Oh my blog my days are getting longer
I'm not too sure how many blog related play on words I can fathom over the next year. Suggestions would be helpful...
Hi
I knew this time would come, its time for the almighty update of what I have really been up to this past month. Frone who is reading this, I know there are a fair few either on blogger or facebook, it honestly means a lot :D
I think its also important to note that I'm getting fairly tired writing this, hence I'm going to try and keep coherent, short and also to bullet points (to a degree) Oh look, a title in bold...
Introduction
Ok, so I have apparently had the busiest month of my life ever. I don't think even Ecuador was this hetic. I have essentially been given the task of doing EVERYTHING one would be required to do in a regular month, only with everything starting from scratch.
Point of example - Move into new accommodation, only there is no food, no bedding and no television, so on first night in accommodation attempt to find somewhere that will sell bed linens and food at a reasonable price, and try to get it back to said accommodation, all whilst on the other side of the world where people fail to understand your accent, or the fact that you require bedding in the form of a duvet (apparently they don't do duvets over here, only sheets. Duvets reserved for hotels. Great.) Overall therefore quite overwhelming, interesting, fun, yet also very tiring!
My first week in the states I stayed at a hostel. It was pretty good, however its fair to say you get what you pay for. As I was on eleven (pounds) a night, it worked out cool. The people at said hostel were there for a big party however, which is cool, but not what I was doing at that time.
Instead everyday I was hauling myself half way across Los Angeles to go to an International Orientation Program.
As already said, the hostel was pretty cool, however it was about 8 miles away from UCLA, which leads me onto
The abysmal public transportation of LA, and my abysmal sense of direction
The first week in the country was generally thus; get up at 7am, wonder onto the street in the hope of catching a bus,, get onto said bus. Sit on bus until you think your roughly in the right area. Get off bus, realize your still a looong way from where you want to be, and then walk. Now, if I were in the UK, eventually after walking I would get to somewhere, and be able to work out where I wanted to go. Not so in LA. On several occasions I walked about 2-3 miles, before realizing I had made a mistake. I would then wait at a bus stop, not entirely sure of which number of bus I wanted, or where it was going to, and hope for the best. LA is a HUGE city. Net result one very lost David. (As a sidenote, it would appear only those who are too young or really are so poor they cannot afford a car use public transport. Using buses late at night when all children are gone meant It was only me, the homeless, and Mexicans) When I did walk large distances late at night there were absolutley no people on the sidewalks, apart from the odd homeless person. I was quite un-nerved at points, however I reasoned that only a fool would wait on the sidewalks to mug people as they would be waiting for roughly 4 hours, and only then be able to mug a very poor person. There is a reason LA prefers drive by shootings me thinks...
Calling 911
So, on my very first day I was lost for about 4-5 hours in the evening. After walking into my fifteenth Starbucks of the night to ask directions I wondered out onto the street to try and find my way, only to hear an almighty crash, and to see glass everywhere across the road. Turned out that a cyclist had just been ploughed into by a car. The driver had sped off and the cyclist was lying on the road, blood coming from his head. Someone shouted to call 911. No one did so, so I decided I probably should. What happened next was a little bizarre. I have never rung emergency services before, but what happened was I was in a queue for an advisor, I then spoke to a woman, told her where the incident had happened... And then she put me on hold!! An emergency and I was on hold, not best pleased. She then said that she was sending the firemen and the police (he needed an ambulance quite clearly, but apparently without insurance details they would probaly have just left him there), and then, even more oddly said 'ok, now thankyou so much for your call today' as if I had just orderd a burger... All a little wierd...
My apartement and roomates
On the Saturday, 6 days after being in the country, I moved into my accommodation. It is amazing and huge. Images are posted on the link listed on the blog.
Housemates, and crucially roommate are cool. I'm sharing with a guy called Diego, as in San Diego. He is, as the name would suggest, from Mexico. He is doing film and stuff, and has never shared a room before. I was pretty pleased with the fact that A) He watches lost and downloads it and B)Almost had a seizure when I went near the wireless router because he was concerned he wouldn't have internet. He does however have an iBook, although I won't lie when I say that I have been mighty tempted...
