Review: Rocking the Slums of Berkeley

After our five day stint in Tiburon, Alex and I moved to our July sublet in Berkeley. The place wasn't what we were expecting at all (in terms of the room conditions, neighborhood, and the landlords).

Here is the rundown of the place. We lived on pretty sketchy street  in a two story duplex house; the landlords occupied the top floor and Alex, myself, and

the landlord's son Sulliman (pronounced "Suley-Man") occupied the ground floor. When we moved in the place was pretty dirty. I'm talking dust bunnies, spiderwebs, and everything in between. The previous occupants were pretty sloppy (just like Sulliman). The guy's floor was completely covered with clothes, randomness, and left over plates of food. We tore through two packs of wet and dry Swiffer cleaning pads just cleaning our two rooms. Granted, Alex and I might be a "tad" prissy when it comes to this stuff so my description may be a little dramatic.

In terms of the neighborhood, we were living in the GHETTO!! Alex and I never went out at night alone (or even together). We even heard the calming sounds of gunshots somewhere down the street one night.  This reduced out nighttime activities to watching the complete first two seasons of the O.C. and random power hours. The power hours pretty much went like this: We made a pretty hot mix, drank and danced around for an hour, went outside and drunk dialed people, and then passed out. All within the time span of about two hours. What can I say? We know how to party.

Finally, we had the most ridiculous landlords. In true Berkeley fashion, they were hardcore hippies. Nells (Yes thats NELLS) was a scrawny, creepy computer programmer who reminded us of that guy in high school who no one talked to and had the potential to shoot up the school at any moment. Ellen was his wife and the main person I dealt with to get a sublet. One of the most cynical, unkept, and rude person I have met. She did have some redeeming qualities, the lovely feathers she wore in her hair and the pretty bee garden she kept in the backyard by my car.

Regardless of the crappy conditions we were living in we ended up having a great time. We had plenty of BU friends come by and crash. We literally had a different guest every week (except the first). Daniel Huynh came up from Fresno for a couple of days (we even ventured down there for the 4th of July weekend), Eric Brassard came up from L.A. for a weekend (we ended traveling to Palo Alto and Napa Valley while he was here), Alex's cousin Alex and her b/f came up for a couple of days as well. The BU faces were definitely necessary being so far away.

All in all the Berkeley experience was just that: an experience. It opened us up to a different area with a very distinctive, liberal, and earthy perspective and way of living. We experienced the harshness of the job market and how hard it is actually find any type of work.