SP 13: The Other Side of LA - Pt 2

Moving onto the second part!

After an exhausting day the day before, Elda and I woke up groggily quite early in the morning. Okay, 7.30 am. Half an hour later than planned, but we were so darn tired. We still had plenty of places to go to. Apparently, we spent quite some time talking in front of the bathroom door for a couple of minutes. In the end, we took off from my apartment at around 10. Before heading to our first destination of the day, Warner Bros Entertainment, we dropped by at McD to get our breakfast. I had an egg muffin and so did Elda. I also needed to go to an auto service to get my car briefly checked, since the day before, the Maintenance Required light just flashed. Actually it wasn't as critical as I thought, but I was just afraid my car would break down in the middle of freeway. After a quick check, the staff told me nothing was critical.

Okay, let's head straight to the first destination of the day, Warner Bros Entertainment! When you think of a studio tour, you might think of Universal Studios, but this time, it's different. Warner Bros might not have a fancy theme park full of special effects. But the tour would be longer and more detailed as we would get to walk through some props and sets!

SP 13: The Other Side of LA - Pt 1

This part of spring break happened on the brink of Summer term, exactly three last days of the break and a week after Universal Studios visit with Eunyoung

I might have mentioned this but Elda and I originally planned on going on Chicago, but then something happened and I wasn't able to go to Chicago anymore. In solution to that, Elda decided to come to LA to pay me a visit.

Elda would be coming on May 10, 2013 at noon. I was ready to pick her up after my spring break work, but then the managing director of Graphic Design department requested that I attend the departmental orientation to share some tips for the new students. And that happened at noon. I only came in the beginning before leaving to LAX to pick Elda up at around 12.30 pm.

For your information, that was actually the first legit day of me driving on freeways on my own. I don't usually have enough balls to take freeways and as an alternative for that, I always take local routes, which sometimes can be a solution to the jam in freeway, but it commonly takes more time than freeways. Or sometimes, I drive in freeways with a companion.

MLK day

Long weekend is always everyone's favorite. It's simply the perfect time to loosen up a bit from your work aka procrastinating. I just finished Type 2 homework, but I think I need to put some more effort to  it since I did it a little too fast. Homework starts coming and I'm currently and slowly gathering my determination to work on them.

Anyway, tomorrow, we have a day off. It's Martin Luther King Day. I'm glad we finally have a day off despite the fact that it's going to be the only holiday of the semester, and that we just kicked off the semester last week... at least for my school. Probably other universities and schools will have more holidays later in the semester. I was surprised that the semester kicked off really well. Well, I was sick - completely bedridden for three days - last week when I just got here from Indonesia, but the week after was surprisingly amazing. I hung out two days consecutively.

From L A with ♥ pt. 7: Cross Culture

Unlike the previous titles, I kind of like how I entitle this post. Cross Culture refers to three different places that have three different yet strong vibes: Indonesian, Hollywood, and Korean.

This post is image heavy. Just want to let you know.

Previously: To go there, we didn't have to take the bus in Wilshire Boulevard when we first got off. Apparently there was a bus stop that would lead us to Simpang Asia. What the heck, the post's getting longer! It was still a long day, but I'll cut off here so you won't hurt your eyes reading such a loooong text.

Still on the same day, as you may tell.

From Westwood Boulevard just slightly several feet from UCLA entrance, we waited for bus #12 that would take us all the way to National Boulevard, where Simpang Asia was. Apparently, bus #12 happened to be the rarest bus to ever stop at the bus stop. So our patience was really tested, especially we were so damn hungry at that time. I kept motivating myself by thinking of Cah Kangkung, Nasi Campur, Lodeh, and all of my favorite Indonesian food that I love and I hope would be available in the restaurant.

Finally, after ages of waiting, the bus that we'd been waiting for came. It took quite a while to go to Simpang Asia. I barely remembered whether we needed to switch a bus or not, but as far as I remember, it was only a one-bus ride. Good for us.

The restaurant turned out to be not really big as I thought it would be, but it has a nice family-friendly atmosphere that brought comfort to us. Even more surprising, the waiter and the waitress in duty turned out to be Indonesians! So yeah, the waiter brought us the menu and we spent like more than 30 minutes to decide which food to order. I'm sure he was already getting used to this sight – a group of Indonesian college students trying to make up their minds on what food to order.

