Berkeley Diary
Just returned from my annual retreat to Berkeley, California. Below are excerpts from letters I sent back home when I was there for several months in 1993.
Well, folks, I decided that it would be more practical (and cheaper) if I just jotted off one letter to everyone (pass it around) rather than buy individual postcards. Besides, how much can you get on a postcard? Certainly not nearly the equivalent to what I have to say.
Where should I start? Well, for starters, I am sleeping on the floor. I like a hard mattress, but . . . In truth, I am sleeping on a piece of foam which is about four inches thick which is on the floor. I am staying in a small, charming, cottage-type house behind a main house. (Believe it or not, the main house has a large face of Mickey Mouse painted on the second-story front! And, also, what looks like the Little Prince to the right of Mickey!) It is a good size with three bedrooms, a living room, very large eat-in kitchen, and two baths. I have my own bath for one month, after which time I will move upstairs; then I will share a bath. Sort of like musical rooms.
The location is good. I am three or four blocks from a Safeway and Thrifty Drugstore, and a very interesting foodstore called the Berkeley Bowl. The reason it's called that is because it is an old converted bowling alley. This store sells primarily fruits and vegetables, but also meat, fish, bread, juices, dairy products, granola in bulk, and many other sundry items. It's definitely a Berkeley-minded store. But I was very surprised at the prices of the fruits and vegetables. They are wonderfully cheap out here. You can get kiwi fruit for $.49 per pound. Most of your fruits are around $.49-79 per pound. The highest are grapes, coming in at $1.19 and up. Same goes for vegetables.
I can also walk to the Ashby Bart station which takes me to other planets, such as Oakland and San Francisco. I am also within walking distance of the Berkeley campus and downtown Berkeley. (By the way, I found out that The University of California/Berkeley is called "CAL." Seems the Berkeley people feel they are the main, most important, maybe only, University of California that counts.)
© 1996
