Welcome to Berserkeley

Well, I made it? I have moved to California for the summer and am settling in to (as one friend calls it) Berserkeley. It's been a fun and great first few days, let me fill you in on what I've been up to.
I ended up having a going-away/pool party at my house Monday night. It was fun to get to see a bunch of really great friends and have a last hurrah with them before taking off. Of course, my plans for an early bedtime were thoroughly decimated with the organization of that activity, but I think it was totally worth it.
Because we spent a couple extra hours staying up talking, I decided to sleep in a little later than I had originally planned. I still got off at a good time, just a bit later than the schedule originally called for. Between audiobooks and soundtracks to musicals that I wanted to listen to, I figure I could have driven probably for three days without stop and still had more things to listen to. Fortunately, it was only a 12-hour drive, so I didn't have to use it all up.

Right now, I'm playing around with the idea of auditioning for MET's production of Seussical the Musical this fall. That's still a ways away, but it's fun to dream. Anyway, I listened to that soundtrack and that took me all the way to Quartzite. The rest of the trip was spent listening to "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. I made it about half-way through the book in the remaining 10 hours of the trip, and it really helped the time fly by. Lunch was in LA, and then it was just a straight shot up California to the Bay Area. I looked down at the odometer after coming out of a particularly intense downhill section and my heart sank: I had missed the 100k mile switch-over on my car! Seriously, I've been waiting for this since I bought the car in October. I literally considered exiting the highway right then and driving down some random country road for 5.3 miles in reverse. If I hadn't just gotten a text from my future roommate asking if I was going to make it in time for a birthday celebration, I totally would have done it.
I got in to Berkeley just after 9, and my roommate, Stanley, helped me get all my stuff out of the car. I really didn't have that much to bring for 10 weeks, so 20 minutes later, I was almost completely unpacked. Another roommate, Thor, was celebrating his birthday that evening, so all 6 of us (the guy that I'm replacing in the apartment doesn't leave till the 14th, so he's on the couch till then) went out for some sushi. We met up with another 5 people from the ward, and so I'm already starting to get to know people here. I hope to make a whole bunch of friends quickly, cause knowing no one is kind of sucky.

Slept fine my first night in Berkeley, but I had to get up earlier than I wanted to. The rule for parking around my apartment is 2-hour parking from 8-7. So that means that if your car is there at 8, it has to be move by 10, and then again at 12 and so on. So, I got up and got ready so that I could move my car before ten. I parked then headed up one of the main roads towards UC Berkeley and gave myself a short walking tour of the campus. WOW. The buildings are beautiful, and there's a stream that runs through the middle of campus. I took some pictures, so you can see some of what I found so impressive.

Everything's so green!

Berkeley Bell Tower

From the Tower, you could look straight out over Berkeley into the  Bay. If you look really closely, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. Talk about an amazing view.

So, I had to go move my car again, and it was time for lunch. I had lunch and lazed around for a bit, then decided that I was going to go listen to some more audiobook while relaxing in a park. Parks are relaxing, right? Well, I headed over to the people's park. Seriously, read a bit on that wikipedia page to get a feel for what I was in store for.

So I park next to the park, and go lay in the shade of a tree with my headphones in and enjoying my book. After three people asked me for money, I got up and walked over to a corner of the park (further away from the "regulars" at the park). I had more success listening to my book in peace, and got to see an "Occupy Road Trip" Bus full of wonderful... free spirits stop at the park to enjoy it. I'm not really sure how effective a mobile "Occupy" initiative is, but who am I to judge? So I listened to my book for a while, and then decided to walk around the park, just to take it all in. I had another request for money, got to see the people from the food bank handing out lunch, and then, the coup de grace: I was offered a wonderful opportunity to purchase weed which I was assured was the finest quality. 

A bit later in the afternoon, Stanley and I went for a run around Berkeley. During the run, he informed me that the People's Park wasn't generally the best park to choose to hang out at. We got to see another city park which looked much more friendly. Stanley is hoping to do a half-marathon, so we ended up running a lot farther than I have in a very long time, but I pretty much managed to keep up (which I was really glad about). Two weird things about running here:

1. There are hills! (I'm used to having to find mountains if  you want an elevation change!)
2. You can run at 5 PM. AND THE TEMPERATURE IS PLEASANT!

I told Stanley that, if you don't finish your run by about 8 or 9 AM in Pheonix, you might as well put it off to tomorrow. It's so nice here though! They don't have central air conditioning or heating, because it never gets that hot or cold. I think I am perfectly fine with that.

After the run, I went down to Oakland and met with Ben and Ashley. It was so great to see them again and sit and talk with them. They're doing great, and we had an amazing mean at Barney's Gourmet Burgers. I went with an avocado and bacon burger, and it was truly fantastic. It's also nice to know that, even if all else fails, I've got at least two friends here in town.

As I was driving home, I realized that it was about sunset. I got a text from Rebekah reminding me that I'm on an adventure. I notice just how beautiful the sunset made everything look, so I decided to see if I could drive up into the hills high enough to get a good view of it. I got there just in time, and when I finally turned around to look, it was definitely worth one last push of adventure that evening:

I watched the sun sink under the horizon then headed back to where I'd parked my car. Along the way, there was this odd creaking noise. Like, you know in the scary movies when a swing is swaying back and forth in a playground and makes that metallic creak...creak...creak? Yeah, that's what I heard. Which was creepy enough, but I couldn't even see any swingset or playground. I went over to look towards the sound, and all of a sudden, a bunch of ravens flew out of the tree above me and started circling while cawing loudly at me. I decided that was enough horror-movie motifs for one evening and booked it back to my car. 

Welcome to Beserkeley