<p>I don't go to Berk, but I live near it. If you're into Slam Poetry, theres a weekly poetry slam on wednesdays. I don't remember the exact location, but if you're interested, I can find out.</p>
<p>haha, somehow, I don't get that Slam Poetry would satisfy the OP's issue with boredom, but one never knows. I miss living near Berkeley. It's always so lively and there is always something happing in or around campus. </p>
<p>Stanford is beautiful and clean and academically challenging and economically affluent and oh-so yuppie and "safe" and can really be BORING !!!</p>
<p>There are too many wackos in Berkeley for it to be boring. A bit depressing, maybe. You can't help feel sorry for the guy that's holding up a sign about New Orleans and trying to talk to people nonsensically and repeating the word "happy" over and over again, but not looking very happy.</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>Happy-Happy-Happy.
This is not a joke. I never joke in all my life.</p>
<p>He just kept saying these two lines over and over.
I was waiting for someone there and listened to him for like 10 minutes, which is an extremely unpleasant experience. Now I realize that I need an mp3 player, like the iPod Nano. :)</p>
<p>Happy man is so legit! I've seen him a couple times, and I've felt the epiphany (being happy-happy-happy).</p>
<p>Seriously? He says "This is not a joke" over and over again? Damn, and I thought he was creative. He was kind of being overshadowed today by this Black woman who sounded like the high-pitched lady from Police Academy.</p>
<p>There's this homeless guy who points at me whenever I walk past him (near telegraph, in that little area where all the bums chill out. Right past the crazy small lady in the chair who always laughs at me). I've recently started grinning and pointing back at him. Maybe he'll see the humor in it someday.</p>
<p>Yeah. Seriously, I actually hate the atmosphere at Berkeley, but to call it boring is ludicrous.</p>
<p>The atmosphere (craziness) definitely is not for everyone, but is is THAT atmosphere that makes Berkeley so special. Just don't get caught up in the "street entertainment" and end up getting mugged or something.</p>
<p>At UCLA you can go around Hollywood if you want to see strange people and you can go around USC if you want to get mugged. Sounds like Berkeley has it all.</p>
<p>Cute, thecollegegame. Go get mugged in Westwood. And if you did get into Berkeley, I'm sure you would have risked the mugging to come here. Cheers, buddy.</p>
<p>I prefer this environment to LA's artificiality.</p>
<p>holy sh8t.</p>
<p>the happy happy happy chinaman is still there on telegraph?</p>
<p>Aim, You sound like the type of person that belongs there. Myself, I like money, glamour, and the party scene and have adapted to the environment. You'll be a much more respectable person with a highly sought after degree. Me, I'm shallow and will wallow in the artificiality, live at the beach, and hang with the stars. </p>
<p>Hey, when did the happy Chinaman graduate from Berkeley?</p>
<p>Wait, that get went to Berkeley?</p>
<p>As to aim78 and thecollegegame, that's why I'm here and not there, although LA is a great school. As to respectability, money, and the value of the degree, they're obtainable from either school. Many of my profs at each and many other schools have studied at LA or Berkeley, and many rich folks came from each school.</p>
<p>I'm just having some fun teasing some of the people that take things a little too personal. In my heart I really can't say anything bad about Berkeley. That being said, I'm sure someone will post something that will motivate me to respond in kind. Let's just call it UC sibling rivalry. </p>
<p>And I don't know if the Chinaman went to Berkeley (but he might have:>) Also no disrepect to Asians regarding the Oriental guy. </p>
<p>Sorry...</p>
<p>Eh, no need to apologize.</p>
<p>As to not having anything bad to say about Berkeley, that's rediculous. No school is perfect. One of my GSIs (graduate student instructor) has a few large criticisms of his former school (Harvard), such as his English department being largely unsupportive of his postmodern literary interests. Don't idealize Berkeley, just as you shouldn't idealize UCLA. Admit their faults (which are largely similar), and try to improve upon them.</p>
<p>I certainly wasn't taking you seriously (I take nothing seriously, unfortunately). If going to Berkeley makes you tough and world-weary and going to UCLA makes you attractive and superficial, I'll take Berkeley. I'll still have good hair either way.</p>
<p>I enjoyed reading the onslaught of responses that sounded something like, "How can you be bored at Berkeley?" The more vehement responses sounded more like, "The problem is with YOU kid and NOT with the city!" </p>
