I want to apologize for not blogging more frequently, but with all the beautifully exciting things to see in LA, I don’t feel horribly sorry because I’m enjoying living all these experiences.Nevertheless, I want to provide all you viewers at home with the briefest of brief synopses from the past 3 days:
Saturday ---
We woke on the earlier end of the morning to have a longer day at the beach. After falling asleep facedown in the gloriously warm sand, I decided that I’m probably more of a beach girl. Life felt very much worth living as we walked barefoot through the wet sand, beginning in Venice beach and ending in a stroll –with coffee bean and tea leaf blended drinks in hand- on the Santa Monica pier. [Please note that for the past 4 days I’ve been telling people we walked from Venice beach to Santa Barbara, which is approximately 150 miles off]. On our very warm trip home, Elena and I made a pit stop at In-and-Out Burger, and all I can say is DELICIOUS! Culinary adventures comprise the majority of our cultural excursions into LA, and I will be sad to leave all the wonderful food opportunities behind when we return home to CSprings. --- After a hop, skip, and a shower, we beautified ourselves for dinner. Saturday night was to be an occasion to meet more young people; rather, we sat through an awards ceremony for Chinese engineers in Southern California. Not to stereotype certain groups of people, but I did not anticipate a party thrown by engineers to be particularly hip or thrilling. To further compound this pathetic situation, the engineers are Chinese, a race not necessarily known for throwing wild parties. Nevertheless, I thoroughly appreciated having dinner at the LAX Hilton and enjoyed giggling with Elena.
Sunday ---Last week we committed ourselves to return to Disneyland for California Adventures, which we did on Sunday. California Adventures is obviously a more adult version of the original Mickey Mouse-inspired amusement park, and I had a blast. We were much more adept at navigating this park, and the number of attractions was much more manageable. Upon entering the park, we all took pictures with Minnie Mouse and then we proceeded immediately to the Tower of Terror. Though this ride was terrifically terrifying and tons of fun, my favorite ride is Soarin’ Over California, which had multi-sensory components (i.e. the smell of pine trees combined with images of snowy peaks). Watching the Aladdin show was also pleasure, however sappy the script and plotline seemed to be. Elena got quite a kick out of the number of racially ambiguous actors in the show. With the conclusion of such a brilliant day, there was little more I could ask for… the jamba juice and a princess crown didn’t hurt.
Monday---
Monday morning was difficult in that it was a little difficult to jump into another work week. Not to complain, but Mr. David Soo Hoo, compiler of the scrapbook we are cataloguing, was not the most organized of individuals. Amid the articles about Chinese American Angelenos, are advertisements for frog preservation and how-to-become-a-detective information. When Elena and I are not suffering from after lunch droopiness, Mr. Soo Hoo’s collection of articles can be quite entertaining. Post-cataloging, Elena and I decided to have an adventure in Hollywood. And we did have quite an adventure, getting lost twice and walking 3.5 miles to the restaurant. On the way to dinner we had a snack at CeFiore, shopped at H&M and American Apparel, and visited Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Dinner was tasty and dessert was delightful at Pizzeria Mozza, a restaurant recommended by our Professor (David Torres-Rouff).
When I said it was hard to get out of bed on Monday, I did not anticipate having to unglue myself from my bed on Tuesday. Least to say is that we were pooped out from our expedition in Hollywood the night before. Hollywood fell far short of my expectations; in place of all the glittery spectacular-ness people are encouraged to believe in, is a convergence of dirty streets and plastic-looking people. From these little shower-based ruminations, Elena and I rushed to get to the El Pueblo Historical Monument for some more cataloging. Mr. David Soo Hoo’s scrapbook now seems never ending; we had anticipated completing this project 3 days ago. Alas, the number of newspaper clippings, or more like whole newspapers, crammed in the back of scrapbook is quite substantial. I hope that tomorrow we will finally be able to put Mr. David Soo Hoo’s scrapbook behind us, well at least until I return for more thesis research…
After work, my aunt picked us up for dinner in San Gabriel Valley. We had dinner at a tasty little Hunan restaurant, where all the dishes are some form of spicy. With dinner in our stomachs, we wandered through a nearby Chinese market and amassed a nice little assortment of Asian snacks.
Well, now we’re home sweet home (at Gramercy Place) plotting our next expedition in LA…
