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Crosswood


46 Blog Entries
2 Trips
121 Photos

Trips:

Wandering with intent.
New Zealand Student, American University.

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/Crosswood


I am a second year Officer Cadet in the Royal New Zealand Army, going for a trip to Berkeley (University of California) in the United States. I have a sense of humour, poor organisational skills, and collect clocks.
What more can I say?


Phoenix Airport

Phoenix, United States


Here I am in Phoenix, Arizona! Well, really just the airport. The flight I am on to DC has a stop-over here of about an hour and so I am quickly typing to update on the plan of attack that I (briefly) outlined yesterday. I am sorry for the curtness of the post – I was in a hurry to get it out of the way so I could spend time with my friend before I left.
Again, I got up very early (after talking all night) and hung around waiting for the flight that morning. My friend was a little dopey, but wished me luck before falling (exhausted) back to sleep. I was thrilled she woke up! After being dropped off at the airport, the security men threw away every bottle I owned (despite them being clear and almost completely empty) which was a hassle, but there we go. The flight on US airways to Phoenix was very nice – not as nice as a big new Airbus like Air New Zealand has going to San Francisco, but almost empty and therefore we got good service. The captain was making jokes over the intercom as well, so it was kinda cool. Right now I am sitting looking out the airport window at the flat desert, and the huge town. They had plenty of space, so everyone has an acre it feels like. The roads a big, straight and stretch on to the horizon.
The plan is that I will get to DC and go by train to the hostel. I have directions! Hopefully it will work out OK. The time zones are different there, but I am worried about my phone. I destroyed it by dipping it in water, and it only turns on if I leave it on. But I had to turn it off for the flight! So we will see. I will write when I reach DC!


permalink written by  Crosswood on January 4, 2008 from Phoenix, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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DC

Washington, United States


I am at my mothers’ friends’ House in DC and I am not sure how I got here. The plane to DC from Phoenix was PACKED because a previous flight was cancelled, so there was no room on the plane for my bag. I had packed so it could all be cabin luggage, but that wasn’t going to happen. People were getting quite grumpy at each other for taking up ‘more than their fair share’ of the space, but everything was sorted out and we only left about 30 mins late. I was sitting next to a lady who seemed to be very grumpy to begin with (when I tried to put my backpack beside her bag in the overhead locker she snapped ‘Don’t touch my bag!’) , but was very nice and who had travelled all over Africa. This made the plane flight quite pleasant, and by the end she was keen to introduce me to her sons. Hmmmm. I was quite pleased when the plane landed in DC, after flying over all these famous monuments! I can’t wait to visit them.
I was instructed by Gigi, my mothers’ friend, to ring once I reached DC. This is duely did. I fully intended to stay at the hostel and I had all the instructions ready to ride the metro – but when I looked out into the night I confess I was a little daunted. The hostel isn’t in the best area of town. Somehow once I had rung Gigi I was staying at her House, for which I am pathetically grateful. I was trying so hard to avoid it coming to that as well, because they are trying to sell their House and thus have it beautifully neat. Luckily, after the army, I can do neat.
I am still a bit confused as to how this came about. I suspect Mum. Mum is a bit like the puppet-master sometimes in that she can see/shape the future, no matter how hard I try and avoid it. Possibly I should just give in and do whatever she says, but H’s have inconvenient pride, and so we make Mum’s job as difficult as we can. We still lose, but that’s beside the point.

Cheers everyone. I’ll tell you how DC is later.


permalink written by  Crosswood on January 4, 2008 from Washington, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Tardy

San Diego, United States


So I've been a little tardy in writing. Sue me! I've been having a great time.
I jumped on that train that morning (after Andy and Lisa rushed me to the train station as the train was coming in) not knowing what to expect of San Diego. I sat there in the train, and as is my wont, thought about all the things that could go wrong. Was leaving the safety of Andy and Lisa, and the comfort of familiar family friends, really a good idea? I have looked into my travelling habits and I have

My friend met me at the station, and when I saw her smile I knew it was going to be a good trip. American’s seem to be incapable of being unkind, and in the week I have been here I have had one of the best times of my life. AGAIN.

