Circumnavigation around the World..Complete.

I’m currently sitting on an airplane, headed for Chicago. We took off about 5 minutes ago, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m heading home. I’m leaving California. I’m done with the epic 7 month adventure I’d planned and looked forward to for so long. I’m finishing the final leg of my circumnavigation around the whole world. Headed home, to NY. I’m doing with this with my family by my side. My niece is sitting next to me on the plane. She and the rest of the fam is doing a great job at making this closure to my adventure anything but a sad one!

My parents, my sister Holly and my niece Sophia came to visit this past Sunday. I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time now and had a packed itinerary scheduled for our week together in LA. We did so much, and had a blast. I didn’t really let them rest.  C’mon, its LA, and you know me! I like to stay active! No time to rest :)

On Sunday they came to my apartment. That was a happy day! I brought them to my beloved church I went to in Hollywood-RealityLA. It was an amazing service as always. Sophia was a trooper. I cannot believe how much she’s changed in 7 months-I really can’t get over it! She’s so much taller and she acts so much older too! They got to meet my friend (my friend from Ithaca’s gf) Janet!

After church we headed back to Oakwoods, ordered pizza, packed my stuff up and moved out of my apartment. Before leaving we took a swim in the Oakwoods-sad to leave that beautiful place, where I spent so much time soaking up the warm sun. Sophia absolutely loved the pool.

After we went swimming we went to the famous Griffith observatory and hiked past it at sunset! We saw the sunset behind the Hollywood sign. Then we got to see the city at night-my favorite, and got some awesome silhouette pics! After our sunset hike we headed to Studio City to this awesome restaurant called Cichellis. This Italian Restaurant had entertainment. The waiters and waitresses sang Broadway ballads, with a pianist and drummer. Such a cool experience!

The next day we went to La Brea Tarpits museum, had some food truck food for lunch and then headed to the Grove and Farmers Market for a bit. We then headed to Hollywood, took a Hollywood tour, saw the city from other cool lookout spots, and saw where a bunch of celebrities live or lived in Beverly Hills, including Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Selena Gomez, Robert Pattinson, Tom Cruise, and even the room where Michael Jackson died. That night we ate at Umami burger, got some amazing FroYo (which Cali has made me very addicted to) and then headed home, to watch some Olympics.

The next day we went to Disneyland! We all had a magical time there of course, and ended on a great note by watching the Fantasmic light show and beautiful fireworks! The next day we met up with my supervisor, Theresa, and her adorable girls I grew close to, Vivvy and Abby. Abby was so excited to meet Sophia, it was the cutest thing. Sophia and Abby rode ponies at Griffith park and we all rode on a cute little train ride. We then headed to a Dodgers game! My dad is a HUGE Dodgers fan, so he was on Cloud 9. Unfortunately the Dodgers lost, but we still had a great time. After the game we headed to the Grove again and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Karmin and Jordin Sparks happened to be performing a free concert that night, so I got to catch part of the concert. That was an awesome way to spend my last night in LA. Yesterday we headed to Catalina Island. We took a ferry to the island from Long Beach. On the Ferry ride I could see open water all around me-it was the exact view I had out of my home, the MV Explorer a few months ago. It made me miss it bad. How I loved looking out into the beautiful ocean..the way the sun would glisten on the water, the deep, beautiful blue, the glassiness of the water. There was something magical about seeing nothing but water, everywhere around you..no land in sight. It was pretty cool that I got to experience that sight again-for the first time since I reached California in May..on my LAST day in California and on my last day of my 7 month adventure. It really brought things full circle..and today I’m really going full circle-I’m finishing my circumnavigation around the globe! How cool, right?

Anyways, it took an hour to get to Catalina island. I got to feel that rocking feeling again, and it put me to sleep as it always did. Catalina island is BEAUTIFUL. Its such a cute little island with an adorable little island town-Avalon. We took a scenic tour around the town, visiting basically all of it. Afterwards we walked around, had lunch, and headed back to the ferry. We then headed to San Diego, where my Grandma was staying with her brother and sister-in-law. We spent the night at their Bed and Breakfast-which is where I spent my first night off the ship and my first night in California-once again, bringing things full circle. 

