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Friday night, I drove up to Hearst Gym in Berkeley to see the Berkeley Wushu Team demonstrate their skills to wide-eyed freshman. There are some definite differences between Berkeley and my alma-mater, Stanford. While the Farm resembles more of a country club, Berkeley appears to the new student as an urban environment where everything goes (at least to my eyes). More diversity and more reality give Berkeley a harder-edge to it. I wonder what it would have been like had I went to Cal instead of Stanford. Would I have ended up the same person that I am today? I for one, doubt that. I would have been exposed to a more ethnically, socially, and politically diverse group of people, and I probably would have done more outside of the university given Berkeley’s proximity to San Francisco via BART. Stanford was isolated in the sense that you couldn’t really get anywhere without a car.

As expected, there were a lot of Asians in the Berkeley Wushu class. The people attending the demo was also skewed to Asians, but there were a number of non-Asian people there. With the recent popularity of martial arts movies from Jet Li and Jackie Chan, interest is growing. When I was a freshman, one of the first classes that I started taking was Tai-Chi at Roble Gym. I could see the same interest from many in the crowd Friday night. Many of the demonstrators were flying around doing flips and other impressive moves. Still, my own excitment and interest was tempered by my desire to see more internal martial arts demoed. We only briefly flirted with learning the internal aspects of Tai-Chi at Stanford. It certainly wasn’t the fault of the instructor; rather, it was the system of martial arts in America — a system that places more emphasis on what can be seen instead of that which cannot be seen — which I think is to blame.

A couple of people stand out from Friday night’s performance. There was one person with this rope weapon who was particularly impressive. Felicia and her longsword was also a good, albeit short, routine to watch. I remember Anne Hsu, a former member of the U.S. National Team, performing for us at Stanford many years ago. It’s somewhat strange to meet all of these people that frequently interact with her; I knew Anne when we were both undergraduates, and now I’m just beginning to meet these people that she’s known for as long or longer!

After the demonstation, I waited for the team the finish their practice. In the hour and a half that I was waiting, I passed the time playing Taipan. This was an old Apple ][ game that had been ported to the Palm. You play the role of this ship captain, who goes from Asian port to Asian port, buying and trading general cargo, arms, silk, and opium in your quest to become the master Taipan. Along the way, you fight ships on the open seas and worry about the police stealling your opium supplies. I think that there’s a game, Dope Wars, which is similar in scope to Taipan, but with a more contemporary twist. Following practice, we went to this late night Asian food mall in Berkeley. I felt like I was back in Hong Kong, as there were so many Asians there! It actually felt a little weird to be there, since I’m not used to hanging out with predominantly Asian crowds. One thing that I avoided at Stanford was getting too involved in that community. I did work at the Teahouse and I volunteered with UCAA, but I made it a point to have more diverse interaction with the Stanford population. Had I been a student at Berkeley, however, I’m not sure I would have made the same decision. Who knows what would have happened, though?

On Saturday, Rae and I had lunch with Edna and Erik at Berkeley. Before driving to their place, we went shopping at the The North Face Factory Outlet store and the REI store in North Berkeley. It’s fun shopping for outdoor equipment and gear. I still don’t know where we’re going to go, but I’ve got plenty of time to figure it out before heading out into the great outdoors.

Edna, Erik, Rae, and I went to this Indian restaurant housed in what looked like a big warehouse, Vic’s That is one great place to get food. The lines were long and people (like us) were like vultures hovering around tables that were about to be vacated. The food was great and very filling. I used to not like Indian food as it seemed to always give me a bad stomach ache. Today, however, I don’t get sick from eating Indian and quite enjoy it now.

Because of the terrorist attacks in America, the NFL didn’t play games last week. On Sunday, they resumed, and I spent Sunday morning, afternoon, and evening, watching the games off and on. I wasn’t able to see my Chargers play in the Sunday opener games as the TV coverage was showing the Raiders square off against the Dolphins (a good game on its own) and the Chiefs against the Giants (a yawner). Fortunately, the Chargers ripped the Cowgirls (i.e. the Cowboys), 32-21. Yeah! It’s strange to see the scoreboard and seeing the Chargers actually ahead of their opponents. 7-0, 14-0, 17-3. Absolutely amazing. After years of struggling, we’re a force to be reckoned with. Let’s hope they can continue their success throughout the year.

In the evening, Randy came by my place to prepare for next week’s wedding shoot in Fremont. Assuming that the weather holds, it’s going to be a beautiful wedding. All in all, it was a fun, relaxing, and quite enjoyable weekend.