International House Berkeley

48 Peggy (Post) Grunland 1946 - 1951 I moved into the I-House in the Spring of 1946. That was just after World War II, when I-Housers were living in the fraternity houses. Joan Obidine Rush, Elliott Castello, George Dove, and Diane Smith were some of them. All of them had been in the Service. George Dove received the Silver Medal for valor in combat. Elliott had been in the Army. Joan had also been in the Service, and so had her future husband Rollo [Rush]. Yes, those friendships endured. Where was I before I-House? I had just graduated from college; my last university was the University of Texas. I came to Berkeley because I wanted to see where my Russian grandparents had finally settled – which was Berkeley. I was going to get a Masters degree in Spanish; I would do it in Berkeley so I could see the family's hometown, so to speak. I wrote to my friend, Nancy Anderson Chirich, whom I had met at the University of Utah when Dad was stationed in Salt Lake City, and asked her: "Any suggestions on where to live in Berkeley?" She lived in the City at the time, and she said, "There's a place called International House..." That started it. I had to wait awhile to get in. My own time at I-House was divided in two – first I lived in I-House as a student for one-and-a-half years, and then I came back to work. After two years as a student, I went home to where my parents were stationed down in the South and thought: What am I going to do with my life? I had thought I would get a Masters in Spanish and be an interpreter. Mr. Blaisdell wrote that they were moving back to the Big House, and they were going to open an information desk, and would I like to...? I would like! It must have been the fall of '47. Ingrid came in '47. Now that's an I-House friendship – we're still good friends now. Paul [Grunland] and I helped her move into her present place not so long ago. I was one of her witnesses when she decided to become a citizen. Jean Sullivan [Dobrezensky], who was in charge of residence, and I were her two witnesses. There are quite a few people with whom I am still friends, including some who went back to their home country, like Terje Jacobsen, who went back to Norway. Maybe we can get Terje over here himself – he called me the other month. He and his mother were the last people to escape Norway-- they went to Sweden. His mother had been very active in the underground. She had been a radio operator. Terje was a young eighteen-year-old and an underground message carrier who was involved in the sinking of the battleship Tirpitz. My memories from the first I-House? There was my roommate, Marciana Kui. We're still in touch, Marciana and I. I don't know whether she had been born in China, but

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