The first day we drove around San Diego, and went on board the Star of India tall-ship in the harbour. We also went on-board a Russian Submarine, which was really fascinating. I felt bad however, because my friend had injured herself playing rugby, and she wasn't able to walk very well.

The second day we went to the museum of man (it was amazing how much the Neanderthal looked like Uncle Paul) and then to a New Years' party. You'll be proud of me - I mingled, conversed and had a great time. I also got to drive on the wrong side of the road - ie the Right-Hand Side - which was very exciting.

Yesterday I went to a kind of Hippy Beach colony, which was also very fun. San Diego is gorgeous while the sun sets. That morning we went to Mexico just for a look, but it was pretty dodgy, so we came back quickly (after some trouble from the border guards).

I went to the zoo today as well. It was fun. I leave tomorrow for DC. I’ll talk more later.


permalink written by  Crosswood on January 3, 2008 from San Diego, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Exam Results

Orange, United States


Exam results:

Department Course Units Grade
HISTORY 151B BRITAIN, 1660-1851 4.0 A-
HISTORY 155B MEDIEVAL EUROPE 4.0 A-
HISTORY 171A Russia 4.0 A
MIL SCI 141 LEADERSHIP & MNGMNT 3.0 A
SLAVIC 147A EAST SLAVIC FOLKLORE 3.0 A


So I had a pretty good semester. The only reason I am posting them here is because I am vain and my folks weren't going to give in to my ego. Fair enough?

permalink written by  Crosswood on December 28, 2007 from Orange, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Christmas at Andy’s

Orange, United States


Well, I made it down to Orange County, but not right away – first I headed out after my exams to a friends’ house and hung out with her and her friends. They (both Noa and her friends) were really nice and I hope I see them again sometime, although this seems unlikely. For four days I did very little and relaxed. I also celebrated with my friends over their exam results – some of them were a little frightened by what they would get, but they turned out great. I don’t have my exam results back yet, although everyone else does. It is slightly annoying!

While in Palo Alto with my friend I basically did nothing, but at the end we went to a New Zealand pub in the middle of nowhere so I could feed her pavlova. I’m seriously not a good enough cook to even THINK about making one of those little monsters, so I figured I should leave it to the experts. (Yes – a New Zealand pub. Random yes?) Then I went back to the house. I am still having problems with the landlord (who made a mistake on my contract) but I’m sure it will be solved by move-in day of next semester. The house was very empty – I didn’t like it like that.

I also managed to work myself into a fine state as because I didn’t have a social security number I couldn’t buy a train ticket online. Also, the holidays changed all the bus timetables. Of course I checked online, but I was still worried about getting to the station on time, because the buses are ALWAYS late. So I didn’t get much sleep, but I got down to the bus stop in enough time to recognize that the bus wasn’t going to arrive, and so I got a taxi to the station and all was well. I jumped on this very flash double-decker train with big comfy seats and lots of leg room – but the guy next to me wasn’t impressed. This man was very large and took up all of his set and some of mine as well. He was also, at various points, bored, angry at things, restlessly fidgeting and rambling about how much he hated America.

I enjoyed my train ride – I know the man above seems a little strange, and he was, but there were some other real characters as well. Like the man who kept walking up and down the aisle until someone gave me a beer. Or the man who was standing at the front of the coach ‘reading peoples’ auras’. I’d definitely do it again. It’s an experience. And the train ride itself was wonderful – no vibration, really VERY fast (we were going at 79 miles per hour in places) and lots of space – plus you own food. We stopped for freight in a couple of spots, but one of those spots was in the middle of the big restricted air force base, so I got heaps of time to watch the fighters practicing overhead. It was gold.

