One Month in LA!

Today marks our one month being in Los Angeles. It's strange to think that only four weeks ago, we were just arriving to our new home. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have this experience, and while things can get hectic, I try my best to appreciate where I am and who I'm with at this point in my life.

When I think about living here in Los Angeles, here are a few things that come to mind.

1. I think about what I see on the street- there is some amazing graffiti here. When I say graffiti, I really mean any type of street art; this can be murals or just street tags, but there are some that are pretty spectacular. I talked about ads before, but they're still interesting for me to look at. There are some older buildings, especially in our area, that are just beautiful. I like the old architecture you see from time to time. Also, I would never walk barefoot here. Ever. The sidewalks are so gross with God knows what on them. Even if my shoes fell apart, I would MacGyver something so I wouldn't be walking on that cement.
   
   
   

   

   
   

    This is the Fox Theater in Westwood. Apparently, film premieres are held here (it only shows one film at a time). Some of my cohort members have seen Selema Gomez and Ethan Hawke here. The premiere for Elysium with Matt Damon was held here--blocked traffic for one afternoon when I was trying to get home!

   

    I'm not sure if this is a hotel or a apartment building, but it's called the Hollywood Tower, and I couldn't get the greatest photo of it, but it's one of my favorite buildings to look at. It looks like some old grand hotel where old Hollywood stars would go.

   

   There are deer in Los Angeles?! What?! I did see a roadkill possum in Beverly Hills one morning that baffled me. I really wasn't expecting to see critters in this part of the woods.

   

   I'd really like to explore downtown LA a little more, though I'm not sure where to start. When we were at the downtown flea market, there were some lovely buildings around.

   
   

   

   This is a mural for the 1984 Olympics. It was huge and lovely, but there was no way I could get it all in one picture. I just loved that it was on one whole side of a building.

   
   

   

   This was an all-in-one building for matrimony, divorce, tux rentals, immigration, and taxes, I believe. That's one stop shopping.

   

   Here's one the Kick-Ass 2 billboards I mentioned in my last post.

   
   

   

   I'm not sure what this was for, but I thought it was neat!

2. I think about how it's expensive to just explore. We went to the Downtown Flea market on Sunday (mostly due to the lure of food trucks)-- $5 to park (which we thought was a great steal), $10 for the two of us to get in, and then however much food cost us. I've been in the market for a local print of Los Angeles and was hoping a vendor at the flea market would have one. I did find a local print shop's booth, no Los Angeles print. Brooklyn, NY and San Francisco, CA, yes. 
    Here are some photos of the food trucks (of course that's what I snap photos of) from the Flea Market.

   

   We ate at the Currywurst Truck. Delicious!

   

   Cameron enjoying the delights of the Currywurst Truck. We're planning on finding it again.

   
   

   
   
   
   
   

   

   This was a shaved ice truck, but it really felt like snow rather than a usual sno-cone. Wouldn't mind trying this one again!

   
   

   

   We dove right in; super tasty and not to mention great for a hot day.

3. The food is is absolutely fantastic here. We've eaten out a few times at regular restaurants and food trucks, and nothing has been disappointing. I wish it was cheaper! Though the prices aren't astronomically high, just simply going out between the two of us starts to rack up. 

   

   Cameron wanted to try a burger place near where we live. Super tasty burgers and they had a lot of craft beers that Cameron liked. A lot of places have patio seating, so it's fun to look around and people watch while eating.

4. I love, love, love the weather out here. It does get hot during midday-- around 80 or so degrees-- but there is often a nice breeze that goes through and no humidity! The nights and early mornings are often chilly- maybe to the low 60s. Many mornings it's overcast, and I kept thinking, "surely the smog isn't that bad." I asked a few of my cohort members who are from this area, and they said it was the ocean weather and that is usually burns off by mid-morning. So true! A huge plus is the sunshine here; I love that the weather is always sunny.

Cameron sent me this photo one day when I was in class. It brightened my day!

Driving in Los Angeles

I think it goes without saying that driving in Los Angeles is a different experience than driving in North Carolina- even in the larger cities like Charlotte or Raleigh. I have a daily commute, or at least near daily (I have Thursdays off this summer), to West Los Angeles from our hub in Hollywood. The mileage isn't that terrible; it's roughly around 8 miles from the apartment to the parking deck at school. On good mornings, the drive is about 30-35 minutes. In the evening, if I leave campus around 4pm, door to door its about an hour commute. For eight miles.

