Week 12

a) As my favorite story I chose Michael Chabon's "Berkeley". I thought one interesting thing about Berkeley's history was that it is where the refugees from San Francisco's 1906 earthquake went. After I researched about Berkeley I came to find out that it was a small town until after the 1906 earthquake, when many people from San Francisco came to Berkeley because it was not hit nearly as strong. After the earthquake is when the town of Berkeley quickly grew to a city and only lost by 35,000 votes to become the state capital in 1908. The growth of Berkeley continued until the great depression in 1929. Although Berkeley has grown over the years it has still kept its old down to earth residence, just like Michael Chabon mentioned in "Berkeley".

b)My California is about the city that I have lived in my whole life, Santa Rosa. I love Santa Rosa, it has many different elements to it, old and new. In the 21^st century everything around us seems like the hot new thing and I like to also look back and look at the simpler times. For example, there is railroad square downtown that is a very old part of Santa Rosa and has a lot of history, even the same stone buildings that were built in the late 1800’s. Railroad square has been around 1870 when the first train came to Santa Rosa. The area around the square was called “Little Italy” because the newly immigrated Italians of the time were attracted to its beautiful weather similar to their weather back in Italy. Many of these old stone buildings around the square were built by these Italians who migrated to “Little Italy”. To me what is amazing is that when I walk into the coffee house called Aromas I am stepping into the old Railway Express Agency building, and its not only that building, its all the buildings in railroad square, they were all once used for the transportation of another time. Walking through railroad square when I was a little kid I did not realize how much history was behind those buildings and that that train stop is most likely what took my ancestors into Santa Rosa for the first time. I still live in “Little Italy” now and I love it.

c)1. Amanda--She learned to use others as her eyes because she hardly ever uses a mirror

2. Angie--Chabon talks about how much he loves the city from everything to its layout, the people and the architecture.

3. Benjamin--He makes lost of comments that only a child would make about how fancy cars are always hidden in garages but ugly cars are left out for everyone to see.

4. Brooke-- Learned that Berkeley was a refugee location for people who left San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

5. Catherine--Major took an important lesson away from her time with the mirrors, understanding that what you see in the mirror may not be what is truly there

6. John--I learned that the many victims of the 1906 San Francsico earthquake moved to Berkeley.

7. Nicholas--Favorite line was "Those adolescent summers seem like such luxury now"

8. Rodrigo-- This reading made me think of how scared I would be to move in a “planned community” where an Association had to vote on your idea before you can carry it out.

9. Gabby-- During high school I was in Model United Nations, and the conferences were held on the Berkeley campus. So when we weren't in classrooms debating we got to explore the city and it was one of the most interesting places I have ever been to.

10. Robert-- This is the story that brought back more memories than any other, because my sister Kathy used to bring me to Playland as a child