I LOOK LIKE I GOT THE CRAZY SICKNESS. BE AFRAID.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Goth weekend
Hello readers! After rereading my last post, it became clear to me that it was kinda super depressing. I really don't want you guys to think that I'm not enjoying my time out here, or that I regret doing this at all. As my good friend Derrick put it "Even on your lowest day, just remember: if you hadn't done this, you would still be that girl longing for California", and I totally agree. This whole experience has been cliche-ly life-changing for me. Its taught me a lot about the concept of home and what I really want after graduation in the spring, and its given me a new perspective on aspects of my life that I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about. (Can I please mention that while in California I decided what I want to do when I'm out of college? Fuck, that sure feels good.) What I wasn't expecting was how much I'd miss Minneapolis. I wasn't homesick when I moved from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Not at all. I think the first time I felt homesick was just this past year when I visited Milwaukee in the end of June after not being there since the beginning of January. Naturally, I thought it would be the same coming here. But its not. I guess its because I like where I'm at in Minneapolis: on my own, lots of friends, partying, chilling, knowing the area. Life's good.
Anyway, in order to prove to you guys that I'm not giving up on my adventure out here (WHOOOHOO ADVENTURE YEAH), I did two really fucking awesome things this weekend (actually, I just did them because I wanted to. But you felt really important for a second, right?). On Friday, I visited LACMA (the Los Angels Country Museum of Art), and I can tell you that the two hour transit ride was totally worth it: I got to see the Tim Burton exhibit!
My inner goth child LIVES AGAIN! Hahaha. Oh man, but it was amazing. I remember being in middle school and loving his art; stuff like The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and of course, Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so amazing to see his earlier works, and there were a lot of pieces I'd never seen before. I totally feel in love with this one:
I wish I could have taken pictures, but there was no photography allowed. There was an amazing black light room with a totally nuts mobile and the actual Edward Scissorhands suit and gloves and ahhhh! So much cool shit.
I spent close to two hours in the exhibit and then explored a few of LACMA's permanent collections, but I had another two hours on buses and the subway to look forward to, so I didn't get to see much of the rest of the museum. I did, however, get a closer look at the La Brea Tar Pits, which was awesome. I hope I'll get a chance to go back to LACMA, and that I'll be able to go to the Page Museum, which is where the fossils that were found in the Tar Pits are exhibited.
My Friday night was spent hanging out in my friend Bill's apartment, where we watched Tosh.0. I haven't seen that show in forever, and its a lot crazier than I remember it to be. For example (Grandma, you might not want to watch this):
...woah. Okay.
Saturday morning I get a text from a friend of mine who moved to LA from Minneapolis this past summer asking me if I want to go see the taping of the Spike SCREAM Awards, and I was like "HOLY SHIT YES". I spent the day trying to come up with a costume, because apparently the better your costume is the better your seats are, but my car-less-ness and the fact that I'm poor left me with very little to work with, so I ended up wearing a Misfits shirt, a really short plaid skirt (I didn't remember it being that short, so either the washing machine shrunk it or my butt got bigger...in a good way /winkwink), fishnets and boots (inner goth child released part deux). But fuck, some of the costumes were really awesome. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to bring phones or cameras in, so I have no pictures for you. Sad day.
I brought Bill and Jeff (another one of my Korean friends) with me, and we got down to Universal City around 5. After we parked, a bus took the three of us up into the studios. We saw a lot of movie sets on the way up, so that was pretty awesome. The set for the show was freaking sweet. Kind of a circus-sideshow feel, with a lot of cool costumes and vintage-y patterns and colors. The whole thing was set up outside, which kind of sucked because it got really cold, but we had good seats. And they had free catering! Waiters brought burgers, fries, sandwiches, cakes and BOOZE up and down the aisles. Yes my friends, free show AND free booze. I didn't want to be shwasted though, so I only had a couple glasses of wine. I was supposed to be able to order whatever mixed drink I wanted, but the whole thing was extremely disorganized, and even though I ordered from four different people, I never got my gin and tonic. Oh well.
