During the last years, I have become sort of a regular visitor at University of California at Berkeley.
I like the campus a lot. It is fairly small: all parts are easily reachable by foot. The campus itself is reachable by BART trains from the SFO airport, so renting a car is not necessary - an unusual luxury in the USA. The campus sits next to downtown Berkeley, with its good bookstores and cafés. I could easily spend a whole afternoon by browsing the shelves of Moe's, and actually have in many cases. The Berkeley branch of Rasputin CD + DVD store is just across the Telegraph Avenue from Moe's, and it's good for another afternoon visit.
I guess part of the charm of my Berkeley visits is that the place is 10 hours away from my time zone. That makes me practically unreachable by telephone during the normal hours. So all the sudden I'm the master of my time again and can enjoy the atmosphere of the campus at my leisure. Jet lag also reverses my schedule: I wake up early in the morning, and often take a jog around the campus before breakfast. It makes me feel a better person than what I am.
If possible, I stay in the Women's Faculty Club right in the middle of the campus. I have bribed shamelessly the secretaries of my UCB colleagues to the effect that they are typically willing to make me a reservation there when I prepare a visit; WFC visitors must have an invitation from campus. It is an old English country house style building, with lot of charm. The look and feel are not hotel-like at all, and I could imagine staying there even for a longer period of time.
What adds to the attractiveness of WFC is the grand piano they have in the downstairs parlour. It is a mid-size Steinway, roughly from 1905. Nobody has ever had the heart to stop me playing it.
The Steinway is different from my regular piano in many significant ways. The touch is fairly light, requiring carefulness and control. The dynamic range is immense. The pedals work - well, I still don't know just what is possible with this instrument. One could spend a lifetime exploring its possibilities of expression.
When I approach the instrument for the first time after the previous visit, I feel considerable awe. Playing it is a bit like driving a sports car: it goes fast, it reacts to the pedal in a split second, and it keeps whispering to the driver: "Faster! Faster". It is so easy to lose control - but what can one do? You cannot drive a Ferrari carefully.