And here we are…on the plane headed home. Before my family came, I had a wonderful last couple of weeks in LA. I continued to give Abby swimming lessons, which was wonderful. The 2^nd to last week I had a lot of time to chill by the pool and work out because my supervisor, Theresa, went to Santa Barbara. Our last weekend we went out on Sunset Blvd to a bunch of bars, which was a lot of fun. We went to Cabo Cantina, Saddle Ranch and more. On Sunday there was an end of the summer Luau BBQ for the Ithaca kids at Oakwoods. 

On Wednesday Theresa took me to Melrose to check out some shops. I’d been wanting to go shopping on Melrose-it’s a famous and really street full of boutiques. I got the cutest dress there, that is so unique. We ate at Johnny Rockets, and it happened to be the very first Johnny Rockets EVER.

On Thursday my friend Katie, from Semester at Sea and her boyfriend visiting from New Zealand, went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Anaheim with me. We had sooo much fun. It was so great seeing Katie and finally meeting her boyfriend, whom I’d heard so much about and had met so many times via Skype when we found wifi in various countries. We were all roller coaster lovers, so we had the time of our lives. They stayed at my place that night and we hung out in the hottub and chatted and had a perfect day!

The next day I had my last wedding. It was at Strawberry Farms in Orange County. The wedding was in a barn at a golf course, and was country themed. There were so many cute details. We started setting up at 11 and didn’t finish until 5! It was a long day, as all weddings are, but it was a great wedding to end my internship with. Saturday was my last day. Theresa brought me to beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes. It was so sweet of her to bring me. I loved it! Her daughters came along and we had a great time walking and looking at the beautiful sights and we had lunch at a gorgeous resort, overlooking the ocean and saw a bunch of dolphins! When I got back that day I did some final things, packed, worked out once last time while watching the Olympics, and chatted with Ithaca friends, Bridget, Anna and Becca until 4 in the morning! Great way to end an amazing summer!

I feel so blessed to have spent the summer in LA and to have the experiences I did and to meet the people I did. I didn’t have to go through the transition of going from exciting Semester at Sea life to home, which could be pretty hard and quite a drastic change! I was so fortunate to continue my adventure. I considered California to be my next port! I got to have fun and visit a bunch of different people around California for a few weeks and experience being 21 for the first time in the US, having so many fun times and creating wonderful memories. I got to experience living in a big city for the first time in my life. I was blessed so much to have the internship I did. I was blessed that my supervisor was so amazing and that I got to spend so much time and get close with her adorable daughters and my supervisor as well.  I got to witness and be a part of beautiful weddings at gorgeous locations all around the LA area. I was so fortunate to have great opportunities and have cool Hollywood experiences, from attending production meetings in a pent house overlooking Hollywood to going to pool parties on Hollywood rooftops at the W. I got to meet amazing Ithaca girls and had such a great time going out with them every time. I was so blessed to meet Janet and go to the most incredible church I’ve ever been to, and get so much out of every message. I couldn't ask for anything more! I perfect way to end my 7^th month adventure!

Now, I’m home. Its beautiful here-I forgot how beautiful it was here. So green! Its great to be back and catch up with friends and family. In only 2 weeks I’ll be headed back to Ithaca to begin my year. I’m insanely excited to see my Ithaca friends-they’re just the best, and I’ve missed them so much. I know we’re going to have the best year yet. I wish we weren’t seniors..I don’t  like the idea of not going back to Ithaca next year and being with my amazing friends. But I’ll try not to focus on that right now. It’s time to live in the moment and keep on living life to the fullest!

July in Cali

Switching gears now from China back to current life here in LA. My time here is nearing an end already! Sad, but also excited to see friends back in NY who I've missed so much throughout the past 6 months! Wow-just realized its been exactly 6 months since I've been in NY. Crazy. I had a feeling the past 6 months would be the quickest 6 months of my life-and I was right! I have less than 2 weeks left of my internship. All the ithacans here besides me will fly back the 28th or 29th, but my parents, sister and niece are coming to visit me on the 29th, for about a week. I'm so excited for them to visit. I haven't seen any of them besides my dad in 6 months! I'm so excited to be able to spend so much time with my sister and niece too-so rare! We're taking Sophia, my niece, to Disneyland :) On August 4th we'll fly back to NY! I'll spend a couple weeks catching up with friends around home, and then its off to Ithaca for my senior year of college. WHOA! I'm SOOO excited to see my college friends! I'm also very sad that we'll be beginning our final year at Ithaca-even though it will be one incredible year. The house I'm living in next year is filled with most of my best friends-I get so insanely happy thinking about it!

