I've Gradu-a-mated!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind. We've gotten the new keys to our shiny new apartment (we're moving this weekend, so updates soon!), my folks came to visit, I finished my classes, and I graduated this past Saturday!!

Officially, Cameron and I have been in Los Angeles for 11 months and 8 days. How bizarre is it that I've already graduated in such a short time?! Graduating this time was definitely the most fun for me. It was outdoors at one of my favorite spots on campus, sunny with a nice breeze, and all of my cohort-mates were there to celebrate as well. Most of my group had decorated our caps, and it was apparent that our program was the most outgoing of all the programs in our department (we had the most decorated caps, we brought snacks for the ceremony, and when the ceremony closed, we finished it off with a rousing 8-Clap. Linked is my favorite video, and here are directions if you are itching to learn the 8-Clap.)

One of the traditions I like here (meaning SoCal) is that leis are given out as a part of the graduation hooplah. My supervisors in the Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs office gave me a kukui nut lei with UCLA colored ribbons on it. So cute! Many of my cohort had the traditional orchid lei- you don't see these on the East Coast!

I can't believe it's already over!

Best source of support I had all year-- this guy! 

The epitome of my artsiness- my graduation cap! A few girls in my cohort and I had a graduation cap decorating party; lots of fun and laughter. 

Here's the biggest difference between a Bachelors and a Masters gown- the hood. The light blue signifies the department, in this case, Education (my English one is white), and the lining reflects the school's colors. 

LA Wine Fest

Over the past few weeks, I've been struggling with what to post on the blog. Between Cameron starting his new job two(ish) months ago, and my finishing up my program (I passed my exams, woo hoo!), we honestly haven't been doing anything noteworthy. Seriously, not much has been going on. Well, I can recap a few mentionables before I get to the LA Wine Fest.

1. The weekend before Memorial Day Weekend, a few girls and I went to Las Vegas for a night. It was a pretty relaxed trip with my highlights being a quick trip to a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit at the Venetian, playing a Star Wars slots machine (first time at a slot machine!) and being in bed before 1am.

2. I dropped my phone down the elevator shaft at my apartment about three weeks ago. A super handy neighbor retrieved it for me. But talk about dumb luck, right?

That's really been about it in news from of our lives. However! This past weekend, Cameron and I went to the LA Wine Fest with a friend of mine from the cohort and her fiancee. It was fun to sample different wines and beers (and snacks) and enjoy some time out in the sun. The gentlemen wanted "optimum tasting time," so we stayed from about 2:45-6pm (the Wine Fest started at 2pm). There were food trucks (so I was very happy) and different craft booths as well. I snagged a bunch of photos a local artist took around LA. I've got a project in mind for them, but more on that later :]

In case you've forgotten what we look like, here's some recent shots!

Chef

One of the things I appreciate the most about Los Angeles is the sheer amount of opportunities it provides. Whether that's for food, music, shopping, travel, films, whatever, there are plenty of options to try and see/experience things that you can't anywhere else. With the film industry every where over this city, it has been neat to see the different films that roll through the theaters, especially ones that aren't "blockbusters" or deemed potentially successful enough to be distributed nationwide. Cameron and I saw one such film last night: Chef is Jon Favreau's new film written and directed by him and has an great cast that includes Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara. Cameron had mentioned wanting to see it earlier this week or last, and we had attempted to see it earlier this week, but we both feel asleep after a breakfast-for-dinner meal Cameron made... We were able to finally see it last night at the Arclight Cienmas, and we both agreed that it was one of the best movies we had seen in a long time. We've seen a few movies since we've been in Los Angeles, but they've been the blockbusters you can see anywhere- 300: Rise of an Empire, Rio 2, Captain America: The Winter Solider, you get the gist.

Chef follows Carl, an award winning chef in a rut who is fired/quits after a difficult review is posted about his food. Jobless, he ends up starting his own food truck.

