Exiting my apartment to get a (heavenly) coffee across the street - it hits me as I walk out in the Sunday afternoon sunlight that I shouldn't return to my dark bedroom and study just yet. The temperature is fantastic - gotta hang the jacket around my waist and continue down the street and watch the quiet Sunday life.
Half of the stores are open - their Neon lights glowing. All stores in Berkeley have neon lights. From cafés to Pharmacies to Hair dressers. I turn right towards the hills. On my way people I've never met greet me with a smile. The homeless are the most polite: "Anything will help" they say as they shake their cup of money, and if I don't donate they'll say "you have a wonderful day anyway". (Argh, guilt guilt..)
There's an art gallery suddenly on my right inviting me in for a free look. It was wonderful to just look around for a couple of minutes in a bypass - the paintings really were amazing - and then continue my adventure furter away from downtown Berkeley.
Passing the University area, the smell of Marijuana and the sight of clothing stores still embracing the 90's hit me and the area is filled with all kinds of people. A big mix of cultures, religions, styles, protesters, young, old, rich, poor.. This is the place to be free - everyone's accepted. The hippie area of Berkeley. Even if you're born in the 80's - this is where you can relive the 70's.
The hills get steeper, there are more and more squirrels surrounding you and the houses fewer but more chic. Berkeley Hills - the richer part of Berkeley. Suddenly there's a huge stadium right next to my path and I walk in to take a peek. It's Humongous.... Only practice today, no audience. I'll come back for a real match.
Continuing up, nature embraces me and I meet three other Norwegians on their own discovery journey. I join them and we follow a path up in the forest. We even meet wild turkeys on the way. No bunnies out today - there are usually plenty:)
On the top we see San Francisco in the distance. A beautiful view my pictures could never retell - too bad for you guys:P
On the way back as I walk alone, a homeless guy decides to express his emotions for me: "You white b****, you f****** white b****!!!" What a peculiar thing to tell a stranger..
It turned out to be a very interesting day after all. A walk in Berkeley is always unique;)
I got question about my blog - what about the University, you are studying right? I can see now that I haven't really had a big focus on that part in my blog (Ops..), but I'll get right to it. So the University is quite big. Not like a couple of buildings but more like a village with an endless amount of inhabitants. We always have to bring the campus map to get around even though we've been here for about 3 weeks. Some rooms are beautiful and biiig, others are tiny and shabby, and there's a big diversity throughout the University Area. And yes, we are lost at least once a day. We don't really have a lot of classes (6 hours per week - Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off:P ) BUT we do have A LOT to read. The way the courses are built up is about the quite opposite of the Norwegian system. Mostly in a good way. The professors are amazing. They know everything and they all have a couple of Phd's each.. It's an experience just being there listening to them. In one of our (two) courses we actually get a new professor to lecture every week! So that's really exiting. The grades are built up by 3 exams during the semester and attendency! So if you're there everytime you're almost bound to pass the course;)
Even though you have to read the required books (which are thick and multiple) you're not supposed to know them by heart as in Norway, the most important part is what the teacher tells you, the books are merely for you to reflect and get different perspectives. As they say: "You're not here to learn, you're here to grow". And I love it - growing already:)
Sadly I don't have any pictures of campus yet (odd) but you'll get a Maria quote instead (with a new Maria picture:) you're welcome)
Maria quote no 3: "So Maria, what are you wearing tonight?" "I don't know, is it supposed to be sunny out?"
3rd time in San Francisco and we end up shopping in the same area as always. 4 girls, one map, 3000 directions and no clue whatsoever - let's go to the mall (today!)
Luckily we found what has been on the top of my list since my first day in California: Cheesecake Factory. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's not really a factory (I know, I was disappointed too..) but a restaurant (they have food as well - even more disappointing) AND they have more kinds of cheesecake than you could ever imagine (finally an upside to it!). To give you a taste of it (I could try anyway) here are some of your choices: CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CHEESECAKE CHOCOLATE MUDSLIDE CHEESECAKE WILD BLUEBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE CRAIG’S CRAZY CARROT CAKE CHEESECAKE SNICKERS BAR CHUNKS CHEESECAKE DUTCH APPLE CARAMEL STREUSEL CHEESECAKE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE-DOUGH CHEESECAKE FRESH BANANA CREAM CHEESECAKE And there were about 20 more. HOW TO CHOOSE!?!? When we'd finally placed our order, not quite sure we'd made the right choice, the cakes arrived. And the pieces were BIIIIG and they were GOOOOOD.. We enjoyed it on a sunny rooftop - 8th floor on Macy's - looking out on beautiful San Francisco.
What did you do yesterday....?
Still waiting for a good line from Maria (for the daily Maria quote), in the meantime, let me humor you with "Quote from the street:"
Homeless people here are extremely nice. Exept some that say the strangest things.. Today a woman literally screamed at me:
"YOU LOOK LIKE A PSYCHO, MAM, AND ANOREXIC TOO! ..