The show itself was pretty awesome, mostly because I saw my FAVORITE ACTOR, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (insert major swoon). And he WAVED IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION. So happy. I'm not really one to get starstruck, but this was different. Ever since I saw Mysterious Skin back in high school, and then Brick, then 500 Days of Summer...ugh, in love. Annnnyway, haha, some of the other celebrities were Quentin Tarantino, Anne Hathaway, Robert Downy Jr., Colin Ferrell, George Lucas, Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Bradley Cooper and a bunch more. It was also really interesting to see how the whole thing worked. First of all, I have no idea how the make the audience look so huge on TV. There really weren't that many people there; at least a lot less than I expected. Second, hearing the celebrities fuck up was awesome. A couple of them had to do a couple takes, and the crowd's reaction was pretty priceless. The show had cool pyrotechnics, we got sweet signs to wave when Robert Downy Jr. came on set...god, I just wish I could have taken pictures. I tried to see if any had leaked, and this is what I could find to help you guys visualize the whole thing a little better:
But you know, you could always just watch the awards show on Spike TV, Tuesday at 9:00 (I don't know what time zone though). Who knows, maybe you'll see me in the crowd!
Well, I have a long week ahead of me. Three midterms and hopefully doing some volunteering at the school's writing center. I don't have any concrete plans for next weekend, but don't worry, you know I always find something to do.
Until then! <3
Anyway, in order to prove to you guys that I'm not giving up on my adventure out here (WHOOOHOO ADVENTURE YEAH), I did two really fucking awesome things this weekend (actually, I just did them because I wanted to. But you felt really important for a second, right?). On Friday, I visited LACMA (the Los Angels Country Museum of Art), and I can tell you that the two hour transit ride was totally worth it: I got to see the Tim Burton exhibit!
My inner goth child LIVES AGAIN! Hahaha. Oh man, but it was amazing. I remember being in middle school and loving his art; stuff like The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and of course, Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so amazing to see his earlier works, and there were a lot of pieces I'd never seen before. I totally feel in love with this one:
I wish I could have taken pictures, but there was no photography allowed. There was an amazing black light room with a totally nuts mobile and the actual Edward Scissorhands suit and gloves and ahhhh! So much cool shit.
My Friday night was spent hanging out in my friend Bill's apartment, where we watched Tosh.0. I haven't seen that show in forever, and its a lot crazier than I remember it to be. For example (Grandma, you might not want to watch this):
...woah. Okay.
Saturday morning I get a text from a friend of mine who moved to LA from Minneapolis this past summer asking me if I want to go see the taping of the Spike SCREAM Awards, and I was like "HOLY SHIT YES". I spent the day trying to come up with a costume, because apparently the better your costume is the better your seats are, but my car-less-ness and the fact that I'm poor left me with very little to work with, so I ended up wearing a Misfits shirt, a really short plaid skirt (I didn't remember it being that short, so either the washing machine shrunk it or my butt got bigger...in a good way /winkwink), fishnets and boots (inner goth child released part deux). But fuck, some of the costumes were really awesome. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to bring phones or cameras in, so I have no pictures for you. Sad day.
I brought Bill and Jeff (another one of my Korean friends) with me, and we got down to Universal City around 5. After we parked, a bus took the three of us up into the studios. We saw a lot of movie sets on the way up, so that was pretty awesome. The set for the show was freaking sweet. Kind of a circus-sideshow feel, with a lot of cool costumes and vintage-y patterns and colors. The whole thing was set up outside, which kind of sucked because it got really cold, but we had good seats. And they had free catering! Waiters brought burgers, fries, sandwiches, cakes and BOOZE up and down the aisles. Yes my friends, free show AND free booze. I didn't want to be shwasted though, so I only had a couple glasses of wine. I was supposed to be able to order whatever mixed drink I wanted, but the whole thing was extremely disorganized, and even though I ordered from four different people, I never got my gin and tonic. Oh well.