I got to LA at 9 and was very pleased that Andy and Lisa were waiting for me. My phone had died because I had gone out of my calling zone, so I was again unable to call anyone. Luckily they were outside. Union station is very nice – they’ve taken good care of it.
Andy’s house is bigger and cooler than I remember – he has two computers, an Xbox 360, and Xbox and a playstation 1 & 2. He also has a TV with 700 channels. Actually I’ve been spending a lot of my time sleeping (I am very tired for no reason) and reading books I bought for the train ride. I also had some wonderful pizza (garlic chicken – one of my parents doesn’t like garlic so I never get it at home). Then we went to Andy’s parents house for dinner. I had a wonderful time (LOTS of food) and this morning (Christmas day) I have eating with Lisa’s folks. Andy gave me some very excellent DVD’s, and I gave him a bowl that looks like a shell (thanks Mum and Dad for sending that!) so I am as happy as the cat with all the cream. Tomorrow we will go to the pistol range so that I can fire a .45 – I’m in America! How could I conform to the stereotypes without firing a gun?! I will write again when I reach San Diego – that is the next step.


permalink written by  Crosswood on December 25, 2007 from Orange, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Go Bears!

Berkeley, United States


Tonight was a great.

Everyone has been trickling away from the house. Person by person they’ve said their farewells and left – gone after four and a half months of friendship and living together. Every night was like a sleepover at a friends’ place. We had parties for Halloween, parties for peoples’ birthdays, parties for kicks, parties for footballs games.

Tonight we had a party for leaving. My leaving.

In another three days I will cancel my meal-plan, I will pack up my room and I will sign a termination letter. Then I will leave. It is a very real possibility that I will never be back to Berkeley, or see the people that made Berkeley such a great place, again. I contrast this to my experience of leaving for America that day – I can still remember everything. It was a sunny Tuesday - I practically skipped out of the barracks door and haven’t thought of it fondly since.

They gave me a gift, my house-mates. A blanket with the Golden Bear on it. It’s magnificent, and it’s without question the best thing I have ever been given by friends. I can’t imagine being half as pleased with something from the Massey Student store – Cal is something special, even for a temporary visitor.

Here in Berkeley is Westminster House, and here the others will be back, most of them. I won’t be, but I wish them every success. This was a sappy post, but hey – I won’t get another chance. Later I might be in New York, or San Diageo, or various places in between, but I’ll remember that I’m a Golden Bear, and that Golden Bears from Cal are the sweetest creatures on the planet.

Go Bears.

permalink written by  Crosswood on December 15, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Dad's Trip

Sacramento, United States



Dad came over this week!

I know it seems a little odd, but it was so nice of him to do it and I appreciated it a lot. On Friday I was told he was coming Monday, so I didn't have much time to stress about what to do. It all worked out well in the end.

I rode BART all the way to San Fran airport, which is quite a trip. Then Dad drove us back to Berkeley in this huge American car with the greatest Sat Nav system I've ever seen. Even a child could use it, it was so simple. Dad was staying in San Fran, in a hotel on one of the main streets, so he and I wandered through town a couple of times having a look around. He saw a lot more without me, as obviously I had class in the build-up for exams, which start very soon. I had to quickly re-schedule a final exam from the Wednesday morning (when Dad and I went up to Sacramento) to the Tuesday before (luckily the SSgt who controls that class wasn't to fussed.) I got an A, which is a shame because I took it pass/not-pass. Oh well, such is life. He gave me American rat packs, which is nice, but I'm a little afraid of eating them. We'll see...

Sacramento was misty, and I had a doctor’s appointment there. I also got up really, really early after going to bed late. The combination of these factors meant I didn't really look around much while I was there, but I did enjoy a home-made sandwich with Dad before a breakfast Parfait and a cup of tea in McDonalds.

I also had a military ball on Wednesday because it was a pretty full-on day. Dad and I went up to Macy’s to get a Bow-Tie, because Dad had left his black one at home, and it was interesting seeing the psychology of selling. The man at the first store we went to had no intention of helping us – I looked like a Uni student and dad was wearing a serviceable, but hardly Christine Dior, jumper. This is obviously stupid – Dad was going to spend money, and since he doesn’t like to shop if they give him a good pitch he’ll probably buy it. They lost out – their customer service didn’t compare to my little sisters’ – so we went down the street and got one from a place where the person was marginally more interested in us.

