Over the Rainbow: May 2006

A Sign in Mexico (I retrieved my pictures!)

I'm Baaaaaaack!

I'm back in the States! And I want to write all about everything, but I can't even figure out where to begin. Let's see..... Overall, the vacation was absolutely blissful. Well, not absolutely. But generally. ;)

LA was really neat, as I said in my previous entries.... At one point we drove through Hollywood, which was really cool, though I felt like some sort of hick tourist sitting in the back of Georgia's car and staring at the bright lights. You'd think I'd never been in a city before, or something.... But it was neat, and it was a lot of fun to see it with people who actually are used to it, and not be a total tourist. The highlight of the LA portion of the trip was the Regina Spektor concert--she was amazing in person, even more amazing than hearing her recordings. And speaking of LA, I had a lovely time with Georgia (Alex's best friend from home). I really like her! And hopefully I made a good impression, as well. Staying in her dorm was fun, too, it's always interesting to see a different school. And speaking of schools, we went to see Alex's high school as well, which was really interesting.... My high school was about the same size people-wise as Bryn Mawr, and was just one big building that was pretty plain and institutional, though the inside was nice and had murals and stuff. But Alex's school has a bazillion students and many buildings, and seemed really huge to me. And it had a little garden, and a whole campus.... It was so strange. I always am sort of confused by the different experiences of people I know, before I knew them. Like, the places they grew up with, and stuff. And I'm rambling. But that's the interesting bit about LA. I think I'm tired of writing now, but I'll write more about the whole trip tomorrow.

Short and Sweet

Hello! It's my birthday! I'm 24! Alex is making me a delicious-smelling breakfast! We're in her dad's really cool apartment in LA, sleeping in. Impressions of California so far:

-Palm trees! Weird. In fact, all of the foliage is different. It's shocking how disorienting that can be. It really doesn't look anything like PA.
-On that note, the architecture is also different. It's all very western-seeming to me, which makes perfect sense. Also very Mexican-looking. Again, makes sense. It's funny how I use regions of the world I've never seen to describe this, but you know.
-Mountains! There are mountains everywhere! It's beautiful.
-Smog. Enough said.

Alex just said my breakfast is ready...more insights later!

On My Way

Well, tomorrow morning I'll be on my way! Just wanted to have one last post before I head off for two weeks of sun, fun, Alex, and spotty internet service. Watch the mail for postcards, and I'll be thinking of you all when I'm sunning myself in Ajijic!