i am here and it is awesome

Just a super quick post to let you know that I'm in Russia and it's great. Haven't had (free)internet until now so no time to post anything, but now we're in Moscow and there's a computer in our hallway that we can use for free so hurray! We got in from St Petersburg and it was fabulous. Now we're in Moscow for a few days. Once I get back to the States I will tell all about the trip and post about a million pictures. (I take a lot of pictures.)

bike ride and lakers game

Today I had no plans at all. I figured I would just be hanging out by myself anyway, so when I woke up I looked at the weather. The day looked super nice (sunny and 70s) so I decided that I would try to go north on the Strand this time instead of my usual south. I actually had never been north (besides in a car) except for the bonfire we had last summer on Dockweiler, which can hardly be called going north because it was about half a mile up from El Segundo Beach.

Anyway, I basically decided to hop on my bike and see how far I could go.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was not too warm, and there was at times a strong breeze (which was kind of annoying and kind of nice at the same time). The smell of the ocean was everywhere and people were happy. There are a lot of bikers, roller bladers, walkers, joggers, skateboarders, and random other people like scooters.

I had planned on going to Santa Monica, which is where I thought the path ended, but it actually ends a couple more miles north of there, in Pacific Palisades. Awesome! I made it all the way there in exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes, and I actually was being really lazy about it for most of the ride. Following the Strand path takes you through Marina Del Rey, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica. I made it to Venice Beach in 45 minutes, actually!

Mural on the Strand by Dockweiler Beach

Plane above -- basically right under LAX

My awesome bike (I need a good name for it)

Me. I always wear a helmet. 
Also, that shirt gave me some sweet (and not-so-sweet) tan lines.

Proof I made it to Pacific Palisades!

View north

View south

Looking south. I don't think you can see where I started from

I was zoomed it at 16x digital zoom to get this shot of Santa Monica

When I got to the end of the path I checked my phone and one of my friends was inviting me to go watch the Lakers game with him and some friends tonight. So, of course, I agreed, although I am not really a Lakers fan (at all). I really enjoy being social though! And the game and atmosphere were a lot of fun. We went to a family (lol) sports bar & grill called Stick & Stein. Lakers fans are VERY MUCH into their team. As in, I have never seen any group of people more dedicated to something. It's actually kind of scary. And the Lakers won, so they were all happy. (LAL 101, ORL 96, Finals Game 2)

The bar had a ridiculous amount of TVs

Friend from work and his fiancee and me at the bar

busy is the word

Wow, so, I have barely had time to write anything. I have been going to bed about 9pm (lame I know) but I'm so tired! Plus I get up so early! I've been biking to and from work this whole week, and it's been going great. However, it basically means that I am too tired to do much else. I've swum a few days but I haven't been running. Hopefully this coming week my body will have adjusted to this schedule better and I won't be quite so tired.

Work has been great. I am learning Python for a big task, plus I get to do some website redesign stuff, so everything is right up my alley! Thursday I was an escort for the Herndon Science Competition and that was a lot of fun. Basically I walked around (/herded people around) the labs area and got some yummy liquid nitrogen ice cream. Soo good. Also, the keynote speaker was Mark Skaggs! Sweet!

Thursday night I had my first ukulele lesson at Mark's shop. So fun! I went back yesterday for some more practice. Hopefully I will either be able to get my own ukulele or borrow one from Meryl so I can practice whenever. The people there are very nice and helpful and super cool. Mark's shop is my favorite store ever. You can just go in and hang out and it's full of surf and skate and Hawaiian stuff. And there's bamboo on the wall.

This week on Wednesday there was a storm. What the heck? It legitimately rained & thundered & lightninged! How crazy is that! It's been cloudy and rainy the whole week mostly until about Thursday afternoon. Yesterday was nice and today looks like it'll be nice as well. I'm planning on going for a bike ride up to Santa Monica.