The military ball was fun. I was on a tight timetable already – I got back from class at 1730 and the ball started at 1800 – but there was an accident on a bridge in San Fran and Dad was a few minutes late. I was wearing my full Patrol-Reds, the formal uniform of the Corps of Officer Cadets, and looked pretty good. I also had a New Zealand flag to present. Dad always looks good in his dinner jacket, but he has an unfair advantage in that he goes to more of these things than me and knows how to make small talk. Luckily I didn’t need small-talk past ‘I’m from New Zealand! Look how red my uniform is!’ and other similar comments. They thought I was pretty flaky I think, but that’s cool. Dinner was nice – beef and stuff like that, and the company was good. We saw a sword arch (it wasn’t very good, but it’s hard to hold a sabre out above your head for a long time like they were forced to, so hats off to them), heard a good speech from a Brigadier (he saw I was in the audience and changed his speech to include Phil Goff’s nephew who was killed in Iraqi a few months ago.) and then it was my turn. I was supposed to go up onto the podium and make a speech about something and then give the flag to the Lt. Col, but she didn’t stand up to get the flag, she stayed at the table. So I simply walked up to the top table and started to ramble at her. I said something about New Zealander’s and Americans fighting together, how we were friends and how I had no doubt they’d look after our flag. They liked it – I am so lucky. It was pretty simple and was big on the nervous babbling, but the Americans seemed to appreciate that it was sincere. Dad (in his cynicism) was surprised. I had a really good night anyway – the Golden Bears gave me a Commander’s Coin, which I have to carry with me, and if I don’t have it when they check I have to buy everyone a round of beer. Fair enough!

Today was great, until I left my backpack in Dad’s rental car and he drove off to the airport with it. Hmmm. I’ll get it tomorrow, but I was stressed there for a while until I went to the gym with my friend, who is also stressed. I feel tired now.

Tomorrow:
Get Backpack with all my notes and my cellphone in it
Talk to Marine Guy about Marine Corps in America
Talk to SSgt Smith about SSgt Smith’y stuff (he’s a great guy)

I think I was supposed to talk to either the Navy guy or the Air force guy as well... I’ll find out. Cheers for reading guys

See you in six weeks


permalink written by  Crosswood on December 7, 2007 from Sacramento, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Thanksgiving

Chico, United States


Dear All

Thanksgiving was amazing – on Wednesday last week (although it wasn’t a public holiday) we all got time off university to travel up. Well – time off might be stretching the point a little – it was more like we held the lecturers to ransom and they didn’t hold classes because no one was going to arrive.

The mother of my friend Sarenna, whom I stayed with, travelled down an awful long way to pick us up (our hat’s are off to you, Mrs S!). While we waited a wee while for Sarenna to pack (Sarenna is famous for taking a long time to get ready), myself and another friend went out for coffee. After this we were off!

Traffic is absolutely APPALLING on and around Thanksgiving, with everyone trying to get back to their family for the holiday, so Mrs S. Drove off to the other side of Berkeley first to get Mexican food. I love Mexican food, but I wasn’t so thrilled with the rice drink that is traditionally drunk with it, because it tickled the back of my throat and made me want to sputter. Still – it was a really nice evening, and after a small diversion to a cheese store we hit the road again and (after a frankly amusing couple of tries at getting back onto the ‘freeway’) we were on our way to Chico!

The coastal route is beautiful at night, so as my friend dozed off in the front seat I chatted away to Mrs S, who is a lovely person and who knew a lot about the area we were driving through. This was useful; I knew nothing about what or where we were driving through, and was only mildly interested in how flat it was before Mrs S started to elaborate on the history of it. Petrol is really cheap over here, but it’s all ’87, ’89, and ‘91! No ’98 at all, and diesel is more expensive than Petrol.

After about 2 hours we reached Chico, which is an agricultural/university town that specialises in crops like nuts and fruits. The friend I stayed with lived outside of Chico in the middle of an area of cropland, which was gorgeous by night (the first night we took the dogs out for a walk around the place) and was simply stunning by day. Rank upon rank of almond trees! I’m actually sitting in my basement now eating almonds from that area (they’ve been roasted with orange peel and honey and taste amazing). It was all a little overwhelming at first, but the place is fantastic.

