they were.

On Friday, the day after my final exam, some of us explored Coronado Island (an island off the coast of San Diego connected by a huge architecturally slick bridge to the mainland) at dusk. This island is famous for its beautiful sunsets, and one of San Diego's symbols - Hotel Del Coronado. This Victorian style hotel was built as a premier resort for the wealthy, being the largest all-wooden building in California. Many famous people throughout history such as Edison, Chaplin, Ruth, and many US Presidents have been known to have stayed here. This was also the location for the filming of many famous movies through history.

It was cool to chill out and take a stroll around downtown SD at night. Gaslamp quarter is the historic district of downtown, named after the iron gas lamps that line the streets. Since it was a Friday night, I took the opportunity to witness San Diego's vibrant nightlife. Hunger busting that night was taken care of at Buca di Beppo, which is a family-style Italian restaurant famous for interesting vintage pictures all around its walls.

Next destination? Road trip!