By Elisabeth Aultman '10
Bay Area, California
Japanese Language and Culture, Linguistics
After Mac: University of California, Hastings College of the Law J.D.

I am a “coasty” from California and had never even seen snow fall from the sky before my freshman year at Mac. So of course I dipped out of a painting class the first time to check it out.

I am here because I wanted a small, academically challenging, globally minded liberal arts college with a Japanese program in a city. If my dream school was east of civilization, then east I was going.

When I actually got here, I discovered how wrong I was about the civilization part. In the last month alone, I have had Korean, Japanese, Thai, Tibetan, Ethiopian, and Vietnamese foods in the neighborhood, and can honestly say I can’t remember the last time I spent a night in front of my computer for amusement. I’ve been to local theater on Eat Street and University, shopped in Uptown and partied in Downtown, seen the same amazing exhibits that tour San Francisco pass through the Twin Cities, and have tickets for Tegan and Sara and Kaki King before the semester ends. There is so much going on it’s hard to choose what to do and what to skip.

I love this school and these cities and the serendipitous delights therein.