The show itself was pretty awesome, mostly because I saw my FAVORITE ACTOR, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (insert major swoon). And he WAVED IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION. So happy. I'm not really one to get starstruck, but this was different. Ever since I saw Mysterious Skin back in high school, and then Brick, then 500 Days of Summer...ugh, in love. Annnnyway, haha, some of the other celebrities were Quentin Tarantino, Anne Hathaway, Robert Downy Jr., Colin Ferrell, George Lucas, Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Bradley Cooper and a bunch more. It was also really interesting to see how the whole thing worked. First of all, I have no idea how the make the audience look so huge on TV. There really weren't that many people there; at least a lot less than I expected. Second, hearing the celebrities fuck up was awesome. A couple of them had to do a couple takes, and the crowd's reaction was pretty priceless. The show had cool pyrotechnics, we got sweet signs to wave when Robert Downy Jr. came on set...god, I just wish I could have taken pictures. I tried to see if any had leaked, and this is what I could find to help you guys visualize the whole thing a little better:
But you know, you could always just watch the awards show on Spike TV, Tuesday at 9:00 (I don't know what time zone though). Who knows, maybe you'll see me in the crowd!
Well, I have a long week ahead of me. Three midterms and hopefully doing some volunteering at the school's writing center. I don't have any concrete plans for next weekend, but don't worry, you know I always find something to do.
Until then! <3
Thursday, October 13, 2011
An adjusted view
Hello readers! I thought it would be a good time for an update on my thoughts about Los Angeles so far since I'm getting close to the halfway point of my stay here.
So I'm not sure if I've gotten into this in my blog, but one of the main reasons I came out to California was to see if this is where I want to end up after graduating in the spring. I know I've spoken about the mystique California held for me; I came out here with really high hopes and even higher expectations, but I have to say, as the weeks go on, its becoming more and more apparent that this isn't where I want end up. Its not that my expectations haven't been met; I have the constant sunshine I dreamt about and the gorgeous flowers and hoards of people, but there are things about Los Angeles that I wasn't aware of that have changed the way I view this city. I always pictured LA to be like a giant Chicago; a skyscraper-filled downtown plus a beach, to put it very simply. But LA isn't anything like that. The entire city is extremely spread out. Its like there's no center to it; no cluster of bustling business people and shopping and night life like Minneapolis or Milwaukee or Chicago have. LA has a lot of that stuff, but its dotted here and there around the greater Los Angeles area. You have Hollywood and Venice Beach and Santa Monica, all miles away from each other. And then you have Northridge, which even farther away from it all.
Now, this might just be a bias I have because of my lack of a car, but the fact that you have to travel so far to get from anywhere to anywhere else is really getting to me. I went to my first dive bar in the actual area around my campus a couple nights ago and it was a 10 minute drive. Maybe I've just been spoiled by having two bars across the street from my house in Minneapolis and Dinkytown a five minute bus ride away, but its so hard to do anything here without a car. If I want to go explore the city, I have to set aside two hours to get there and two hours to get back, which makes it impossible to spend just an afternoon in LA; if I go down there I will be gone all day. And I haven't even tried getting to a beach by myself yet, but I can take a pretty accurate guess that most of my beach day would be spent on a bunch of buses.
The other issue I'm having has to do with the glamor of LA; more specifically the lack of it. Again its probably my location and lack of a car, and I'm aware that it was childish of me to come here with even the tiniest expectation that I was going to be going to VIP clubs and having expensive drinks bought for me and spending hours and hours at the beach, but its hard to not hope for those things just a little when its been pounded into your head since you were a kid that this is what California is like. When it comes to my social life, I feel like I just jumped back three years to when I first moved to Minneapolis. And I realize that I've only been here for six weeks and when I think about it, I have done really well for the short time I've been here given my situation, but I miss having something to do every night, having my friends around all the time, and generally just having a sense of home.
