this is LA

My mom asked me how long I wanted to spend in LA; "like, a week?" she asked. Probably what happened next was I said "sure, sure" as I resumed my own marathon of watching season 3 of The Big Bang Theory. I hadn't put much thought into coming here, or packing here, since why on earth would I leave without my laptop. What was I thinking.

I should have known better. Because, this being my third time here, my schedule is not jam-packed with sightseeing. Like yeah, walk of fame, I've seen you and you're completely uninteresting. And if I went on a bus tour of celebrities homes, I'd probably throw up in my mouth (I tend to strongly dislike celebrities as a whole. I can like them on an individual level, but round them all together on the red carpet or at any awards show, and my eyes start bleeding because it's all artifice and a giant sense of entitlement. How does it feel to have your hair, makeup and wardrobe cost more than a college education, I've always wondered). Anyway, the other issue is that I lack the transportation to get anywhere, and this is a week like any other, after all, so my aunt is working until the evening. So here I am. In this apartment. Hanging out. Well, the truth is, maybe if I were more intrepid I would take some initiative, buy a day pass for public transit and go places. But talk about a challenge. To get around via bus routes is to be a local, I swear, because it is massively confusing. That's why, as extremely easy it was to use the U- and S-bahn in Germany, I steered clear of buses almost entirely.

This is not the glamorous side of LA. This isn't Rodeo Drive or Beverly Hills, but the multi-ethnic beating heart of the city. My aunt, uncle and grandparents live in a small apartment (by the way, thank God it's not summer so I don't see as much of my friend la cucaracha) and I'm 99% sure everyone else in this complex is Mexican. Mexicans and Filipinos... Jaysus Mary and Joseph (or the Filipino variation: 'sus Maria) how packed must the Catholic churches be on sunday morning. Actually that is a spectacle I totally want to see--I should go. Anyway, I'm sure LA has a whole lot more to offer if your family isn't, more or less, broke.

But my 23-year-old cousin from the Philippines floats around from my aunt's place, his mom's, and his friends', and he's been trying to keep me company. So far I've seen the Griffith Observatory (pictures to follow), which gives you a spectacular view of the city, and a good view of the Hollywood sign as well (the fact that that sign is famous cracks me up, because it's just giant letters spelling out where you are. We don't need a real landmark, thi s is Hollywood, bitches). And we walked around some shopping area... Glendale Galleria? Americana? Watched True Grit. Not too bad a film, although, I don't know if it was just me but was the ending was a little anticlimactic?

And last night I watched the cousin's basketball game, feeling slightly out of place in the company of Filipinos, and not knowing the half of what they were saying. Yes, Filipinos playing basketball is kind of as funny as it sounds, in light of the fact that we're possibly the shortest people in the world. I mean, maybe we're fighting the Guatemalans for the title, but still we're top contenders. I just kept thinking of how Filipino basketball might be shown on ESPN 8 "The Ocho" along with other novelty psuedo-sports like midget-tossing. Oh God, am I allowed to say things like that?

The lighting in this apartment is killing me. I'm going to go out for a walk now, to see what I can see. Doesn't matter if I find anything when the weather's this nice, and back home everyone's complaining about schlepping to class in the snow.