Walking in Little Tokyo "Mall"

Knowing I would be in L.A, I knew that going to Little Tokyo was a must. So before we left, I looked up the address to Little Tokyo. And voilà, here we are.

Unfortunately, Little Tokyo was a disappointment. Although it had a very Japanese feel as it was a 'village plaza' giving off the whole "village" look, it didn't have much. It was mainly restaurants. But...it was only the day after that I found out that that wasn't the whole Little Tokyo. So today's post will be the "village" portion, while the Shopping Center portion will be another time (possibly tomorrow).

I still really really super love this whole "village-y" look, but I also really really wish they had more boutique shops rather than restaurants.

Another unfortunate, I wasn't in L.A during the time of this "70th Annual Nisei Week Festival".

Very beautiful, but not enough shops. On this particular day, I felt as if the Japantown back home was a definite way better than this L.A Little Tokyo.

Walking in Los Angeles

I know that if I start with something interesting, I'll quit. So I'll do these L.A posts in kind of a "most boring to least boring"...well, not that they really are any bit boring, but yeah... (I realized that editing the photos takes up more of the time than actually writing it out does...)

The reason behind going to L.A. was because my sister had an orientation for college. So we packed up a week's worth of clothes and necessities in a couple suitcases and drove to L.A.

There really isn't much to say as it's only the start of the trip. For now, I guess I'll just post some pictures of buildings and things that caught my attention while we cruised around the L.A/Hollywood area.

I really wish that street sign weren't blocking the shop sign. In case you can't conclude, it says "The Wedding House".

This was very cool, it was a picture that was kind of like 3D, because the building made it pop.

Update!

So as you all probably might have noticed, I haven't been updating since...well almost a month. I left off with telling you how lazy I was to update while I was "vacationing" in L.A. And then, school started. And now I'm super duper lazy. I was even thinking, perhaps two blogs isn't a capability for me right now. But thinking that, now more than ever, I want to try my hardest. I've had my other blog for a little more than half a year, and for four months or so, I've been updating frequently and actually having a set schedule. With this in mind, I feel more confident about holding two blogs. Though I say that now, I can't know for sure what will happen in the future, so I can only hoping that this lasts.

Anyways, this was inspired as I uploaded a couple (50/475). I was inspired to write again for this blog, but I got a little lethargic (big word! LOL) last night, so I didn't right away. But now, I'm too lazy to do my homework, so hopefully I can churn out a lot to schedule before I really need to start on my homework.

Well, actually, I was also inspired to start tumbling on my tumblr again...so maybe I'll do that as well...Hmmm...3 blogs? Can I handle it?!!?!??!

Anyways, here's a thought for today:

"I often ride the city bus. Though some people kind it uncleanly and disgusting, I don't mind it so much. Despite the graffiti, the trash and the occasional spills and splotches, it's okay. But despite oftenly riding the bus, there's something I don't do normally, that others who don't oftenly ride the bus, do. And that is, checking the seat before I sit. This happened to me today. I sat down in the back of the bus on a disgusting seat. But I didn't even know until I got up, and my friend pointed it out. I was disgusted, and my butt still feels somewhat disgusting (though nothing got wiped on as it was dry). Still, I wonder how it is that I often take the bus, but I never check the seat first. What about you? Do you check your seat before you sit down?"

Walking with Celebration Night

This is a super late post, but yeah.

So the kids went home, and we had our daily staff meeting in the OL. During that day's staff meeting we did this Tshirt Game. It's where you put your name on a piece of paper that has a T-shirt drawn on it, and pass it around the circle. Then people write good things about you and whatever they want to say, but they don't sign their name. There's supposed to be some magic that lets you figure out who each thing is, but honestly, I don't got it. I mean, I figured out who wrote some of them, but some of them, I really can't figure out for the life of me. This is my favorite one on the T-shirt activity, "You're smile is contagious!", even though they used the wrong "your".

And since we're on this topic, my favorite note from my yearbook is from A, my secret friend. He said, "Nice to have you in our V-Team! Always helpful and gr8, Thanks for the Vans gift card! =)" Awwwwwwwwwwww. I'm going to miss him, even though he gave me a truck load of crap to deal with this summer.