But back to the here and now. The past couple weeks have been a blast, as the entire summer here has been. A couple weeks ago I got to hang out with my Semester at Sea friend, Daniel, who lives in LA! It was on his birthday, and we went with a couple of his friends to a Salsa Club and then a regular club-Tru. We danced our butts off the whole night. We were drenched in sweat. It was awesome. Then all of us came back to my place and hung out at the hottub until the wee hours. It was such a great time, and it was so great seeing Daniel. The Salsa club was such a cool experience. It was on Hollywood Blvd and even though it was a Monday it was PACKED. We made our way to the bar and and as soon as we got our mojitos, a guy comes up and takes my hand and brings me to the dance floor. I tried my best to dance, but I must've been a sight to see up against all the latin pros! A few other guys came up to me and offered their hand throughout the night-I got quite a workout and had a blast.

A couple days later was July 4. It was my first 4th of July out of Andes, and it was the best one yet! We went to Daniel's friend's cookout and had a great time meeting new people, chatting and even dancing. One of his friends whom I met spent a couple years in Ghana! What a small world! We talked about Ghana for about an hour-it was so great. One of the girls at the cookout actually graduated from Ithaca in '09-crazy how small of a world it really is. We came back to Oakwoods for the fireworks and watched them from our apartment balcony. It was wonderful. There were ones for Burbank, near us, and then in the distance we saw like 15 or so different sets of fireworks going off in the distance across the valley. SO COOL!

 

View from our balcony, when there were actually a few clouds in the sky for once!

 

Last weekend Paige, Julianne and I went to San Diego for a night. We went to the 710 beach club during the day and night, hung out with my Delhi San Diego friends, and Amber. During the day we took a nap on the beach. It was a nice little retreat. That Tuesday we went to a taping of The Price is Right. They choose the contestants by the group interview process. There were about 15 of us and a producer went through everyone and asked us "What do you do," and then if he liked your answer he'd keep talking to you. We had quite the exciting time on the Price is Right...I suggest you tune in November 12, when it airs. One of my bffs was one of the first one called down, first one on stage, and might just have won a lot of stuff. You'll see me jumping up and down freaking out...oh what a day that was!

The past couple weeks I've been giving my Supervisor's daughter swimming lessons. Shes 4 and is oh so adorable. She is a very quick learner and surprises me everyday! She LOVES swimming lessons, so it makes my job not only easy but fun!

This past weekend I worked at 2 weddings! The one on Friday was on Long Beach and was just beautiful. On Saturday the wedding was at USC. So I had quite a busy, tiring weekend! It was an interesting and eventful one..as I was walking back to my apartment on Friday night after the wedding I dropped my phone and the screen shattered-pretty sucky-and it was Friday the 13th. Saturday night after checking out a grand opening of a new club in Hollywood, Julianne and I went to the Playhouse, where we've been many times before. Nick Cannon was DJing, and we had such a fun time dancing to the awesome music.
 

 

Wedding in Long Beach

 

Just Married sign I made!

The next morning I got up earrrly to go to church at 9AM. That evening Julianne and I went to a restaurant/bar on Sunset Blvd called Happy Ending and met up with her friend from Ithaca who has lived here in LA for a few years now. We ended up staying and chatting for 3 hours!

Tonight I'm going to see Sam Adams at the House of Blues with Paige. I can't wait! Julianne and I went to see him in Ithaca last year, and I had probably the most fun I've ever had at a concert.

A week and a half and Julianne and Paige will leave :(, I will move out of this beautiful apartment, and my family will come visit me and we'll have a blast! We're going to Catalina island, hike at Griffith Park, the Grove and Disneyland for Sophia! I have just 1 wedding left-next Friday.

2 weeks left-time to live it up!

