Day before yesterday I boarded my United Airlines flight at Dulles airport. Note quite uneventful. There is no manual check-in anymore at that airline’s desk. Instead, the traveller is confronted by a row of check-in machines, each with an employee behind to explain how to use it. My advisor happened to give me false instructions, so my electronic reservation was cancelled by the computer. It took tremendous diplomatic efforts to convince the supervisor of my legitimate travel request. That having been accomplished, the rest of the trip to San Francisco went smoothly, with rash and efficient service on board.
My landlady welcomed me with open arms, when I eventually arrived at my forthcoming Berkeley residence. After a good night’s sleep I ventured forth, yesterday morning, to regain familiarity with the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) campus, the major point of interest for my two months’ adventure. I did not expect much excitement on that initially foggy Saturday before Easter Day, but man, was I wrong. The whole campus sizzled with events, as if all of Berkeley had decided that this was the day to congregate at UCB.
To mention just a few of the events: there was an Easter egg hunting and generally child entertainment festivity on the green grass lawns behind the Biology building. Easter Bunnies were throwing eggs (of plastic, thankfully) everywhere on the big lawn, with all Berkeley’s children, it seemed, screaming with delight and collecting eggs in big baskets. Happy parents and grannies accompanied them on the hunt and hunted in turn their offspring with ever clicking cameras. All in all, a delightful view to digest for a newborn blogger.
In one of the other classical campus halls, Wheeler Hall, a lecture on geology was given to a large audience, as part of a week-long conference. I managed to sneak in to get a healthy luncheon, served by an Indian caterer at nominal prices, and to be enjoyed whilst sitting outside the building on one of the numerous benches and under the sun, which by then already had chased the fog away.
Last but not least, the Indian community in the Bay Area, at least the younger generation, had decided to celebrate the traditional Indian spring festival at the campus that day. The huge Sproul Plaza was filled with hundreds and hundreds of youngsters who, accompanied by tremendously loud traditional Indian music pranced about, egged on by a an enormous spray of various paints, issued from a water cannon sitting on the edge of the Plaza.
Initially I had planned an hour’s photographic activity, to catch pictures of the campus during the weekend hiatus. Instead I spent 8 hours there without a calm moment and have more than 200 pictures to show for it. A positive start for my two months’ séjour indeed!
