Moved in

Haven't had a computer for the past few days...

the Berkeley campus is amazing. Stunning. HUGE. Makes otago seem very small...

So just after I posted last week we biked over the golden gate bridge, which was very cool. 4h later, and very sore legs we arrived back into SF and rode the cable cars and stuff.

Then on Monday we came to Berkeley and had a look.

We then rented a car on Tue., and drove out to Yosemite national park. The scenery is stunning. Absolutely beautiful. We spent the next few days driving around central California and the Sierra Nevada (a mountain range), looking at the park and stuff. The magnitude of it all was very overwhelming. As we drove there on the main highway we'd see these suburbs. It really was urban sprawl. We have nothing like it at home.

Everything looks like a scene from a movie, which is a bit crazy. The stereotypes in movies and TV are so close to how people actually are. It was very interesting comparing how people are in the country to the city. In the country there is such a sense of community. The people there are very friendly and seem so genuine. This compares to the blank stares averted gazes that dominate in the city.

And best of all? When we were in the country people actually said " y'all ".

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The scale of America is amazing also. While SF is 'only' 800,000 people there are over 5m in the Bay Area. It is phenomenal seeing what this many people produce when they're aligned together. The wealth here is something else as well.

While we were in Yosemite we saw a 'Lamborghini club'. There were ~40 cars. My jaw dropped when we saw them. Millions and millions of dollars worth of car.

But there is also a huge social cost- the amount of homeless people we say living on the street was very sobering...

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Yesterday I moved into the Co-op. Living there is going to be an interesting experience.

150 other student live there as well. Because it's student run and not associated with the Uni, I get the impressions that things can get a bit crazy...

eg. There is a vending machine that sells cans of beer in the kitchen for 75cent (~NZ$1).

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I've taken heaps of photo's, but have not yet gotten to a computer from where I can send them.

When I can, I will...