<p>First of all, please stop chastising this kid for not enjoying the City of Berkeley. I know this might be hard to swallow, but some people might actually have an opinion that is different than yours. :::gasp::: Berkeley is the quintessential urban college town. You have your pick of bookstores, cafes, restaurants, and specialty stores. I know Telegraph Avenue can get boring quick, but don't be afraid to explore the Bay Area. Ask a floormate or a friend from a discussion section if they want to go see a movie at the Metreon in San Francisco. You can take the BART all the way there and I personally think that the Metreon is the best multiplex theater in the state of California. Once you leave the Berkeley bubble, you'll see that there are TONS of ways to have fun in the Bay Area. My best friend had a car in Berkeley (thank God), so we were able to drive into San Francisco and go to Broadway Street everytime we got bored of the usual trips to Henry's, Jupiter, Beckett's, etc. San Francisco proper offers a variety of ways to have fun. You just have to explore your options, find a group of floormates/classmates that you click with, and take advantage of the opportunities that the Bay Area gives you.</p>
<p>The people that got annoyed and just started belittling the OP really need to calm down and accept the fact that one man's paradise can be another man's prison cell. To each his own, right? I definitely agree with the OP on the issue concerning the quote from Joan Didion or Chancellor Kerr (?). "If you're bored with Berkeley, you're bored with life." That quote ALWAYS got on my nerves. Not only is it posted in Moffitt Library somewhere, people keep reciting it like it's some mantra to live by. That quote is definitely VERY arrogant and narrow-minded. Needless to say, whoever made that utterance demonstrates "tunnel vision" at its worst. Berkeley is not perfect and yes, some people will come to Berkeley and find that living in the East Bay is not for them. </p>
<p>Personally, I can't stand the Bay Area. Everything in Berkeley closes early and even the BART closes around midnight or 1 am. The Bay Area has a LOT to learn from Manhattan and New York City in general. Specifically, the BART should be extended so it could be accessible to a larger proportion of the Bay Area population and the hours MUST be extended. Ideally, it would be a system that runs 24/7. But, I digress and should return to the main point. The Bay Area is NOT for everyone. Specifically, Berkeley is NOT for everyone. I know plenty of freshman that were dismayed at the homelessness in Berkeley, the rainy Bay Area weather, and the "cattle classes" that are SO characteristic of UC Berkeley. By "cattle class"...I'm referring to courses with over 200 students enrolled in them. Great examples of cattle classes include Chem1A, Bio1A, Chem3A, and Physics 8A. I knew one freshman that was so "culture-shocked" by Berkeley, she ended up transferring to a small, private school in a quiet, suburban area. She just couldn't deal with the "quality of life" issues that came hand-in-had with the Berkeley education. She was schocked to find that sophomore housing in the dorms was not guaranteed (this may have changed) and that finding apartments in the City of Berkeley was VERY competitive and the apartments were very expensive and also very filthy. </p>
<p>Back to the OP: I hope you're able to find some floormates/classmates that you can call your friends. Once you do this, I think you'll find that Berkeley and the Bay Area aren't so awful. Personally, I'd rather gouge my own eyes out than spend another day living in the Bay Area. But that's just me.</p>
<p>Aim,
Let me know when you graduate. I may be looking to hire you. There's still a place behind the scenes for tough and world weary grunts to do the heavy lifting. And if by chance you have a bad hair day, no problem.</p>
<p>"First of all, please stop chastising this kid for not enjoying the City of Berkeley."</p>
<p>The op didn't say he didn't enjoy berkeley. Had he said that I wouldn't have commented. To each their own. What he/she said was that Berkeley's boring. I'll say it again, if you can't find something to do in Berkeley/The Bay Area, than you will be bored anywhere and its your own fault. There's a clear difference between not liking a place and thinking that that place has nothing to offer. I don't really like southern California, but when I'm there I find a million things to do.</p>
<p>"Personally, I can't stand the Bay Area."</p>
<p>You just proved my point. You can't stand the bay area and yet you seemed to find plenty of things to entertain you like going to bars, movies, The City, going out to eat, etc.</p>