Cha-cha-cha-changes

As the saying goes, "Change is a good thing"...or something like that. With our move from Indiana to California, Karl and I have definitely experienced a great deal of change over the past month. One thing I've learned is that sometimes change can make you truly appreciate things in your past that were taken for granted. One example I have of this is running in Bloomington. Today I decided to try going for a run in Berkeley around the Cal campus. Since Cal seems so similar to IU in size and community, I figured running around the campus there would be a similar experience to running in Bloomington. I quickly found out that this is not so! While Berkeley's campus feels about the same size as IU, after running the perimeter of it I found out that it's actually smaller. At IU I had a beloved "campus loop" that I would run, which consisted of running Indiana to 3rd Street, 3rd Street to Jordan (or Union if I wanted to go a longer distance), then Jordan or Union to 10th Street, and back to Indiana. It was also very easy to add on a few miles by taking a detour to Bryan Park for a loop, or integrating North Jordan, the extension, and 17th Street into my route. Today I realized just how much I miss that loop! Cal's "campus loop" was probably only about two miles, and trying to "add on" by running in nearby neighborhoods was quite difficult because of all the traffic and the very narrow sidewalks. Needless to say, I was very disappointed by this finding. Another difference that I found is that in Bloomington, there are definitely some hills...but in Berkeley, there are the San Francisco-size straight up and down hills. These were tough to run up, but also tough to run down because of how steep they were. No more letting loose and enjoying the downhill! I also found it odd that for my entire five mile run, I did not encounter any other runners! Either all of the runners in Berkeley know about a place that I don't, or they just stick strictly to yoga (there's a yoga studio on every corner here it seems like). So....I am resigning myself to running on the path at Saint Mary's after school on the days that I wish to run. I was really hoping to find a route closer to home, but for now that isn't going to work. I could come up with a laundry list of things that I now appreciate about Bloomington but once took for granted. If anyone out there has super powers, please transport the Bloomington campus to Berkeley ASAP...and how about transporting my favorite restaurant, Anatolia, too? :) Umm...and how about just one thunderstorm? As crazy as it sounds, I miss those too.

Sample Gates at Indiana University, which I would always run past on my IU campus loop. I took this picture last fall.