Other guys across the living room in the other bedroom are Francis and Adrian. Both are from California. Both are in their 3rd years, having studied at colleges for the past two years. Francis served in Iraq as part of the navy, and Adrian plays scrabble. Reguarly.
We have a dishwasher, a rubbish chute, and an excellent laundry room! Anyone who knows me will know how much I hate laundry, but even I have sort of enjoyed the whole process..
Classes
...Are going ok, however professors don't always like it when you disagree with them I find. Not a good move therefore to say how awful I found Malcolm X's autobiography when the professor claimed to have a personal love of the book. I could tell I was doomed when, after my comment she used the immortal phrase 'not to mean any disrespect to anyone in the room BUT that's not the sort of feedback I'm after'. Oops. I'm taking a couple of African American classes, and its cool to be able to hear people say my parents were part of a civil rights movement, or in some cases I was part of the movement, all quite cool. There are it would appear quite a lot of bitter African Americans in the country as well. Sometimes one or two of them irritate me however. Take this discussion for example;
(African American girl) 'Of course there are a lot of African American drug dealers, and a lot of white peadophiles'
Quite an outrageous statement at the best of times I feel, especially as the buzz word 'peadophile' was mentioned, but what happens later annoys me even more...
(African American girl 2) 'Just to come back to an earlier statement, I don't think its entirely fair to suggest that there are 'a lot' of African American drug dealers, or to generalize in that way'
WHAT ABOUT THE WHITE PEADOPHILE BIT? AND IF WERE GOING DOWN THAT PATH, SHALL WE BRING UP OPRAH'S CHILD PREDATOR WATCHLIST???
By contrast, one of my classes on the dectective novel is going ok, apart form the fact someone described the Yorkshire moores as 'on the outskirts of London', but these are minor issues. Oh and there is a girl with annoying glasses who acts like a nodding dog at everything the lecturer says....
The guy from Milton Keynes
Since arriving in the states I have desperately been trying to find someone from Milton Keynes. Every American who I have spoken to so far says how they love England, may have been to London, Stonehenge etc, yet not my beloved Milton Keynes. Sort of sucks, especially as I find it amusing that Milton Keynes was apparently '[designed on the grid system of LA', despite being absolutley nothing like LA, its very difficult to explain also that the fact everyone dislikes Milton Keynes makes me like it even more, and so a large amount of explanation is necessary for this also...
Anyway to cut a very long story short on Sunday I finally met someone who moved to LA at the age of 13, from, (you probably guessed it by now) from Milton Keynes. I almost collapsed. He was, for those of you in the know, from Neath Hill, he did not however know St Monica's.
socializing
All I have done over the past 3.5 weeks is TALK. Usually this would be a good thing, but there is a lot of talk, and it never stops! Usually I would have a good 11 hours to myself a day in my bedroom, however having been in a hostel and shared room this has not happened. Its all good though, and I'm starting to make friends, beyond the thick veil of small talk I am now reaching substance. I have had moments of struggle however as there seem to be two to three distinct things that have been said to me in recent weeks;
1) 'I love your accent, where is it from?'
(or, the common 1A..., 'oh, so your from Australia')
2) 'Oh England! I have family there/have been to London/ would love to go there/ study English (delete as appropriate)
3) 'Oh you say words so oddly, like you spell colour with a U,/pronounce herbs with a H/say queue when your in a line/say flat not apartment/say motorway when you mean freeway' etc, etc, etc, etc, etc
4) Go on, say something else, anything!
and my personal favourite of the week
5) 'Your surnames link, what is that Asian/I thought you were Asian/ where is the name from?'
(Such was the degree of my irritation last week that I said in a way that made me resemble a racist NO, I'm NOT Chinese AT ALL) (p.s HI AMY!)
