Reporting from the far side of the continent

[tarigwaemir]

Haste Street, on the Feast of Ste. Clare

As you may have noticed from the header, I'm safely ensconced in Berkeley. I chose the worst day to move, as usual, because New York was hit with thunderstorms on the morning of my flight, but I managed to get here on Wednesday afternoon without too many mishaps. Cable got set up on Thursday, but my computer didn't arrive until late Friday, when the boxes we shipped were delivered. The wireless signal in my bedroom keeps going in and out, and I'm not sure why. Anyone have any advice? I really don't want to have a 20-foot long Ethernet cord trailing out of my room to the living room (which is where the cable modem is).

I was surprised how cold it gets here at night. We only have a gas heater, which doesn't connect to the bedrooms, for some unknown reason. We're currently sleeping on the floor since there's no furniture in the apartment, and we didn't even have blankets for the first two nights since we shipped those over. We ended up sleeping under all the jackets I brought with me in my luggage (and still woke up shivering). So glad that the down comforter arrived yesterday; finally we could sleep in (relative) comfort.

We've spent the past few days going out and hunting down stores where we could buy everything that I couldn't ship or bring over on the plane. Today was devoted to groceries, and we spent the morning at Berkeley Bowl, which has made its way into my affections, if it's possible to speak of falling in love with grocery stores. We walked in and saw at least fifteen varieties of apples on display, all fresh and many of them organic. I have never seen so many types of fresh produce. Right now I'm eating the strawberries we bought there, and they taste as excellent as they look. *_* And let's not even mention their cheese section. It's only about eight blocks away from my apartment, which convinces me all the more that I really lucked out in location. If anything can get me to like cooking, that grocery store is it.

I'm pretty much all settled in except for furniture, which is supposed to arrive tomorrow from Ikea. Am very much looking forward to sleeping on a proper mattress again.

Oh, and I had dinner with kaydeefalls and her boyfriend today. Actually I ran into kaydeefalls completely by chance on Thursday, just as she was coming out of her hotel. Definitely nice to catch up with high school friends again. It's strange, but there's something comfortable and comforting about talking with former Hunterites (well, the ones I liked in any case); no matter how many years have passed, you somehow know where you are in the conversation.

aishuu, I logged into AIM today to find your offline message to me from a week ago. Sorry for missing the IM! By the way, can I just say how pleased I am that so many of you chose to sign up for this round of blind_go? I love you all.

Yours &c.

Comments

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

Glad you're back, albeit in very distant form... ^_~

[troisroyaumes]

I miss being in the same time zone as you! But at least I'm still jet-lagged and on East coast time?

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Echoing aishuu: glad you see you back on track! Does school start soon?

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks! School starts in about a week, and we start our first lab rotations a week after that.

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

LOL. Happy to see an update from you!

And yes, it is possible to speak of falling in love with grocery stores. Trust me, if you ever go to Ithaca and bring up Wegmans (http://www.wegmans.com/) you'd have no doubt. XDDD That said, I really like Berkeley Bowl. They're EXCELLENT for produce (and typically far cheaper than other places), HOWEVER everything else tends to be a bit on the pricy side so I'd hit Safeway for anything else. Andronico's is just kind of expensive overall.

And if you like cheese, this is typically the place (http://www.shopinberkeley.com/c/cheeseboard/index.php) to go. No, trust me.

It might be your computer that's making the wireless cut out. I had that problem earlier with my laptop and my brother's when I got here - you typically have to tweak the settings a bit. It turned out I had two wireless connection programs running on my comp and after shutting one off, my laptop works perfectly. My brother's laptop is running Vista and apparently their wireless driver is crap so he rolled back to XP and now everything's fine. (But you've got a Mac so that's probably not it - still, I'd Google around with your OS/setup about wireless cutting out and see if there's anything online.)

I'm visiting my parents for about a week and and a half starting Wednesday, so lemme know if we can meet up before that? ^__^

[troisroyaumes]

Oh, we went to Andronico's and were horrified by the prices. (And we're from New York!) Berkeley Bowl was a little pricey but at least closer to prices we're used to. Is Safeway within walking distance? How do you get there?

Ooh, the cheese store looks excellent. Must visit there at earliest opportunity. ^_^

I've Googled and played around with my settings but nothing seems to work except moving my computer physically closer to the router. It seems to be working right now...I'll have to make sure to position my desk here. -_-;;

Is Tuesday dinner all right with you? Sorry, we're still in the midst of assembling furniture and waiting for the last box to be delivered, so I'm not sure exactly when I'd be free before then...

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

There's a Safeway up (which is to say head North) Shattuck. It's a bit of a walk, but definitely doable. Of course, there's always the bus (BTW, as grad students, do you get bus passes?) if you're in a hurry. Oh, and you have a bike too! (Speaking of which, you weren't out biking yesterday, were you? ^^; Also, word of advice about the bike - don't leave it outside overnight. It's just going to get stolen. If you can chain it inside a garage or something, that's a bit better. But yeah, bike part theft is rampant here. -_-;;) It's a bit past Cheeseboard.

Well, I hope you get it working. (Lucky thing Radioshack is just a couple blocks away, huh?)

Tuesday dinner sounds great! Do you feel like anything in particular?

[troisroyaumes]

Actually I don't have a bike here (we couldn't figure out a good way of shipping it over), but I was planning on getting one eventually, so this is useful to know. ^^; Thanks for telling me about the Safeway; I'll have to check that out too. XD

I'm up for anything really--perhaps not Korean food since I've had a lot of that lately. Do you have any good recommendations? Should we meet up around 6? Where should I meet you?

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

Is 6:15 okay? If you're on Haste I can walk down a block (LOL) and meet you on the corner of Haste and Shattuck? Does that sound okay? And there's delicious (and cheap) curry and Italian on Durant if you don't mind walking a bit?

[troisroyaumes]

That sounds great! 6:15 at Haste and Shattuck then (and no worries, I don't mind walking).

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

Yay. ^__^ See you then!

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

If internet is spotty in just your room, perhaps getting one of those antennae extenders for your wireless router will help. I've never used one, so I can't say if it helps or not, but it seems logical if it turns out it's not your computer's problem. Radioshack has them for 9.99 right now I think (for Linksys routers). I had a problem with the internet kept cutting out, not just wireless but even when I'm ethernet connected, and it turned out to be a problem with my internet phone box doohickey (we've switched from Verizon).

Ahh! I've broken down and read Flist! ::closes firefox and runs away::

[troisroyaumes]

Oh, that's a great idea. I finally positioned my computer so it can get the maximum wireless signal but I'm still a little paranoid, so I'll probably go look for the extender. I'm currently on cable (which I've never used before) so it's a little weird.

GO STUDY! ::cheers you on::

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the West Coast!

It is definitely possible to fall in love with a grocery market. Farmers' markets are even better and you should be able to catch some in Cal until mid-autumn.

[lacewood]

Great to know you're settled in~! XD