bye for now

So I’ll admit the summer attempt at blogging was a bit weak. Maybe that proves my point that Los Angeles isn’t the best, or it just points out how boring I am. Either way I start my senior year today, and I think it is time to sign off for a while. I’m going to Munich and Berlin this fall, so I’ll probably document it here. Thanks for reading my few and far between posts!  

beaches, biergartens, birthdays

Last Sunday I spent the day in Malibu with Sarah and her family, who was visiting. The house they were renting was pretty far up PCH, way past the Malibu beaches that we have already visited this summer. We trekked down the hillside to the nearest beach, La Piedra, and lounged in the sun for a few hours. Luckily the rental house came with an umbrella, so my paleness was protected. Although the breeze was a little too chilly for my taste, it was a beautiful and not too crowed beach. Later Sarah’s mom made a delicious dinner with ingredients she picked up at the Malibu farmer’s market. It was so nice to have a home-cooked meal and the perfect end to a great day.

Katie and I grabbed lunch at the rooftop biergarten at The Standard downtown. It was the last day of DineLA so we wanted to take advantage of the meal deal. We each got sausages, a salad, choice of pretzel or strudel, and a beer sampler. Hot dogs/sausages (this one was bacon-wrapped) are my favorite food, so I was in heaven and the view wasn’t too bad either. Sarah got Sarah Jackson and me tickets to The Producers at the Hollywood Bowl because she works for the L.A. Philharmonic. I had never been to the Bowl, so it was fun to bring dinner and hang out before the show, which was star-studded and hilarious.

Leanna is interning at Fox this summer and she invited me to see a screening of The Watch on the Fox lot on Saturday. The movie was surprisingly hilarious for a plot involving an alien invasion, neighborhood watch, and Costco. That night Sarah had a backyard birthday party, which was a lot of fun.

The next morning a few of us went out to Leanna’s house in Calabasas to hang out by the pool and watch some Olympics. A frog hopped into the pool and we named him Lochte in honor of the American swimmer. Later that night a few of us went to see The Dark Knight Rises, which was amazing. If you haven’t seen it you must go as soon as possible. The movie was great, but I was shocked the parents sitting next to us brought their 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old sons to a very violent film that ended at 12:30 a.m. I have more interning, working and birthdays to look forward to this week!            

movies and reunions

I love going to see a movie during the summer. It’s an easy way to escape the heat and kill some free time that everyone seems to have more of during these months, and there are usually tons of seemingly good ones to choose from. Recently I’ve seen both Savages and Magic Mike. Okay let’s be honest I wasn’t looking for Oscar-worthy work in Magic Mike. It was pretty mindless with no good acting (only dancing), but highly entertaining nonetheless. I was expecting something more from Savages. It was alright, but I don’t know if it was worth the $10. It was a visually beautiful movie, but some aspects were pretty unbelievable and I really don’t like Blake Lively. Magic Mike probably wasn’t worth it either, but who knows when I’ll get another chance to see Channing Tatum strip on the big screen. Had to take advantage of that opportunity.

On a more positive note, Lydia, Susan, and I had a London reunion dinner at Bacaro Monday night. The last time I saw Susan was in London, so it was great to see her and catch up. After dinner we spent a good amount of time at Lydia’s house attempting to make a stray cat love us, but she was playing hard-to-get. October, I will snuggle with you in the near future!

This summer has gone by so fast, it is troubling to think that I have to return to writing papers and studying (something I haven’t done much of in half a year) in about a month. It makes me want to go out and maximize the time I have left. Let the planning begin! 

a weekend of food trucks

Lydia, Sarah and I kicked off the weekend with vintage shopping at Shareen, which is tucked away in an industrial warehouse close to downtown. We each scored a dress, and mine is a psychedelic floral print and fits like a glove. It was a really cool spot and I’m glad they let me tag along.

Later Friday night the three of us met up again to go to First Fridays on Abbot Kinney. Tons of food trucks line the famous street in Venice Beach and stores extend their hours for late-night shopping. The sidewalks were packed, so we had a great time people watching.

After a quick change at home, Sarah and I met up with some guy friends to go out downtown. We decided to head to a whiskey bar USC students frequent called Seven Grand. That place is great. There are pool tables, mounted deer heads, an outdoor patio, and delicious whiskey cocktails—what more could you want?

The beach tour continued on Saturday when Sarah and I lounged at Malibu Lagoon. Lots of (attractive) surfers provided aquatic entertainment, and it was such a clear day that we could see down the entire coast. I was locked in an epic battle all day with a pestering bee that Sarah eventually smashed, but that was the only negative. Well and my sunburn.

That night Katy, Katie, Sarah, Sarah (yup, my friends all have the same names) and I went to the Hester Street Fair in Hollywood. There were more delicious food trucks and cool clothing and jewellery vendors. It was fun peeking around at all the unique stuff before heading to Leanna’s house. We also had a celebrity sighting: Bryan Greenberg of One Tree Hill was with Jamie Chung who was the bride in The Hangover 2.

I had a lazy Sunday hanging out in Sarah’s backyard reading and ran a few errands. It was a fun weekend, but it’s back to work today!

summer in Los Angeles

I originally started this blog to chronicle my summer in New York City and then my semester abroad in London, but seeing as I have no new travel plans set I decided I should talk about my life in LA. After all, I have never spent a summer here. I am interning at Los Angeles magazine for the style editor and also working at USC Annenberg, which is my job during the school year. Even though I am loving my internship so far, I don't want to make this about my life as an intern. I would rather focus on the stuff I do in LA this summer that I might not get the chance to do while school is in session. But if you're interested you can check out my blog posts for LA magazine here.

