Fin.

I cant believe I am about to leave Berkeley. *insert sad face here*....Almost exactly a year ago, I left the rainy shores of Londres for sunny California...to fully manage and damage Da Wesssss' Coasssst!lol!....Sorting through my stuff, I found the very first email I wrote to my friends when I got here....and I had to smile....Who would have thought I'd have such an AMAZING year?!?!?!?!...

"Hello

Got this idea from Miss S**** to send a message en masse as opposed to sending indivdual text messages which I cant really do now because not only do I have a life(I keed, I keeeeeed) but also it would cost me too much and frankly I wouldnt be able to say everything I wanted to.

So first of all, I MISS YOU TERRIBLY!!! true talk.please ring me.5********7.I HAVE A BLACKBERY now so I need all your blackberry pins so we can chat. Or I need u all to go get blackberrys!

Now on to the last gruelling weeks details. So, I arrived in Washington on Saturday afternoon, after an eventful last night at Los Locos...thanks again you guys;-)...was in Washington till tuesday, got my plane to San Fran....it took abt 8 hours!!! People, can I just warn u that Americans are possessed!?!! Please cheap tickets or not, DO NOT USE U.S AIRLINES. Not only were the flight attendants aged...no seriously I mean museum type ancient but you also had to buy the (crappy) airline food!!!! 8hours of torture.

Anyways, so I landed at the airport hoping my friend in Stanford E** would come get me as promised...she was no where to be found....finally got in touch wih her. she was just waking up from sleep!!! PANIC! Ok, this is San Francisco, the modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, literally. Apparently it has a 60% gay count. While I didnt bump into any flamboyantly dressed yet coquettish drag queens, I was still very afraid. Anyway, so E** sent her friend to come get me instead. Granted I was angry but I was just relieved to be getting home. finally.

So, drove to berkeley which is about 40 mins from San Fran and is a city of its own, got to my apartment, opened the door...sighing with relief, twiched the light switch and alas, people of God, THERE WAS NO ELECTRICITY! Yes, dear friends, this was an "UP NEPA" moment. But one i didnt need. As if that wasnt enough, my apartment was absolutely empty! Not a stitch of furniure to be found anywhere!I almost died.

Seeing the depression on my face, E**'s friend offered to drive me to E**'s place in Stanford....turns out this city is beyond massive. It took us 1.45 to get there. Without traffic.

Next day spent the day shopping for my furniture...used a taxi back to my place from stanford. Had to endure the taxi driver's complaints about how loading furniture is not his job etc. Apparently, he only did it because im his African sister. Right.

Oh and did i mention that I live about ten minutes walk from a ghetto. Oh yes, a real G-Unit style-rap-about-me-ghetto. I mean between the MamaJo's soul food restaurant, the du-ragg'd out knee-groes and the old man in fela-style pants ambling to his balcony to 'holla at his niggahs' literally, my taxi driver kindly infomed me that the area looked like a place where drive-by shootings where common place. Suffice to say i wasnt impressed by that observation.
Anyways, in all of this I still have no electricity and have had to sleep with candles all over my room...romantic, if not for the slightly Olumba-shrine like feel of it.

Orientation was today and my ENTIRE year is full of the aged ones....the impressively c.v'd, terribly bright but still aged. Wow...looks like i might just be the class dunce then.joy.

Anyways, thats my little rant. I still have no electricity...Until tomorrow evening. they're shooing us out of the library now. Please ring me!"

Turns out I didnt infact have electricity for 5 whole days....(Tod world in the Fost world....or 3rd world in the 1st world, if you like). AND the allegedly aged and impressively cv'd turned out to be some of my best.friends.ever....dont judge a book & all that goodness.

Next time I write,I will be over the BAR.Literally.Meditate on that sweetness.  

But for now...Bye Bye Berkeley; a place where the freedom to question, to express and to.just.be, is neither mocked nor revered but respected as a fundamental human right. And, apparently, where a grown-ass man may freely stroll about in a corset with nary an eyelid being batted in his direction. Vive liberté!