I'm sure those of you who are familiar with LA are thinking 'Jesus Lauren, I could have told you all of that', but it wouldn't have been of any use. I needed to see for myself. This whole trip is a process of unlearning and relearning, and definitely of growth, and I'm grateful for how its changed me so far. However, the disappointment is kind of hard to just set aside and forget about. Which is why I'm unloading it all on you guys, haha.
Now, I don't want to just jump to the end and say LA isn't for me. That's not what I'm trying to do at all. I'm just saying, as time goes on, I'm finding more aspects of LA that just don't say 'home' to me. In my Intercultural Communications class, we talked about culture shock and, although I don't think I would go so far as to call what I'm going through culture shock, some of the stages seem applicable to what I've been experiencing. First comes the honeymoon stage. Everything is exciting and new and you're completely in love with your new culture (see this post and this post). Next comes the crisis stage. This is when you start to get settled in and realize things aren't exactly what you thought they would be. You start to miss your home culture and think its far superior to your new culture. I can see that this is where I am right now. Every time I meet someone new, its important for them to know that I come from the Midwest, and that the Midwest is fucking awesome. I feel proud to call Milwaukee and Minneapolis my home cities and I am offended when anyone makes an off-color comment about where I come from ("Do you have friends who live on farms?" "Shut the fuck up."). It feels really good to be able to look at this from a purely logical standpoint, especially because I know that the next stage is the adjustment stage, and things will start to get a lot more positive. I hope that comes soon, because I've defnintely lost that intital excitement and motivation to get out there and see everything, and I need that to come back (the lack of motivation might also be because its 97 degrees right now).
So, after all that heavy stuff, I want to leave you with this:
Yes, those are little Universal Monster plushies. They are so freaking cute, and my wonderful boyfriend Brian sent them to me. Oh that boy knows me too well. I fucking miss him, but I won't bore you all with that crap.
Also, my roommate Grace says "HI".
Until later! <3
(tl;dr: I like California and I'm having a wonderful time but its not exactly what I thought it would be and I'm not sure if I want to live here after college.)
So I'm not sure if I've gotten into this in my blog, but one of the main reasons I came out to California was to see if this is where I want to end up after graduating in the spring. I know I've spoken about the mystique California held for me; I came out here with really high hopes and even higher expectations, but I have to say, as the weeks go on, its becoming more and more apparent that this isn't where I want end up. Its not that my expectations haven't been met; I have the constant sunshine I dreamt about and the gorgeous flowers and hoards of people, but there are things about Los Angeles that I wasn't aware of that have changed the way I view this city. I always pictured LA to be like a giant Chicago; a skyscraper-filled downtown plus a beach, to put it very simply. But LA isn't anything like that. The entire city is extremely spread out. Its like there's no center to it; no cluster of bustling business people and shopping and night life like Minneapolis or Milwaukee or Chicago have. LA has a lot of that stuff, but its dotted here and there around the greater Los Angeles area. You have Hollywood and Venice Beach and Santa Monica, all miles away from each other. And then you have Northridge, which even farther away from it all.
Now, this might just be a bias I have because of my lack of a car, but the fact that you have to travel so far to get from anywhere to anywhere else is really getting to me. I went to my first dive bar in the actual area around my campus a couple nights ago and it was a 10 minute drive. Maybe I've just been spoiled by having two bars across the street from my house in Minneapolis and Dinkytown a five minute bus ride away, but its so hard to do anything here without a car. If I want to go explore the city, I have to set aside two hours to get there and two hours to get back, which makes it impossible to spend just an afternoon in LA; if I go down there I will be gone all day. And I haven't even tried getting to a beach by myself yet, but I can take a pretty accurate guess that most of my beach day would be spent on a bunch of buses.
