Accepted and Welcomed at Berkeley

I have arrived at UC Berkeley. I am even now sitting in an internet cafe called the Brewed Awakening. The motto on the sign is something like "there is no life before coffee." It is packed with surfers (internet surfers, yes, even though this is California). The dishes clank and the voices hum, and I am surrounded by a Berkeley crowd---student-types; and long-haired, hemp-clad, latte-sipping organic food types, and the occasional ordinary person.
The climate here is amazing. The air smells like spring and everything is in bloom. The streets have been laid out with complete disregard for the local topography. So if a hill happened to exist where they wanted a road, they put the road, no matter how steep the hill. There was one street on the way over from the airport that felt more like a vertical wall up which we drove. I wondered if they equip the cars with suction cups.
Somehow there are stores and houses and businesses here along these ridiculous slopes and angles. So my view out the cafe window of the facing shops has the vertical lines of the buildings, and a horizontal that must adjust constantly to the ridiculous sideways slope of the street. The ground floor of the facing shop lines up with the second floor of its next door neighbour.
All the coffee shops in Berkeley must provide organic coffee. Hence, Starbucks is forbidden. This shop is packed. It has several awards and commendations on the wall. Eden has chosen a fruit smoothie which comes made without syrup, but is sweetened with fruit juice.
So much about this place makes me happy.
We have been given a dorm room in an old, monastic feeling building with dark wood trim and plaster walls. The doors are thick and old and the windows are pointed on top.
I'm having a blast. It helps that I have been here before and have Eden with me. I don't feel so lonely. Everyone else here has a big purpose and full schedules. My fellow students are attending classes and completing assignments. The Convention (Swedenborgian Church of North America) officials who are here are busy having meetings and interviews, and don't have time to visit or sight-see much.
But everyone is warm and welcoming and kind.