Adventures in Exploration...

The people here are generally very friendly and very diverse.  

Yesterday I went to the largest Target I've ever seen (2 stories) and had to walk a looong way back to the bus with my goodies.   Living without a car is a rude (and wonderful) awakening.  I love it!

I also registered for my classes at Chapman University College, where I'll be getting certified to teach elementary school.  My first 2 classes are:  Child Development (psych) & Intro to Teaching.  I start June 8th.

Today I ventured up to El Cerrito.  It's about a 15 minute bus ride north of Berkeley.  This is where a lot of Tibetans supposedly live...so I went to check it out.  It's true!  There were like 8 of them at Starbucks...which is apparently the hang out spot. :)  After my shopping adventure (Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Trader Joe's)- I lugged my stuff back home.  

Then, I decided to walk to UC Berkeley.  It's about a 20 min. walk east of my house.  There are stores and restaurants along the way.  I saw 2 Tibetan stores and 1 Tibetan restaurant, so I went in to all 3 to practice speaking.  It was great!  All 3 places were run by women and it was a funny situation trying to talk to them.  

I cooked dinner for the first time in aeons.  I purchased Tibetan bread at the restaurant while I was there and then made some stir fried spinach and a salad to go with it.  My roommate, Ngawang, ate with me.  He works at a bakery (yay!) so he brings home fabulous breads every day.  We ate some hummus with that- it was his first time trying it and he liked it!

Here are some photos I took today & yesterday:

This is the BART (subway) station near my house.

This is my house.  I love it!

This is the garden across the street from my house.  It was a building, but it burned down.

This is the Berkeley Youth Alternative.  It's next to the garden, across the street from my house.

This is Strawberry Creek Park that is next to Strawberry Creek (1 block from my house).  

This is the pedestrian bridge that goes over Strawberry Creek.

The coolest yoga studio ad ever (it's in the studio's window).  I wish you could see the look on this kids face...hehehe

Tomorrow I'm going to a Brazilian dance class with a girl I met on Craigslist (when I was looking for housing). I'm interested to see how this goes.