Now, I'll be the first one to tell you that dramas aren't really my thing. I do enjoy them every now and then, but they're usually not my go-to film genre. I would say without reservation that I would happily own this film and watch it again. It is so good. We really enjoyed the casting and the story line; it was just so well told (people clapped at the end of the film, so I'll take that as validation of my opinion). Cameron had a sense of nostalgia watching it for his time on the BellyBombz truck, and it was fun for me to identify many of the food trucks in Los Angeles that we had eaten ate or I've seen consistently. For me, it was feeling famous-by-association since we could now recognize places and things in the film. It also made us want to eat a lot of food afterwards, and we secretly wished it was a real food truck we could find :[

If it does become a nationwide distribution, I would highly suggest seeing the film- or waiting for it to come to DVD.

Look who got a spa day!

On Down to San Diego

For the second weekend of February, Cameron and I (Gambit too!) drove down to San Diego to explore the city for Cam's birthday. Gambit was getting luxury accommodations at the Petsmart in La Jolla while we stayed in the historic Gaslamp Quarter.

While we were dropping Gamby off at Petsmart, we took a few hours to explore UC San Diego (it was literally right across the street from the Petsmart.) We (really me) would like to stay in SoCal after I graduate (in about 2 months, eek!), so we took the opportunity to look at two larger schools (UCSD and San Diego State) while we were visiting to see if we liked the campuses and the area. UCSD is large- much larger than either Cameron or I expected, and quite a nice campus. They're the Tritons (like as in The Little Mermaid's dad), and I actually asked one of my cohort-mates from UCSD why they were the Tritons and not the Tridents or something along that line. These are the important conversations. 

After we finished up at UCSD, we tried the Carnita's Snack Shack via recommendation from another foodie in my cohort. We were actually early--they open at 12 and we arrived at 11:45am-- and good thing we were! The closer it got to 12pm, the longer the line wrapped around the block. The snack shack is really a shack- it's a small storefront, but they have a large patio behind it for seating and drinking beer from the patio bar if that's of interest. I got a sandwich that honestly could have fed Cameron and I both, and Cameron got a sandwich that he claimed was rather tasty (it did disappear unlike my sandwich). We also ended up having a long conversation about the stuff I was learning in school- I thought I was on vacation! It was actually pretty nice to talk to Cam about what I was learning and see what his thoughts on the matter were.

 

Look at the size of that sandwich!

Following lunch we headed to downtown San Diego to check into our hotel. Cameron and I have differing opinions on what constitutes a satisfactory hotel stay (I like my comforts!), but since it was my treat for his birthday, I got to pick the hotel :] I ended up doing an unpublished rated on Expedia. These unpublished rates are usually significantly discounted rates in the desired area; the only catch is that you don't know the name of the hotel that you're staying at. Since it really didn't matter what hotel we were staying at (and the more affordable the better) we I splurged for a nicer hotel in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. It ended up being a really good deal; we would have only gotten that price either farther away or a not-so-great-hotel in the area. We were quite close to the water and also the baseball stadium downtown. The Gaslamp Quarter is the historic district of San Diego and has lots of restaurants, bars and nightlife. We drove around in the evening and enjoyed the sights!

Once we checked in, Cameron and I headed to Stone Brewery, which was about an hour or so out of San Diego (this was Cameron's portion of trip planning...didn't go so well). We wanted to do a tour of the Brewery, but once we got there, the tickets for the day were sold out. We actually drove past it on the way in to San Diego; had we known, we could have snagged tickets and then returned. You live and learn. We ended up just parking it at the bar and Cameron had a field day sampling a lot of their beers. We ended up going on a great weekend as it was their Winter Fest (something or other) but they were putting a lot of their specialty beers on tap that were usually in reserve. Cameron tried a bunch of 5-10year old beers and even one brewed with Ghost peppers! I'm not a huge fan of Stone beers, so I happily ordered some dessert and DDed for Cameron once he had his fill. If we ever make it back to San Diego, I know Cam would like to try the tour again and actually have a full meal at the brewery restaurant. They had a nice bier garden, but it was a bit chilly (to me) that day to sit outside in the shade- next time in the summer?!