CHINA (a few months late) :)

Well its been about 3 months since I was in China during Semester at Sea, and I'm finally sitting down to blog about it. I left off with Hong Kong, which I blogged about in May, shortly after disembarking the MV Explorer. Kyle, Katie and I arrived in Beijing (flying from Hong Kong) after a lovely flight, consisting of a meal and a large variety of free movies. I was so tired, but forced myself to stay awake because I hadn't seen a new movie in months at this point-I had to enjoy this luxury. :) We got to the airport and instantly learned that Beijing has a LOT less English than in Hong Kong. Like hardly any. We met this nice woman whos from America, but has lived in China for 15 years, teaching English. She brought us to the metro, and rode with us, helping us and telling us a bunch of useful information. We got off the metro, found a hostel, went back on the metro and headed to the famous Forbidden City and Tianammen Square. A pretty awesome godwink happened there..I was missing certain friends and certain qualities of friends..positivity mostly, when I ran into 2 really great friends, who were 2 of the most positive, friendly, wonderful friends on the ship. It was pretty crazy that we ran into them of all people in the middle of thousands of people at the Forbidden City. We all had dinner together and enjoyed very unique foods. I ate duck. No one at the restaurant spoke English-including all of the waitstaff. After we ate we shopped around at vendors on the street and enjoyed (or was annoyed) at the art and game of bargaining!

The next day we went to the Great Wall! We decided to be adventurous and instead of taking the easy way out and book a tour with a group, we took a metro, and found a bus that brought us to the Great Wall. It took us quite some time to find the bus we were supposed to take, asking countless people from China where to find the bus, and consistently getting the same confused look and shrug because no one knew English. We walked here, there and everywhere, and finally stumbled upon the right busstop, confirming with European travelers waiting on the sidewalk for the bus. We piled onto a crammed bus and were on our way to THE Great Wall of China! The bus was SO quiet...no one spoke. No one! Even though every seat was taken and people were even standing in the aisle. We learned that the quietness has to do with their culture. It is in their culture to not really stand out, but to blend into society (similar to communism) and so there explains the quietness and uniformity on the bus. Quite the opposite from America eh?

The Great wall was magnificent. So amazing to see in real life. It goes on and on forever. We visited just a small section of it. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. We were blessed. The skies were completely blue and it was even warm-unusual for that time of year in Beijing. We rode a roller coaster like ride up part of the wall and walked to the top of the section we were at. It was PACKED on the wall...so many people! A bunch of people from China asked to take pictures with us-so cute! As we were leaving we ran into Mica and her friends-who we ran into the previous day! Such a great godwink, because I was craving her positivity and her essence and there she was-once again! They were the only Semester at Sea kids we ran into on the wall too!

On the bus ride back we had to stand in the aisle. We were tired, so we decided to sit in the aisle and lean back on each other-haha it was quite a sight-talk about sticking out. When we got back we headed to an acrobatic show. It was so cool!!! The theater was beautiful and the acrobats were amazing! Motorcycles were driving around in a ball like thing-unbelievable! Afterwards we decided to go out, and found this cool lake with bars and restaurants surrounding it. We found some SAS friends, and then headed to a club where many SAS kids were. We had a fun night, dancing the night away. The night ended with one of manyyy McDonalds stops (conveniently located right next to our hostel).

The next day we went to the Pearl Market. This market is well known and consists of floors upon floors of vendor after vendor-selling the same things, and competing like crazy. Bargain, bargain, bargain, until you never want to bargain again in your life. It pays off though-ipod speakers for $5, a maxi dress for $6, a ukele for $20 and a cashmere sweater for $7. The lady that sold me the cashmere sweater escorted me down 3 floors to an ATM because I said I would buy it but didn't have cash (to ensure I would buy from her since the competition is so intense). After we were all shopped out we headed to the Temple of Heaven. This Temple was absolutely beautiful. There I came across a few people from China singing classical music. I was mesmorized-I hear classical music and classically trained singers on a daily basis at school-and I hadn't heard it for months at this point. It felt like a taste of home hearing their voices.