Since I have family in Los Angeles and have visited frequently, I was in some ways prepared for the traffic situation. Despite my initial cringe at taking an hour to get home from an eight mile drive, I actually don't mind the traffic situation. At least, it doesn't get under my skin since I was expecting it. It's when traffic is at a complete standstill that it becomes trying, but I try to use that time to either look around or just enjoy some alone time, so I think it works out in the end. I think I'm a better driver here than I was back home. What I mean by that is I try and focus only on the road. I don't call people when driving (I think it's actually illegal here to not use a hands-free device while driving, and, according to my dad, the Bluetooth mic in my car is crap, so that eliminates that option), and I don't try and fiddle around with anything while moving. There's plenty to look at when driving anyway; most notably the advertisements and billboards. They are HUGE. Some areas (like Beverly and Holmby Hills) have absolutely no ads or billboards to be seen. Then there are places like WeHo where ads are plastered on what seems to be every available space. I wonder how much revenue a building can make by renting out the side of the building to a massive ad. It is pretty prime real estate for advertising.

I like the ads here for the most part. While I won't disagree there are probably too many, I'm glad I have something to notice when driving, and some are actually quite nifty. There were two billboards for the upcoming Clooney and Bullock film split across the street and the billboards were supposed to be one large image separated by the road. I wanted to take a picture, but when I finally got to a light, I couldn't get a great image of it. I've been a fan of the Kick-Ass 2 billboards. The majority of them have just been the faces of the main cast in their superhero masks, but there have been a few graffiti style ones where it looks like the faces have been spray painted. What has been particularly neat is seeing these massive things go up. I've been trying to figure out how they're put up on these huge spaces, but I can't exactly stop my car and watch in the middle of rush hour. I've been seeing a HBO ad go up over a few days and it's done in segments, but if it's put up in squares or rolled down in long sheets, I have no idea.

One of the things I've been trying to do is learn some alternative routes to and from campus and to other places we frequent like Target and the grocery store. For the first two weeks, I only took Sunset Blvd. to and from school. There are long stretches once I hit Holmby Hills (past Beverly Hills) where traffic is moving at about 45 mph (which I have come to appreciate as fast). But once I get to WeHo (a fun little nickname for West Hollywood), traffic is stop and go at a peak of maybe 15 mph. I kept thinking there has to be a better way! However, the Google Maps app isn't really the best for deviating away from the three prescribed routes it offers--Sunset Blvd being one of them. If you make a wrong turn or choose to make a different turn, the app simply reroutes you back to the original path. Not the greatest when trying to figure out what roads lead where and with the least amount of traffic. I asked one of the ladies in my cohort what routes she took to campus (she lives in roughly the same area as we do); I tried those routes a few times and it was significantly faster, but I wanted more than just two known routes to take. What happens if there's a wreck or a terrible traffic jam!?

Then I was made aware of the Waze app. Cameron and I went to a birthday party for the daughter of friends of friends from Nashville last weekend, and were able to meet some people who live in the area. My friend, Kayla, put us in contact with one another when she learned that we were both going to be in the UCLA vicinity. The couple's neighbors told us about Waze when we mentioned how it was difficult learning side streets. What a fantastic app. It's similar to Google Maps, but it uses user data to help calculate the shortest route times and constantly updates the route based on your turns. I've used it a handful of times and it definitely has helped make my commute faster. I left at about 4:30pm last Friday and managed to get home in about 40 minutes! While there are some bugs with the app-- it's told me to take a left at a right turn only stop sign and has led me to side streets where it's nearly impossible to turn left or drive straight across a busy street with no light-- it has been quite helpful in learning alternate routes.

Cameron's commute is generally much faster, even in rush hour traffic. On a motorcycle, it is permissible to drive in between traffic on the white lines and a lot of motorcyclists (even scooters!) do this. The first few times it startled both of us since it's illegal in North Carolina. The story goes that police motorcycles would overheat in standstill traffic, so the law was implemented to avoid it and it hasn't changed since. However, when traffic is completely stopped, it's not like the cars are able to move, so I assume it's relatively safe. With that ability, a drive that would take me about an hour to an hour and half takes Cameron 30 minutes on his motorcycle.

