About a week ago, I packed up my belongings, stuffed them into a suitcase, and left my home of nearly seventeen years, Upstate New York, for the Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley. Now that I’ve been here for a week, here are the differences I’ve noticed.
1.The Weather
On one of my first days at Berkeley, I asked my roommate about the weather. She proceeded to say that it was going to be sixty degrees the next day and described it as “cold”. Back in New York, when it’s sixty degrees, I will start wearing shorts. I had a friend who wore shorts until the first week of December, though I'll admit he was an extreme case. That boy just didn't get cold. That day, I quite frankly didn’t understand why so many people were wearing long pants and cardigans already or my roommates’ confusion when I wore a t-shirt and shorts in sixty degree weather.
2. The Food
I had no idea that Dunkin’ Donuts was mostly an East Coast thing. Admittedly, the coffee from Dunkin’ is not great, but where am I to get my donut fix now? I also had no idea that Stewart’s Ice Cream was a New York thing (PSA: if any of you ever find yourself in Upstate New York, go get a milkshake from Stewart’s). Also, Bay Area, where are your diners? And, I don’t mean Denny’s. Please don’t insult actual diners by comparing them. Although, I will say that In-N-Out is almost as good as Shake Shack. Almost. It’s a decent substitute. The aesthetic of In-N-Out isn’t even in the same stratosphere and Shake Shack, though. Shake Shack, when are you coming to the Bay Area?
3. Obeying Walk Signals
While I did not grow up in New York City, I spent a lot of time there growing up. One habit I picked up was jaywalking. Here, I sometimes get funny looks when I stroll across the street before the light changes and my roommate repeatedly tells me that jaywalking is illegal and refuses to cross with me. Which, of course, leads to me patiently waiting on the other side of the street for her to cross, effectively eliminating the benefits of jaywalking. On a related note: everyone walks so slow here! I feel terrible weaving through the crowd and shoving people out of my way so I can walk at a normal-for-me speed, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Seriously, don’t you people have places to be?
4. The Environment
At Berkeley, we have three trash cans in our dorm room, for the mixed paper, landfill, and compost. I sure do hope makeup wipes go into mixed paper. At home and high school, we had a large trash can and the recycling which we sort of used. Sometimes. Alright, only when we felt like it and when it was convenient. Here, at Target, you have to pay for plastic bags. I was unaware of that when we were shopping for my dorm stuff at a Target near Berkeley, and my mom, being the cheapskate she is, refused to buy plastic bags. It did make carrying my things up to my dorm quite difficult.
5. Slang
Everyone says hella here. Now, I knew about hella even back on the East Coast. I just never thought I’d use it, always thought it was weird and tacky and that I was above that sort of thing. HA. Until I came to Berkeley and had two roommates that were Bay Area natives and who used it. Flash forward to: a week later, when I use it without even trying. I think I absorbed it from them via osmosis.
I like the Bay Area. I really do. I don’t love the Bay Area yet--to be fair, I hated Upstate New York until I left, but I’m excited to call the Bay Area my new home.