The other issue I'm having has to do with the glamor of LA; more specifically the lack of it. Again its probably my location and lack of a car, and I'm aware that it was childish of me to come here with even the tiniest expectation that I was going to be going to VIP clubs and having expensive drinks bought for me and spending hours and hours at the beach, but its hard to not hope for those things just a little when its been pounded into your head since you were a kid that this is what California is like. When it comes to my social life, I feel like I just jumped back three years to when I first moved to Minneapolis. And I realize that I've only been here for six weeks and when I think about it, I have done really well for the short time I've been here given my situation, but I miss having something to do every night, having my friends around all the time, and generally just having a sense of home.
I'm sure those of you who are familiar with LA are thinking 'Jesus Lauren, I could have told you all of that', but it wouldn't have been of any use. I needed to see for myself. This whole trip is a process of unlearning and relearning, and definitely of growth, and I'm grateful for how its changed me so far. However, the disappointment is kind of hard to just set aside and forget about. Which is why I'm unloading it all on you guys, haha.
Now, I don't want to just jump to the end and say LA isn't for me. That's not what I'm trying to do at all. I'm just saying, as time goes on, I'm finding more aspects of LA that just don't say 'home' to me. In my Intercultural Communications class, we talked about culture shock and, although I don't think I would go so far as to call what I'm going through culture shock, some of the stages seem applicable to what I've been experiencing. First comes the honeymoon stage. Everything is exciting and new and you're completely in love with your new culture (see this post and this post). Next comes the crisis stage. This is when you start to get settled in and realize things aren't exactly what you thought they would be. You start to miss your home culture and think its far superior to your new culture. I can see that this is where I am right now. Every time I meet someone new, its important for them to know that I come from the Midwest, and that the Midwest is fucking awesome. I feel proud to call Milwaukee and Minneapolis my home cities and I am offended when anyone makes an off-color comment about where I come from ("Do you have friends who live on farms?" "Shut the fuck up."). It feels really good to be able to look at this from a purely logical standpoint, especially because I know that the next stage is the adjustment stage, and things will start to get a lot more positive. I hope that comes soon, because I've defnintely lost that intital excitement and motivation to get out there and see everything, and I need that to come back (the lack of motivation might also be because its 97 degrees right now).
So, after all that heavy stuff, I want to leave you with this:
Also, my roommate Grace says "HI".
Until later! <3
(tl;dr: I like California and I'm having a wonderful time but its not exactly what I thought it would be and I'm not sure if I want to live here after college.)
Sunday, October 9, 2011
White, white wiiiiine...and anemones and sashimi
Hello everyone! Well, its 2am in the Midwest, and if you're in Minneapolis I'm sure you're an undead drunken mess stumbling around for Zombie Pub Crawl. Please know how jealous I am right now. Here I am, sitting in California, envying you. Whoda thunk? Hahaha. I hope you all have a scary good time (HAHA I'm so clever. Get it? Zombies? Scary? Ooooh man) and I expect to see a shitton of pictures sometime after 2pm tomorrow when you all come back to life. I have a feeling you wish you were dead though HAHA. God, I think you'll understand why I'm so HILARIOUS today once you read my whole post.
As for the new classy California Lauren who is too much of a lady for Zombie Pub Crawl ANYWAY (shut up, I'm not bitter), I had a really wonderful relaxing afternoon/evening with Sam (awesome roommates in Minneapolis)'s older sister, Stephanie, who lives in Laguna Beach. When Sam mentioned to her that I was going to be studying here for a semester, Steph immediately told him she wanted to show me around at some point, which I'm so grateful for. I figured, being a little older than me, she could give me a different look at Californian life, and I was totally right!
We got bit of a late start, but our little trip began with a gorgeous drive through the Santa Monica Mountains as we made our way to Malibu Lagoon State Beach to achieve one of my Californian goals: seeing a tide pool!
Unfortunately we got there couple hours after the tide was at its lowest so there wasn't a whole lot to see, but I found two anemones!