The second day was Thursday – Thanksgiving day. We had dinner at about 1 o clock because if we ate earlier then we’d pop when we tried to go for a traditional walk afterwards. Turkey was abundant (those birds must be massive!) and doesn’t taste anything at all like chicken – but the real treat was the vegetables. Yes – I know. This is me, talking about liking veggies more than meat, but if you ate at the dining commons every day you’d realise why I desperately desired those peas and yams. I ate so many veggies I didn’t even want to THINK about dessert – lots of pie. Americans love pie – Pumpkin Pie, Coconut Pie, Pecan Pie (that’s REALLY good), Marionberry Pie (kindof like Blackberry – my friend sitting next to me tells me it IS a blackberry that’s a weird mutant and that comes from a state in America called ‘Oregon’) and, of course, Apple pie. Why so much pie? The family is WAY too nice for their own good, knew I hadn’t eaten most of these pies before and got them for me. Americans are THE NICEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. The walk was really nice as well – we went to a different area that we wandered around in the night before. My friends’ sister disturbed me mightily – we went in a car to the general area and I didn’t realise that she didn’t drive very well until she exclaimed ‘Oh – A corner! Lets see how this goes!’ I was more than slightly concerned after that. She also couldn’t get the keys out of the car because she put it in neutral instead of park (snigger). After our walk (we saw hawks, lots of trees and had a great time) I drove back. I laughed at that girl too soon. I actually thought – ‘gosh. Putting the steering wheel on this side of the car makes it a lot easier to align yourself to the left hand side of the... uh oh.’ Luckily the road was a farm road and there were no other cars!

Chico proper, which we visited the next day, is really great. It is a ‘small’ town – 100 000 people is small in the states – and has literally everything. The Farmers Market is very much like the Lower Hutt market, except the stuff was heaps more professional – there was a nut stand with all sorts of types of almonds – honey roasted, orange roasted, chocolate covered, ect - and various fruit stalls. I love mandarins!!

We also went to the gym, not once but TWICE. Dad – you’d be proud. The second time was very fun – a man named Mika taught me how to use Kettle Bells and we violently swung them around, and also attacked random tractor tires. My friend is very strong and fit, so I had to work hard to keep up for the honour of the New Zealand army. It wasn’t pretty.

We came back, and then I went off to ANOTHER thanksgiving dinner, this time in Los Altos. The family is a family of engineers, who proudly showed off their awesome robot like other families show off a prize dog. It was a fricken’ awesome robot. We also did Tie Dye, ate lots of good food, and headed home tired and full. I slept through my alarm the next day.

Today I also did a Military Lab in preparation for the formal Military Ball next week. I showed up in my Patrol Reds, which are very red, and tried to learn how to dance. I was mildly successful at this! The boys were less successful, but they tried very hard.

Tomorrow I have a formal house dinner, which should be fun as well.

That’s pretty much everything that happened over the last week – I had a great time in Chico - wish me luck for getting a friend to go with me to the ball!

Cheers everyone, sorry for how unfunny this post was

Margie


permalink written by  Crosswood on November 27, 2007 from Chico, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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Come on people!

Berkeley, United States


Come on people! I write stuff for you, you write stuff for me! Does anyone read this blog? If so, then comment, or I'll become depressed and give up...

permalink written by  Crosswood on November 18, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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LA Road Trip

Los Angeles, United States


It all started Friday night. I was looking forward to the long weekend – the normal round of homework, sleep and friends, punctuated with the occasional drama by one of my houses’ many teenagers. It looked boring, but nice. Until I opened my email inbox.

A couple of international students from my soccer team looked like they were flying down to LA for the weekend – they were asking if anyone else wanted to come. I was vaguely interested – I’ve been to LA before, but not on this trip. I sent an email reply saying that it would be cool to go. Those friends said there weren’t any seats, but some people might want to organise a car to drive down there. About three minutes later, I got a call on my cell phone and I was going to LA for two days, spontaneously.