No wonder, cos the restaurant was said to have the completest menu among all Indonesian restaurants in – probably – Calif, especially the fact is, we actually lived very far from this restaurant. So, once in a blue moon, no?

We finally made up my mind. Aymee came up with Nasi Uduk and Sayur Nangka, I came up with Nasi Warteg and Sayur Lodeh for breakfast, and Elda came up with Nasi Uduk with Sayur Kangkung, Tahu+Tempe, and siomay for breakfast too. I know, we sound like we've never eaten these stuff for ages, ay?

Tahu and Tempe (Fried tofu and fermented soybean cake)

Cah Kangkung (some sort of fried spinach with chili spicing)

Nasi Warteg
(mixed rice with chopped boiled egg, beef, pineapple dipped into coconut milk soup, cucumber, chicken, fried peanut - okay enough the writer's drooling)

After we finished our lunch, we paid and visited the grocery store which was located right next to the restaurant. Since the grocery store shared the same name with the restaurant, we were convinced that it would sell Indonesian groceries and products.
And here's where the euphoria began... (background music: Survival – Daylight OST to add more dramatization)

Aymee: “They have Taro!!!!” (Indonesian chips similar to Cheetos)

Elda: “Omygosh there's KOPIKO!!” (coffee candies)

Aymee: “Teh BOTOL!!!!” (a famed tea product in Indonesia)

Me: “Kacang Pilus Garudaaaaa!!!!” (Coated peanut balls)

Aymee: “Pop mie!!!” (cup noodles)

Elda: “Minyak kayu putiiihhh!!!!” (Cajuput oil)

Me: “Marie Regal Biscuit!!!” (milk biscuit)

Aymee: “Guys, I found something that's even much better....*drumroll* BENG BENG!!!” (crunchy caramel chocolate bar)

Yeah it was THIS hilarious. 98% of the whole products displayed in the store is Indonesian products, so you can imagine what it's like reconciling with the products we had longed to consume since our departure to the US.

The mentioned products above are all imported from Indonesia, and are impossible to find here. It's weird how back in Indonesia, I wasn't really a fan of any of the products mentioned above. But after not tasting it for more than half a year, I kind of missed consuming the products, which leads me - and not just me but also Elda and Aymee - to go ecstatic over the products we found.

That's why, back in Indonesia, there's this famous slogan of "Consume local products" yet Indonesian people simply just ignore those words and go on consuming imported ones. Here, Indonesian people feel everything in reverse. We long for Indonesian products, no matter how we hardly consumed it back in Indonesia.

Elda and Aymee even bought each box of Beng beng. One box could even contain up to twenty Beng beng. I don't understand why Beng Beng is actually THAT famous. Everyone likes it for sure, and even I like it, even better, it's actually addictive. So if you spot an Indonesian and you expose him with a package of Beng Beng, he won't hesitate to devour it.

We spazzed over these Indonesian products like they were some hot boys. But after exploring the store aisles through aisles, we ended up carrying these products we really wanted to buy. Oh by the way, even the store's employees are Indonesians! Wow, I started to doubt whether the bus was taking us straight to Jakarta or another corner of LA.

I didn't buy much stuff, considering how small my suitcase is. Too bad. Elda and Aymee really got a lot of stuff and it was good for them. I'm really sure they had plenty of space to place their items.

The items I finally ended up buying
(Coated peanut, cup noodle, tea box, a box of black tea sachets - ALL ARE INDONESIAN PRODUCTS)

Elda and Aymee, especially, had to sort their items which to buy and which not. After a while, they finally made up their mind and went to the cashier counter to pay.

Aymee still deciding on what to buy

Finally, with our shopping bags on both of our hands, we were ready for the next and third destination. Actually the destination itself was quite unplanned. It was already 4 pm when we left Simpang Asia and headed towards the next destination, which was...no other than...Hollywood Boulevard! At first, I had a feeling that we couldn't make it to Hollywood on time, because we would be having dinner in Koreatown.

But it was just 4 pm and the sun was still high up. I was worried if we went to Koreatown that early, we would spend hours till dinner time wandering around. Cos I was convinced that Koreatown didn't have much shopping places to explore, despite the fact that everything there was all Korean.

