I found one of my old UCB grade reports, as of the next-to-last semester I attended, and it brought back some memories. Entering my Freshman Year I had taken two AP exams -- American Government and Politics and Math AB -- so I at least had a couple of requirements out of the way. Hard to imagine you only get 120 units and once you reach it they want you out right away ("here's your degree, now get out, you useless tub of lard!"). Luckily though, EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) has a schedule all laid out for you of what classes take and when to take them during your stay. All the Engineering majors had their own schedules with EECS having a breathtaking seven selections two choose from: standard EE and CS, standard EE, EE and biotechnology, EE and medical technology, EE and nuclear engineering, and mostly CS (2 variations). Out of some 1000 people in the EECS incoming class, most would do CS ("electrical engineering is like *so* yesterday!").

My residence for the year was to be Unit 2, Ehrman Hall, Room 608 I believe, overlooking the roof of the nearby new-age church. I don't remember why I chose a triple, but here I was in a corner room, slightly larger than a standard double. My two inmates were Jim (and it's been so long I don't remember his last name), a hulking graduate of Fremont High. Physics Major, loved Doctor Who and Star Trek and Madonna, father was a police officer (Jim would tell us how the Bangles "Walk Like an Egyptian" would make his dad mad with the "all the cops are at the donut shop" line), and Mac lover. He had a Mac Plus which a few months later he upgraded to an SE/30 that he won at the BMUG Fest (he was a volunteer, volunteers got prizes for helping).

The other roommate was Darren Bleuel, a curly haired kid (he'd joke about taking a shower and not being able to get his hair properly wet) hailing from Ventura, California. Darren was in love with the Bangles, had a souped up Amiga 500 (our game machine, I spent much time playing Empire, Star Wars, Elite, and a host of other games), and the single bed (Jim and I had a bunk bed, with Jim on top). For most of the first year Darren thought he was in EECS (or was it Nuclear Engineering, I think the latter because we'd kid about UCB's secret reactor -- Berkeley being a nuclear-free zone -- and how he was one of the priviledge few to see it), but apparently he hadn't gotten into that major. So after wasting a year taking CS classes he didn't need, he settled on Engineering Science, a small department with like four students.

We lived on a co-ed floor. Every building had an all-male and all-female floor, leaving the other six floors co-ed. Even the bathrooms were co-ed, which meant that if you were shy in the bathroom with the opposite sex, you had to go to the single sex floor. Fortunately we were between the all-male and all-female floors. We also had a laundry on our floor (the even floors had laundry rooms, the odd floors had lounges). I don't remember too much about the other people on the floor. The room opposite ours was a triple with three girls, two twin sisters and a redhead. Most everyone had an open-door policy and people walked in and out of rooms to chat and hang out. It was a great atmosphere.

There was Mike, a distant classmate of Darren's (once you go off to college, you tend to get closer to other people from your high school), and his girl friend Aisha. Mike was on the tall side and Aisha was a bit shorter than average. Mike was an Organic Chemistry major, though I'm not sure if he made it all the way through. Aisha would tell us about her parents, who were really into that 60's free-love thing. Lots of advice they gave her on sex and such ("Mom! I'm not going to college to have sex!"). Vicky was Aisha's roommate, a small girl on the quiet side, though not for long. Hanging out with Darren and Mike and Aisha tends to loosen most people up.

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