Two magic words – Road Trip. It was great – I woke up at six am, walked down to Telegraph Ave and was picked up by this German guy named Adrian and a Canadian called Joanna. Us three were the only ones going down by car, and I couldn’t drive because I was under the age for insurance, so those two were the only drivers, and they quickly showed their worth. In two days they ran four red lights (none of them on purpose, but one in front of three lanes of oncoming traffic), went the wrong way down two one way streets, got a speeding ticket for going 92 miles an hour in Merced (60 mile per hour zone) and generally swerved back and forth over as many lanes of the freeway as possible to take up. Never let anyone tell you that New Zealander’s are inconsiderate drivers again!

Needless to say I was the fun-Nazi voice of reason in all of this – but what in New Zealand would be broad hints aren’t at all hints in the more direct American culture. For example, five minutes before the speeding ticket I spotted how fast we were going and said to Jo ‘If we get a speeding ticket, who is going to pay it?’ Pretty obvious right? Apparently not.
‘Margaret! Why didn’t you say anything about me going too fast?’

The crossing in front of the three lanes of traffic thing was done by the German guy, Adrian. He saw the green light for going ahead, but not the red light for turning, and so just turned. It was pretty frightening for me, and I still can’t help but laugh as I talk about it now, because Adrian didn’t even notice until after we were safely through the intersection. He was then so horrified that he lost concentration and almost took out two pedestrians on a zebra crossing. All in all, not one of the more successful driving experiences of my life.

We drive 350 miles down the central valley from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which was a nice drive but quite boring. The landscape is very flat, devoid of all vegetation aside from a very short brown scrub, and occasionally farms. Every 30 or 40 miles, so regular you could set your clock to it, there was a ‘town’ that consisted of three or four fast-food joints and a motel. I suspect they cater for the truck-drivers that come up and down this route, but it was amazing how none of these ‘towns’ had a supermarket or anything. It was literally just some fast-food places and a place to stay.

Our first stop on this road trip was at one of these places, called Wasco, where we had Denny’s. Denny’s is an American fast food chain which is somewhere between Cobb and Co and McDonalds – very unhealthy, huge portions. It was very crowded when we went in, and every single person there was overweight – it was like the America you see in those bad movies about the ’hollowness of life’. We quickly worked out the reason for everyone being overweight – I took one look at the menu and ordered a side-order of toast for my meal. (A side note: everything in America is about choice. When I ordered my toast is wasn’t just ‘white or brown’ it was ‘do you want rye, sour dough, white wheat flour, corn flour, ect. And this was at a fast food place!) I scraped a lot of the butter off and it was quite nice. The other two picked the mega-breakfast and it was massive and covered with grease. They enjoyed it!

Then it was back on the road, and I had to work very hard to prevent us stopping within the hour at the International House of Pancakes, better known as iHop. This decision to not go to IHop right then and there was a mistake which later came back to haunt me – but that’s a story for later.

After about 4 hours a line of hills appeared up from the horizon. These hills are pretty random, because there is nothing but plains before them, and nothing but hills after. Through these hills more and more green began to appear, until we entered into LA county and from there to LA proper.

Driving along the freeways is a hassle – and although I kept telling the driver which exit we were to take we missed it anyway. Honestly – this is the last time I take a trip with fully spontaneous people! No... it wasn’t that bad – they’re brilliant people. They’re just a little flighty. Anyway, we ended up in Venice Beach, which isn’t very nice. We got all the way down there to go and stay with these other two people from our soccer team, but they’re a couple, and they weren’t that keen to have us around. They ‘suggested’ we’d find more accommodation in Hollywood than in Venice Beach. They’re funny people. Anyway, we drove for another hour to get to Sunset blvd, which was very dodgy. My car-mates told me ‘the first place we find to stop and stay the night we’ll take’ and so I delighted in pointing out all the tumble-down, paint-flecked ‘hotels’ with hookers standing out the front. Eventually to my disappointment we found a motel 6, which was pretty much fully booked except for a double room in a smoking section, and a single room in a non-smoking section. We went for the double first, but it stunk so badly we moved into the single room. I slept on the floor in my army sleeping-bag while Jo and Adrian slept in the bed. Perhaps this sounds a little odd – why would one girl sleep on the floor while another girl and a guy who don’t date or anything sleep in the bed? By this stage I had come a-cropper of the dreaded lurgy, and was sick with the flu. I didn’t want to give them it, so I stayed away from them. We met up with our friends and strolled down Hollywood Blvd, which was nice. The stars on the walk were fun to watch, the stores were all very cool (if a little touristy) and the Chinese Theatre especially was worth a visit. All those hand-prints were excellent! My favourite was the harry potter actors’ handprints. The whole courtyard with all the handprints was smaller than I expected though - What happens when they run out of space?