That night we took an overnight train to Shanghai. Before the train left, we stopped at Pizza Hut, where I ordered seafood pizza which included octopus legs! To save money we didn't get a compartment with beds, but instead slept in upright seats for the 10 hour ride. I lucked out-the seat next to me was empty, so I was able to lay down and curl up in a ball, sleeping for most of the way. When we reached Shanghai we followed Kyle's roommate to the subway, where we tried to navigate our way home using the maps and signs in nothing but Chinese. We ended up losing Kyle's roommate, which turned out to be a very bad thing because we didn't have a green sheet with us. A green sheet is a very important sheet that we were urged to bring with us at all times in every country. It had all the information we needed such as ship and professor's phone numbers, address of the ship's location, and on ship times. Since the ship went from Hong Kong to Shanghai without us, we had no clue where the ship was. We didn't think it would be too hard at first-find water, a dock..the ship had to be there right? Ohhh not so easy it turns out.  We asked many people, through hand motions, drawings, showing pictures on our phone if we found wifi..showing pictures of our ship, we took a few different taxis, all bringing us to different places. It was insane. No one spoke English, and no one had a CLUE what we were talking about..the port is also huge/theres a bunch of different ones..the city is surrounded by water..so uh yeah. I had an idea when we went to Starbucks a couple hours into our search, in the midst of ridiculous frustration and exhaustion by Katie and Kyle who got no sleep. I went on the SAS website and found addresses for each port-I remember seeing that before. I then pointed to it to the barista, who found a guy who spoke some English, who looked on his computer and was able to write down the address in Chinese so we could hand it to a cab driver. Feeling relieved and that we were finally on our way "home" after hours of frustration we climbed into the cab. The cab dropped us off at not the dock where the ship is but the post office where parents can send us mail-thats what the addresses on the website were for. WHOOPS! At this point we are beyond frustrated, completely out of ideas. Feeling pretty hopeless. A while before that I prayed that we would run into a Semester at Sea kid, since theyd be able to tell us how to get back to the ship. We got out of the cab, and sat on a stoop. Kyle's nose starts bleeding badly, and Katie starts walking off without us realizing (looking for the ship). I'm sitting there thinking, What are we gonna do. I am literally out of ideas and am completely clueless as to how we are going to find the ship. At that instant I happen to turn my head, and who is standing there completely still with a shocked look on his face? My really good friend Nate, and behind him my good friends Daniel and Taylor. I could NOT believe it. What an answer to prayer-and that it was those guys out of 600 students on the ship-those guys that I was thinking when we arrived in China how I wish I could spend more time with them while in port, and then I randomly ran into them in Hong Kong and was able to spend an evening with them there, thinking cool God, thank you! But then thinking, probably won't get to hang out with them for the rest of China, darn, oh well. And then, boom there they were-saving us! I sprinted to them and gave them huge hugs. I was in disbelief. Now that is an answer to prayer if I ever did see one!

Turns out we were really close to the ship-about a 15 minute walk. The guys saw how distraught we were and dropped their plans and walked us back to the ship. What a sight we must've been-we had backpacks on our back, I had big shopping bags in each hand and a ukele, and we hadnt showered in a few days. I was able to spend the rest of the day with those guys-it was great, and I was so grateful to spend more time with them! We had such a great day/evening. Nate, Daniel, Taylor and I walked to the Bund, where you could see a perfect view of the Shanghai skyline. We hung out there for a while, enjoyed the view, Nate and Daniel danced, and then we kept walking through the beautiful city of Shanghai. I really liked Shanghai! At night it was so gorgeous! So many beautiful, colorful lights! Such a fun city to be in! We walked down this cool street with no cars, but a whole lotta action. There was live music coming from a couple stories up out a window at one part and there was a huge crowd gathered underneath. We were walking by, and all of a sudden this Chinese man pulls me into a clearing surrounded by many people, and starts dancing with me. We danced the whole song-it was a blast. Other people grabbed my friends and started dancing with them too! Such a fun time! We kept walking after that and stumbled upon a cute little small carnival like area, where they had a couple rides. We went on one of those claw rides where you go high, fast, and upside down-ensuring an amazing time. Riding on that thing at night in Shanghai was so cool. You could see so many beautiful city lights..it was incredible! We went back to the ship for some free dinner, then went out to this cute bar where a bunch of SAS kids were headed. We had a BLAST there! There was a Chinese girl and guy singing up on the stage. One of my friends said Bryana and I could sing, and so they let us go up there and pick a karaoke song from their ipod and take over the microphones! A bunch of girls were up there singing a 90s song. Oh, it was so much fun!

