Asking for directions in Berkeley
Berkeley is a very interesting place and I like it. People here protest against everything conservative. Anti-abortion, anti-prostitution-ban, anti-same-sex-ban, anti-pollution, anti-control. One thing Berkeley isn’t liberal in is giving simple directions. Ask any person directions to a place nearby and they’ll have a hard time acting nice and giving you directions at the same time. Ask the same person directions to something about 50 or more miles away and they’ll either tell you they don’t know or answer the question as if giving directions to strangers was their favorite hobby. It’s as if they loathe anyone from the outside to come and enjoy the city itself, but they’re happy to tell these outsiders to go away to other places.
I asked 3 different people yesterday for directions to a place that everyone who lives nearby is supposed to know by heart. They all gave me different attitudes and faces while giving me complicated directions, as if it takes practise and meditation to give simple directions such as “Go straight on this road and make a left at the first light. You’ll see a big brown building on the right; that’s the post office.” I had to mail off a few things to friends, and doing that was very hard as I had to dig up addresses from my weak memory and contact people through text messages to ask them for their addresses, as I somehow managed to leave my entire address list back home. I mailed off everything, and it was a relief.
It took me almost an hour to find the post office before I managed to send off everything. Either I’m stupid, or people here are handicapped when it comes to giving simple directions. I hope everyone receives it on time; otherwise, I apologize for being a bad planner and doing everything at the last minute.
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( December 23rd, 2005 at 3:14 pm )
Although there are many things in the South that I’m not happy with, I have found that people are generally quite friendly to strangers and always willing to give directions (when possible). Good luck. And have a great holiday!
( December 23rd, 2005 at 10:22 pm )
Wow doesn’t sound like a place I’d want to visit let alone live in. :\
I had a similar problem getting to the post office in Cape Girardeau. My sister-in-law was happy to give me directions, but I never could figure it out. She kept saying it was by the Burger King. Well, which one? There are two. I don’t know. One of them. So we looked and looked and looked. Turned out to be nowhere near a Burger King but by a Hardee’s. Sheesh.
( January 7th, 2006 at 12:35 am )
Otto K — > Yes, people are quite friendly and the hospitality is unique too. People are also more straightforward, with not as many games played as in other areas.
Valerie — > lol, it’s a nice place to visit. Landmarks are specially hard to remember, like telling someone to make a right at the house with a red window, or somethign like that. How come post offices don’t have signs all over the neighborhood pointing to their location, like the signs that point to the freeway entrances?