Another Crazy Day...

Today when I woke up, I thought I'd go get my student reduced-fare card, hunt for some kind of volunteer work, and maybe go to a library or something. This is one of the things that I saw on my walk to the bus stop:



(In case you can't read it, the truck advertises forensic autopsies, private autopsies, medical photography, paternity testing, and TV and film consulting)

Well, I had to go on this epic quest back and forth across LA to gather all the documentation required for my reduced fare card - a quest that took me the better part of the day. While I was in Metro centers and whatnot, I started picking up brochures for various interesting science-y looking places where I might want to volunteer, or possibly just visit.

By the time I got everything turned in, I had no desire to go to a library or volunteer-work-hunting any more. However, I did notice one brochure that mentioned an observatory in Griffith Park. Since I had been thinking of going to see a show at the Greek Theater, which is also in said park, I decided to go up there and check it out. During this expedition, I discovered three things: 1) there are no buses going into, or even up to the entrance of, Griffith Park, 2) maps don't show hills, so what looks like an easy walk can be quite a hike, and 3) even on flat surfaces, distances appear MUCH smaller on Google maps than they do when you're walking them. Naturally, I ended up really tired, so I just took the first bus I found, which conveniently went straight to a subway station.

Now, I don't listen to country music, so at first I thought the two people with kind of Southern accents on the bus next to me were tourists. However, as I heard their conversation, I realized that they were musicians (or a musician and a writer, or two band-mates?). I have no idea how famous they were, but I heard one of them telling the other about how some people had asked to take his picture, and how he was now rich enough to warrant having a place to live in Nashville AND a place to live in LA, and so on. It was weird, then the bus stopped not at the intersection where it said it stopped, but a bit down the street where there were paprazzi on one block and a TV or film crew setting up on another block around the corner.

Last but not least, annoyances since I've moved in less than a week ago:
Film crews: 1
Paparazzi groups: 2
Lost tourists who think I'm a local: At least 8

So, Los Angeles is COLD?

As the title implies, I went to LA recently, and was quite surprised at the temperature. Everything I had heard indicated that it would be something like 105 F outside, but it was down to nearly 60 at night, which meant that the heat in my hotel room actually went on to keep it up to 72 all night long!

Getting to LA was not a pleasant experience - the flight was delayed nearly 2 hours because of bad weather, which caused at least half the passengers to realize we'd miss connections. While people were boarding the plane, the flight attendants were giving the people in business class free drinks, and I had to resist complaining that ALL of the (adult) passengers could use some free alcohol at the moment. As it was, I missed my connecting flight, and had to stay the night in Atlanta. I got a hotel online for cheaper than the discount vouchers the airline offered me would've made it, because by then it was 11 PM and I was tired and fed-up and needing a shower and just generally not in a mood to sleep in the airport.

Now, sleeping in the airport wouldn't have been that bad of an idea, since I wouldn't have had to go through security again. If you ever fly out of ATL or LAX, be warned that security takes an obscenely long time, in part because they have no "experienced traveler" or "family" lines - instead of getting in line behind people with flip-flops and no jackets and only one carry-on item, you're also stuck behind the people who are dragging carseats and strollers through to be gate-checked.

So, I got in around noon and took 2 buses and 3 trains to go apartment-hunting. I don't know what everyone's objections to LA's public transportation system are, because the metro was spacious and clean (although it doesn't go to very many places) and the buses were everywhere. OK, maybe the fact that if you don't live near a metro stop you have to take 2 buses just to get to those 3 trains, but that doesn't faze me.

Apartment-hunting was ridiculous. The first place I managed to go claimed to have a studio available for $650/mo, but when I actually got there the lady whined about "forced advertising" and could only offer me an efficiency (bachelor, ie, no kitchen/only a kitchenette) for about $800/mo. Another place had dead, recently exterminated roaches all over the place, and the manager said she was going to exterminate again to make sure there were no survivors and then clean them up, but it was still gross. All in all, I only saw 2 places that were priced as advertised and one of them was a little more expensive and far away from the metro stop for my taste, but when I walked into one unit in another building it was like it almost screamed at me "You're home!" So, naturally, I applied for that one.

Advising wasn't bad, and I finally got to see the campus where I was going to grad school. There wasn't an interview, and I couldn't make it out for a campus visit, but I applied and I was accepted, so I took them up on it, sight unseen. It's not a bad campus, a bit bigger than I'm used to but I think I won't mind the size in the absence of snow.

I made a couple fun discoveries: A friend of mine who works in the entertainment industry took me around Hollywood, and among other things showed me the Amoeba music store, which is absolutely AMAZING! I saw movies and music there that I've never seen in stores before. I was also taking a bus that went along Wilshire Blvd when I noticed a big polluted-looking pond thing with a statue of a dying mammoth in it. Until then, I hadn't made the connection between the La Brea tar pits and the various things named "La Brea" in that section of LA, but I had to get there and check it out. It turned out to be pretty cool, but if you walk in the grass and get water splashed on your legs, you might end up with tiny flecks of tar on your legs, which fortunately weren't too difficult to wash/rub/pull off.

Anyways, fortunately I managed to return from all of this successful at everything I wanted to do, and not really jet-lagged, and without having to deal with flight delays of more than 15 minutes. I think I love this city... only, seriously, 61 degrees is almost intolerably freezing as far as I'm concerned.