I felt confident about going to Hollywood Boulevard. Besides, we weren't going to spend much time there. All we did was just strolling around and taking pictures, maybe followed with a bit of shopping. Though the distance from Simpang Asia was relatively short, we needed to switch buses midway.

I decided to lead the way, despite my poor ability in navigation. Aymee, Elda, and I just relied ourselves on my Google map, cos Elda's wasn't working.

There was a funny event along the way. When I was busy trying to locate the bus stop and talking to both Elda and Aymee, Elda suddenly went “Structural and Civil Engineering!!!!!” using the tone of someone shouting “Look out there's a snake!!!”
I instinctively jumped in panic. I believe Aymee also did the same. In a second, I thought there was something really shocking, but in the end Elda was just pointing at a small board with 'Structural and Civil Engineering' text on it. Oh I get it Elda. I know you want to be an engineer that bad, but as a result my heartbeat stopped for several split milliseconds. lol :)

After two bus rides, we made it to Hollywood Boulevard. It was packed with people, although we realized it wasn't high season, unless for some people who were having spring break just like us.

Unfortunately my camera's battery drained once we got there, so Elda's camera took place.

Apparently the day before our visit, English actress Helen Mirren came to Grauman's Chinese Theatre to immortalize her footprint, handprint, and handwriting of her name on the block of cement.

Helen Mirren's footprint and handprint are still wet that they still need to be fenced.

At first Aymee was like “Why do we go this place anyway?” cos I pretty much believe that she's not an avid fan of movies. But her mode suddenly changed drastically as she spotted Arnold Schwarzenegger's handprint in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Here are some more pictures taken in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

It was actually the second time for me to visit Hollywood Boulevard after the previous visit which was on February 2009 with my family. At that time, Kodak Theatre was fully concealed due to the upcoming Academy Award the next day. I couldn't catch the full glimpse of the theatre, but at that moment, I was lucky enough to spot the famous giant Oscar statue in the red carpet.

But now, the Oscar's season has passed and I got to catch the full glimpse of Kodak Theatre building!!!!

During the Oscar, this entrance will be draped in red carpet and at the corner will stood a giant Oscar statue

We even took some pictures with two cosplayers posing as Zorros.

Last but not least, the other major attraction of this area is not other than the walk of fame itself. We walked along the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard only to take pictures with our favorite actors, musicians, singers, and directors. There are actually lots of picture we take here from Elda's camera, but of course I wouldn't upload all of them here.

After all this time, I always thought Madame Tussauds wax museum is only one, and that's in New York City. But I came to realize that there are actually several of them spread around the world. Hollywood included of course, since it's the capital of film industry and entertainment. Too bad we weren't able to get in due to limited time and high admission fee.

She looks very real!!

I wonder if the real Nicolas Cage is THIS tall.

I also bought myself a white tank top with famous I ♥ LA on it. The price is quite reasonable so I'm satisfied. Sorry, no picture. Too lazy to take a picture and upload it to the computer :p

Here are some more views from the famed Hollywood boulevard

In front of the Hollywood/Highland station

Hollywood Boulevard before we left for Koreatown

A rare sighting of a fancy white limo!

After spending approximately an hour in Hollywood Boulevard, we took off to the last destination: Koreatown!!!! Good thing it wouldn't take us while to go to Koreatown from where we were at that moment. Hollywood Highland Metro station was located a few feet from Kodak Theatre!

Once we got there, the sun already set, and all that we needed to do was just looking for a Korean Barbecue house for dinner. There were actually a lot of them, like spread all over the place. But we wanted to find a decent one. Too bad, the format of Koreatown wasn't like Little Tokyo. The place was merely a normal neighborhood with only everything was in Hangeul. I wish there was a good place to shop for Korean stuff, but apparently, I found none.

I tried to use my limited ability in reading Hangeul, to make sure which is a barbecue house and which is not. We almost entered a place we believed was a restaurant but apparently it was a karaoke place. The sky was getting darker so we decided to just enter the first restaurant we spotted. Finally, we found a decent Korean barbecue house: Chil Bo Myun Ok.

We were very surprised to see that it was actually a fancy restaurant! At least the price is still reasonable, according to Yelp. In fact, I felt like the three of us were the only non-Koreans and the youngest people to have dining there. The others were of course, Koreans or at least Korean speaking people, and mostly are adults who were having dinner with their colleagues.