We have both, I think, become more defensive drivers here, too. Many people don't know the general rules of driving (one guy just rolled through a stop sign without even looking to see if anyone was coming). Many people, especially on the freeways, tend to merge quickly and in tight spaces. We've had to be aware of our surroundings since people like to brake quickly here too (every single time there's a curve...) People also seem to be quick about laying on their horns too, especially in city traffic when they think you aren't paying attention. Half the time I can't even tell who they're honking at.

Even though I'm driving less and technically going longer on full tanks, I know and immensely dislike that I'm getting worse gas mileage (darn city mileage!). But, it's been a week since I filled up and I've only used about a quarter tank. Gas prices here fluctuate depending on the area, too. I've seen gas prices from $3.89/87 grade to $4.19/87 grade. I can usually find gas for 91 grade at about $4.15 ($4.09 has been the cheapest). They don't have 93 grade, which is what I'm used to, and so that was a strange first fill-up.

I've noticed that due to driving here, I've been more inclined to walk places, even if it's a little more than a mile (parking in LA is no joke), and I'm less willing to go shopping (unless it's for food) since it means dealing with driving and parking (needless to say, my bank account is happier about that). I've even considered looking into public transit for going to campus. I have too many reservations, but the appeal of being able to read on the bus is very alluring. We'll see how the year goes- I'm trying to mentally prepare for the rain in the winter (Winter is coming!). Sorry, couldn't resist.

Here's a picture of Gambit for the road :]

Venice Beach

Now, I am pretty sure what sold Cameron on moving to Los Angeles is Venice Beach (though I've never asked, so this is an educated guess). It's a hop, skip, and a jump away from Santa Monica (my favorite area), but has a more artsy and quirky vibe than Santa Monica. We took Will to Venice on the last night he was staying in LA with us, and walked on the boardwalk and had dinner and drinks there.

Venice definitely has quite a few characters you can find there. The boardwalk has a lot of tourist shops, but also a bunch of street vendors who sell whatever they can to the tourists (or locals) walking on the boardwalk. In March, Cameron and I stumbled on the skate park that was mesmerizing to watch. Some of those kids have way more foot-eye coordination than I can ever dream of. We didn't stop this time at the skate park, but just walked around at probably the perfect time of day and had dinner right on the boardwalk.

I saw this last time, but failed to take a picture of it, but made sure to get one this time. Someone made TRANSFORMERS.

Here's the sunset at Venice. So pretty!

 Photo cred to Will on the last one!

A Taste of LA

As I mentioned before, Cameron and I have been extremely excited about the food opportunities in Los Angeles. As big foodies, we're trying to balance trying new places with saving money. It's tough when we're feeling lazy and we live in walking distance of a bunch of tasty and tasty looking places to eat at. As a compromise, we treated the few days Robert and Will stayed with us as a free pass to eat out. As the year goes by, there will be more of these types of posts, but here's the first part.

When Cameron and I were here back in March for a visit to UCLA, we ate at this place called Kitchen24 because of a recommendation from a friend of mine. Holy moly, is this my type of place. Cameron calls the decor "girly" (it's pink and brown themed and a bit on the feminine side, I will admit) but they are open 24 hours and within walking distance of our place. What I love about Kitchen24 is the fact that they offer breakfast 24 hours a day. I am all about brunch, even at three in the afternoon. One of the challenges I often face whilst choosing a brunch item is my leanings towards having something sweet or savory. When I was younger, I was all about getting waffles, french toast, or pancakes. As an adult, I start thinking more in terms of "what will keep me fuller longer," which are usually omelets, breakfast sandwiches, and things of that sort. Kitchen24 has solved my dilemma; they have a dish called the "Bartender's Banquet," and it is 1/2 a waffle (with strawberries! My favorite topping) and a breakfast quesadilla. I got the Bartender's Banquet in March and knew immediately when we decided to take Robert and Will there what I was getting. In fact, Cameron and Will got it as well and agreed that it was very tasty. (Sorry, no photos of this one- we were starving when we got there and scarfed down our food pretty quickly.)

One of my favorite aspects of LA is the wide variety of ethnic food available, and good ethnic food too. I wanted to eat at a ramen bar at least once here, and, surprisingly, it was one of the first places we went to. Now, when I say ramen bar, I mean a legit ramen restaurant. Real ramen noodles are much more filling than the $0.70 packets you buy at the grocery store. Real ramen is usually made with a heavy broth, veggies, and a type of meat. You can get different broths and toppings: chicken, pork, beef, miso etc. I have even heard of ice cream ramen! (There is a soft serve ice cream cone in that one. Not something that speaks to me.) We tried the "Takara Ramen Bar" for lunch one afternoon and the boys loved it. I thought it was tasty, but probably not my favorite place. I will say that the California roll I got with my combo was the best California roll I've ever had in my life. All three of us got the 'spicy miso' ramen- it's a soy based soup- and had enough leftovers for a second meal.

