The first week

So, when I arrived in Berkeley on Monday afternoon, I met the girl I was subletting from and there was another roommate (who was moving out in a few days) and his girlfriend here. The four of us along with my sublessor's boyfriend grilled out on our back porch. It was a nice introduction to Berkeley. I unpacked my car and made myself comfortable and readied myself for my first day of work.

I'm going to skip the subject of work for now because I feel like I can be more positive about it when I've been there for a few weeks. Suffice to say, it's been an adjustment and I think once I'm more used to it, I'll like it more. So in the spirit of being positive about living in Cali for the first time, I'm going to move on and address this topic when there's funnier/better things to say about it.

The House/Neighborhood:
I live nearly on the corner of Cedar St. and Leroy Ave. (Which I keep calling Le Roy, like it's french, but I think it's really just Leroy...like the guy who fixes your brake pads). It's north of the UC Berkeley Campus about 5 blocks. If you don't go straight and instead head down the hill (down Cedar street) you will find yourself in an area called the Gourmet Ghetto. It's not a ghetto at all. It's really just all these locally owned restaurants/cafes/bars/shops along several blocks (I'm not sure how many). I guess it's best described as a district. At the bottom of a hugely steep hill is a flower stand that sells cheap fresh flowers every day and a grocery store and a store called the Elephant Pharmacy which is like an organic/hippie Walgreens. You can buy all the things from Stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com there, such as the metal water bottle I purchased on Thursday. Also tons of herbal remedies and supplements for whatever ails you. But you can get Tylenol and Claratin there too. They are an equal opportunity pharmacy.

Okay, the actual house. It's 5 bedrooms, most of which are pretty large. It seems like a pretty old house which I love because I've always wanted to live in an old house. But that equates to little insulation, thin walls, and creakiness. Which is totally okay if you consider that the entire place has wooden floors and lots of windows that open outwards, not upwards. There's a fabulous balcony with a great view of Oakland and the Bay. Being in the "Berkeley hills" means that it's very steep often, but there are tons of trees and flowers and gorgeousness. I can't complain at all. At night, I go out on the balcony and just sit and absorb the town. It's beautiful. From what I've heard, it's a pretty coveted area to be and I think I got really lucky with this place. This is the view from my bedroom's balcony.

The Roommates:
The first week in the house was a bit weird only because 2 people were moving out after me being there for a few days and 2 more were taking their places at that point. So the people I hung out with a little bit wont' be here and there are new people. Now it is the weekend and the two new roommates are moved in. I met them a few days ago when we had an open house for another room that's opening up at the end of June. So things should settle down and we'll get into more of a routine. What I know right now (or think I know): the other roommates are all engineers, so we will not be discussing the law, which is awesome, because after 8 hours of work, that's the last thing I want to talk about; they are all berkeley students. (note: there is one roommate--the one moving in june--that i havent' met, she's out of town indefinitely, so this is just about the 3 that are going to be here this summer). 3 of us are grad students, one is a senior, but my age b/c he took some time off. So we're all mid-late 20s. (whoa. is 23 mid-20s?) I like them all so far though, even though we've only eaten dinner once and had a few other minor conversations. I look forward to hanging out with them more.

All in all, those of us who will be here for the summer are me, Rikky, CiCi, Erik, and a fifth yet to be named. Might be a girl or a guy. We shall see. It'll be fine either way.

Berkeley:
The town itself is really cute. Tons of flowers. It just smells different out here. Like flowers. Maybe there's a reason hippies are referred to as flower children. Tons of shops and restaurants that I've never heard of because there's only one. Here's where I insert a diatribe about how much chains suck because they are impersonal and owned by Corporate America, but I'll spare you. We all know that the local coffee shop is far superior to Starbucks and Carolina Brewery beers are much tastier than Budweiser. You get the picture. The term "quaint" sounds condescending, but I don't mean it that way. The town has character. I've been spending my lunch breaks exploring. I've got my little corner of the town down, but next week, I plan to explore the areas closer to the University. Speaking of, this town is very young. There's a few older couples and some children, but mostly, there's a lot of college/grad student age people around so it's a lot like Chapel Hill/Carrboro in that respect. I can see now why they call Chapel Hill, "the Berkeley of the South." It very much is, except Chapel Hill is TINY TINY TINY compared to Berkeley. There are 40 Franklin Streets to our 1.

The first week was kind of chilly. Weather in the 60s, but still very sunny, except for Friday. The coming week looks like its full of 70s. I'm excited. I'm glad that I'm learning where things are and just getting used to things in general.

This has been a hard week just in terms of adjusting to life in a new city/job/house/roommates. I miss everyone at home terribly and homesickness is just a way of life, but that being said, I adjust to things quickly and while I can't wait to see everyone in August, I'm excited to see what the summer has to hold. I think my hardest week is behind me, so bring on week number 2!