Since it was our last night in LA, we decided to eat something really special. Honestly, the three of us were a bit clueless when it comes to Korean cuisine. No matter how often I watch Korean reality shows and dramas, still they didn't really help.

We finally asked a waitress – an ahjumma – to recommend us what course we should order. She pointed out the restaurant's bulgogi specialty and we decided to go with that.

The ahjumma even served us with free Korean egg soup or Gyeran-tang (계란탕) and dolsot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥). She also divided the huge portion of Bibimbap to three of us. She's really nice!!! I really wanted to say something in Korean, but the only thing I could say is just “Dolsot.” which literally means “stone pot”.

The bulgogi was absolutely goooooodddd!!!!

It was already late and it was time for us to go home. We were a bit confused to locate the nearest Metro station. When we were lost in an intersection, we bumped into a stranger. Elda collected her guts to ask the stranger where the station is, to which the stranger replied. “It's right across the intersection behind you.” (yup, our backs were facing the intersection so we didn't really pay attention what across the intersection was). It was a bit silly I know ^^".

The train that was about to take off once we got to the station was apparently the last train. Good thing we caught it on time, otherwise we needed to wait for...I don't know, tomorrow morning? I guess?

Eventually, we spent the rest of the night packing and tried to reassembled all the items we bought in LA and the clothes as well. Phiew, what a night.

<< Part 6 • • Part 8 >>

From L A with ♥ pt. 6: U C Lots of Attraction

Title = FAIL XD

Previously: That's not the end of the story. Elda and I woke Aymee up when the clock struck 12. Yep, it's Aymee's Birthday!!!!! Aymee was already asleep but Elda and I managed to be awake, and when it was time, we surrounded Aymee and sang Happy Birthday! XD
It's gonna be a looooong day tomorrow!!!!

DAY 4: MARCH 29, 2011 (Aymee's Birthday!)

Sorry took me forever to finally make another post.
Well, I shouldn't have excused myself cos reality's taking over me these days. School hasn't been so busy yet, but I mean, it's just the second week, so I don't know what's going to come up next.

Anyway, let's move onto the next topic before these memories of my spring break in LA fades away. Getting on the third fourth day, which was the second last day before our departure back to Cupertino, we had a lot of plans and places to go to. Again, we got up really early that day and took off to Little Tokyo metro station.

Before going straight to the station, we dropped by at a bakery in Japanese Village plaza. Since it was very early in the morning, most of the shops were still closed, with only a few were opened. I bought myself a curry pan (=bread) for breakfast, which was recommended by the lady behind the counter. Aymee also got herself the same thing.

Nom nom!
Must try for curry fans :p

Since such a bread with that flavor was brand new to my tongue, I kind of doubted how it would taste like. Aymee was getting used to tasting new stuff so I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have much doubt, but as for my case, it was different.

So anyway, we munched on our curry pans (I forgot what Elda got) and took off straight to the Little Tokyo Metro station. In case you don't know where exactly we were going, our first destination would be the highly-acknowledged university in LA aka University of California, Los Angeles (read=UCLA). Turns out the curry pan was so damn good! Due to my extreme hunger that morning, I quickly devoured that pan in less than a minute, while walking to the station.

This time, we were to take the Metro rail to Union Station and switch it to the purple line rail, with Wilshire/Western (Koreatown) as its final stop. Speaking of Koreatown, that was one of the destinations we aimed to go, but I'm going to talk about that later.

Once we got off in Wilshire/Western, I caught a glimpse of Koreatown intersection. Seriously, everything there was all in Korean characters! I felt like the train was taking me straight to Seoul instead to another corner of LA. Oh, mind my blabbering. We were to take a bus that took us down the Wilshire Boulevard all the way to Westwood.

It was a loooooong bus ride. Good thing we didn't have to switch buses cos it would take us longer to get to UCLA. But it was such a pain in the butt since the bus was packed with people so Aymee, Elda, and I had to stand throughout the ride. Anyway, we passed some LA famous sites such as Beverly Hills, La Brea Tar Pits, and the filming location of No Strings Attached.

Despite the long ride (as we saw on our Google map apps), it didn't feel like ages. Soon we arrived at Westwood and got off at an intersection. One of the roads in the intersection led all the way to UCLA. So we only needed to follow the path down the road (Westwood Boulevard) all the way to the campus grounds.