Sarah, a fellow Gamma Phi, and I are aiming to hit the beach every weekend. We started (well, actually Katy and I went to Manhattan beach a few days earlier) with a random beach in Malibu that our friend Rob led us to.  It was later afternoon by the time we got there because we were coming from a Father's Day party, so it was a bit chilly. We call Rob grandpa because of his old man tendencies, and Grandpa Rob came fully prepared for the beach. He was sitting on his chair, legs wrapped in a blanket, the collar of his jacket (probably his third layer) popped reading his book. Completely bundled. While Sarah and I were bikini clad. The contrast was quite funny and the beach was beautiful.

Last weekend Sarah and I went to Hermosa, which is just south of Manhattan beach. It was a great day: clear, blue sky and no June Gloom in sight. Sarah even went in the water, a task I will reserve for much warmer weather.

Later that day we met up with some friends (Grandpa Rob included) to watch the movie Chinatown at Hollywood Forever cemetery. They open the gates at 7:30 so you can claim a spot on the grass (not on the graves, don't worry) and picnic before the show starts once the sun goes down. It is a great movie all about LA with a young Jack Nicholson. It was a perfect summer night and I definitely want to do it again.

              

the end.

It is a little inappropriate that I’m writing my final study abroad post in San Francisco instead of London, but the 10+ hours on the plane here gave me the chance to think some things over…

I’ve decided I don’t like when people designate every activity near the end of an experience as “the last time we will [insert something culturally specific]” and get so sad about leaving a place. My philosophy is not to harp on leaving, but be happy that I got to study abroad in London and do so many amazing things. We should appreciate experiences for what they are instead of wanting them to last forever. Also, the future holds so much to look forward to that reminiscing and being sad seems odd.

I learned so much studying abroad (not so much in the classroom), and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Even though I lived in London for five months, there is still so much of the city left to explore so I will definitely be back. Until then, cheers! 

the last of London

Some items on the London List proved to be impossible or better left to a future trip. Lydia, Alex and I tried to rent Barclays bikes in Regents Park, but you have to register, pay online and possibly have a credit card that has a chip instead of a strip. That day in general just wasn’t going our way; Lydia spilled espresso all over herself and although the forecast said sun it was very gloomy. Despite that fail, we still managed to check a few things off the list:

The Harry Potter Studio Tour: This was magical. We took a train 20 minutes outside of London and then a special bus took us to the lot where they filmed all eight movies. They sit you down to watch a short video of Emma, Rupert and Daniel explaining how the cast and crew was one big family and how much time they spent where we were about to go. After the film ended the screen lifted up and there was the great hall. Apparently our tour guide at Oxford was misinformed because they did not film the great hall scenes there, they merely based the set design on Christ Church’s dining room. From there you enter a massive space filled with sets like the Gryffindor common room, Dumbledore’s office and the potions room and costumes and props actually used in the movies. The time and attention to detail that went into every single aspect of the films is incredible. They handwrote things that weren’t even seen or featured, that were just there to fill space. Next you go outside for some butter beer, which tastes like cream soda, and to see the night bus and other larger sets they had to build outdoors. The third part, lot K (the first was lot J), showed how they made all the mystical creatures come to life using mechanics and makeup. They also had concept drawings and models on display, which shows the process each scene goes through before it is even filmed. Then you step into a massive room that holds a model of Hogwarts. It was huge and incredibly detailed, and they actually used it to film wide or arial shots of the castle. The last room before the gift shop is filled with shelves of wand boxes each labelled with the names of everyone who worked on the films. Even though I haven’t read all of the Harry Potter books, I absolutely love the films and it was so interesting to see how they were made.

Covent Garden: Landon finished his month-long Euro trip by spending a few days in London last week before he jetted home. He was sick of sightseeing and being a tourist, so after doing the major things like Big Ben and the Tower of London I took him around to do some things I hadn’t yet. One of these things was Covent Garden, which is an outdoor shopping center with lots of food choices and people. I really liked it and wished I had gone there sooner. 

Abbey Road: After Covent Garden we went to Abbey Road because some of us still hadn’t gone. The crosswalk doesn’t look much different than any other zebra crossing in London, but it was cool to see the actually studio and the wall outside covered in signatures and lyrics. It is actually on kind of a busy street, so we had to be quick while Landon snapped some pictures. Even though we aren’t really walking in unison, the photos turned out well and we were all laughing our heads off. 

Hampstead Heath pond: (This wasn’t on the list, but it was something we had never done before.) It has been really hot and humid here, so we looked up places to take a dip and found out there are ponds in Hampstead Heath open for swimming. After finally finding the all female pond we were surprised to find that many women were sunbathing topless. Susan and Kristin both didn’t have bathing suits and the lifeguards wouldn’t let them swim without one, so they had to borrow suits that had been left behind. I thought it was hilarious because it is gross to wear a stranger’s bathing suit even if it is washed and Kristin’s top said I love England and gold-digger (because those things seem to go so well together). The pond was so beautiful and secluded. Everything was so green and lush; it reminded me a lot of Seattle because of all the vegetation and Cape Cod because they have tons of swimming ponds there too. There was even a mama duck with her babies swimming on the edge of the water, which was pretty cold, but it felt so good.