first day back at work

Today's work day was good! I biked to work, and it only took me 20 minutes! That is way faster than the bus. The bus would be like this: leave house by 6:15 in order to get to bus stop by 6:30 so I wouldn't miss the 6:40 bus, bus would leave and get to A-space by 7:07, then I'd have to bolt to STARS so I could get there as early as I could. With the bike, I can leave whenever (I ended up leaving at 6.25 just because I didn't know how long it'd take) and I got to work at 6.47. Pretty awesome. This is with some nasty hills and long traffic lights. (I ended up having to walk up some of the hills. You have no idea how steep & long they are unless you've seen them.) Once I got to work I had to get a temp badge so they wouldn't think I was an intruder and then go get my real badge from last summer. Before I could do this I needed to find a parking spot for my bike. Apparently no one really knew where any bike racks were, and I ended up finding one eventually (after going through a building and two visitor centers and a gate), and I needed someone with a real badge to open the gate for me since I didn't have a swipe part yet. Luckily a lady was very nice and did that for me :). Then I got my badge, and made the badge lady a little annoyed because I was there so early (it was 7.07). Then I had to wait for my manager, who wasn't here yet, and then the boss of my manager came by and said she wouldn't be here for a while yet...so I went to the library and read some web content design stuff. That is where Jose found me and told me our manager was there now (30 minutes before I thought she would be). So basically the rest of the day was running around, meeting with potential clients, catching up with the other interns and other people I know, getting a tour of the new building where I'll be spending about half my time, panicking because none of my passwords were working and therefore having to call the help desk (which is super annoying). My email is still not up because of some complications from the way I set it up last summer (sigh). But oh well. All in all it was a great day!

I left about 4.45, walked with Jose to the rail station, then rode home from there. Got home about 5.20 and immediately went on a short run, then came back and had a short swim. Have to make sure I prevent injuries and get lots of exercise :) Made dinner (just a chicken patty sandwich) and talked with my mom and now I'm pretty tired! The day is catching up to me. Luckily I can just go to bed whenever... :)

adventure to griffith park

If you follow me on twitter you know all about my adventure yesterday...

Saturday I had planned to go on this hike at Griffith Park, this giant park (over 4000 acres) up by Hollywood. I found out about a free hike hosted by these people who run some kind of exercise "camp" type thing, and I wanted to go on it. I thought it'd be a fun adventure and I could meet some people, that sort of thing. So I got directions via bus (metro.net) to there and back. I needed to be on the first bus by 6.30am, so I got up at 5.30 and packed everything up and headed out. I caught that bus just fine. It took me to the stop at Rosecrans & Avalon and I got off. Then I realized that my directions were telling me where the next station to get on was via compass directions. So I got off in the SE corner and I needed to be in the SW corner for the next bus. I do not have a very good sense of NSEW direction (although I do have a VERY hard time getting lost based on other things), just ask Melissa, so yeah, definitely got on the bus going in the wrong direction. So that threw me a little bit. But it was all okay because the bus driver was really nice about it and let me off where there was a stop on the other side that I wanted. So I grabbed that bus, which came just after a couple minutes (nice, if you're used to having to wait at least 30 minutes). That one was supposed to take me all the way to Vermont & Hollywood.

Nope.

It took me to Vermont & Wilshire, which was its last stop so I didn't have a choice & I had to get off, which is kind of a shady part of town. Kind of is a little understatement. Actually, most of where I was while I was traveling to Griffith Park was super shady. Everything looks run down and gaudy and ugly. I probably should have been more nervous about where I was than I actually was, but to me everything is just one big adventure and I don't worry about things too much. As long as I keep paying attention to everything and keep my bag connected to me, I should be okay. 

So I ask the bus driver how to get to Vermont & Hollywood, and he says he doesn't know, but to call this number 1-800-COMMUTE, and they should tell me how to get there. It's already almost 9am and I'm supposed to meet this hiking group at 9.45 & Be On Time!. I had scheduled the trip so that I would get to the park about 9am so I would have plenty of time to find the group. Yeah, that didn't happen. Stupid metro.net telling me the wrong thing.

So I call this number, and the lady tells me to get on the 204 and ride it to Vermont & Santa Monica, then hop on the Hollywood Dash, get of at such-and-such, walk 2 blocks west and 1 block north and I'll be there. I didn't have a pen, and you remember about my NSEW failing. So I just rode the 204 to Vermont & Hollywood like I had originally planned and got off there. By now I was in a much nicer part of town. I started walking up Vermont and saw a Bank of America, so I decided to stop in and get directions. They didn't know where the entrance I wanted was (we were supposed to meet at Los Feliz & Fern Dell Dr), but they said if I just kept walking, the top of the hill would be Los Feliz and I could figure out where to go from there.

Apparently that is a very big hill. 