There are some pretty cool people though, I think the biggest obstacle is my humor, like either you get it, or you really don't. Luckily enough people are getting it for the moment for me to be happy. Sometimes you can go down a joke path however,r only to spend roughly fifteen mins explaining the joke and translations words, all of which contributes to a removal of the humour...
The store
More commonly known as the supermarket. My last section on how complexed I am by supermarkets. Essentially whenever I am under stress or have a spare afternoon in the UK, I will generally be in the supermarket. On the day I saw the cyclist get hit I pretty much ran at 'Whole foods' (like Waitrose, but not quite as classy). The other day I went into our local store 'Ralphs' to buy cereal, bread, beans and Orange Juice. The orange juice only came in a gallon size. The only smaller ones were organic and cost about $10, same for the milk. Ok, so before I have even begun I have two very large weights to carry back to the accommodation (its a looong way, and includes a hill. Everything in LA is much further apart, hence the necessity of an automobile). Cereal was more difficult in the sense that I was really after Weetabix, which they don't do here. Due to ethical reasons I won't buy Nestle, already reducing my available cereal by 50%. My next specification was that I didn't want my cereal jammed with sugar, its shocking how nearly everything was 'frosted' or came with marshmallows and/or honey and/or 'cookie pieces' and/or chocolate and/or 'dried/sweetened/coloUred fruit pieces'. Next I didn't want to buy a very expensive, very small, very organic amount amount of museli. Net result Shredded Wheat. Not happy. Baked beans were similarly difficult, I think that America may very well be the only nation in the world that actively promotes the fact that its tinned produce has EXTRA sugar in its products. Added to the fact that I couldn't find anything in the store, it was a fairly stressful experience.... The cheese situations not too bad however, they import Cheddar from Ireland (as a pose to Canada apparently)
So that's me, if you have read this far, well done, I know I wouldn't have done! Later updates will be a) more frequent and b)shorter I promise.
If you have e-mailed me (Ozzie and Scott) or nudged me on facebook then I promise ill make contact really realy soon, but not now, I need bed.
Right now to spellcheck this entry....
David
Hi
I knew this time would come, its time for the almighty update of what I have really been up to this past month. Frone who is reading this, I know there are a fair few either on blogger or facebook, it honestly means a lot :D
I think its also important to note that I'm getting fairly tired writing this, hence I'm going to try and keep coherent, short and also to bullet points (to a degree) Oh look, a title in bold...
Introduction
Ok, so I have apparently had the busiest month of my life ever. I don't think even Ecuador was this hetic. I have essentially been given the task of doing EVERYTHING one would be required to do in a regular month, only with everything starting from scratch.
Point of example - Move into new accommodation, only there is no food, no bedding and no television, so on first night in accommodation attempt to find somewhere that will sell bed linens and food at a reasonable price, and try to get it back to said accommodation, all whilst on the other side of the world where people fail to understand your accent, or the fact that you require bedding in the form of a duvet (apparently they don't do duvets over here, only sheets. Duvets reserved for hotels. Great.) Overall therefore quite overwhelming, interesting, fun, yet also very tiring!
My first week in the states I stayed at a hostel. It was pretty good, however its fair to say you get what you pay for. As I was on eleven (pounds) a night, it worked out cool. The people at said hostel were there for a big party however, which is cool, but not what I was doing at that time.
Instead everyday I was hauling myself half way across Los Angeles to go to an International Orientation Program.
As already said, the hostel was pretty cool, however it was about 8 miles away from UCLA, which leads me onto
The abysmal public transportation of LA, and my abysmal sense of direction
The first week in the country was generally thus; get up at 7am, wonder onto the street in the hope of catching a bus,, get onto said bus. Sit on bus until you think your roughly in the right area. Get off bus, realize your still a looong way from where you want to be, and then walk. Now, if I were in the UK, eventually after walking I would get to somewhere, and be able to work out where I wanted to go. Not so in LA. On several occasions I walked about 2-3 miles, before realizing I had made a mistake. I would then wait at a bus stop, not entirely sure of which number of bus I wanted, or where it was going to, and hope for the best. LA is a HUGE city. Net result one very lost David. (As a sidenote, it would appear only those who are too young or really are so poor they cannot afford a car use public transport. Using buses late at night when all children are gone meant It was only me, the homeless, and Mexicans) When I did walk large distances late at night there were absolutley no people on the sidewalks, apart from the odd homeless person. I was quite un-nerved at points, however I reasoned that only a fool would wait on the sidewalks to mug people as they would be waiting for roughly 4 hours, and only then be able to mug a very poor person. There is a reason LA prefers drive by shootings me thinks...
