Trip to Cali (Nov 2011)

Before my big move to Seoul, I had another trip to take – to southern California to visit my cousin and some friends. I had contemplated a trip to LA, where my cousin now lives, for several months leading up to my flight to Seoul. Unfortunately I didn’t get the flight details until early November, less than two weeks before I wanted to leave for Cali. I quickly booked a flight once my Seoul trip was finalized. I would leave on Saturday, stay at my cousin’s in LA for three nights, and then stay with a friend from Semester at Sea (Henry) for another three days before heading home on Friday.

My cousin's place was next door to The Grove, a massive shopping complex.
The trip was a blast, except for a little mishap with my cousin’s rental car. She had rented one so that I could drive her Malibou around town (while she drove the rental). It was super nice for her to do that; I wasn’t expecting to have access to a car, but I soon found out that it would have been extremely difficult to make my way around LA without one. On Sunday night we decided to play tennis, but the rental car was parked behind the Malibou in the garage. She asked me to pull it out so we could take her car. I hopped in and started to back out, not noticing that a pole was about a foot from the car on the back passenger side. I turned the wheels and then felt a thud, put on the breaks, and quickly realized that I had knocked the passenger side mirror right off! I also found that there was a dent in the side door.

After I left LA my cousin took the car back to the rental company, and they told her it would be a week or so before she would get an estimate on the damage. I am still waiting to hear how much I owe, but am crossing my fingers that it isn’t going to put a huge dent in my savings! It was disappointing for sure, but I tried not to let the incident ruin the rest of my vacation. Car damage aside, I had a great time in LA. I got to spend time with my cousin on the weekend and on Monday evening. She is doing her residency at USC, and I wasn’t sure how busy she would be, but it worked out that she had more free-time than usual. On Monday and Tuesday I did some sightseeing on my own – the Santa Monica pier, hiking in Will Rogers Park (highly recommended), the Hollywood walk of fame, and UCLA / Westwood.

Santa Monica pier
UCLA campus in Westwood

On Tuesday afternoon I caught an Amtrack train to San Diego, where Henry was waiting to pick me up. I was only there until Friday morning, but it was still great to see one of my closest friends from SAS. Although Henry worked during the day, we still made time in the evenings, hitting a few bars and clubs around his apartment in Pacific Beach.

Henry (left) representing the C's in San Diego

My flight from San Diego departed at 12:30, and I didn’t arrive in Columbus until close to 11 EST. My transfer flight got held up an extra hour and a half in Phoenix. Friday night I caught up on much needed sleep, but I didn’t have long to rest. After saying bye to friends at an OSU Penn St tailgate, I had to get home and pack. My flight out of Columbus was scheduled to leave at 9:25 the following morning!

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