So I walked & walked and I definitely wasn't going to make the 9.45 time. So I called the lady who was running the hike and let her know, and she was really surprised that I was walking. She told me the route they were going to hike and I thanked her. (I never did find them.) I finally made it up to Los Feliz Blvd and saw an entrance to Griffith Park. I tried asking some people where Fern Dell Dr is and they didn't really know (how can you not know??), but they thought I should turn left. So I turned left and walked for a very long time and eventually gave up. So I turned around and asked this guy who was walking his dog. He was super helpful and told me that Fern Dell Dr was pretty far away, but I could take the entrance on Vermont and get to the observatory and all that pretty easily from there, and then he told me how to get to Fern Dell Dr from there.

So I just went hiking by myself.

It was actually really nice. I could stop whenever I wanted and take pictures and all that jazz. I actually really love being by myself so it didn't bother me at all. I got to see this guy laying across the hood of a car video taping the people driving. And I got to see the observatory. There is a working Tesla coil in there, and it was AWESOME. And I  got to just walk around the park for a little bit. At this point I was pretty tired (I'd been up for almost 7 hours already) and hungry, since all I had been eating were some snacks like granola bars. So I decided to head out of the park and start my adventure back. I got to Fern Dell Dr and then found some people who told me how to get to the bus stop I wanted. I got on the bus and thought everything was great & it would take me to Crenshaw Station. Nope. It end-of-the-lined 4 stops before Crenshaw, so I had to wait for another bus to come take me there. That end-of-the-line was in another shady part of somewhere. And it was kind of chilly. Anyway, it all worked out and another bus came eventually and I got to the station. I had never taken the rail before in LA, and it was pretty awesome. Just like a normal metro that you think of in NYC or Europe. (I wish the LA bus system was this nice.) The rail was the first time I had seen another white person take the public transport system with me, and I had probably seen several hundred people that day on various buses. Yeah.

The rail was fast and it took me to Aviation Station, the LAX hub where you can get to the airport or from the airport and that sort of thing. I had an hour to wait for my bus, the Beach Cities Transit, so I called my mom and talked for a bit. Then these two guys started talking to me. I couldn't tell if they were drunk or high and at first I thought this one guy was Australian because I thought he had an accent (later I realized it was just because his teeth were weird and he couldn't talk right because of it). Anyway, that was nice & exciting. They talked to me the whole way until I luckily could get off the bus. They told me about their band and their cooking and all sorts of crazy stuff. And they called me Emily. Haha.

I finally made it home after about 8 hours of public transportation round trip. Yeah, it was pretty insane. It took me 4 hours to get to Griffith Park, and about 3.5 to get home (granted, a huge chunk of that was waiting for various buses). But it was definitely a fun adventure! I was dog tired when I got home so I took a nap (definitely not a long enough one), and showered, and got ready to go out to dinner with one of my friends out here, Andrew.

settling in

So, I got to the condo about 10.45am. Karen had mailed me the keys so I could just move in right away. Last summer I met John, one of her friends, with the keys and he let me in and helped me get my trunk up and such. He and his wife are on vacation right now so he couldn't do that. But really, I am glad that I just had the keys already. I don't like to bother people too much and I like being able to do things on my own schedule.

At first, Thelma, the cat, didn't remember me, but after about an hour she did and let me see her again. She always wants to be petted but I can't really pet her (I'm allergic), so that's kind of sad. She's a nice kitty. You know she must be because I really don't like cats :) Haha.

I just kind of threw my stuff down in my room, plugged in my computer, and let my mom know I was here. My body was telling me that it was 2pm back home and I hadn't eaten anything since 4.30 in the morning. Well, I had some crackers. But that was not nearly enough. So I went downtown El Segundo to this deli called Rinaldi's. I ate there for lunch the first day I was really on my own for meals last summer (Saturday; Friday I ate with Karen, John, and Meryl for both lunch and dinner), so I thought it'd be fun if I ate there again. I had a yummy meatball sandwich and a strawberry banana smoothie (they use real fruit, and it's so good). This guy I remembered from last year was still working there, and he was still as friendly as ever. He gave me some aluminum foil so I could take have the sandwich home (which became my dinner). 

After lunch I unpacked everything. I brought even less stuff than last summer. I like getting California-related stuff out here, so I try not to bring too many clothes and whatnot. Just enough to get by. After unpacking I walked to the grocery store, Ralph's, which is a little over 2 miles away. I needed groceries for the week and a bus pass. I brought two reusable grocery bags with me, so I knew that I could only buy enough groceries that could fit in those two bags. I also wanted to keep my first grocery bill under 50 dollars, since I don't have very much money to tide me over till the first paycheck, which is two weeks away. I succeeded in both ventures, so that made me feel pretty good. Then I walked back the two-plus miles to my condo, put everything away, and took a short break. 