Calling 911
So, on my very first day I was lost for about 4-5 hours in the evening. After walking into my fifteenth Starbucks of the night to ask directions I wondered out onto the street to try and find my way, only to hear an almighty crash, and to see glass everywhere across the road. Turned out that a cyclist had just been ploughed into by a car. The driver had sped off and the cyclist was lying on the road, blood coming from his head. Someone shouted to call 911. No one did so, so I decided I probably should. What happened next was a little bizarre. I have never rung emergency services before, but what happened was I was in a queue for an advisor, I then spoke to a woman, told her where the incident had happened... And then she put me on hold!! An emergency and I was on hold, not best pleased. She then said that she was sending the firemen and the police (he needed an ambulance quite clearly, but apparently without insurance details they would probaly have just left him there), and then, even more oddly said 'ok, now thankyou so much for your call today' as if I had just orderd a burger... All a little wierd...
My apartement and roomates
On the Saturday, 6 days after being in the country, I moved into my accommodation. It is amazing and huge. Images are posted on the link listed on the blog.
Housemates, and crucially roommate are cool. I'm sharing with a guy called Diego, as in San Diego. He is, as the name would suggest, from Mexico. He is doing film and stuff, and has never shared a room before. I was pretty pleased with the fact that A) He watches lost and downloads it and B)Almost had a seizure when I went near the wireless router because he was concerned he wouldn't have internet. He does however have an iBook, although I won't lie when I say that I have been mighty tempted...
Other guys across the living room in the other bedroom are Francis and Adrian. Both are from California. Both are in their 3rd years, having studied at colleges for the past two years. Francis served in Iraq as part of the navy, and Adrian plays scrabble. Reguarly.
We have a dishwasher, a rubbish chute, and an excellent laundry room! Anyone who knows me will know how much I hate laundry, but even I have sort of enjoyed the whole process..
Classes
...Are going ok, however professors don't always like it when you disagree with them I find. Not a good move therefore to say how awful I found Malcolm X's autobiography when the professor claimed to have a personal love of the book. I could tell I was doomed when, after my comment she used the immortal phrase 'not to mean any disrespect to anyone in the room BUT that's not the sort of feedback I'm after'. Oops. I'm taking a couple of African American classes, and its cool to be able to hear people say my parents were part of a civil rights movement, or in some cases I was part of the movement, all quite cool. There are it would appear quite a lot of bitter African Americans in the country as well. Sometimes one or two of them irritate me however. Take this discussion for example;
(African American girl) 'Of course there are a lot of African American drug dealers, and a lot of white peadophiles'
Quite an outrageous statement at the best of times I feel, especially as the buzz word 'peadophile' was mentioned, but what happens later annoys me even more...
(African American girl 2) 'Just to come back to an earlier statement, I don't think its entirely fair to suggest that there are 'a lot' of African American drug dealers, or to generalize in that way'
WHAT ABOUT THE WHITE PEADOPHILE BIT? AND IF WERE GOING DOWN THAT PATH, SHALL WE BRING UP OPRAH'S CHILD PREDATOR WATCHLIST???
By contrast, one of my classes on the dectective novel is going ok, apart form the fact someone described the Yorkshire moores as 'on the outskirts of London', but these are minor issues. Oh and there is a girl with annoying glasses who acts like a nodding dog at everything the lecturer says....