The last place we managed to go to on the first day (before passing out at the hotel after watching the Olympics for an hour...at 9pm) was going to Old Town. I'm pretty sure Old Town is more of what "San Diego used to look like in Ye Days of Olde" or even potentially the original settlement of San Diego. I'm not 100% sure on this, so we'll just go with Tori has some hypotheses). It was really neat, to say the least. It reminded my a lot of Williamsburg in VA in that they had old storefronts, general stores, stables etc. There was a lot of boutique shopping there as well, so Cameron got his fix of hot sauce shopping and we could see some local artistry. There ended up being a lot more exploring than either one of us anticipated, and by dinnertime rolled around, we were exhausted. I did get freshly made flour tortillas! One of the restaurants made them fresh on their patio and you could buy two for $1 or something comparable. So delicious!

The last day we were at San Diego was dedicated to the Zoo. Before we moseyed over, we ate at Cafe 21 in the Gaslamp Quarter. Holy moly! Crepes! (I love crepes) and it was such a rustic cafe and packed. They made their own infused vodkas which were on display, and they also had some intense Bloody Mary's (one had a HUGE prawn as a garnish!)

Apparently, my family brought my to the SD zoo when I was little, but I have no recollection of it, so it just as much of an adventure for me as it was for Cam. We were there for quite a while-- my favorite exhibit were the Koalas. They each had their own tree! So cute :]

Creepiest animal ever.

It's a Direwolf! Game of Thrones, anyone?

Pumba?!

Balboa Park is where the Zoo is located and we drove the perimeter (there are also lots of museums and structures to visit), but you actually had to walk into the park to see it. I tried to convince Cameron to walk a little with me, but in his words, "not after we just walked all day at the zoo." So, next time, we'll have to explore this area. It was quite picturesque from what I saw, but it'll have to wait! 

Food in LA 2.0

I've realized that many of the places that I thought I posted about, I haven't. So, as a result, here's a HUGE post about places we've eaten at in the past six months or so. Some have been frequent repeats Fat Sal's, Blockhead's Shavery and some were one-offs. But it's definitely an exploration! We've been to a bunch of other places, but no photos were taken. Memorable recent places include The Park's Finest- Filipino/American fusion BBQ; Connie and Ted's Seafood- a taste of New England in LA! They had great chowder (or chowda as they say); 800 Degrees & Pitfire- individual gourmet pizza places (there's another one close to us that is double the price of 800 Degrees and Pitfire, and not as great to me).

Lobos Truck- I was not impressed. Cameron likes their sides.

Steel City Truck- Cameron was a fan. Coleslaw on a sammy? No thanks.

Corn Truck- Can't go wrong with spicy/cheesy corn on the cob!

Fluff Ice Truck/Store- Cute, but I like Blockheads better. Cameron attests that the truck is better than the storefront.

Blockhead's Shavery- I may be addicted. Cameron thinks so. They have a larger storefront in East LA- I cannot express the joy this discovery gave me.

Public School 310- Everything in this bar/restaurant is school themed! Tres cute!

TLT Food- Strangely addicting. They were one of the winners for Food Truck Wars or something and got this store front. It is very bright green, but then again TLT stands for "The Lime Truck."

Cafe Bene- A very cute cafe in KTown. I definitely enjoyed the coffee better than the waffles :[

Umami Burger- More hype than Cameron and I thought it deserved.

Fat Sal's- DELICIOUS GOODNESS. I have not veered from the "Fat Buffalo" since I got it… To give you an idea, this "Fat" sandwich is a hoagie stuffed with chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, french fries, cheddar cheese and topped with buffalo sauce and bleu cheese dressing. There are days when I can finish it, and days where Cameron has a late night snack. We agree this is the best one on the menu (C has tried a significantly higher amount of sandwiches on the menu than I…at two).

Hot Dog on a Stick- Gotta have a CA classic

The Beignet Truck- A dream realized!  Still need to try these at the source in ole New Orleans.

Kogi- A LA Institution

Bruxie Waffles- This made me miss Dame's Chicken and Waffles in NC.

Rice Balls of Fury- Not as good as I was hoping.

It's Pho- So tasty! And so close to home