There's only one in the picture, but that's because I wasn't sure if they were real so I touched one and it DISAPPEARED. Just, poof! I think it scared me just as much as I scared it, haha. I hope its okay though, I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to touch it... Anyway, I also saw my first surfers, which was awesome, and, again, I got that feeling that I could stay at the beach forever. Standing calf-deep in the water, feet dug into the sand, and letting the waves run up against my bare legs was so incredibly calming. I have mixed emotions about Los Angeles so far, which I will get into at a later date, but the ocean is just incredible. No Midwestern lake will ever top it. Honestly, I feel bad for all the people who live so close to it and don't understand or appreciate its majesty.
After spending some time in Laguna, we figured it was about time to eat, and Steph suggested sushi. Duh. Of course I want sushi. But this was a sushi experience like no other. I've always considered myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to sushi. I've eaten it a lot and I've eaten a lot of different types. But high-end sushi dining is a whole different experience. Stephanie took me to Katsu-ya, which is apparently a very highly regarded sushi destination in Los Angeles (Steph tells me Justin Timberlake takes his dates there. Ooooo!). Now, I want to tell you upfront, I am not a huge fan of sashimi. I think it tastes delicious and I wish I could love it, but the texture just kills me. Don't laugh, I'm being vulnerable with you all right now! Being a self-proclaimed sushi-enthusiast who can't eat sashmi is embarrassing. I just felt like you all needed to know that in order to appreciate the fact that I ate a decent amount of sashimi for dinner, and, when I could ignore the, texture well enough, I really enjoyed it. Especially this one, which had truffles on it:
God, that is classy dining. I am so lucky to have been able to experience this. We finished the meal off with some mochi (<3), stopped at a grocery store, and now here I am, drinking a glass of white wine (bottle courtesy of Stephanie. She knows how to make a college girl happy) and blogging on a Saturday night. Boy do I feel like a classy adult. Except this is the only thing I had to drink out of:
I put my own flare on being an adult. Whatever. You love it. HALLOWEEN FOR LIFE.
I'll update soon! Until then! <3
BONUS CONTENT OMG:
As for the new classy California Lauren who is too much of a lady for Zombie Pub Crawl ANYWAY (shut up, I'm not bitter), I had a really wonderful relaxing afternoon/evening with Sam (awesome roommates in Minneapolis)'s older sister, Stephanie, who lives in Laguna Beach. When Sam mentioned to her that I was going to be studying here for a semester, Steph immediately told him she wanted to show me around at some point, which I'm so grateful for. I figured, being a little older than me, she could give me a different look at Californian life, and I was totally right!
We got bit of a late start, but our little trip began with a gorgeous drive through the Santa Monica Mountains as we made our way to Malibu Lagoon State Beach to achieve one of my Californian goals: seeing a tide pool!
Unfortunately we got there couple hours after the tide was at its lowest so there wasn't a whole lot to see, but I found two anemones!
There's only one in the picture, but that's because I wasn't sure if they were real so I touched one and it DISAPPEARED. Just, poof! I think it scared me just as much as I scared it, haha. I hope its okay though, I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to touch it... Anyway, I also saw my first surfers, which was awesome, and, again, I got that feeling that I could stay at the beach forever. Standing calf-deep in the water, feet dug into the sand, and letting the waves run up against my bare legs was so incredibly calming. I have mixed emotions about Los Angeles so far, which I will get into at a later date, but the ocean is just incredible. No Midwestern lake will ever top it. Honestly, I feel bad for all the people who live so close to it and don't understand or appreciate its majesty.
After spending some time in Laguna, we figured it was about time to eat, and Steph suggested sushi. Duh. Of course I want sushi. But this was a sushi experience like no other. I've always considered myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to sushi. I've eaten it a lot and I've eaten a lot of different types. But high-end sushi dining is a whole different experience. Stephanie took me to Katsu-ya, which is apparently a very highly regarded sushi destination in Los Angeles (Steph tells me Justin Timberlake takes his dates there. Ooooo!). Now, I want to tell you upfront, I am not a huge fan of sashimi. I think it tastes delicious and I wish I could love it, but the texture just kills me. Don't laugh, I'm being vulnerable with you all right now! Being a self-proclaimed sushi-enthusiast who can't eat sashmi is embarrassing. I just felt like you all needed to know that in order to appreciate the fact that I ate a decent amount of sashimi for dinner, and, when I could ignore the, texture well enough, I really enjoyed it. Especially this one, which had truffles on it:
God, that is classy dining. I am so lucky to have been able to experience this. We finished the meal off with some mochi (<3), stopped at a grocery store, and now here I am, drinking a glass of white wine (bottle courtesy of Stephanie. She knows how to make a college girl happy) and blogging on a Saturday night. Boy do I feel like a classy adult. Except this is the only thing I had to drink out of:
That bottle is half all gone now.
