a tour of CZ and some of Berkeley

So I’ve had a few people tell me they want to see more photos of where exactly I am!

so behold! some pictures of where I live 🙂

The house has two ‘wings’, if you will. I live in the ‘East’ wing, or the hundreds side. The other side is the tens side (the tens floor, twenties floor, thirties and forties floor etc). the Hundreds side is 100, 2o0, 300.

This guy is painted behind the door that is the entrance to the 300’s floor 🙂 That door is almost always propped open, so I never saw him until one day when he gave me such a fright! Tali; a real psycho style moment, you would have been amused 🙂

in the middle of the two wings is the common room!

That’s Sa’adia sitting at our main table which also happens to be a stripper stage. See the pole in the middle? also, note the ceiling is painted like the sky.

So the whole house itself is overed in amazing art. here are some of my Favourites!

the best mural in the house!

It is  mural in the back staircase of the night sky, the moon, and the Campanile (gint clocktower) curling around the roof. it’s awesome because you come out of the stairway at night and the actual campaile is right there in front of you.

a really beautiful one in the 300’s corridor;

penny tree, outside the study room

The study room in the afternoon

SFLX (San Francisco Lindy Exchange)

So the people in my drug den think that I’m hardcore…

Though I missed the naked kitchen dance party that happened on Saturday night, the dance party that went on in San Francisco this weekend was so many kinds of excellent that I can’t even regret 🙂

It began with the wonderful Kim Nalley on Thursday night at the 9.20 Special dance. What a packed floor! She was WONDERFUL, what a voice, what an amazing stage presence. She wore this giant white flower on top of her head and just sang all of my favourites – A-tisket a-tasket, when you’re smiling, I wish I knew how it would feel to be free….. So many more! And she sang this awesome blues number “My man has a big long slidey thing” and at the end she says “I’m talking about a trombone, y’all, get your minds out of the gutter!” it was hilarious. I loved it.

So I arrived home after the perfect night of dancing to live music, and what should I find in my mailbox!? A letter from the loveliest Hannah Jones, full not only of excellent love, but including notes from a whole bunch of people from brats!!! I was so fantastically happy, I couldn’t even fall asleep. 🙂

Jammin with Kyle 🙂

Yom Kippur was Friday night and Saturday, and though there are about 25 in my house’s Jew crew, I’m pretty sure I was the only one fasting…. Ah, Berkeley and the co-ops and all the hippies who believe only in trees and drugs… I never want to leave! 🙂

But Saturday and Sunday nights, there was more dancing, and I danced until 5 and 6am respectively. I love late nights so much – people stop trying and just let it all out, and you have the best dances ever…. I had a dance with Alex where we just held on with our pinkies 🙂

more jammin!

My favourite band was the Sunday night band. They had a wicked horn section, played to the crowd exactly, played faster music (goodness, I miss the tempo of Seattle!) and I didn’t sit down one song they played! I was so so wrecked by 4am Monday morning – Kyle and I went and got 7/11 coffee…. The one with extra caffeine… I took 3 sips and was bouncing off the walls! It should be illegal, that much caffeine… it’s like straight adrenaline into your body.

BARTing home, monday morning

But the hardcore part of the weekend was still to come – in the form of a five hour central kitchen workshift at 8am on Monday…. I had arrived home at 7am, watched the sun rise over the bay and Berkeley on my roof (through the fog, of course!) changed out of my nice clothes and stacked boxes of fruit for five hours…. Then I managed a shower, and a half hour nap before my 3 hour class began! And then, because I was in this surprisingly dapper mood (possibly still high on a weekend of swingouts), I did an hour of homework before dinner, and eventual sleep.

sunrise over berkeley, sunday morning…. the Campanile is still lit up 🙂

And THAT, my friends, is why I believe in sleeping only when you are dead.

Sunday Night Shenaigans….

So last night we got a little bored…?

David Spinning up a storm…

and me!!!

Brianna, after playing Kings Cup.

yes, yes that is our house’s giant salad bowl 🙂

Trying to do too much!

Oh, the magic of procrastination! Lets tell you all some Vivi-related-news!

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the sun on Lower Sproul learning a Hip Hop routine for an audition to a dance team I had no intention of joining, and now I resemble a tomato. It was fun, but I am hopeless at Hip Hop. Luckily, however, better dancing was to be had last night! I decided to skip CZ’s first giant House party (with outside guests invited) to go dancing at the Rhythm Lounge in Redwood city. it was great! Carla Heiney (who runs it) had just got married so they were celebrating. she was really shiny and glamorous! and they had a welcome dance for me, and it was really nice 🙂

A wonderful thing is that I’m getting to know lots of people in the dance scene here, so am slowly feeling more comfortable. I can actually chill out an be my silly self and not worry! phew!

(two of my new dancing friends, who make Michael and I’s colossus attempt look like childs play! they DEMOLISHED everything on the table!)

In America, they bring you refills of EVERYTHING, even hot chocolate! (mum, I had the strongest hot chocolate in EXISTACE. I couldn’t sit still for 20 minutes afterwards!)

