Bill Zhou flew to UC Berkeley from Los Angeles three times a week for an academic year to avoid paying Bay Area rent. This is an as-told-to essay based on conversations with and Reddit posts written by Bill Zhou, a 26-year-old transportation engineer. Bay Area rent for a private bedroom and bathroom is super expensive, and I didn't feel justified in spending that much money. Courtesy of Bill Zhou / Photo by Heyang QiuI scheduled all my classes to fall on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Also, it was affordable only because I had so many flight miles.

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Persons: Bill Zhou, I've, Heyang Qiu, Heyang Qiu I, they're, it's Organizations: UC Berkeley, University of California, Alaska Airlines, Valentine's, Los Angeles International Airport, LAX, TSA, BART, AC, San Francisco International Airport, California, Patrol Locations: Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Berkeley, LA, Bay, San Francisco, Oakland