First time doing laundry in the states and I'm prepared for the same washing instructions as back home (which took me a couple of years to figure out in the first place). But no. Here, you have to start over. What used to be a "simple" system with 27 different options depending on fabric, sensitivity and degrees, is here narrowed down to only THREE options: Hot, warm or cold. I mean, it does sound simple doesn't it, but it turned out to be a real head scratcher. How are we to choose? What about the difference between my cotton and my synthetic? Between my sheets and my sweaters? Can I even wash wool? It's not easy I can assure you, so we googled it. Cold is supposed to be from 10 to 30 degrees celsius. Then warm is from 30 to about 45 and hot is from around 50 to 95...
Maybe we are too picky in Europe. Maybe they are too lazy in America, who am I to judge..
Maria quote no 2: "Yes, we're thinking about taking a road trip. First to Los Angeles and then to L.A."
I must say I take back what I said about American bars (which was based on 1 bar). Having been out a couple of more times we found that Berkeley parties are the best. In the bathroom line, the girls are so nice! And the guys buying you drinks hit on you in a less disgusting way than back home! Or they don't hit on you at all. But of course when a beer here costs $1, you can survive a let down or 10. Our problem as Norwegians is that we still can't get out from our vors before 1:45 (which was actually the case this saturday) which means we have 15 min to find a bar and get kicked out again. We just don't fit the environment yet:/
Maria quote no 1: "Have you guys ever wondered why there are more pm-hours than there are am?"
We were shocked when we for the first time walked into the American movie theater. It's like a huge living room! There are couches and beanbags (without beans, dunno what that makes them.. Bags?) and they are HUGE! I had a sofa for myself where I could stretch out my legs and sleep! And I had the smallest one, Terese got one with two (huge) seats. We never wanted to leave. Who cares about the movie, this was like paradise, we actually stayed there when all others had left, just playing and jumping on the (bean)bags. Our little playroom..
A drink in Norway involves a high prosentage of alcohol mixed with some kind of sugary water. A drink in America is of course any kind of beverage, including water. And if you want a Norwegian kind of drink here in Berkeley, it’s not gonna be easy. The first time we went out we did it Norwegian style. "Vors" till you’re more than proper drunk and get out for more drinks. The bar we went to, which is supposed to be one of the more attractive bars in Berkeley, did not serve ”hard-alcohol” drinks. And they closed at 1am. What about all these rumours of the American way of partying? Suddenly I felt like a barbaric viking from a drunken country. And not in a negative way.. After that bar experience we decided to buy or own liqueur, vors at home (as usual) but start reeeeeally early so that we would be tired around 1am. The problem was then finding a liqueur store. There was none. In a city of 35.000 students there are NO liqueur stores! Fine, you can get beer and wine almost everywhere you go – even at the Pharmacy (they’ve got it all at the Pharmacy)- but nothing more than 20%. So we had to walk and walk and walk (in the rain, the thunder and lightning – i’m not kidding!!) to the next city to get to the Liqueur store. We asked 4 gas stations for directions and we finally found it in a scary back alley. (that’s not 100% accurate, but it fits the story.) Four grand bottles and a 10 min discussion about our I.D.’s later, we headed home, in even heavier rain, happy about our mission's success.
WOW! How wonderfully warm it is here! Ballerina shoes and dress – all you need. Haha, suckers back there in Norway – you should regret not coming to Berkeley! It is sooo hot here right now! 15 celicius or more, and the sun is waaaaarm!!! At least for the first two days. Then came the rain. And the rain came. And it comes. And it never stops. And it’s hard, it’s very much and it’s enough. The rain doesn’t even let us sleep at night, it’s so loud and not to mention wet. It’s everywhere, and if it stops you forget to bring your umbrella, cause then the sun comes out! But beware.. It’s just a trick. To make you wander in the rain. There have been many wanderings in the rain – umbrellaless and cold. But Ikea helps us through the tough times. Our apartment is quite cozy now, though very cold. We cannot turn on the heating system if we want to talk (it is SO loud!!!) and we can’t talk if we’re frozen so we just stay in our rooms most of the time, under the covers. Alone. Chatting with each other on Face. When the internet is up and about..
The final arrival I did manage to get to the apartment in Berkeley and join my two housemates, Terese and Maria (Elisabeth arrived later on). The apartment was not furnished, not cleaned and there were almost growing stuff out of the carpet which we had to sit on. Short black hairs everywhere, it definitely used to be a guy’s apartment.. Getting out of sweaty clothes, having a decent shower, and finally being able to open the badly treated suitcase, there was nothing more tempting than going to sleep in a confy bed. But with no bed and a living carpet (that we found quite disturbing) there was nothing to do but to find IKEA.
IKEA! Mentioning "Ikea" at the car rental place gave us the advantage of getting their biggest van. Not only was it the biggest van at the rental place, but the biggest I’ve ever seen. Getting all four (a guy named Terje joined us) into the van we realized it only had two seats. Not a problem in America. But with the very sensitive breaks it meant sliding forth and back for Terese and Maria who had nothing to sit on, better yet to hold on to, while Terje and I tried to figure out how to drive properly – and in the right direction – way up front. Ikea was about 10 minutes away by car. It took us 45. Both ways. As big as the trunk was we managed to fill it up. To the very last cm. Maria and Terese finally had something to hold on to, though the item was more likely to fall ON them if they did.. Good thing we had kjöttbullar and lingon to look forward to this first night in exotic America.