The next day I explored the city with 2 of my very closest friends on the ship, Andrea and my roommate Julie. We had such an amazing day. We were all on the same page, and were all so positive, and happy and appreciative, and felt so blessed. It was a perfect day indeed. We went to a museum, sat in a beautiful park by beautiful cherry blossoms, watching adorable children with their parents. In China you can only have one child, and it was really evident to me that the parents and grandparents ADORED their child, and I think because they know how precious that one child is because its the only one they can have. Every single parent I saw was just so joyful around their kid, and looked at their kid with such admiration..it was so beautiful..so touching. And asian babies are so freaking adorable! How could you not be happy around them! After that, we decided to go to the top of the Raddison-where there was a restaurant overlooking the whole city, and it rotated, so you literally see the whole city! It was so cool and so beautiful! In the lobby there were bunnies and chicks because it was the day before Easter! We held the bunnies..what a perfect Easter surprise! After enjoying the high views and food we found a bakery with amazing breads and pastries. We then stopped at a market, before heading back to the ship and sadly waving goodbye to beautiful Shanghai.

China was filled with more beautiful Godwinks and blessings. As I watched the rainbow lights of Shanghai disappear, I caught myself in disbelief at the fact that we were down to our last country...Japan.

Its been a couple months, but visiting China feels like just yesterday. I've been thinking about Semester at Sea more than usual lately. I can't believe how much I miss it..I mean I can..but I just didn't know I would think about it everyday and long for it.

Time for bed-I'm teaching a swimming lesson tomorrow to adorable Abby-my supervisor's daughter, and then off to The Price is Right! Cross your fingers-hopefully I'll win a car or something ;) a cruise would be nice...

Yet again, so much has happened in my life here in Cali, including a trip to San Diego this weekend. Soon to come, Cali updates and my stories and memories of JAPAN!

When Andy Dick bit my shoulder and sexually harrassed me...

Another couple weeks have flown by here in LA and they've been as busy and exciting as ever. Tonights my first time chillen at my apartment in the evening since I don't even know when! Some interesting things have happened since my last post. Probably the most eventful was my interaction with Andy Dick at The Roxy in Hollywood last week. My lovely roommate, Paige, works for a music PR woman who manages and represents bands. A couple of those bands were performing at The Roxy, and I decided to join Paige. What a night it turned out to be. First we had dinner with one of the bands, from North Carolina. The lead singer sat next to me and I learned that not only was he from Cortland, but he went to Ithaca for a couple years! As a music education and performance major! So we chatted about teachers that we've both had..he knew my voice professor. He was in Ithacappella. What a small world! He left college to do big things with his band, including making it to the top 20 in America's Got Talent. This past season of American Idol he made it to the top 42, and now he's with his new band. What a small world! So after dinner Paige and I waited outside with members of the other band performing that night (teenage brothers) and Andy Dick walks by us and into The Roxy. Paige knew who he was and noticed him walk into The Roxy, when we were waiting outside. One of the band members with us goes, “Are you Andy Dick?” and he replied “I wish I wasn’t. I wish I wasn’t.” It was then we knew he was strange…

Paige and I went in shortly after and were standing, kind of watching the band. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Andy staring at me when he walked by me. When he came back he goes “Girls, we have a table, come sit with us.” Well, ok. We followed him and the guy he described as the one who takes care of him. I’m like, “I’m Kat.” He goes “I’m Andy.” He takes my hand then pulls me towards him and and he kisses my cheek and then keeps me there awkwardly until I kinda push him away. The rest of the time we were sitting in that booth was awkward, weird and creepy. He kept his hand on me, whether it was my back or my arm or my hair. He would pet my hair, he told me I smelled so good. He asked if I knew the band. I said I just met them today and the lead singer went to the same college as me. He then goes “And now he wants to f*** you.” WTF. By this point I'm thinking to myself, 'What is going on, what is happening, I need to get out of here.' Paige can tell things are weird, but she couldn't hear his weirdness because the band performing was so loud. Andy then goes, " We have to get going soon." Super relieved I go, "Ok, nice to meet you!" He then goes "Why are you so quick to get rid of me?!!? Why do you hate me?!?!" And then he BITES my shoulder. He bites it. Why?! I have no clue. So weird! That is when I'm like, ok I neeeed to get out of here. So I say, bye nice to meet you, and then he goes, "Let me say goodbye to your boobs" and tries to put his hands on my chest. Freakin creepy. Then we hurried outta there. We were able to enjoy the rest of the night at The Roxy, creep free.