I liked how the campus was situated. For someone who enjoyed living in the crowd, I definitely admired UCLA's surroundings. Down the path that led to the main campus area, stood lines of shops, restaurants, and even malls (Westwood Plaza). I became even more ecstatic to transfer to this UC, even though the chances might be a bit futile.

UCLA was located right at the end of the road. The first thing we were about to find is, again, the admission office, cos basically that's where it all starts: registration, new student information, and even the tour we planned to join as well.

The main campus ground was packed of people, which reminds me pretty much of my own college campus in its weekdays. I wonder why people weren't having spring break just like us, most likely because their academic system was slightly different than ours. Unfortunately, the tour had taken off. We knew we were late, so we took our own moment to explore the campus even deeper.

Three of us stumbled upon a library building. We were quite convinced it was the library where the famed yet controversial Alexandra Wallace complained upon the noisy Asian students talking on their phones. The issue was still recent. If you don't know the case, basically, there's this UCLA girl who posted a video on Youtube. She blabbered that she was annoyed for hearing Asian students talking on their phones in the library, while she was having an epiphany in the middle of studying Political Science for final exam.

The building where it happened aka the Crime Scene

Thus, Aymee hilariously called this library as “the crime scene”.

The next destination within the campus is, Art Department building. On our way, we stumbled upon several groups of campus tour. At first, we were considering to join, but in the end, for some reason (maybe because it would take up more than two hours, considering how enormous the campus complex is), we decided to just walk on our own.

Nothing much found in Art Department building, cos it turns out to be a building full of classes and some sculptures that I forgot to take pictures. Lame. There was no place even to ask for information. So we decided to take some more pictures.

The clock struck 12, and we realized there was still plenty of place to go to. So we decided to go back all the way to the main entrance of UCLA campus. Apparently the UCLA main entrance was waaaay faaaarr from where we were at that moment (Art Department Building). The building itself was located close to the back entrance which was Sunset Boulevard.

Actually there were lots of interesting object for photography around UCLA grounds, but please excuse my low camera battery (damn, I forgot to charge it the day before. I had no idea we would go to so many places that day), I decided to save it for later.

We walked our way back to the main entrance, but before that, the three of us spent some quality time in the UCLA shop. I got myself a blue UCLA shirt.

And Elda bought a book that's strongly related to her major, which is “Super Structure”. Wow, way to go. XD

Later on, we walked down Westwood Boulevard out of the campus area. Next up, we were going to have lunch in Simpang Asia. In case you don't know what it is, it's an Indonesian restaurant located somewhere between UCLA and Koreatown. It was said to have a huge variety of Indonesian food. Not being biased but it's pretty famous especially for Indonesian community not just in Los Angeles, but in California (hey, we're from SF Bay Area).

To go there, we didn't have to take the bus in Wilshire Boulevard when we first got off. Apparently there was a bus stop that would lead us to Simpang Asia.

What the heck, the post's getting longer! It was still a long day, but I'll cut off here so you won't hurt your eyes reading such a loooong text.

<< Part 5 • • Part 7 >>

From L A with ♥ pt. 5: When Science and Art Collide

Previously: What was interesting is, we all got to communicate with the Japanese lady who served us. Elda spoke some Japanese words fluently. Aymee also said a fluent “Arigatou gozaimasu.” I tried myself as well :). The lady was amazed by our amateur ability! Then we went back to the hotel and bought some Japanese snacks from the restaurant for our breakfast tomorrow. Thank you Universal Studios Hollywood for the wonderful experience!!!!!! XD

DAY 3: MARCH 28, 2011

After an exhausting day at Universal Studios, we moved on to another adventurous day the next day. No more theme park and playing around, because it's time to get a little serious since we were going to deal with education...a bit.

According to our schedule, we were supposed to spend all day in Pasadena for campuses visits. We woke up in the morning to munch on our snacks we bought yesterday as breakfasts. Elda was scheduled to join a campus tour on California Institute of Technology or abbreviated as Caltech at 10 am, meanwhile Aymee would have a campus tour in Pasadena Art Center at around 1-ish.

Elda and I took off first from our hotel at around 9. Aymee was going to catch up with us later in Pasadena, that means she had to find out the direction to Pasadena all by herself. Since Elda and I didn't know how far it would be to Pasadena, taking off an hour before the appointment was quite a risk, especially we were a bit lost in searching for Little Tokyo's Metro station.