Cameron and I tried for two different meals to take Robert and Will to a place we had tried in March and liked. A lot. It's called the Griddle Cafe, and what they specialize in is pancakes. Pancakes the size of your face! They have a ridiculously awesome sounding menu. In March, Cameron got a stack of "The Golden Ticket" pancakes. They are banana pancakes with caramel, walnuts, and streusel topped with whipped cream, streusel, and caramel. Since we are now residents of the area, we let Will (Robert had unfortunately left by then- next time you're in town!) pick the pancakes and we split a breakfast burrito that even the menu described as "huge." Will picked the "Scotch on the Rocks" pancakes, and holy moly were they beyond delicious. They are coconut, pecan, oat and butterscotch pancakes. Oh. My. Goodness.  Between the two items, there was more than enough food for the three of us, so we happily took home the extra pancakes. We have learned that you can get just one pancake instead of the three stack, but the three stack can be split between several people. The fun story from The Griddle Cafe came from our waiter. We asked him if anyone actually finished a whole stack of pancakes, which lead to him telling us that the wait staff actually hold competitions of who can finish a stack of pancakes the quickest. He said it takes him about two hours to finish a stack, but some of the larger guys can do it much faster. He called over another waiter and asked for his record, to which he nonchalantly replied "about five minutes." WHAT?! And it's not like this was a big guy either! Needless to say, we were very impressed by that particular pancake-eating record.

The Scotch on the Rocks pancakes. There is Will's hand to give you a size comparison.

What I'll wrap up on is what Cameron has a long list of: food trucks. One of the food trucks Cameron really wanted to try is called "The Grilled Cheese Truck." You guessed it, they make gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. We drove to Van Nuys to eat there one night (about a 1/2 hour drive when we got on the interstate) and, boy, was it worth it. There were about three more food trucks in addition to The Grilled Cheese Truck- they were in a Pep Boys parking lot, which I found interesting. There was a Boba truck, a Hawaiian food truck, and a corn on the cob truck. I got a grilled cheese stuffed with macaroni; Cameron got a buffalo chicken grilled cheese; and Will got a Brie melt. I eyeballed getting one of their dessert melts- the Banana French Toast Melt to be specific- but was too full to get it, so I settled for a Boba tea instead. Cameron hadn't had one before, so it was also for him to try too. Boba tea is often called Bubble tea in other areas, but it's all the same if you know what Bubble tea is. Boba tea is comparable to a non-coffee frappacino or a smoothie and has large tapioca balls at the bottom. I first had one in California back in 2001 when I was visiting family. My cousin warned me to drink slowly because "the balls can shoot out at you if you're not paying attention." And, she was right; I nearly choked on my first Boba tea. You can get a bunch of flavors, both normal and more exotic, depending on the place. My mom got me hooked on the taro flavor- it comes out bright purple- and it's not as sweet as some of the flavors can be. Cameron did like the taro flavor, but wasn't a huge fan of the boba aspect of it.

 

 Cameron waiting to try his first Boba tea!

Now, since Gambit wasn't really featured in this post, here is a super adorable photo of him in case you were worried about his well being.

The Journey

July 23rd we packed up the 16' Penske truck and a Mini Cooper with ourselves, two of Cameron's friends to help with the drive and move, and a 75lb Australian Shepherd and headed onto I-40W. The drive from NC into TN wasn't particularly eventful except for two delays. The first I bumped into with Robert and Gambit; apparently a SUV caught on fire, so we were in dead stopped traffic for about 30 minutes. When we finally passed it, there wasn't much of the car left to see. The second was a 18-wheeler caught on fire further up on I-40W that Cameron and Will had to detour around. After some accidental TN sightseeing from detours, we made it to Memphis, TN late in the evening; we stayed with two of Cameron's friends, who we actually visited in May over Memorial Day.