So after the meeting, I just hung out around the school, not doing much. The one thing that has left an impression on me, is that in one room, there was a "party" and the song that left an impression is "Like a G6" by Far East Movement, which I happen to be listening to at the moment.

I also did some work, helping clean out the place (Like putting up a sign with A (and K), and cleaning the lunchroom the families would come in to, with A, K and J.)

5:30ish came, and I began my "duty" which was to welcome the families. So I had to stand out in the freezing cold for 40 minutes, to hold open the door. At least, I was only along the first 10 minutes, after that, my friend (from before), J, came. And I hung out with her, and made her stay out in the cold..haha, well not really, she chose to stay and wouldn't go in.

I ate, technically 3 slices of pizza. One really fat slice of pepperoni (which is why I call it two) and one thiner slice of Cheese pizza, and I had two cups of apple juice.

After everyone finished eating, we went to the gym, where we had presentations from Glee Club, Theatre and Dance, and we also had a short slideshow.

Then the kids left and the staff headed back into the OL for a final checkout. Everyone went around and said a final appreciation, that each took a couple of minutes, raning from 3-5 minutes, so in the end it took an hour to get through everyone. I teared up and nearly cried during these appreciations. As well as when everyone got up and got their paychecks/went around hugging everyone. It was super sad, it broke my heart.

And then all the TAs and Volunteers got a specially decorated envelope by one of our bosses. Inside contained cards from the Interns and Lead teacher of our teaching teams, and a $50 Visa giftcard. As I was reading the cards in the car, I really started crying. I'm going to miss AHU so much. It's like a second home and family to me. But, hopefully, until next year.

(Also, awesome because we Volunteers, even though we're not supposed to get paid, we did, technically. $2 a day, $10 a week. Haha.)

Lazy Bum

Sorry, I haven't blogged for a while. Well, I kind of have a legit reason. I'm on vacation in L.A. for a week, and so I've been "busy". And when I get home, I just don't feel like editing all the pictures and typing out a whole lot of stuff. Maybe later on tonight I will. Sorry!

Monday - Arrived&Hollywood

Tuesday - Little Tokyo&Koreatown

Wednesday - ........Nothing...?

Thursday - THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH : DISNEYLAND!~

Friday - Going home

Walking the Last Day

So 7/31/10 was the last day of the summer program I volunteered at. The day went pretty normally. We played Jeopardy with all the kids in our class. And then had lunch after all the classes were over.

This is the sauce the kids made, with powdered sugar, water and food coloring, to decorate the cakes they baked the day before. It was pretty good, I preferred the purple one over the red one. It just tasted better for some reason.

Then after lunch, we played some campus games together in the gym, and then when we finished, we came back and signed yearbooks and stuff. Then the 9th graders came back and they showed us their slideshow, because they had been gone for a week at the MH for a camping trip. On Monday they just had games and training at our campus still. On Tuesday they went on a hike in the MH. Wednesday, they did some invasive species gardening like stuff, taking care of the place, and they went to the beach. On Thursday was their overnight trip, I believe they did more planting and stuff, as well as basket making. So they spent overnight there, and came back Friday at around 2. I didn't get to go with them, but I had went on this trip when I was a student at this summer program.

So then all the kids went home. And we got prepared for Celebration Night.

Another short post, tomorrow's post will be about Celebration Night and afterwards.

Walking the Sephora Store, Again

Today I went to the Sephora Store with my mom at S mall. I purposely rubbed off my black nail polish so I could come in here and get a "free" set of nails.

Here's what took us maybe 20 minutes at the store. The picture is kind of weird...but you can see all the colors right?

And we actually ended up buying 3 of those expensive ($9 per bottle) nail polishes. The picture quality is bad, so you can't really tell the color. But from left to right, it's Just a Little Dangerous (Purple), Leaf Him at the Altar (Green) and a bottle of Top Coat. You can tell the colors on my finger, haha, they are both the middle ones.

So this is a short post, but I'll update tomorrow about Celebration Night and the Last Day.