And this is the part of the show where I complain for a while.
1. I have unreasonable animal fears. I saw this picture about a week ago and it's been plaguing me ever since. I've also recently realized that my yard here in Berkeley is essentially a mini wildlife prserve. We've got a redwood tree back there which, mind you, is cool, but it's also home to a large colony of squirrels and something like a gazillion spiders. There's also a family of oppossums in there. Not cool. I encountered a small one when I walked out the door yesterday and I'm now terrified every I leave or enter the house. Usually, I'm just scared of things like the oarfish that I've only heard about or seen photos of. The fact that I've seen the oppossum just a few feet from where I sleep makes this new fear all that more serious.
2. Drivers in California don't wave. You know, when someone lets you merge or turn, the natural thing to do is to wave and acknowledge they're generosity in sharing the road. Right? No one here does that, which seems weird because I know waving isn't just a midwest thing. It was pretty standard practice in DC and I've seen people do in lots of other places, too. Thing is, waving is a reflex for me, but other drivers here give me the oddest looks when I do it. Is it really that out of the ordinary? It's not like I'm driving around doing the farmer wave.
3. I can't wear my hat here. When I visited DC in April, I bought this Washington Nationals hat. It's a good hat and I enjoy wearing it. This weekend, though, as I wore it around Berkeley, I noticed that I was getting a lot of weird looks and even a few dirty looks (neither of which is a common experience, except with the waving thing above). I think what's happening is that people don't know about the Nationals and they think it's a George W. Bush hat. It's annoying but I'm still willing to give up the hat for the summer if it means passers-by don't mistake me for a Republican.
4. Parallel parking on the left hand side of the street is hard.
5. Someone stole the book I need from Boalt's library. Although, to be fair to Boalt, I should say that the librarian I spoke with was very nice and, unlike NYU, they let anyone who wants wander around.
2. Drivers in California don't wave. You know, when someone lets you merge or turn, the natural thing to do is to wave and acknowledge they're generosity in sharing the road. Right? No one here does that, which seems weird because I know waving isn't just a midwest thing. It was pretty standard practice in DC and I've seen people do in lots of other places, too. Thing is, waving is a reflex for me, but other drivers here give me the oddest looks when I do it. Is it really that out of the ordinary? It's not like I'm driving around doing the farmer wave.
3. I can't wear my hat here. When I visited DC in April, I bought this Washington Nationals hat. It's a good hat and I enjoy wearing it. This weekend, though, as I wore it around Berkeley, I noticed that I was getting a lot of weird looks and even a few dirty looks (neither of which is a common experience, except with the waving thing above). I think what's happening is that people don't know about the Nationals and they think it's a George W. Bush hat. It's annoying but I'm still willing to give up the hat for the summer if it means passers-by don't mistake me for a Republican.
4. Parallel parking on the left hand side of the street is hard.
5. Someone stole the book I need from Boalt's library. Although, to be fair to Boalt, I should say that the librarian I spoke with was very nice and, unlike NYU, they let anyone who wants wander around.
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Hans again--I'm surprised about the wave thing, I've always found it very common. Perhaps it's just an East Bay thing. Or, maybe it's like flashing your headlights...you could be setting yourself up for a drive-by shooting.
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