We had hamburgers for dinner, and then I went home to bed (because I felt like rubbish) whilst my friends wandered off and visited famous nightspots, and Sushi restaurants. My University American Football team also lost (which was a big disappointment), but the floor was surprisingly comfy. The next morning, well rested, we went to see the Hollywood sign. We followed the directions given to us by Adrian’s iPhone (which is amazing by the way), but the directions that it imported had a large flaw. It didn’t realise that some of the routes were ‘authorized’ vehicles only, so in the end we had a great tikki-tour of the Hollywood hills, but saw no Hollywood sign. We did see it in the end, but only from a great distance away. Such is life.

We then swung by Muscle beach and the Santa Monica pier. It was Veteran’s Day in the USA and they’d placed thousands of crosses out on the beach to commemorate Iraqi war soldiers who’ve died, and they were holding a ceremony on the beach. We watched them until a protest group showed up with ‘9/11 was a fake made up by the govt!!!’ signs. There were quite a few of them, and the memorial service didn’t acknowledge that they were there, but I still thought it was in poor taste. We didn’t go on any of the rides on Santa Monica pier, but it was interesting to watch other people do it.

After this we went to see UCLA, which was very nice (but it looked like someone had designed it using a huge ruler) It was conveniently right next to the Bel Air gates, so I got a photo of that as well. Jo was trying to find the UCLA store so she could buy stuff, and I pointed to some blue parasols in the distance and said ‘that looks like food, and so the commercial area. It’ll be over there in the commercial area, surely.’ Jo and Ad decided to check the map and settled on the Student Activates Centre as being the most likely place, even though I said it was likely to be the gym. So we walked over the campus to the gym, discovered it was a gym, and then walked down to the memorial fountain. Jo went and asked someone where the store was, but she didn’t speak English. I pointed out to Jo that the lady had a UCLA store bag, so we just had to walk in the direction from which the lady came to find it. Jo’s response? – ‘This is why we keep you around Margaret.’ So we followed the trail of people carrying UCLA bags to the courtyard with the blue parasols in it. It turns out the blue parasols was the student store. There Jo spent money and I wandered around looking for something that I could give to Annabel. Eventually the money ran out on the parking metre, so we went back and headed out of town.

We didn’t go back the same way we drive in – we went up the coast towards Santa Barbara and stopped there. The scenery was much nicer on this leg, but I wasn’t impressed by SB. It was like I thought America was going to be like all over the place when I arrived – very two dimensional. American flags lined the recently brick-laid streets, pseudo-Spanish architecture dominated the area, and the main street was like an outdoor mall for chain stores. The food we had was very good though, and it was interesting to visit three University of California towns in a couple of days.

From here we drove to Santa Monica. Remember how I said I regretted not going to iHop on the first day? Well, the other two got obsessed with the idea of going there, so I pulled up Adrian’s iPhone and we went on a mighty hunt for them. We probably went an hour out of our way, and 100 miles further, to find one, and only then by heroic efforts on the part of the iPhone. We did find one however, and the food was good – massive MASSIVE portions of pancakes which made me VERY full.

I was pleased to get home to Berkeley but I had a great time. I hope everyone else had a great weekend, and I’ll talk to you guys about everything going on later.

Again, if you’ve got questions it’d be good, because then I’d have something to write about.


permalink written by  Crosswood on November 10, 2007 from Los Angeles, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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