During my first two weeks at the University of California , Berkeley , I experienced some unexpected , funny , and sometimes embarrassing  situations . Allow me to share some with you . But first , let me give advice to other foreign students who plan to study in the United States . Check the weather before coming ! I was very sure that California was sunny all year around so I left all my jackets and sweaters in Paris . It was a huge mistake ! It rained almost every day during the first week in Berkeley . I have to say that I quickly forgot these unlucky events . Life in Berkeley is very pleasant and everything is so easy compared to Paris . For example , in only 24 hours I bought a mobile phone and made the lease  agreement for a flat . What's more , almost all the shops are open on Sunday , which is very practical for me . The first thing that surprised me is that students may come late to class . They freely enter and leave the classroom many times during class , In France , students respect the teacher's lesson , so they are never late and they leave the classroom only at the end of the class . The local people in California are in general very nice , open and active , However , I am not totally used to their habits yet . Indeed , I was used to shaking my friends' hands every day in France . During my second day at Berkeley , I shook the hand of one of my classmates whom I had met the day before and he told me "I think we already met !" Another funny story happened during the first party I attended : A girl that I meet before came to hug me . I thought she wanted to kiss me like we usually do in France to say hello . So I kissed her and she seemed a little bit embarrassed . I live a great experience at present , and I would just encourage any student to become a member in  a program at UC , Berkeley . When the writer's classmate said "I think we already met !" , he meant  _  .
he and the write had known each other in France Americans needn't shake hands when they met again he was not used to shaking hands with others the write had forgotten about their last meeting