Over Fall break, I went to go visit a friend of mine in Santa Cruz. Okay, maybe friend isn't the right word... kind-of boyfriend? I'm just as confused as you probably are. That's besides the point, anyways. At 4AM on a Wednesday morning, I got up to go catch my flight to San Francisco. My mother actually drove me to the airport, which was insane to me, because she had gotten up at 4AM on a week day just so I could leave her again! I am very grateful that my mom drove me. It really helped me out because the Uber from San Francisco to Santa Cruz was $100, which was not a nice hit to my bank account.

One of the highlights of the trip was going into a cave called Hell-Hole. When I was told about the caves, I assumed we were just going to explore a big, open space and lots of rock and mud. Instead, I had to squirm through tiny openings caked in mud and dirt. I had to pull myself along a rope that was our only source of guidance, and came out with a few scrapes here and there. We were initially told not to go to Hell-Hole because we were told, "if you take one wrong step you'll fall down a 100-foot drop and probably die." So that was reassuring.

The caves were really cool, but my favorite part of the whole trip was going to the beach. Although it wasn't quite warm enough to go in the water, it was awesome being at the beach with friends and just hanging out and watching the sunset. We got to see all the little sea anemones and mussels hanging out in the tidal pools, which was super cool.

I really had a great time visiting Santa Cruz. I got to see all of the differences between Villanova and the West Coast. It was pretty incredible. The campuses were so different and I noticed that everyone was much more laid-back, while things over here on the East Coast are pretty fast-paced, even here at Nova.

I hope to go back to Santa Cruz sometime again this year. I really enjoyed my time there and am glad that I took a risk and decided to fly out there.