The minivan I'd rented was a fully automatic Dodge Caravan, which, even with all of my 'stuff' in it, still had space for five adults to sit comfortably. It was huge. Equipped with handwritten directions from the Hertz check-in lady, who was either called 'Trainee' or was new to the job, and my phone running OsmAnd+, I rolled out into San Francisco amidst their Tuesday evening rush hour.
This wasn't too bad, thankfully and I crossed Bay Bridge relatively quickly, with only the occasional nervous moment as I used the dominating size of the Dodge to effortlessly change lanes. As I neared Berkeley, I saw IKEA and, with some vague notion of efficiency in my mind, took the ramp off the highway and spent a third of an hour trying to find the entrance. Eventually I made it to the parking lot and was about to go in but realised I should probably check the dimensions of my room before buying furniture. With that in mind, I navigated towards Panoramic Way.
Thankfully it was just a short drive (a drive I'd do several more times) and I quickly found Panoramic Way, my home for the next 10 months. Despite 'walking' down the street using StreetView and reading the surprisingly extensive Wikipedia page about Panoramic Way, I was still shocked by how narrow and windy it was. It was nothing like any other street I've ever driven down in North America. This turned out to be a pain to navigate, particularly with my large minivan. After finding a steep but wide part of the street to turn around in, I eventually located our flat at 7:30pm.
There had been some confusion in the email exchange between Ryan, the current leaseholder and primary 'flatmate', and I. I had thought he was leaving a spare key for me at the flat and he thought I was collecting it from his office in San Francisco. After discovering that the flat was empty, I called him up and, working hard at his new job, he wouldn't be back to Berkeley until past 9pm. I thus decided to go back to IKEA.
This time, after parking, I actually went into the store and proceeded to buy a full-size (or double) bed (having arranged a desk and chair on Craigslist). This was a complete headache, particularly in my tired state of mind, and I eventually settled on a combination that was one above the cheapest but looked relatively easy to assemble and came with a reasonably firm mattress. To my dismay, the bed itself was preassembled and was far too large to fit into even this minivan. Not wanting to trek back through the store, I used the help computers to try and figure out what alternatives I had and eventually settled on a double bed with slats that required more assembly but would fit inside the car. This was a good workout for my lacking upper body - the mattress alone weighed more than 25 kilograms.
On my way back I stopped off at one of the Craiglist vendor's house to pick up an IKEA desk which he was selling for $70. I can't work out if this was a good deal or not since they no longer sell this desk but it seems to do the job, if being a little wobbly (as IKEA desks eventually become). In my sleep deprived state, I managed to park in a red zone, where the curb is painted red and where it is illegal to park. This would probably have been OK if two fire engines hadn't then tried to navigate the corner and I was politely warned by one of them that I was parked in a red zone. I quickly moved the Dodge.
Returning to Panoramic Way at 10pm, Ryan had been held up at work and was still on his way back so I decided to start unloading my car. This was exhausting - particularly because our flat is at the top of an extended flight of stairs. I managed this eventually though and when Ryan arrived a short while later, he helped me take everything into the flat.
I was pleasantly surprised with the size of the flat. Expecting something smaller and more akin to the narrow English flats, it was a small relief to see wider staircases and a corridor wide enough to fit a couch. The kitchen and living room are also more than adequate and my room, although small, has enough space for me, my computer, dhol, clothes and a bike. (And a bed and desk of course.)
The furniture mostly worked out OK - although the bed was about 2 inches too large to slot nicely into the narrower portion of the room, so I had to put it against one of the two longer walls. Building the bed was a pain and I felt guilty at the amount of noise (and subsequent cursing) I produced in the process. I also managed to strip the screwdriver that Ryan had kindly lent me, which made it increasingly tough to screw everything in tightly enough (and I have a nice blister on my palm as a result). Eventually it would go no further and I left a couple of diagonal slats out, put my mattress down and nodded off to sleep after a 27 hour waking day.
Continued.
