orientation

i started my orientation for the teacher ed program at UCLA today. i'm so tired. i did lots of things over this last week before fall quarter started, and i'll recap them later. i still have pictures to upload. i'll get to it all later.

1 week!

i've been here for a week! somehow, it feels longer than that. pam was here visiting over the weekend. i joined her and her eye school friends in venice beach on saturday afternoon, after i had lunch with grace. venice beach was kind of a trip because there are just all kinds of people. we walked pass a movie set for southland tales, but sadly, i did not see the rock nor buffy. celebrity sightings = 0.

we had dinner at bcd tofu house and had the best service ever. seriously. they even initiated the offer to give us separate checks and my water glass was never empty. we suspect that it was because there were 3 white girls and 1 east indian girl with us. mental note to self, always bring white people with me to korean restaurants.

sunday morning, pam, joe, and i went to newsong LA. i liked the pastor's speaking/preaching style. this church has ministries for everything. they even have a parking ministry. and they had all these multimedia video plugs to join ministries. even their programs were super nicely done in a comic book style. i compare it to a retreat/conference experience, possibly like cohi, only with more polish and glitz. this is a ginormously different experience to my church in seattle. i still can't quite handle it. afterwards, two of pams friends joined us and we all explored this area near my apartment called "little osaka." later for dinner, it was a semi-oregon reunion for brazilian bbq. it was a meat-fest. and i got to have guaraná!!! i haven't had that in 5 years. it was sooo good.

in the short time i've been here, i've already eaten way too much. this is probably bad for me. i must show more restraint and self-control...or at least pretend to try...

new and old

i've been slowly unpacking and it's like...halfway done. bah. unpacking is only slightly less lame than packing.

since i got here, i've been to monterey park twice while my dad was here. i've also been to the DMV twice. i've got my california license and new plates too. people who work at the DMV are joyless people; it's quite tragic. i've gone to costco, target (my home away from home), linens 'n things, bed bath & beyond, staples, and school (UCLA) already. so most of the things that i have to do, i've done. now i can do fun things, like go to 3rd street promenade, the mall, the grove (fun outdoor mall in the style of u village...sort of), old town pasadena, pretty much wherever i want! yay! driving here isn't too crazy, mostly because...i fit right in! actually, i'm much more tame by comparison.

yesterday, i went to a bbq at joe ying's friend's apartment. it is confusing to meet a whole bunch of people you don't know at one time. but it was super fun. i met a girl who is starting the same program at UCLA also in elementary education. now we each have a friend on the first day of school. yay! the people's craziness revealed itself later in the evening. it reminded me of friends and group hangs back in seattle/portland. and i wonder if we seem crazy (in a good way) to new people too. i even met a girl who could tell i wasn't from LA because i looked "wholesome." i decided to take that as a compliment. being wholesome is definitely better than the alternative. it was pretty funny.

and now pam is in LA and we'll get to play! and on a random note, i got back in touch with another friend, also named pam, over the last couple of days and we got to talk this morning. she called all the way from germany. i haven't seen her since...my first year in college. it's fun making new friends and finding old ones.

in babylon

i made it to LA, aka babylon as garrett likes to call it. the total time traveled was 20 hours, which included stopping for gas and food. i only ended driving a total of 5 hours, which means my awesome dad drove 15. we left portland a little after noon on monday and got to my apartment a little after 8am on tuesday. two mexican guys, antonio and daniel, flagged us down and offered their labor services to move my stuff into my 2nd floor apartment. so moving in was done in record time. now i'm just trying to unpack and get settled. tomorrow i plan on getting my california driver's license. i've already found my costco and best buy. i haven't gone to target yet, but i will tomorrow! yay! come and visit!

clean sweep

i'm in the process of cleaning out my room and figuring out what i'm taking to LA. in the middle of all of that, these are just some of the things that i've come across:

senior t-shirt from high school

dragon boat team t-shirt from '99

junior girl scout uniform from 5th grade

various t-shirts from my brazil 2000 mission trip, including an LA Lakers championship t-shirt forced upon me by misguided fans of the lakers

'97 nike volleyball camp t-shirt

a drawer full of old letters, notes, card, postcards, etc. - which i can't quite make myself throw away

old tapes and cds: ace of base, blessed union of souls, etc

way too many VHS recordings of various 'n sync tv appearances + magazines - there was a period of teenybopper temporary insanity

CEC agape youth group t-shirt

old RAV t-shirts

alpha omega (high school christian club) t-shirt

jr. high diary - i'm horrified

my high school yearbooks...i realized that i forgot a lot of stuff that happened during those years as i was reading through the things that people wrote

lots and lots of old photos

i've found clothing from jr. high in my closet. why is it still in there? i have no idea - except to say that i have a difficult time throwing things away. i keep thinking of its sentimental value. but i'm making progress. i have a big garbage bag full of throw-aways and 2 bags of clothing to be donated. and there is still so much more to go...

pit stop: portland

i got into portland sunday night around 9:30pm. all in one piece. i think siobhan was worried that my mattress would fly off of my car and create a crazy news story. miraculously, all of my junk that was left fit into my car. siobhan, kristie, and garrett helped me pack up. and eagle scout ryan helped secure the mattress on top of the car. friends are great. and they shall be missed. therefore, they must visit me in LA.

i'm home for another week and a half. i'll start emptying out my boxes and sorting and repacking everything...tomorrow.

meanwhile, check out some new pictures.