Good thing we quickly found it, it was no biggie, and we also got the direction to get to Pasadena.

Just a little bit about Pasadena, it was a city 11 miles from Downtown LA. Compared to LA, Pasadena was less crowded, tourist-friendly, and it got a friendlier, more comfortable vibe. After switching train in Union Station, Elda and I went straight to Pasadena and got off at Del Mar station.

After relying ourselves on the essential Mr. Google Map at our hands, we took a bus down the main road of Pasadena and got off when the GPS told us to.

Apparently, the institution was located not by the side of the crowded main street of Pasadena. We had to explore into the depth of a peaceful neighborhood. Seriously, it was really the subtlest atmosphere I could ever feel from a neighborhood so far in the US, which reminds me of my neighborhood in Jakarta.

The campus itself sort of blends in with the neighborhood since there were no giant signs saying “Caltech” or whatsoever. How we eventually got our way to the Admission office is considerably funny.

First we bumped into a neatly dressed guy who donned a pair of sunglasses. I was like “This must be a Caltech student.” Elda approached him and asked him whether he knew where the Admission office was. The guy told Elda that he had no idea, to which Elda replied. “I thought you were a Caltech student.” Then the guy went. “Oh no, not yet.”

Ooookkaaayyy....sounds someone appears to be confident. Judged from the appearance, this guymay have qualified to become a Caltech student.

The admission office didn't seem to appear no matter how many times we had circled the campus area. By coincidence, we stumbled upon the tour group that we decided to join. No one would notice anyway.

This building reminds me of Palace of Versailles

The pond that faces the court. I love the arches along the hallway.

Japanese Garden much?

Basically the tour involved visiting the campus grounds and especially the dorms. The dorm part left the biggest impression in mind as we visited one of the dorms. We got to take a glimpse of the dorm rooms. What's even more shocking is, we discovered lines of math, chemistry, physics formula scribbled on some dorm rooms' doors.

Too bad I have no pictures of those formulas.

It looked like they just threw a party over the weekend because almost all the decoration was still intact, some decoration was torn down already though. The tour guide, who is a student herself, explained mostly about the social activities and parties each dorm liked having.

The campus tour.

From Elda's observation, since Caltech is somewhat a notable school of science, a lot of people might figure out that it was a serious school. Students fully focused on their studies without bothering to socialize. So that's why the tour guide heavily emphasized about the parties part. I totally agree with Elda's thought though.

The tour ended in the Admission office that we didn't find in the first place. It turns out to be a building that resembled an old, haunted house looking building. I mean, really, when we stepped inside and went upstairs, I could feel the wooden floor beneath me created an eerie cracking sound. Seen from its look in the outside, people could have mistaken it as an ordinary old house.

Yep, above is the admission building I told you earlier.

I don't know about the house below whether it's one of Caltech buildings or not, since it's located right next to the Admission building. Seen from the homey feeling, I'll just consider it as a house then.

Elda got to buy a Caltech shirt just before we left. Elda and I also took a picture in front of a small Caltech logo in one of the buildings.

After we were done with the tour at around 1 pm, we managed to get to Old Pasadena aka Pasadena Downtown, to meet up with Aymee who just arrived. Together, we found a pizza parlor where we had lunch.

Pepperoni pizza for three!

As soon as we finished, we quickly caught a bus to Pasadena Art Center. We only had an hour to go there before the tour began.

Apparently the campus was located up on a hill in a secluded area of Pasadena. When we got there, we aimed to go to the Admission office but somehow – again – we got lost. At first we didn't know which building we had to go. The bus dropped us off in a side of a building but we weren't sure if the Admission was located in that building.

We kind of anticipated that Pasadena Art Center would consist of many buildings just like a common American campus was (Caltech too). But after surrounding the campus and asked bunch of people that told us to go to the front desk to ask where the Admission office was (sounds complicated huh?), we finally – again – stumbled upon the tour in the campus gallery.

Apparently the building we spotted earlier when we got off the bus IS the one and only building. It was unique how the building stretches horizontally like a giant black rectangular box, with only two storeys. Everything is in there: the classes, gallery, admission office, bookstore, etc.