Here are some photos of Gambit in the backseat of the Mini. Fun fact about Gamby- he doesn't like his picture being taken and will often look away when he knows you're taking a picture of him:

July 24th had us going through Arkansas and Oklahoma after we crossed the Mississippi River. As I drove over it, I thought a little about Mark Twain's novels, how the river was much larger than I really expected, and how at 25 years old, I still spell Mississippi like I learned in elementary school (M-I-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I with the little jingle still included). Arkansas, or Arkan-sass as I like to call it, was really nice to drive through. I enjoy routes that have a lot of trees and scenic landscapes, so it was much more enjoyable for me to drive those long hours. Cameron, I discovered, was not as much of a fan of Arkansas as I was. We stopped late in Oklahoma City after seeing a bunch of Indian casino signs next to I-40.

Here are some photos of Cameron and Gambit at a rest stop in Arkansas. It was the biggest rest stop I've ever stopped at!

The one quirky story from Oklahoma is when we stopped for dinner, we saw a raccoon rifling through the trash. Now, I felt like a complete dork grabbing my camera (and putting the zoom lens on it) to take a photo of a raccoon. But, I've never seen a live one before, so I figured, "hey, something for the blog."

July 25th discovery: Oklahoma is boring to drive through. Flat, flat, flat, flat, flat. There are a bunch of casinos smattered about, but for the most part, it's not a particularly exciting place to drive through. Texas, at least the northern part, was actually rather interesting. I always imagined all of Texas to look like the scenes from old Western movies, but this part was rather lush and green. There were certain spots that looked like mini Grand Canyons. There were some wind turbines rather close to the interstate; they were huge! Not that I expected them to be small, but their overall size was intimidating in a small Mini Cooper. New Mexico started showing some of the Southwestern landscape I expected. I started to get a little sad when I thought about the Native American populations we have, and how they seem to be relegated to just this area and in stereotypical fashions. It's a shame we don't look more and appreciate more of the heritage of our nation than we do currently. We stopped for a few hours in Albuquerque, NM to have dinner with one of Will's friends before heading on to the stop for the night in Gallup, New Mexico- a town a lot larger than the first glimpse of it allows.

Here are the wind turbines. The photo doesn't make them look too big, but I swear they looked huge in person!

The Welcome to New Mexico sign!

I didn't stop at the Welcome to New Mexico rest stop, but Cameron and Will did, and this is what they saw:

July 26th was the big stop: the Grand Canyon. We had to drive about four hours from Gallup to reach the park. Flagstaff, AZ is on the interstate, and the park is about 1.5 hours north of Flagstaff. When we finally moseyed up to the park at about 2:30pm, we were met with an intense rain storm, complete with hail. Not something you expect in July and in Arizona. Luckily the storm passed after 30 minutes, and we all (Gambit included) were able to stretch our legs for an hour looking at the sights and walking around. After the storm, the weather cooled down to about 60 degrees; a bit chilly. I always forget how cold the desert can get, and so did many people by the looks of randomly tossed on clothing by the different patrons of the park. I had been to the Grand Canyon once before a few years ago with my mom and my best friend, but was still surprised by the amount of foreign languages heard walking around. I forget that the Grand Canyon is a huge vacation spot- not just for Americans, but also for foreigners who are visiting America on their own vacation time. I never really think about people from Europe coming to the States for vacation, though I'm sure that's far more common than I think it is. Gambit was a big hit at the Grand Canyon. Cameron wasn't too comfortable taking him onto one of the view points because of the amount of people there; since I had been there once before and none of the guys had, I offered to stay with le pooch on the main walkway while the guys took in the sights. Gambit got a bunch of compliments and I was asked by passing people if they could take a picture of Gambit. Apparently, he's photo worthy. Maybe he'll be the one the make it big in LA by getting discovered? I mean, we do live in Hollywood.

We saw a lot of these signs in Arizona; it's to celebrate their 100 years as a state:

After the Grand Canyon, we continued on to our last stop: Barstow, CA. On the drive there, shortly after we crossed the California state line, we came to an inspection station. Robert, Gambit, and I were waved through rather quickly, but Cameron and Will were stopped at the inspection station. Later, Cameron told me that the inspection station was for bugs. The officials were looking for house plants and such crossing the state line that could potentially carry invasive species. Our guess is because California holds such a large part in the nation's agriculture that they aren't taking any chances in impacting it.

We arrived at our new home on July 27th in the early afternoon! Once we get the apartment settled to our liking (there are still boxes lying around and I'm still pulling some clothes out of my suitcases), I'll post a walk through of our place and what we've been up to.

To hold you over until then, here are some more pictures of Gambit. And, yes, that is a purple unicorn pillowpet he is sleeping on.