The upgrade in living situation has done wonders for my mood. I lived in a big complex last year where drunk college students would puke in the hallways and punch in walls. Cut to our new place, last week: a woman knocks on our door to ask us not to feed a stray cat. What a difference. Alex thinks the apartment looks like the sort of place that ( Read more... )

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I returned from El Salvador on Sunday with about 20 bug bites all over my body. Including 3 on my posterior end. Ouch! How those critters manage to pierce through denim is beyond me. Saw tons of relatives that I hadn't seen in about ten years. It is really nice witnessing some sort of family unity, seeing as the concept is completely alien to both ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago, a classmate that I befriended during the Urban Planning 120 fiasco sent me a Facebook message. "Indeed, Urban Planning is a step up from my cutting in high school."

That pretty much summed up the experience. Most of you heard/read my many a rant on how the class had really great material, but had the workload of a graduate ( Read more... )

I'll be living south of Wilshire in a large apartment with Cristina and two UCLA grads. It's near the park on Veteran where I spent much of my time during the summer of 2005 writing and smoking cigarettes. I don't do the former as much as I should and have sworn off of the latter. I didn't fail a class this quarter so I'm pretty much set. I can ( Read more... )

Per Alex and Josh's insistence, I purchased a Smiths t-shirt yesterday.  I can really, truly call myself an Angeleno now!

Now I only need to muster the courage to wear it in East Los Angeles.

So the trip to El Salvador is set. I leave on the 18th of August and will be back in September. I am nervous and excited. Bug repellent must be purchased. I also intend to spend some time in bookstores in San Salvador, schooling myself on Central American authors, literary movements, and philosophy, oh my. Expect me to return with bug bites, exotic ( Read more... )

Forgot my headphones today, so this is the price I must pay.

I saw James Marsden and John Travolta yesterday. The Hairspray premiere was going on next to the Starbucks where I was so diligently getting my math homework done. James was nice and took pictures with the starstruck patrons who bum rushed the barricade that separated the coffee shop ( Read more... )

I'm spending a good bulk of the summer in Westwood taking classes I'm determined to ace because I paid the class fees myself. $$$

I'm trying to chalk it up to a lesson in real-life economics. But I'm a worrywart . And it's hard to stay confident in the face of a diminishing savings account. But I can do it, I hope.

On the plus side, I finally ( Read more... )