In contrast of our visit to Caltech, the tour guide somehow emphasized how seriousness became a positive quality of the school, saying that the school encouraged all students to be devote into the works. I guess, in contrast of Caltech, a lot of people might assume that art students were relatively relax compared to those who study science or social studies.

As an art student, I am interested to apply to this school.

One of the artwork in front of the gallery. Soooo cute!

Outside the gallery

After the tour was done, we visited the bookstore and it was hella awesome! Seriously I may not be into a fine art a lot, but I do some drawings. I mean, the bookstore provides a gazillion number of art materials!!! It has the completest copic marker collection I've ever seen, mannequins, painting blades with ranging sizes, various kinds of oil painting...for someone who is really into fine art, he or she should be willing to spend days in this not-so-big bookstore.

Anyway, we decided to leave though, since we had to catch up with shopping and dinner time too. We returned to Old Pasadena. We strolled a bit to some clothing store like Forever 21. Since spring was approaching, I bought myself a set of spring clothes consisting of tank top and cardigan.

After a little bit of stroll, we realized it was time to have dinner. The sky wasn't completely dark but it was already 7 o'clock. And apparently it took us long before we decided where to have dinner.

The Yelp and Urbanspoon applications offered quite a lot of choices. I already asked my friend, Vania (who formerly resided in Pasadena), to recommend some good restaurants down the street of Pasadena. The problem is, we were craving for a lot of things. We were considering to go to a Himalayan restaurant but the location wasn't so convincing. We also had to turn down some offers due to the high price.

In the end, we were torn between going to Gyukaku (Japanese food) and Buca di Beppo (Italian food). They were located side by side, which made everything even more complicated. I kind of suggested that since we already had Japanese food two days in a row, why didn't we just eat Italian food? So we eventually had dinner in Buca di Beppo.

Calamari for appetizer!!

Ravioli as the main course. Excuse the low quality picture. This is apparently the best one I can take.

It was getting late when we finished our dinner, that we had to catch a train back to Downtown LA.

Actually there was nothing special with the train station, it was just we decided to kill time while waiting for the train to arrive.

And played head-wrestling on the train

We arrived at our hotel in Little Tokyo at around 9-ish. Before that, we scooted over to the computer in the business center to look for directions to UCLA, Simpang Asia (Indonesian restaurant), Koreatown, and Hollywood, which would be our destination for tomorrow!

That's not the end of the story. Elda and I woke Aymee up when the clock struck 12. Yep, it's Aymee's Birthday!!!!! Aymee was already asleep but Elda and I managed to be awake, and when it was time, we surrounded Aymee and sang Happy Birthday! XD

It's gonna be a looooong day tomorrow!!!!

<< Part 4 • • Part 6 >>

From L A with ♥ pt. 4: I'll be back!

Previously: But then it turned out to be a simulator of the Simpsons family riding a roller coaster and went through a lot of ridiculous thing, from being bounced in the air, chased by a giant ball, and many more. The roller coaster cart we were on moved according to the motion depicted in the simulator movie.

It was a fun ride I admit, but the after-effect was kind of brutal. Elda and I felt nauseous while Aymee felt extremely fine.

As a result to that, we all had to rest for a while. Following our nauseous feeling, we decided to see an attraction that was more relaxing and didn't involve any graphic or motion effects. We chose the New Special Effect Stage. The show was super funny! I'd seen this before but this new version of the show was even much more exciting!

Moving on...it seems like we had got on to every rides on the lower lot, and now it was time for us to descend to the lower lot! There weren't much attractions to see down there, with only three attractions. Two of them are realistic rides, not 3D/4D movie or simulator like we did before. Aymee determined to get on to Revenge of The Mummy Ride but Elda and I were still getting over the nausea, so we decided to wait for Aymee.

Here's what we did while we waited for Aymee.

Elda was an avid fan of Egyptian mythology, so she was ecstatic to take picture with 'Anubis'.

Anubis was being nice to Elda...but wait till you see what he was being to me

See? OMG he pulled my hair. Mean.

Shortly after Aymee got out, the three of us went on to the next ride which was located right across the Mummy ride. It was Jurassic Park: River Adventure! I vividly remember what the ride was like.