I'll update soon! Until then! <3
BONUS CONTENT OMG:
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Mesa Pizza, meet your long-lost lover, Diddy Riese
Hello my lovely readers! I was in the mood for a mid-week post, and I'm sure you all would like an excuse to take a break from homework/studying/mindless internet surfing. (Aren't I just so thoughtful?) I think part of the reason I'm in this mood is because of the weather. When I woke up and sleepily sat down at my computer to see how the forecast for today, this is what yelled angrily at me:
Well, basically that. It was a sun instead of a moon, whatever. What is important is the angry read 'ALERT'. I was like woaaaaah, something interesting is happening! Well, it turns out, holy shit, alert everyone, oh my god, ITS GOING TO RAIN. MODERATELY HARD. JUST TODAY. WATCH OUT. Basically, it drizzled all day. But that drizzling made it okay for at least a quarter of all the people in my class and one teacher to be at least a half hour late to class. Oh Californians, how would you survive the Midwest? Living out here makes me feel like Les Stround or something.
So anyway, I thought I'd fill you all in on my Sunday before next weekend rolls around and I have a bunch of other fun and exciting things to talk about. Sunday was another fun day (lol, rhyme. ew.) with Jacky and Catherine and one of Jacky's high school friends. First, we went to the Annenberg Space for Photography because it had an amazing exhibit on beauty going on called Beauty CULTure. I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I shot this clip in the bathroom of a video that was playing on a TV set into the mirror:
The whole exhibit was a really in-depth look at cultural beauty standards and famous photographs that reflect and critique those cultural standards, along with a really interesting documentary. Again, I'm finding that I prefer to visit museums on my own so I can peruse them at my own pace. I would have liked to stay longer, but we were all getting hungry so we headed to Westwood!
Westwood is basically UCLA's giant Dinkytown (maybe a little closer to State Street, but hey, I miss DT. Gimmie a break). I just about died when I saw it. It felt like homeeeee! Oh UCLA, why aren't you one of the schools that participates in National Student Exchange? You're not too good for me! You're perfect for me! Being on that campus really felt like a West Cost version of the U of M. Party cups and empty beers on the lawns, even some underwear in a bush. Home sweet home. I can't express to you all how much I would love to spend a semester there. But, I know there are reasons I ended up at CSUN instead of UCLA, and I won't let myself forget that, blah blah. But stillllll. WhinewhinewhineIwannagoooothere. Okay, I'm done.
Anyway, so Westwood was great. We ate at a delicious falafel place and I got to try the Famous Diddy Riese Cookies. Espresso chip ice cream between two fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies for $1.50. Need I say more? It was like the Mesa Pizza (link for lame people who have never had Mesa) of Westwood, insane line out the door and all.
After we ate, we met up with Melvin and another friend back in LA to see a comedy group called ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, which was fucking hilarious and, amazingly, totally free. The whole show was improv based on a monologue that a guest comedian told, which was based on audience suggestions. The UCB theatre is also home to the act Shitty Jobs, which features Donald Glover as one of the cast members. I really want to see that show while I'm out here because I love Donald Glover (30 Rock and Community 4LIFE), and its only $5.
So, end another great weekend (three days ago). I'm sad though, this is the last weekend I'll be going out with Jacky and Catherine until November because they're total badasses and have jobs being zombies at Six Flags Magic Mountain's Fright Fest. Sooo jealous. Hopefully I'll get to visit them at work sometime.
