that line has been mentioned, mixed, and sampled in many rap songs.
it's really starting to hit me that i only have 7 more weeks here in LA. i'm used to the temporarily lifestyle whereby each year i live in a different residential hall, and every summer i live in a different city for 12 weeks. i've sampled many cities over the last 6 years, and it's just now hitting me that once i move to work full-time, that it's not so easy to just sample a new city. oh crap. heh.
it seems i haven't really done much in LA. i dunno. i guess, realistically, considering my personality and all, i did about as good as i should have expected. i still feel like a visitor in LA. i still feel like a guest. however, i guess i have at least done many of the touristy things: i've seen many beaches, spent a lot of time on 3rd street promenade, did the hollywood stuff (sign, walk of fame, grumann theatre), been to a few comedy clubs, getty museum, and have eaten at a few good places. i've definitely had many many fun times with brian and old friends who have flown to see me. so, now that i think about it, i guess i haven't lived as homely a life as i once though. i've done a good bit in my 1.7 yrs here.
i guess before i came to cali, i envisioned having a huge network of friends and being part of campus, just like things were in florida. i think the mere fact that i'm a grad student really makes that nearly impossible. it's as if each of us 12,000 grad students is just injected within a pool of 28,000 already-connected undergrads. we are outsiders, 50% international, and are being mixed with a social network that is 90% californians--they knew people from high school even! grad students' role on campus is to live within our labs, not to be involved in numerous campus organizations and events. oh, and the fact that i live 5 miles from campus only makes it more difficult.
nevertheless, i still wanted to have built up a personal critique of many LA shops and eateries. my excuses for having not frequented more of these are that (1) i'd have to go alone... which i definitely don't mind doing, but how many restaurants can one really care to eat at alone; (2) money. i've always been saving so that i can immediately pay off my 80k in loans; (3) traffic is horrible
okay, enough w/ the excuses. during my remaining 7 weeks, i'm gonna try to really experience LA while still doing enough work to finish my master's project. oh, and once i graduate, i'm gonna stay for 1 week just to explore here.
this week:
it's really starting to hit me that i only have 7 more weeks here in LA. i'm used to the temporarily lifestyle whereby each year i live in a different residential hall, and every summer i live in a different city for 12 weeks. i've sampled many cities over the last 6 years, and it's just now hitting me that once i move to work full-time, that it's not so easy to just sample a new city. oh crap. heh.
it seems i haven't really done much in LA. i dunno. i guess, realistically, considering my personality and all, i did about as good as i should have expected. i still feel like a visitor in LA. i still feel like a guest. however, i guess i have at least done many of the touristy things: i've seen many beaches, spent a lot of time on 3rd street promenade, did the hollywood stuff (sign, walk of fame, grumann theatre), been to a few comedy clubs, getty museum, and have eaten at a few good places. i've definitely had many many fun times with brian and old friends who have flown to see me. so, now that i think about it, i guess i haven't lived as homely a life as i once though. i've done a good bit in my 1.7 yrs here.
i guess before i came to cali, i envisioned having a huge network of friends and being part of campus, just like things were in florida. i think the mere fact that i'm a grad student really makes that nearly impossible. it's as if each of us 12,000 grad students is just injected within a pool of 28,000 already-connected undergrads. we are outsiders, 50% international, and are being mixed with a social network that is 90% californians--they knew people from high school even! grad students' role on campus is to live within our labs, not to be involved in numerous campus organizations and events. oh, and the fact that i live 5 miles from campus only makes it more difficult.
nevertheless, i still wanted to have built up a personal critique of many LA shops and eateries. my excuses for having not frequented more of these are that (1) i'd have to go alone... which i definitely don't mind doing, but how many restaurants can one really care to eat at alone; (2) money. i've always been saving so that i can immediately pay off my 80k in loans; (3) traffic is horrible
okay, enough w/ the excuses. during my remaining 7 weeks, i'm gonna try to really experience LA while still doing enough work to finish my master's project. oh, and once i graduate, i'm gonna stay for 1 week just to explore here.
this week:
- tues = see examined life, a ucla-produced film
- wed = campus crusades christ at ucla
- thurs = ucla men's bball game against berkeley
- fri = art exhibit at ucla
it's unbelievable how many events take place on-campus each day. as a sample of the registered events, here are friday's events.
do the poll to the right, and i'll leave you with some never-seen-before videos from when i was leaving mit/boston:
do the poll to the right, and i'll leave you with some never-seen-before videos from when i was leaving mit/boston:
thanks for writing this :-)
ReplyDelete