![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Writer's Block: Nirvana
May. 4th, 2010 08:44 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
I have a French final in an hour, so of course I'm answering this question instead of studying.
At first I looked at it and thought it would be impossible to answer -- there are so many places I love -- but then I realized that if I have to narrow it down to a single specific place, one that sticks in my memory and one that I want to return to no matter where I am in the world or how awesome my life might be at any given moment, it's probably the table by the edge of the second floor seating area at Berkeley's Cafe Milano. Between write-ins and study sessions and essay writing I probably visited at least one day a week for all of last school year, and when I think about what I miss most about Berkeley after having been in London for so long, apart from the people and the intellectual energy, this cafe is what first comes to mind. I love that it has a second story, so I can sit and sip whatever I'm drinking and look down on the people entering, distracting myself with people-watching. I love that it has a skylight, so that I can feel like I'm right in the midst of the (wonderful) Berkeley weather, be it rain or sunshine. I love that, on sunny days, they open the roof and there is nothing between me and the sky. It's so close to campus but emphatically part of a community larger than just the campus. And it makes sandwiches on some of the world's best focaccia bread. All in all, life is complete.
There are other places in the world that are more immense, more fantastical, more awe-inspiring -- Santorini's black sand beaches, the British Museum, Doe Library -- but they're not really mine the way Cafe Milano is. When I get back to Berkeley, after a full year spent away, things will be hectic at first, but eventually I'll find time to make it back to that cafe and sit with my research on the second story and bask in the warmth of the California summer sun.
I have a French final in an hour, so of course I'm answering this question instead of studying.
At first I looked at it and thought it would be impossible to answer -- there are so many places I love -- but then I realized that if I have to narrow it down to a single specific place, one that sticks in my memory and one that I want to return to no matter where I am in the world or how awesome my life might be at any given moment, it's probably the table by the edge of the second floor seating area at Berkeley's Cafe Milano. Between write-ins and study sessions and essay writing I probably visited at least one day a week for all of last school year, and when I think about what I miss most about Berkeley after having been in London for so long, apart from the people and the intellectual energy, this cafe is what first comes to mind. I love that it has a second story, so I can sit and sip whatever I'm drinking and look down on the people entering, distracting myself with people-watching. I love that it has a skylight, so that I can feel like I'm right in the midst of the (wonderful) Berkeley weather, be it rain or sunshine. I love that, on sunny days, they open the roof and there is nothing between me and the sky. It's so close to campus but emphatically part of a community larger than just the campus. And it makes sandwiches on some of the world's best focaccia bread. All in all, life is complete.
There are other places in the world that are more immense, more fantastical, more awe-inspiring -- Santorini's black sand beaches, the British Museum, Doe Library -- but they're not really mine the way Cafe Milano is. When I get back to Berkeley, after a full year spent away, things will be hectic at first, but eventually I'll find time to make it back to that cafe and sit with my research on the second story and bask in the warmth of the California summer sun.
