Settling in California

December 12. 2009 to December 15, 2009


The Photos


Ah, California or to quote Gregory...

Berkeley, Berkeley, Berkeley (Chanted a la Eddie Murphy from the Nutty Professor)

Originally when I contacted our Tantra coach, I had hoped to stay with her or at least get recommendations for accommodation's.  Not in a position to host us, she suggested a search of Craig’s List.  Once we acquired Amtrak tickets and set up firm dates for our classes, I began to search.  Several intriguing offers presented themselves, the most tantalizing find... a student headed home for the holidays.  She was going to be gone from December 12th to January 10th, almost exactly the length of our course.  The asking price of $100 a week, for one bedroom in a three bedroom Victorian, with three flatmates, fit perfectly within our budget even giving us some flexiblility of funds.  It seemed perfect and I wanted to book it at once.  I was almost devastated as it seemed like someone already in town would likely get it but we eventually transferred $100 to her bank account to hold the room for us.  And, with lightened step and heavy backpack we headed to Berkeley.

... via an exhausting train ride.  Pricewise, Amtrack to California versus Greyhound to California is roughly the same.  Timewise... still up for debate having no reference information as to whether Greyhound had similar (or possibly even worse) weather conditions to deal with.  Foodwise, fairly sure it’s a tossup, since we didn’t really stop for food a lot on Greyhound and the stops I remember were Subway and McDonald’s which are cheap but not great versus the expense of a (arguably decent) prepared meal on the train and the complete lack of planning on our part to bring our own snacks and not pay exorbitant depot prices for crackers and sweetly flavored water.  Comfortwise, Amtrak is clearly the winner (unless you like it cool for sleeping but that may have just been the ‘broken’ train we were on.)  Real Reclining Seats, Multiple Electrical Outlets, Leg Stretching Room, Sunny Lounge Car, Dineresque Dining Car, Unknown Sleeping Bunks (cause we didn’t pay the additional hotel prices for beds!) and Bathrooms Galore.  We read, we watched movies, we slept, we ate... all while effortlessly moving westward.  And despite the ease with which we were traveling, it was an exhausting nearly 36 hours.

Ah, Leg Room (and Breggie!)

When I initially arranged our trip via Amtrak, I thought we needed to go to San Francisco proper (and we would have if I hadn’t found us the sweet housing deal.)  The train only goes as far as Emeryville with a connecting bus to the city.  Gregory soon figured out that we didn’t need to spend the time (or money) crossing the bay just to have to find our way back to Berkeley.  Talking to fellow pasengers on the train, we were told that a cab to Berkeley would be cheap enough and deliver us directly to our destination in easily less than half the time.  Catching a cab proved slightly more difficult, as Eddie Izzard pointed out in Dress to Kill, ‘...Taxis!  Of which there are *five*!  Five taxis, all going,  "I got people in."  Then when you get in, they don't know where they're going.’  Just before giving up and walking (not really... we had NO idea which direction to even start in!) our cab showed up.

Arriving at our new digs, we were pleasantly surprised to find we were diagonally across the street from the best grocery store in Berkeley, the Berkeley Bowl.  Gregory was almost dancing in the streets because he had been there on his last trip.  Of course, we went that very night to get food for the week and it was a pretty amazing place I have to say.  To me it seemed like a cross between a Fiesta and a Whole Foods/Central Market.  The produce and meat departments were very Fiesta like but the bulk goods and just about everything else in the store was Wholly Central Market.  Also of note, there was a Bikram yoga studio only a couple of blocks down the road with a super cheap introductory price to boot and a BART station right around the corner.

Cool Digs

We had absolutely no problem settling in and meeting the other flatmates, Jason from Arizona and Sandra and Damien, from Spain and France respectively.  Early into our stay we even prepared a meal for the 5 of us plus a neighbor.  Gregory and I made Pasta Primavera and (accidently overtoasted) garlic bread while Sandra made a mouth watering salad with the incredients that Jason procurred.  In typical Gregory style he learned a lot about them all and in typical Rebecca style I learned about them through listening to Gregory... we’ll see if that trend can shift some as we continue to travel.

Tantra classes started almost immediately.  Our coach, Jan Robinson, talked us through what expectations and goals had brought us to her and quickly assessed a plan of attack.  Sometimes it felt a little more like couples counseling than tantra, but her understanding (and ours as well) of how we already communicate and how to communicate better give us a good foundation to build on.  We defintely took a lot from the course and suggest it to anyone interested, but we do wish we had started it in Dallas, where there is less city exploration to be done.

Soon... more blogging... more fun! (and maybe even a ranty post about why this blogging thing seems so difficult, but maybe not.)