I don't normally eat a lot of sweets, but I'm currently eating a delicious apple and walnut cobbler with vanilla ice cream at 9.45pm in my queen size bed, whilst overlooking planes landing through my hotel room window in Los Angeles.
In the USA.
Today is the first day of my nine month adventure across the States. And it still feels so surreal.
I was initially going to invest in a travel journal, but realised it's the 21st century and I will probably find it easier to jump on my iPad here and there and write about my trials and tribulations as I go along.
I left Melbourne on the 30th of May at 9.15am. The flight was about 13 hours - my butt felt numb the entire time and my brain was melting after 5 movies, not to mention I had a seat in the middle aisle squashed between two other guys. Lucky they were cool though so I made two new friends. The border officers at LAX were extremely lax themselves - definitely no three hour wait like I was made to believe - and were actually pretty friendly and conversational (shock horror)!
After I finally got to the hotel I was jetlagged as hell but convinced myself that I might as well power through the day and go for a walk around Santa Monica. It was so lovely!!!! I ended up making friends with this really nice English girl and we spent the majority of the day walking around the city.
My first 'Welcome to LA' experience was on the bus. There was this old crazy African American guy sitting near the front having a vivid conversation with himself, everyone just ignored him but as soon as he overheard me talking (and supposedly recognized my accent), he came right over and started talking really damn dirty. It was so freaking awkward! He's all like, 'You wanna suck some black American dick! And lick mah balls, and drink mah piss, miss!' over and over and over again and ended up making like a rap about it. I didn't know whether to laugh or be afraid but I just ignored him and kept looking at my friend wide-eyed, trying not to laugh the entire time. Only me! Luckily the bus driver had enough and yelled out 'Nobody wanna hear dat shiyyt! You better shut yo' mouth or you be gettin' off mah bus next stop ya hear!' and thankfully he friggen left and we sighed with relief. Ahh well, gotta take the bitter with the sweet!
On the way home we stopped at Carl's Jr for my first ever American meal - it was so fatteningly delicious. I think I've gotta make a conscious effort to not put on 10+kg while I'm here. I won't lie, I think it'll be a struggle :/
I got to skype with my family back at the hotel, and I won't lie but I already felt a bit homesick. I miss them a lot.
I fly out tomorrow morning to Minneapolis to start my job at Camp T until August - can't wait! Then after that I'll have to spend a week in Ottawa, Canada to apply for my second J1 visa for my semester at Uni of Florida (massive headache....) but fingers crossed it'll all go smoothly! Then of course after that meeting my three best friends for an epic road trip from NYC to San Fran via the south. I still can't believe this is all happening.
Well I think this was a sufficiently long winded introductory first post.
I'll end it here with a small tl;dr: don't make eye contact with beggar-looking people on the street or they'll hassle you for money, don't make yourself too known on public transport if there's a (relatively harmless) crazy person on it, and learn2tip!!!
'I will soon think of a cool signing-off line',
eva
In the USA.
Today is the first day of my nine month adventure across the States. And it still feels so surreal.
I was initially going to invest in a travel journal, but realised it's the 21st century and I will probably find it easier to jump on my iPad here and there and write about my trials and tribulations as I go along.
I left Melbourne on the 30th of May at 9.15am. The flight was about 13 hours - my butt felt numb the entire time and my brain was melting after 5 movies, not to mention I had a seat in the middle aisle squashed between two other guys. Lucky they were cool though so I made two new friends. The border officers at LAX were extremely lax themselves - definitely no three hour wait like I was made to believe - and were actually pretty friendly and conversational (shock horror)!
After I finally got to the hotel I was jetlagged as hell but convinced myself that I might as well power through the day and go for a walk around Santa Monica. It was so lovely!!!! I ended up making friends with this really nice English girl and we spent the majority of the day walking around the city.
My first 'Welcome to LA' experience was on the bus. There was this old crazy African American guy sitting near the front having a vivid conversation with himself, everyone just ignored him but as soon as he overheard me talking (and supposedly recognized my accent), he came right over and started talking really damn dirty. It was so freaking awkward! He's all like, 'You wanna suck some black American dick! And lick mah balls, and drink mah piss, miss!' over and over and over again and ended up making like a rap about it. I didn't know whether to laugh or be afraid but I just ignored him and kept looking at my friend wide-eyed, trying not to laugh the entire time. Only me! Luckily the bus driver had enough and yelled out 'Nobody wanna hear dat shiyyt! You better shut yo' mouth or you be gettin' off mah bus next stop ya hear!' and thankfully he friggen left and we sighed with relief. Ahh well, gotta take the bitter with the sweet!
On the way home we stopped at Carl's Jr for my first ever American meal - it was so fatteningly delicious. I think I've gotta make a conscious effort to not put on 10+kg while I'm here. I won't lie, I think it'll be a struggle :/
I got to skype with my family back at the hotel, and I won't lie but I already felt a bit homesick. I miss them a lot.
I fly out tomorrow morning to Minneapolis to start my job at Camp T until August - can't wait! Then after that I'll have to spend a week in Ottawa, Canada to apply for my second J1 visa for my semester at Uni of Florida (massive headache....) but fingers crossed it'll all go smoothly! Then of course after that meeting my three best friends for an epic road trip from NYC to San Fran via the south. I still can't believe this is all happening.
Well I think this was a sufficiently long winded introductory first post.
I'll end it here with a small tl;dr: don't make eye contact with beggar-looking people on the street or they'll hassle you for money, don't make yourself too known on public transport if there's a (relatively harmless) crazy person on it, and learn2tip!!!
'I will soon think of a cool signing-off line',
eva