I decided I want to see the beach everyday that I'm here again this summer (I succeeded in this last summer, too. 81 days in a row!). So I walked the 1.2 miles down to the beach, enjoyed the view, and walked back. It was still cloudy and chilly, so there wasn't too much else to do besides be there for just a few minutes. 

After that I wanted to go to this surf shop to see the guy who took me surfing last year. I wanted to show him my skateboard with its modifications, because he also sells skateboarding stuff. Actually, he builds his own longboards to sell, and they are really sweet. You almost don't want to ride them because they're so beautiful. Anyway, I hopped over there, and he remembered exactly who I was and everything! It was pretty awesome. He was surprised to see me. He had a friend with him, and somehow we got onto the topics of bikes. I said that I didn't want to buy a bike out here because it's a huge investment, and I already have a bike at home, and I'd want to bring the bike I bought back with me, and then I'd have two bikes, which is silly. So this guy says he has an extra bike that he'd loan me for the summer. Sweet, right?! And for free! The only stipulation is that if something breaks I'll fix it. He also had a lock for me to use. What a way to be in the right place at the right time and know the right people! Crazy! So now I have a bike to use this summer. So, having the skateboard is kind of silly, because the bike will get me everywhere significantly faster. We'll see what I can do with it. I ended up hanging out for a lot more time at the surf shop and meeting all these other guys, friends of Mark who runs the shop, who surf and board. They're all at least 40 with wives and girlfriends and kids, but they still think they're 25. It was awesome to watch and listen to them talk about surfing and all sorts of other stuff. A couple guys were mad that Mark didn't have a TV at the shop so they couldn't watch the Lakers game. Haha.

I left about 7.30 from there, came home to the condo, and warmed up my meatball sandwich dinner. Karen came home about 8 and we had a good time catching up with everything. She has made some changes around the condo and everything is just beautiful! I will try to get some pictures and post them. We watched some TV (So You Think You Can Dance)  and then I realized that I was super tired and went to bed. I needed some energy for my big adventure on Saturday.

airplane travels

My flight from Indy to Chicago was great. The flight itself was so short (only about 45 minutes, sure beats driving 3.5 hours) so that was nice. I sat next to a very interesting lady named Jana on the plane. She spent 7 years in West Africa teaching women there how to read and write in their native language. Crazy, right? She did it through her church missionary group. Now, I don't particularly like missionary groups. (You might not know this about me.) Actually, I am not a big fan of globalization in general. Leave people alone. Leave their beliefs alone. That sort of thing. Also, I believe that if you are going to try to "do good" in the world, you should start at home. (There are plenty of people needing help in your own city!) However, if that's what you want to do, fine. And she was pretty passionate about it, which is great. Anyway, we had some really interesting conversation about that sort of thing. I ended up telling her about our Knitting for Nets project at school and she thought that was great. She had had malaria several times, and it's actually what forced her to come back to the States. She was hospitalized and her church people basically told her that she should come home. I guess she would have stayed in Africa forever if she could have. She was traveling to Missouri for a reunion of the people she went to Africa with and other people involved in that time of her life. Now, after being back in the States for 3 years, she's a registered nurse.

The second flight was less exciting. I was really tired and tried to get some sleep and epically failed. This made the flight last forever. They played Mall Cop on the TV, which I had already seen, so I listened to music and watched the TV without the sound on. Then I found out that TVs on planes now show regular ads just like normal TVs. I can't remember if I knew this before or not (I mean, I just flew in January! That's not that long ago). So I watched some Charles Schwabb commericals, and then there was a Nothing But Nets commercial! So it was kind of like Africa day for me. I sat next to a guy from Toronto, but originally from Iran, on that flight. We didn't talk too much because we were both trying to sleep (he really did sleep--the entire flight!).

As we landed, I got to look out the window. And to my surprise, the entirety of what I could see was clouds. Clouds! There were hardly any cloudy days at all last summer! And these clouds looked like rain clouds. What the heck? I went 3 months last summer without seeing a drop of rain. So the landing, which should have been sweet, was cloudy and I could barely see anything. I couldn't even see the ocean, which is only a couple of miles from LAX. Crazy. 