The guy from Milton Keynes
Since arriving in the states I have desperately been trying to find someone from Milton Keynes. Every American who I have spoken to so far says how they love England, may have been to London, Stonehenge etc, yet not my beloved Milton Keynes. Sort of sucks, especially as I find it amusing that Milton Keynes was apparently '[designed on the grid system of LA', despite being absolutley nothing like LA, its very difficult to explain also that the fact everyone dislikes Milton Keynes makes me like it even more, and so a large amount of explanation is necessary for this also...
Anyway to cut a very long story short on Sunday I finally met someone who moved to LA at the age of 13, from, (you probably guessed it by now) from Milton Keynes. I almost collapsed. He was, for those of you in the know, from Neath Hill, he did not however know St Monica's.
socializing
All I have done over the past 3.5 weeks is TALK. Usually this would be a good thing, but there is a lot of talk, and it never stops! Usually I would have a good 11 hours to myself a day in my bedroom, however having been in a hostel and shared room this has not happened. Its all good though, and I'm starting to make friends, beyond the thick veil of small talk I am now reaching substance. I have had moments of struggle however as there seem to be two to three distinct things that have been said to me in recent weeks;
1) 'I love your accent, where is it from?'
(or, the common 1A..., 'oh, so your from Australia')
2) 'Oh England! I have family there/have been to London/ would love to go there/ study English (delete as appropriate)
3) 'Oh you say words so oddly, like you spell colour with a U,/pronounce herbs with a H/say queue when your in a line/say flat not apartment/say motorway when you mean freeway' etc, etc, etc, etc, etc
4) Go on, say something else, anything!
and my personal favourite of the week
5) 'Your surnames link, what is that Asian/I thought you were Asian/ where is the name from?'
(Such was the degree of my irritation last week that I said in a way that made me resemble a racist NO, I'm NOT Chinese AT ALL) (p.s HI AMY!)
There are some pretty cool people though, I think the biggest obstacle is my humor, like either you get it, or you really don't. Luckily enough people are getting it for the moment for me to be happy. Sometimes you can go down a joke path however,r only to spend roughly fifteen mins explaining the joke and translations words, all of which contributes to a removal of the humour...
The store
More commonly known as the supermarket. My last section on how complexed I am by supermarkets. Essentially whenever I am under stress or have a spare afternoon in the UK, I will generally be in the supermarket. On the day I saw the cyclist get hit I pretty much ran at 'Whole foods' (like Waitrose, but not quite as classy). The other day I went into our local store 'Ralphs' to buy cereal, bread, beans and Orange Juice. The orange juice only came in a gallon size. The only smaller ones were organic and cost about $10, same for the milk. Ok, so before I have even begun I have two very large weights to carry back to the accommodation (its a looong way, and includes a hill. Everything in LA is much further apart, hence the necessity of an automobile). Cereal was more difficult in the sense that I was really after Weetabix, which they don't do here. Due to ethical reasons I won't buy Nestle, already reducing my available cereal by 50%. My next specification was that I didn't want my cereal jammed with sugar, its shocking how nearly everything was 'frosted' or came with marshmallows and/or honey and/or 'cookie pieces' and/or chocolate and/or 'dried/sweetened/coloUred fruit pieces'. Next I didn't want to buy a very expensive, very small, very organic amount amount of museli. Net result Shredded Wheat. Not happy. Baked beans were similarly difficult, I think that America may very well be the only nation in the world that actively promotes the fact that its tinned produce has EXTRA sugar in its products. Added to the fact that I couldn't find anything in the store, it was a fairly stressful experience.... The cheese situations not too bad however, they import Cheddar from Ireland (as a pose to Canada apparently)
So that's me, if you have read this far, well done, I know I wouldn't have done! Later updates will be a) more frequent and b)shorter I promise.
If you have e-mailed me (Ozzie and Scott) or nudged me on facebook then I promise ill make contact really realy soon, but not now, I need bed.
Right now to spellcheck this entry....
David
posted by David @ 11:33 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:39 PM ,
David said...
I asked people where I was, and people eventually responded.. As to Malcolm X, I think my exact comment was 'I don't like it' (in a non Little Britain type voice that is)
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