a little bit of Santa Cruz and a lot of Elves

So yes people. I live in Santa Cruz now. In a wonderful co-op called Zami!. I will write more about this co-op some other time, when it's not 2 'o clock in the morning. Right now I want to show you another co-op that I visited when I went to Berkeley two days ago.

Berkeley. The town of hippies. And where else to find those hippies than in a student cooperative?

It was very spontaneous. I decided that I wanted to go to a particular co-op that some of my housemates had told me about. A co-op with a treehouse. And naked Fridays.

So I took my sleeping bag and a backpack, and went. Knocked

on their door, and asked whether I could surf their couch. It was the best idea ever.

This co-op was called Lothlorian, after elf-land in the Lord of the Rings, and the inhabitants are appropriately called Elves. It is a huge co-op where 60 students live (compared to Zami-with 17 inhabitants- that's huge:P but there are also co-ops in Berkeley with 150 students).

(Fun fact: before Lothlorian was Lothlorian, there was a sex cult living in the house, and the members believed that aliens would land in Berkeley, so they made plans of making a flying saucer to join them in peace)

And...well...the place was "awesome, dude". It was exactly the kind of hippie experience that I was looking for. When I arrived they were just having dinner. Delicious vegetarian stuff, a LOT of it, seeing that 60 people and random people off the street such as myself have to be fed from it. I walked into the house and was blinded by colors. Murals in all the colors of the rainbow (and beyond) were covering every square inch of the buildings. And I thought that MY co-op was colorful! Pha! It was a laugh compared to this one:) A lot of these murals turned out to have been made by one guy, who is really cool. He was a business student, but whenever he goes to Lothlorian he immediately changes his suit for a victorian dress or other long vintage dresses. He made beautiful and grandiose murals all over the house in a manga style. If you look at the video later, pay good attention, all the murals which have all the colors of the rainbow in them are made by this cool guy.

I intended to stay for one day, but I stayed for two. I would've stayed for even longer. I'll tell you about some of the things I did and didn't do.

Day one:

I didn't do much but I arrived rather late. I was promised that I could sleep in the treehouse, which excited me a lot! Like WAAAAAH THE FREAKING TREEHOUSE! The treehouse there is like none of the treehouses you've ever seen. It's completely safe! It even has a firealarm:) Now you may think, ahh how boring, but believe me: it's still pretty cool to get to sleep in it. Which I unfortunately never did.

I pretty much stayed up all night (till 4), drawing in my diary in the common room while sitting into a conversation about killing whales, and another one about How to Save the Planet Earth. It was very enjoyable. When I walked up to the treehouse with a big smile on my face there was already someone sleeping in there. With pain in my heart I slept on one of the many couches that night.

Day two:

Because I didn't get to sleep in the treehouse on day one (and because there was so much more to be discovered in that house, and because I really liked the people) I decided to stay another day.

I went around Berkeley with a really nice guy from the house and we put up posters all over the city and campus to make people aware of the occupation happening in the financial district of San Fransico on Saturday (bring a tent!). It was slightly illegal and fun:) (oh no, this is on the internet now-does that mean that I can never get a job anywhere anymore?:P)

I took a unicycle from the basement and unicycled around, happily.

I very cleverly put my backpack and sleeping bag and some on my clothes on the mattress in the treehouse, so that no-one would take 'my spot' tonight.

I participated in a very long massage train on a staircase ("this is what staircases are made for!"), which felt very hippy-esque, and it made you relax as well.

I went dumpster diving with a couple of guys, drinking wiskey and rum as we went. It was heaps of fun:) Dumpstering is when you go to the dumpsters of big supermarkets or bakeries and take the garbage-which -if carefully selected- is usually food in a perfect condition. One of the guys who was dumpstering with us was so enthusiastic that he ran towards the dumpsters as if they were candy heavens:) I didn't actually actively dumpster, but I stood around and nodded casually at the police cars as they drove by. We got quite a good catch: a pie, some fruits and veggies, and two full bags of fresh bagels!

One of the guys lives in a hippie van that he lights with candles. Can I just...cry of happiness right now? I want to live like that!

We all went home after rolling in some extremely soft bushes (but the sidewalk was not so soft, unfortunately. Awch. ) and did the dishes. Oh yes, we did the dishes. At 2 am.

I didn't want to go to sleep because it was going to be my last night but when i did eventually run up to my treehouse (notice how I say 'my'), there was someone sleeping in it again. In my sleeping bag this time. Awch.

I refused to sleep on the couch though. So eventually I ended up sleeping in a bed on the roof on the very top of the building, with a blanket that I'd found. The moon was full, it was misty and beautiful. Totally. Dude. :) hihi.

A video-tour that I made of Lothlorian (It's a fun video, so watch it!):

Dear Lothlorian (and the people inside), I miss you already. Come visit me in Santa Cruz:)