Random Scrap:
The Bay Area was not that much warmer than Poland. I was picked up from the curb of the arrivals of the SFO by Darren Yip. He drove a dark [Honda CRV] and we had never met in person. He was an international student from Hong Kong and also used to study in Santa Monica College. That, and a few chats, was all the connection we had. Despite that, I was going to spend the first few nights at his place in Oakland and then we were going to move to a two bedroom apartment in Albany. There we would become roommates for the foreseeable future. The place was on a hill overlooking a town and the BART overground tracks. Darren's room was going to have a balcony and mine will have the bathroom with shower. We met the landlord, a young Chinese guy, in the living room. We went over the contract and the place was ours. The apartment was bare. Daren was going to rent a U-Haul and move his things to the living room. I had to get a bed from a local store on the University Avenue and fly to Los Angeles to get my car.