I’ve never been to California, so it was difficult knowing what to pack. Looking outside on the snow covered Norway – the thermostat showing -30 degrees celcius – all i wanted to throw in was my mittens and scarves. But then I started thinking about Californian TV shows. In Pacific Blue they all walk around in bikinis. That’s in California right? So my bikini was the first item in the suit case. I threw the mittens in as well. It’s January after all. Bikini and mittens.. Something wasn’t right. I had to start over..
I left early Sunday morning (my suitcase full off everything and nothing), 2 hours in the car, 3 hours at the airport. My first stop was in Frankfurt, Germany, where there was a terrible snowstorm – close to a blizzard – going on. At least that is what they told us when our flight from Oslo was delayed. Arriving, way too late, I understood that the horrible blizzard was a few clouds and a 3 cm snow carpet covering the airport. Apperently they only had three showels to share.
When I finally got off the plane, I had to run to my next flight – it was leaving in 12 minutes – and I cried out with joy when I just made it, the last one in just before they closed the gate. Then I sat three hours in the plane, before it took off. One must not forget the blizzard!
When we finally got up in the air, another 12 hours waited. To conclude: I watched a lot of tv, they gave us a lot of food and I didn’t sleep one second..
By the time we arrived in Canada my stomach was turning and I was sick for a couple of hours while waiting in several queues before arriving at luggage claim. (The last burrito on the plane was not a good option. Neither did it taste good. Lamb and mint together? Who eats that? Canadiens? But I couldn’t throw away ”free” food..?) Waiting for the luggage an awful long time, it suddenly hit my that my suitcase may not have been as lucky as me and made the flight. I was after all the last to board the plane. It took 40 minutes and four canadians to finally get a hold of it. And guess what – another queue!
When I finally got out, I had to get in again (to the next flight that would take me to San Francisco) but of course the plane had already left, one hour in advance this time. Lucky me!
I was alone, hungry (after having been sick so many times) and tired, veeery tired. Of course, the information office had closed for the day, it was after all later than 6 in the evening (Canadiens go to bed early).. I started asking cleaning ladies at the airport what to do, and they sent me back and forth for about 90 minutes before an Air Canada lady who had been watching me offered to help (she wouldn’t help me earlier). It took another 2 hours before I was settled in a hotel and could finally get my 4 hours of sleep before my flight was on again. The hunger had to wait. The hotel room was very nice though (Canada 1 point).
The next morning (4am) was worse than ever. Little sleep, no food, horrible coffee and taxi queue.
No hand luggage allowed! No more space in the suitcase! I had to send my purse and all of my carry-on possessions in a plastic bag with all other luggage (crossing my fingers that nothing broke) and get on a plane that was half the size of an average Norwegian plane. But it took 3,5 hours before I got so far.. they checked every part of my entire body, clothes and bags. Queues queues queues.. I’ve never felt more like a sheep. This way, that way, arms up, tongue out..
No breakfast till I got on the airplane. I was exhausted. But the tiny plane couldn’t even tolerate the most fragile wind without a massive turbulence and I had to put away my sandwich after only one bite – seatbelt sign is on – no items in your lap.. Hurray..The turbulence outside was nothing compared to what was going on in my tummy..
My luggage arrived first this time – and I even found the right train to get to Berkeley. Yes, sandwich time!! After 2 bites I realized many where looking at me which is not very abnormal as half of all the food I eat always ends up on the plate – this time my lap. It was only when I turned around that i realized that I was sitting up against a NO EATING OR DRINKING sign.. How ironic. No more food for me.
And that was the story of how the hungry little girl finally made it across US border. Maybe it's time to give up and go home..
All stores in Berkeley have neon lights. From cafés to Pharmacies to Hair dressers. I turn right towards the hills. On my way people I've never met greet me with a smile. 
The homeless are the most polite: "Anything will help" they say as they shake their cup of money, and if I don't donate they'll say "you have a wonderful day anyway". (Argh, guilt guilt..)
Passing the University area, the smell of Marijuana and the sight of clothing stores still embracing the 90's hit me and the area is filled with all kinds of people. A big mix of cultures, religions, styles, protesters, young, old, rich, poor.. This is the place to be free - everyone's accepted. The hippie area of Berkeley. Even if you're born in the 80's - this is where you can relive the 70's. 
The hills get steeper, there are more and more squirrels surrounding you and the houses fewer but more chic. Berkeley Hills - the richer part of Berkeley. Suddenly there's a huge stadium right next to my path and I walk in to take a peek. It's Humongous.... Only practice today, no audience. I'll come back for a real match. 
Continuing up, nature embraces me and I meet three other Norwegians on their own discovery journey. I join them and we follow a path up in the forest. We even meet wild turkeys on the way. No bunnies out today - there are usually plenty:)
