Tag: Berkeley

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Routine strikes

Iconicfigure on Telegraph Avenue

Somewhat scattered start today with phone calls to UK over Klein family issues; and email; and some travel arrangements up in the air. When we finally got out of the house we had a serious meeting in front of Peet’s Coffee on Solano about the need for routine. We were all three awake in the night, and restless; Maaike had a nightmare. We will remedy it all with rhythm and routine.

So Ewan worked and visited a contact at UC Berkeley, and Maaike and I went up Indian Rock and down Shattuck, to Shambhala, which occupies part of a floor in a huge and pretty austere 50ies building. I made a note of meditation times. Pema Chodron teaches every second Tuesday of the month, which is the day we set off for Fiji.

Back home we immersed ourselves in Maaike’s first home schooling tutorial, on the US of A and its history. We need an atlas; there is a lot to learn. The civil war for instance, and how slavery got abolished. Not to mention contemporary race relations. 

Maaike cooked. Stuffed artichokes with delicious dips, and jazzy tofu, seriously. All worth the wait. Life feels more settled tonight. 

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Bad Hair Day for Maaike

Maaike set off optimistically for her course today; sailing in the morning, but alas, the day was exceptionally misty-moisty and refused to clear. Having booked Maaike on the course to have some time to myself I ended up feeling quite bereft without her. 

The course was not a success. Just a handful of other kids (school has started again this week), and they seem to have ganged up against Maaike, the British latecomer, in a bit of a mean way. Maaike declares she is no way going back. W e regrouped at the Farmer’s market, where we sampled white peaches and crosses of apricot and plum (pluots), all organic. Organic farming is big here — apparently the California soil is like chocolate. The chocolate on the other hand is 87% cacao, which is quite something.

We ended the day all three sprawled in front of one of the four TVs in this house (the house also has four cars attached) watching a pretty pointless Cosby Show spinoff, the best on offer out of umpteen channels, and somehow we enjoyed it anyway. 

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Back in Berkeley

I am finally properly jet-lagged, wide awake from 4 am onwards, and crabbily drinking too much tea until we head downtown Berkeley to meet up with Line Mikkelsen: old friend, CogSci student and another precious ex-babysitter.

Customers on sidewalk of Cafe du Monde.

Spirits lift as we have beignets and cafe au lait to celebrate the 35th birthday of Chez Panisse, and lift again as we get a guided tour of the Berkeley campus. We end up shopping on Telegraph Avenue; Maaike buys two pairs of shorts for her Discovery Course tomorrow, and a very pink dress!

Later in the afternoon Maaike and I have popcorn in the tiny local cinema, where we watch Trust the Man.

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The Sky is Blue

85I The Alameda, Berkeley (where we are)
60 Leamington Terrace (where our exchange partners have landed)

California! I’d (almost) forgotten how the air smells (of eucalyptus and blossoms with a whiff of mint), how low the toilets are, how big the cars (and the food portions), how sweet the sun – and the people! (apart from the odd cab driver). Maaike and I slept all night and after a slow start ambled down the broad avenues of Berkeley where the Elephant Pharmacy prescribes yoga, and where south Asian cuisine rubs shoulders with one-screen cinemas.

We had lunch at Cafe Gratitude — we ordered “I am joyful” (quinoa, tahini sauce and steamed vegetables — more delicious than it sounds), as well as “I am luscious”, “I am eternally sweet” and “I am accepting” ( the bill). We found Black Oak Books, our first second-hand bookshop of the trip, and I eventually had to drag Ewan out. Maaike declared (at least ten times) that she is going to move to California. If she does I will follow her, and become Berkeley’s first CPP psychotherapist .