Earlier that day Paige, Julianne and I went to a taping of Chelsea Lately! It was a lot of fun and the show was hilarious. The day before that Julianne and I went to see Conan, which was also reallyyy funny and a blast. Friday we went to a taping of the blind auditions of The Voice. It was so much fun! We were there for like 6 hours, but it never got boring and every minute was very entertaining. We got really lucky and got to sit in the second row (not the 1st because those are reserved for the paid pretty girls). We were right to Blake Shelton's left, so we were looking right at his profile. We were so close to him, probably less than 10 feet away. He has such an awesome personality. I wish I could be his friend hhahaa. He's hilarious. He even winked at Julianne, Paige and I! Before the Blake, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Ceelo Green came out and before the show started theres an MC who gets the crowd pumped up and entertains us for a bit. The MC said he needed a crazy girl, and I was in the 2nd row, jumped up and down a bit and he called me up on stage. Another girl and I got to dance on the stage in front of the whole audience, to Party Rock Anthem, repeating moves that the MC would show us. It was so much fun!! 

For my internship I worked at a huge Mexican wedding in Pasadena last weekend. It was a long 14 hour day, but I enjoyed it. It was beautiful, and the couple was beautiful. A wonderful atmosphere to be in. This weekend I worked at a much smaller, laid back wedding at Long Beach. The bride and groom stayed at a The Queen Mary, which is a historic 76 yr old ship that was turned into a hotel. I spent the morning in it, helping the bride out. It was very cool and also super nostalgic being in the ship. It was my first time on a ship since I stepped off the MV Explorer almost 2 months ago. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I miss it like crazy!

A couple days ago I went to see the famous DJ AfroJack at a Hollywood club, Playhouse-where I've been a few times since I've been here. It was a whole lot of fun. I went with my friend Anna. A guy she met is a producer of one of the Real Housewives. He picked us up in his Ferrari, brought us to his penthouse in Hollywood Hills, overlooking LA..his neighbor is Katy Perry. We then went to the Playhouse and rocked out to AfroJack. We noticed Paris Hilton behind us, probably like 10 or so feet away. She was jamming out to her boyfriend, AfroJack. She was waving a glowstick in the air, acting like everyone else in the club. We went back to the penthouse and went in the hottub, overlooking LA.

I asked my friend Seth, who did the ICLA program last year, where he went to church when he lived here in the Oakwoods. He told me he went to RealityLA in Hollywood, so I decided to check it out last Sunday. I took a bus, but had to end up taking a cab when the bus dropped me off nowhere near the connecting bus I was supposed to take. The stress and chaos of the travel to church was well worth it. It was honestly the best, most moving, most amazing church service I'd ever attended in my entire life. The sermon was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. A HUGE Godwink. HUGE. It was about repentance. I met Seth's girlfriend, Janet. She's so great-I'm so thankful to have a christian friend here now. She brought me to community group (bible study/small group) last week in Burbank and it was wonderful. She brought me to church this sunday too-where there was yet again an INCREDIBLE incredible incredible service. The sermon was once again EXACTLYYY what I needed to hear. I think I'm going to blog about it-it hit me hard.

Tomorrow's Thursday already-whoa..June 28. Only 1 month left! Wow! I'm continuing to be very blessed here. There still hasn't been a cloudy day, in fact I can't even tell you the last time I saw a single cloud in the sky! Never ceases to amaze me!

<3

Keeping busy and having fun!