I’ve had my first week of classes! I’m taking a college writing course; creative non-fiction, an English course about race, ethnicity and creative writing, which has sparked LOTS of contentious discussion (my teacher for that is so funny! he said he runs the class on creative writing and race because he thinks race is taboo and therefore sexy :)) and a class on musical theater in American history. (YAY! “what never?! no never! what never!? well… hardly ever!~!! he is hardly ever sick at sea!” *minces around like the captain of the HMS pinafore*)

they are all great, but as well as that, I am taking two DeCal subjects (subjects taught by Grad students). one is a journalism on film class, and the other is a HARRY POTTER CLASS. oh yes. I get university credit for discussing Harry Potter, going on a field trip to see the 7th movie part 1, and playing land quidditch! I can let out my inner HP nerd for two whole hours every week! YAY 🙂

also, I decided on a whim to audition for the University chorus, and got in! they are SO good, im SO excited. they are really serious, and the teacher wants me to go to a supplement voice class, which is exciting, as i’ve never had vocal training properly before! also, I might go to a beginner ballet class run at the university.

OOH. ALSO! I am going to be TEACHING at Berkeley!!! CRAZY! They have a swing dance DeCal, and I’m teaching classes on solo jazz movement and Lindy Hop in it! so I am officially teaching a university course!!! as well as teaching dance for the first time!!! woop!!! 😀 😀 :D!!!

SO. if you haven’t already got the gist of this, I have CLEARLY already bitten off way more than I can chew. Uni is hard here, its like school. they give us homework every day, and make sure we did the reading. its just as well things are so so interesting here, or it would be seriously annoying already. 🙂

other than that, many wonderful things have happened, like, I am learning to cook all sorts of new things in our industrial kitchen! I can poach an egg! also, a friend drove me down to a giant junk store called urban ore the other week, and I bought a super cheap couch! we had to totally revamp the room to accommodate it, but it looks shmick, or as my roommate Olga would say, tight/badass. 🙂 also, I have become a drug dealer.

STAM, lol, just checking to see who was still reading ;D…!

in funny news, the Party that I skipped last night went full over capacity by 11.30 pm. they stopped letting people in, so the rowdy crowd outside got really angry, and bum rushed the door! someone pulled the fire alarm and now my house isn’t allowed to have out of house parties till January, because the cops came an gave them an Exhibit A. I missed all the drama (not sure if that is funny, or annoying), but am disappointed, as apparently they have to cancel the house’s notorious stripper party which was going to be in like a month. boo! ah well….

I’m going to leave it there, so as not to bore you/procrastinate TOO much, but a shout out to lovely Kerryn and Bonita, both of whom have admirably succeeded in turning 21! love you girls! and am sad to miss out on celebrating with you!

now I wish you’d all just be sensible already and come hang out with me on the 300’s roof. I’ll be up there for about an hour. who’s in?

xxxx

My drug den home :)

so here is a story that I was told today about Casa Zimbabwe, aka, the drug den…..
long, long ago (last fall) the residents of CZ were divided up into two sects. the democratic-y sect, and the anarchists. the anarchists would sit on the smokers balcony hating life and being hardcore and organizing parties for the house. the other group would go about things pretty much regularly, partying here, going to uni, getting drunk there. All in a days work.

Each group had its affiliates; the people who would vote for its policies at council meetings, support it in house decisions, hang out with it at parties. Much like a mucked up situation in Australia that I know of, there were those independent parties, free rangers, one might call them, who swung from group to group, never realizing their affect on the politics of the co-operative drug den.

Then came a new group decision. the anarchists put forth the motion that CZars should be able to break bottles and glass in the common living space. If any member wanted, they should be able to smash a bottle, and create mess. or chaos. which is what the anarchists believed in. Free autonomy. The ability to do whatever one pleases, as members of a free society and democratic house.

However, there was conflict. the liberal co-opers did not agree with the obvious, nay, necessary notion of broken glass shards all over the floors of their kitchen. They put forward arguments that people could get hurt, that glass is indeed, rather sharp, and that smashing and breaking things promoted violence in the house. These opposing views had house members at odds with each other for months. Bottles went unbroken, floors remained suspiciously clean, but workshifts too, were done slackly by the anarchists, who felt crushed by a higher authority who did not care for their needs.

eventually, the co-opers of yore (last fall) came to the mutually beneficial agreement to reserve an area of the courtyard specifically for the smashing of bottles. Many co-opers will go there daily to get their smash on. It is a much beloved facility that Casa Zimbabwe has to offer.  And those who do not partake in activities involving broken glass do not have to be involved, which keeps a light an cheery atmosphere for all!

isn’t that wonderful?

This is how things work in the house I have moved into. Co-opers put forward motions, about aspects of life they feel need changing, for the good of all. Eventually, we come to group decisions about them. As well as cooking and cleaning co-operatively, people try to live co-operatively, and that involves some serious politics. better than anything I think I could learn in a political science class 🙂

Joking aside, though, this is a wonderful place. I shit you not that that story is 100% true (with my dramatic embellishments, of course), but this is a colourful, loud, awesome place to be. Right across from campus. And the community feel and culture of the place is unlike anything i’ve ever experienced before. It’s run by students, therefore noone here is older than, say, 26. very different from kibbutz, with many a responsible adult deciding what is right, and what should go. The system here is constantly changing, and adjusting as people move in and out. First council meeting is tonight, and then I am signing up for IKC, intensive kitchen clean, my first shift.

YAY!

p.s. congratulations to all my lovely AUSTRALIAN JITTERBUG CHAMPIONS! you rock my socks. especially one particularly awesome SHOWCASE event. 😀 😀 😀 😀 :D!