Anyway, the landing was great, and our bags came out really fast. I took a taxi to the condo, like last year, but it was more expensive than last year. I took a different company (the company I took last time wasn't there). The driver kind of looked like he was part of the Italian mafia or something. Kind of scary but exciting too. Not friendly at all though.

heading out

Woke up at 4am. I think I had just gotten to sleep, too, so that was sad haha. Left the house about 4.45 (perfect), got to the airport at 5.45, checked in -- they freakin' charged me to check a bag! WTF? I guess I have just avoided airlines that charge you to check ONE bag. That really made me mad. It's unfortunate that I cannot pack 3 months of life into a carry on. Screw you, United.

The security was really fun, actually. Usually it's my least favorite part (I always get searched somehow, and the people are generally in bad moods...), but today it was awesome. The people were so friendly! And considerate. Of course I got searched, or rather, my bag did, because I stuff it so full of cameras and other goodies that they can't see inside the bag. But I need all that :) Also, thank goodness by skateboard trucks got through. I was quite worried about those, honestly. Afraid they would be deemed a weapon or something...ugh. They're just my mode of transportation!

K, well, I'm going to bet O'Hare doesn't have free wireless like Indy (I love the Indianapolis Airport), so I probably won't have a real update till sometime later this afternoon, after I'm all settled back in at Karen's. I'll update my twitter via phone though, if you're interested.

indiana summer goodbye

Tomorrow morning I leave my hot & humid Indiana home for the warm and dry Los Angeles-area summer. As much as I love LA and all it brings (read: ocean), there are some things I'm really going to miss about my little town in Indiana, especially during the summer. This list is in no particular order, by the way...

o Thunderstorms: And rain in general. (I spent 3 months in ES/LA last summer and didn't see a drop of rain. I am not kidding.) But summer storms are one of my favorite things ever so going without them is pretty tough on me. (Admittedly, having 70 degree sunny perfect days every day is nice for event planning...but I do like rain too.)

o Stars: I can't see the stars very well from the condo I'll be living in. Also, going down to the beach at night to try to find some stars over the ocean is kind of scary. It really shouldn't be (ES is the safest city in LA county) but it still is. Active imagination and all. But looking at stars one of my favorite things to do regardless of season.

o My car: I love my car, or maybe it's just the fact that I *have* a car that I can get places with when I want/need to. Having to rely on LA public transport, or trying to get someone to drive me somewhere on their time, is not really my cup of tea. I also just adore driving, so I'm going to miss it an awful lot.

o Walmart: I am totally not kidding, and actually that makes me kind of sad. But Walmart is so incredibly convenient and cheap, and it seems like nothing in LA is either one of those things, that it would just be nice to have around. The closest Target to me is in MB and that is too far to walk or board to (it's nowhere near the beach, which would make it sooo easy) and I don't know about the busses there. 

o My family & friends: I miss them when I'm away, even if they're also away in other places.

packing

I leave Friday morning (7am) to go back to El Segundo, CA (by Los Angeles) for the summer. I am interning again at The Aerospace Corporation.

So today I decided to pack. Last year I packed like 2 weeks in advance...that was kind of silly. So this time around I am only packing 2 days in advance.

Packing is very easy for me. I make a list of everything I need, then go find the items on the list and put them in the suitcase. Very simple. I am also very good at packing light and mostly only bring what I really need. My downfall is always in the electronics area - I insist on having my computer, my external hard drive, my nice camera, my not-as-nice camera, and my video camera. That makes for a heavy carry-on bag!

haircut!

I got a haircut today. I just got a haircut a couple months ago but it grew back very quickly. For the past couple of years I have been cutting my own hair, but recently I have felt like getting it cut. We have had some good coupons so I don't feel so bad :)

Before the haircut:

After the haircut:

Let me know what you think! It probably won't be straight that often. She blowdryed it, which makes it pretty straight, and combed it an awful lot. I usually let it air dry so it curls :)

lists

I make lists for everything. My homework gets organized via list, my bucket list is obviously a list, I write down to-dos in lists like nobody's business. So why not make a list of everything I want to do in LA this summer? I used Slashlists (developed by Kelly Sutton of HackCollege while he's in Berlin...how did he have enough time?) and you can find my list here. I'll probably be making more lists over the course of the next few days, and adding things to this list. 

Observation about my California list: it revolves very much around traveling, experiences, and food.

If you have anything I should add to this list let me know! I did many things last summer that I didn't include in order to give me some more time to experience new things :)