<p>Hey my last year at Berkeley (I'm graduated now) I lived in a van. It was interesting and I would totally do it again. The funny thing is you would have never guessed I lived in a van ever. You would have thought I was a frat boy before you would've thought I lived in a van.
Well, I'm posting this to any folks who are short on money and have no other options. Living in a van for free is a viable option. I'm a wealth of info if you have an questions.</p>
<p>do you have to shower at the RSF? how do you cook hot meals? what do you use as your source of light?</p>
<p>i remember your thread when you posted about living in a van, i thought you were kidding LOL. </p>
<p>damn dude, any pics?</p>
<p>=d !</p>
<p>Probably quieter and more comfortable than the dorms.</p>
<p>Best UCs to live in a van by the river:
Berkeley
Santa Cruz
New category for US World News Colleges issue</p>
<p>where did you eat?</p>
<p>This was my van: [Car</a> Lust: Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia](<a href=“http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/08/volkswagen-vana.html]Car”>http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/08/volkswagen-vana.html)</p>
<p>I did shower at rsf and very seldom at a friends house at night before i went to bed i would brush my teeth in the main stacks library where sinks are enclosed in the handicapped stalls. no one ever knew. </p>
<p>I did spend a majority of my in the library but I did that the previous years as well.</p>
<p>as for the food, i kept mostly non perishable foods which wasn’t as much as a hassle as you would think. I did hook up a big 2000w inverter to a second battery that i installed in the car. I hooked this up to a microwave but i didn’t use it as much as i thought i would.
the van also had a stove w/ a propane tank under the van. I never used it but was an option if i was a big cook.
And generally I would just stop by the market every day or every other day and just get what i wanted for that couple days. </p>
<p>as for a source of light I really didn’t need any. starting out i thought i would need all kinds of light so i bought tap lights and little lamps hooked up the the inverter. but u really didn’t use any of them. I just slept in the van and really didn’t do much else. I had a little light if i wanted to read before bed but that was it. </p>
<p>The cool thing is I actually made a little money off of the van I bought if for $3,300 and put about $500 into it and then sold $4500. I think that more than paid for my gas while i lived there.</p>
<p>where did you park at night?</p>
<p>You should write about this experience and submit it for publication! It seems particularly apropos in this economy. It would make a great story.</p>
<p>I’m so glad I’m not in college anymore.</p>
<p>During the day I parked barely into Oakland right off telegraph where you didn’t need permit to park and then i take a 5min bus ride into campus. (Racine st. and 60th st was the best)</p>
<p>At night (after 5pm) I would go get my van and park it near campus and then just go to rsf or the library. But after a while I began to feel safe where I was parked in Oakland and I would just sleep there. I never had any break ins, any hassling, or parking tickets. Although if you are someone that scares easily I would definitely not recommend.</p>
<p>did you think you missed out on one of the most critical parts of college, the social life?</p>
<p>What did you tell people when they asked you how long your commute to school was?</p>
<p>youre my hero…</p>
<p>Na, social life was still there. The place I lived at before was too small for any one to come over so I always went over to my friends house anyways. Although I couldn’t exactly tell a girl, “my van or yours” but any situations like that i would just my story and most girls found it more interesting than creepy; we’re in Berkeley after all. </p>
<p>If anyone i didn’t know real well asked me where I lived I would just tell them I live in a real small place about the size of car in Oakland.</p>
<p>How often did you have to clean the van? Did you have your stuff in storage or was there enough space in the van? Motives for doing this? Any regrets?</p>
<p>I would go and vacuum it out ever couple weeks just like a normal car. just toss a few quarters in a shop vac on telegraph and it was clean. With the day to day trash i would put in one of those plastic shopping bags and toss it a garbage can on the street. The van was never dirty or anything.
No storage needed. The van has room to hang up clothes and enough to fold all the other stuff. I didn’t have my whole wardrobe with me. In the colder months I just went home to my parents house and swapped out the shorts and tees with warmer stuff.
But my motives were part that I didn’t have the money (my parents could no longer help me with rent) and I also just wanted to see if i could do it. I know it sounds stupid but it was kind of an adventure seeing if I could do it. I also figured I could always call it quits and find a place if i really couldn’t do it.
But all in all, no regrets whatsoever. It was awesome saving a few thousand and having a cool story to tell when I get older.</p>
<p>It sounds like you kept a very tidy house, I mean van.</p>
<p>I wonder if you experienced that during winter.
I’ve once lived in a van for a month, but it was substantially bigger than the one on the picture. It was a nice experience but I would imagine it would be terrible during winter, which I haven’t tried. but then again, it was in Cambridge, UK. hehe!</p>
<p>I like what you did. It was practical and very Berkeleyish…</p>