Universal Studios was just opened that morning back in 2009 and my parents and I were the first riders. Yes, just the three of us on the 16-people-capacity seats. It was like a private ride! When the boat plunged down, I could only hear the sound of my panicky mom screaming (my dad wasn't fond of screaming in thrill rides) and I was too numb to scream.

Anyway...back to the topic. This time, it was different. So glad that finally I got to feel the sensation of this thrill ride with 16 people on board. Compared to the Mummy ride or any other adrenaline-rush-triggering rides, this one was more relaxing. Why? Because we basically just got on to this yellow boat and entered Jurassic Park. We were even offered by the sight of the animatronics dinosaurs. I was even accidentally sprayed with water on the face by an animatronic velociraptor.

The drop wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be (and I got to hear a lot of people screaming this time!!!). Aymee gave a tip to reduce the free-fall feeling, which really helped! And the drop turned out to be not really high as I thought. As a result, I came up with a plan to try this ride again (getting addicted to it), but then there were still many rides to try so trying Jurassic Park again would be a waste of time.

Before getting back to the upper lot, the three of us bought some snacks to munch first.

Next up, we were back to the upper lot to catch with Universal Studios' famed Waterworld show. The show was awesome! Too bad we didn't get to sit on the soaked area. We had anticipated on getting splashed or wet in Universal Studios today that even we brought a substitute shirt.

We also realized that we hadn't taken a picture together with cast character. So when a dracula character passed by, we immediately asked him to take a picture with us together. The cast character's skin literally glittered under the sunlight. I tried not to mistake him as Edward Cullen in disguise.

The last attraction of the day was Terminator 2: 3D. It was the last show of the day and the line was long. Look at what Aymee and I were doing in the line.

Okay, even though we weren't recommended to wear our 3D glasses before the show, we tried them on and see how they looked on us.

Since Elda didn't get to go inside, I decided to share the story here.

We then entered a room that turned out to be the pre-show room. A newsticker controlled by a computer greeted us, making an impression as if a line of text appeared on it was talking to us. But things were getting even more annoying when the text began to intimidate us, saying “You suck!” when we didn't cheer out loud. Aymee complained. “We're being bullied by technology!” After all, that's what Terminator story is all about, where in the future, humans will be controlled by machinery and technology.

A lady then came up and introduced herself as Kimberly Duncan (a real person). At first she appeared as a nice lady everyone would put their trust on. She said a lot of 'super' words in every ten seconds.

Kimberly introduced herself as a representative of a fictional company featured in Terminator movies – a company which promised to offer humans with various advanced technology to make real life feel so easy. In the middle of the company's promotional video, suddenly a woman appeared on it and interrupted the video.

She was Sarah Connor, who asked everyone in the pre-show room to not believe in the company's offer since it would gradually destroy the mankind. The company was said to sabotage human life with all the offer. Meanwhile, Kimberly was panic and she tried to call the security to capture Sarah who appeared on the video. Finally we were led to believe that Kimberly was actually one of the “bad guys”.

The main attraction was uber cool! It involved 3D movie, simulator effect on our seats, and also live show with real casts appearing on the stage. An actress who played Sarah Connor and an actor who played John Connor, popped up and pointed the gun at Kimberly. The cool part also involved when the Arnold Schwarzenegger character on the screen “magically” appeared on the stage followed with a plume of smoke (of course, it wasn't Arnold himself who appeared live on stage).

With all the advanced technology involved, it was so far one of the most impressive shows we saw in Universal Studios.

After the show, we met up with Elda again and we decided to do a little shopping now. In the end, I bought a fridge magnet for my mom.

The clock showed 8 pm and we suddenly realized that the last shuttle to Universal City station would take off that time. We hurriedly went to the shuttle stop and caught the last shuttle back to the subway station.

Since it was too late for us to have dinner around Hollywood area, we decided to go back to Little Tokyo and see what we could have for dinner. We ended up having dinner in Kouraku. Elda and I had curry rice while Aymee had a bowl of ramen.

What was interesting is, we all got to communicate with the Japanese lady who served us. Elda spoke some Japanese words fluently. Aymee also said a fluent “Arigatou gozaimasu.” I tried myself as well :). The lady was amazed by our amateur ability!

Then we went back to the hotel and bought some Japanese snacks from the restaurant for our breakfast tomorrow.

Thank you Universal Studios Hollywood for the wonderful experience!!!!!! XD

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