I also feel the need to mention my roommate is singing along to Justin Bieber right next to me. I think its bed time for both of us. Good night loves, until next time! <3
Saturday, October 1, 2011
A bottle of whiskey for my little friends
Hello my lovely readers! I've been having problems motivating myself to update you all because I'm so tiredddd. On Thursday I had my first drunk night in California! Finally, god. This month is definitely the longest I've gone without drinking since I hopped on the four-year party bus that is the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (hollerrrr), and its been a little lame. Fucking Northridge, you have a college of 30,000 students who are probably thirsty as hell. Take a hint and open a couple cheap bars. Dumbasses. Well, I guess at least now I can say for certain that I'm not an alcoholic, haha. Anyway, Thursday night my little Korean friends had a party at their apartment it was a fucking riot, mostly because I can outdrink most, if not all, of them, and plastered Korean kids are funny as hell. I'm just proud we killed the bottle of whiskey I brought; I was afraid I was going to have to drink it all by myself. Its not like me to have leftovers.
Drunk Koreans. Priceless. Love them.
So mostly why I'm tired is because after that late, late night I got up and took the two hour public transit ride down to LA where I met up with my friend Melvin who wanted to take me to Downtown LA. Melvin is a LA native and he knows his fucking way around, and somehow also knew exactly what I have been looking for since I got here: shopping. Cheap, cheap shopping. The Fashion District = HEAVEN.
After Chinatown we headed to Little Tokyo for a bit, which I adored. Its so freaking cute! Melvin treated me to coffee, mango and red bean mochi, which is ice cream coated in a gummy rice paste for anyone who's never had it. So delicious. Just writing about it makes me want some, haha.
We looked at a lot of little shops, and I decided to make it my mission to find the perfect Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat) to bring home with me. After seeing probably about a million and not being totally taken with one, I found this little treasure in the last shop we visited:
Drunk Koreans. Priceless. Love them.
So mostly why I'm tired is because after that late, late night I got up and took the two hour public transit ride down to LA where I met up with my friend Melvin who wanted to take me to Downtown LA. Melvin is a LA native and he knows his fucking way around, and somehow also knew exactly what I have been looking for since I got here: shopping. Cheap, cheap shopping. The Fashion District = HEAVEN.
Its huge and dirt cheap and overwhelming and I want to live there. Melvin said it was dead compared to how many people were normally shopping there, but it was pretty crowded so I can't even imagine what its like on a normal day. Everything that is sold there is bought at wholesale price and then the vendors just sell it to you at ridiculously low costs. I got a really nice 8-piece MAC makeup brush set for $20 (which almost definitely is a knock-off, but they're a lot nicer than the brushes I had before and I feel really fancy using them because they look real), a $4 MAC eyeshadow and a sweet Misfits shirt for $7. SCORE.
I will for sure be going there again, but Melvin wanted to show me a lot more, so we headed to Chinatown next. We didn't spend much time there, but I think I got the gist of it, and a lot of the shops were closed because it was getting into the evening. My favorite part was finding and purchasing a Shin Chan toenail clipper. Yes, a toenail clipper. I just about died when I saw it. (Shin Chan is a ridiculous cartoon-adaptation of a manga that Brian and I were constantly watching this summer. Its raunchy and hilarious and one of my favorite shows ever. Watch it!)
I just couldn't help myself. I mean, the little guy looks completely psycho. Like: you WILL be lucky today...hehehe...yesssss...(insert creepy head twist and insane chattering). He makes me feel like this:
I love him.
Anyway, I had such an amazing time yesterday and still feel completely overwhelmed by all of it. In the best way possible, of course. Oh LA. You so crazy.
On a final note, Happy October! (Thirty days until LA Halloween OHMYGOD. I will blog about my insane excitement for Halloween later.) My first month here has really flown by. Thank you all for keeping up with my adventure! I miss all of you, and I will update you soon! <3
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