Sunday I helped my brother Chris move into his UC Davis dorm room. They day started out way too early as I woke up at 08:30. Going back to sleep was not easy but in fits and starts I slept until 09:30 when I got out of bed to take a shower. By 10:30 I was ready to go, awake for the moment. First stop was CompUSA to see if I could find a computer security kit. No luck. There were a couple of PC notebook security kits which require some kind of standard lock that they have. I wasn't feeling too well at that point -- getting up early after not much sleep does that to me. But I decided to brave the drive anyway.

After an unusually reckless drive for me wherein I hit 75-80 mph regularly, I got to Sacramento a little after 12:00. Dad had made a large lunch, some of which I partook of, although mom kept me away from the fatty parts. It was barbequeued steak and chicken with corn and rice, plus vegetable soup. Hmm, they have a lot of leftovers from that meal, especially with Chris gone. In any case, Chris set up mom's computer modem and her computer seemed to work so off we went.

We took two cars and Chris drove mine for the 20 minute drive to Davis. Once there we went to the visitor's parking lot and parked with all the rest of the incoming families. I suppose it's a lot more spread out in Davis (and they opened some of the dorms yesterday) as it wasn't that crowded. I remember moving into the Berkeley dorms and trying to find parking and then pushing your way past people taking load after load to your dorm room. Davis dorm buildings around where Chris lives are all three stories, unlike the eight story buildings in Berkeley. No elevators, but two or three stairwells make up for that a bit.

We also got a red handcart to lug stuff around. Looks like they had lots of those unlike my experience where each building had only 2-3 big carts. There's a drive way going by the Tercero buildings and people could drive there and drop off stuff. There was an attendant there to make sure the drive was only used for dropping off stuff. Quite an efficient operation all around.

The dorm room itself is relatively typical. About as big as a Berkeley double with two elevated beds (like bunk beds but not as high and without the bottom bunk) so that stuff can be stored underneath. Air conditioning above the door because it gets hot in the Central Valley. Standard dresser and a desk with a hutch on it to store books and documents. Two ethernet jacks and a cable jack round out the differences between Tercero and what I remember at Berkeley.

Moving wasn't that hard with the handcart. Chris took my advice and brought just about everything he had. I remember that mom threw away some of the stuff I left behind. He lives on a co-ed floor with girl rooms across and to both sides. That's not quite right because the hallway twists and turns, apparently the architect didn't like straight lines. The bathrooms are not co-ed, with the second floor bathroom being male, all the way on the other side of the floor from Chris' room.

Christopher's roommate seems to be a nice kid named Ian. Looked like his parents were divorced. Ian has some sort of PC and he said he has a 23" television but he didn't bring it. He lives in Davis already so he'll probably get the tv later.

After mom and dad left I hung around for a bit. We went to the studen union to get Christopher's books. It's a big campus alright. Chris already ordered his books so we went to the second floor and stood in a fast moving line to pick up his box of books. Then we went to the computer store and I bought Appleworks, Conflict Catcher, and a 10-pack of Zip disks for Chris. Then Chris lugged everything back to his dorm, about 10 minutes walk. Fortunately his building is across the drive from the engineering building, where he'll have a few classes. Lots of bicycle parking spaces, just lined up everywhere.

That was it. I bade Chris goodbye and left him to his new life. I'm sure it'll be great.