Wow this week flew by! Having 2 internships and always doing something different at both of them causes things to just fly. Life doesn’t get boring here! I’ve gotten to go to some fun events both with the wedding planning internship and also with Events2Give. I went to another event in Beverly Hills with my Events2Give boss, Amir. This was a small, beauty event at the Beverly Hills Plaza Hotel. It was beautiful! I had the most delicious Peach Bellinis and Sushi. I had a fun weekend, besides getting both a stomach bug and a cold, one RIGHT after the other. So strange. I went to a comedy show at Club Nokia downtown with Julianne and Paige (my roommates), and that night I got sick. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to go to Universal Studios the next day (a big group of us Ithaca kids planned to go then)…and I LOVE amusement parks. After having a kind of rough night, I woke up, and felt better, and decided to try Universal. My stomach was great for the rest of the day, which was a great relief. Half way through the day, my throat started to hurt and I’ve had a cold since then-so weird. I went from January until now without even getting a cold (a first in my life)..because of the warm climates…but I was constantly sharing drinks and food and hardly sleeping, so its pretty ironic that I get sick now! Anyways, Universal Studios was a lot of fun!

My boss is creating his own TV show and he had a production meeting on Monday. I got to tag along! The meeting was at a penthouse on the top floor of this big building overlooking all of Hollywood, including the Hollywood sign. The guys in Entourage lived at the penthouse in the show (thats where they filmed it). It was so cool! I met one of the actors for the TV show. He has been on a lot of movies and shows and definitely had a familiar face. We read through a few scenes. I got to read the narration. It was so exciting for me to be in that setting. I have a passion for acting, and I miss it so much. It was so fun to be around it again..reading a script, and hear the actors read and act out their lines.

The next day I went to see the Tonight Show (Jay Leno)! We got tickets for free, and it was perfect because there were great stars on the show that day-Emma Stone and Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Avengers, the Huntsman on Snow White and the Huntsman). It was a really cool experience, besides the whole waiting around all day. We got there unnecessarily early, but got really good seats because of it. We got to sit on the floor, which meant we got to go up and give Jay a high 5 when they announce him in the beginning of the show. 

On Wednesday Theresa, the wedding planner, brought me downtown LA and showed me the flower district and fashion district. It was fun walking around and seeing all of the fabric stores, and then seeing rooms where designers had their work. She brought her 2 daughters (one is 6 months and one is 4) so it was fun hanging out with them. Thursday I went to an event with them and Theresa’s husband at the Four Seasons. It was a wedding network event. I enjoyed some rose champagne and yummy food at a beautiful location. Each coffee table had fire burning in the middle. It was such a cool atmosphere! Friday I went to Theresa’s house. I made a few calls and sent some emails. Its been fun being around her daughters so much. It makes me really miss my niece and nephews!

Saturday night I had a fun night out with the girls at this club called Tru in Hollywood. Sunday I went to a pool party at the rooftop of the W called Club Drai. It was amazing. I went with Paige (not roommate Paige, but another new Ithaca friend). We were there all day-it was SO MUCH FUN! We met some cool people, enjoyed some great music, drinks, sun, and Hollywood views. It was amazing. But the fun didn’t end there! It was Julianne’s 21^st Birthday on Monday! I didn’t have to go into work that day so I had the day to prepare for the festivities-decorating, making the cake and such. I love birthdays! J  We went to a very authentic Mexican restaurant where this guy who was about 4 feet tall and was the valet danced with Julianne and I and boy did he get down! The Mexican musicians sang to Julianne, and she had a flaming Margarita. Then we went to this sweet bar on Hollywood called Velvet Margarita and enjoyed a free pina colada in a real coconut. After that we went to the Playhouse in Hollywood, just down the street, and a really fun time. Julianne had a wonderful 21^st, and we all had a lot of fun too! 

This week is flying by! Yesterday I went to the penthouse that overlooked all of Hollywood again. I had a really cool experience at the production meeting at the penthouse, meeting really cool, accomplished people, producers, actors…real cool stuff. There was a read through for a TV show that the production meeting was for, and I even got to read a couple lines-ahhh I miss acting!

Anyways, things are great. I just love it here, and everything is going by too fast!  I’m keeping so busy and am loving life!