Moving and LA (thankfully not to LA)

I'm writing this blog sitting next to Oz on a Greyhound bus that's going from LA to San Francisco. We're in the middle of fuck-knows-where-ville driving next to what looks to be thousands of cows, and trust me =, you can smell them! After a lapse of an hour or two, we made it back to civilisation—for a moment at least—before being plunged back into the dark highway. There is a strange cackling man sitting next to us. So instead of getting freaked out by the cackling man who occasionally decides to stare at us I'll recount what has been going on in the past week or so.

As soon as my exams finished I had the joy of moving and Oz had the joy of helping me. Having none of my friends with cars around at this point we had no choice but to carry all my stuff (and I have accumulated a lot of it over the past four months!) the five or so blocks to my new apartment. But alas, if only it had been that easy. We expected to move in straight away, but my new room mate was still in residence, so we were in limbo for three days not being entirely sure where our possessions were.

On the subject of room mates I appear to have moved from an anal one into the room of a stoned, permanently hungover one. Of the three days we moved my stuff she was hungover on each of them, the mornings were spent with her make-up smeared over her face, lying in bed, with the covers pulled over her head. Its going to be an interesting two quarters.

I have vowed to move as least often as possible following this experience. We were generally ill prepared in every possible way and it was a complete nightmare that led to us setting of for our travels three hours late,

Oz has written a guide to easy moving. Here it is:

Step one: Have a friend with easy access to a car on standby at all times.
Step two: Do not acquire any personal belongings, so they do not, as a result, need to be moved in the first place.
Step Three: If you ignore both of the first two steps, make sure you do not try and move two person's belongings from different houses at the same time, mixing the items up as much as possible.
Step Three and a half: If you are trying to live in two residences at once do not move many of these items back and forth several times before they find their final resting place.
Step Four: If at all possible, do not move house.

Anyway I am now 98% in my new apartment (a few last minute items were discovered and stowed away in a cupboard to be moved when we get back. We were so disorganised that we had to get a later bus and arrived in LA in the pitch black.

The next day was our first proper day in LA and what did we do? Spend the entire morning trying to get a bus to the Natural History Museum (don't go if you don't have a car - totally not worth it!) because Oz wants to do a PhD with one of the big shots there and went to butter him up. The result being that Oz had lots of Palaeontological conversations and spent hours looking at casts of bones (not even the actual fossils!) whilst I sat in the corner of an office knitting and bored out of my mind. I'll let Oz justify himself. As is widely known, palaeontologists are teh coolest people alive. I need just two words to justify this bombastic claim: T. rex. To my great delight, I discovered that there was a largely-complete skeleton of this iconic creature in the draws of the lab we were visiting. There is also considerable merit in long, convoluted and technical conversations on extinct creatures that no one cares about, besides the select few geeks who live and breath this stuff. What more reason does one need for such a laborious trek?

Anyway, after about five hours of being cooped up in this office (or "lab") we eventually escaped, only to spend the next hour or so on the buses in the pouring rain (oh yes, it does rain in LA!) so that we couldn't actually see where we were supposed to get off. I eventually forced Oz to come food shopping with me (Oz: I wasnt forced; she persuaded me with her silver tongue) and the actually began to become enjoyable. We got our hands on some hot chocolates and some beautiful French bread (that reminded me of Sunday breakfasts with my family) and we sat in a cafe dipping the bread into our hot chocolates. Beautiful. We also were able to get some red wine and the night began to look up.

Having vowed not to step foot in any more palaeontology based attractions on this trip it was with surprise and some annoyance that I found myself outside the La Brea tar pits, where a long time ago a lot of boring animals met their untimely end and now some geeks dig up their bones and make a big deal out of something that matters very little indeed. So I ended up trawling around a museum that Oz theoretically wasn't even interested in, he prefers the Mesozoic period, these animals weren't even dinosaurs! (See, I am learning things about dinosaurs slowly, I embarrassed Oz in front of some PhD students the day before by calling something a dinosaur when it wasn't. Served him right for boring me stupid!)

After getting high off the tar fumes we finally were released and we went shopping on Melrose Avenue, I don't even particularly enjoy shopping but it was my highlight of the day so far. I got a cool t-shirt with the picture from earth beamed out to aliens with Jesus in the background, sounds strange but I like it. I wanted to get a Mary is my Homegirl t-shirt but they didn't have the right size. I also got an amazing t-shirt fro a friend of mine, but its a secret so I shan't tell you just how amazing it was.

Once Oz got scared at how dark it was getting and how much our chances of mugging has increased we went back to our hostel and has a pitifully small dinner. After complaining of not having eaten enough we put ourselves at risk of mugging by venturing outside to get some more dinner. We also attempted to see the Hollywood sign, but no buses were going the right way and after waiting for half an hour we gave up waiting and strolled to Santa Monica Boulevard. Having decided against about half a dozen restaurants we eventually ended up in an Italian and had a beautiful Bruschetta and cheese free pizza. But even more excitingly than that I got served! I had two glasses of wine in a restaurant underage! I actually felt like an adult for the first time in four months. Was fantastic.

Today we had very little time, once we'd packed up and got to the Greyhound station our time in LA was over. We've done none of the usual LA things, although we did go along Hollywood Boulevard and saw the stars names on the pavement. But this was only because the Greyhound station was on a road off of it. I didn't leave LA with a particularly good picture of it, it seemed sprawling and full of palaeontology. I'll be very glad to get to San Francisco, which I can now actually see!

Greyhound weirdoes - 1, LA muggings - 0, LA sights seen - 0 (Although insists we've seen at least 1, I dispute this entirely!), Oz: disgustingly unhealthy fast food pitstops - 1

Religious Studies geek

I have to admit that whenever I do anywhere at the moment I'm centering it around religion and loving it, my being alone has allowed my true geek to emerge and I get to explore my interests with fear of boring anyone. I saw some amazing stuff on a walking tour I took yesterday.

My tour started in Union Square where there was a Christian band playing, preaching to the crowds. Every other song was secular and there were mini sermons in between. I can't imagine seeing that in the UK, let alone them being met with polite applause, people would either ignore them or hurl abuse, very few would pay any attention.

I then walked through Chinatown trying to buy birthday presents for some people as I went. The weight issue is really annoying, I keep finding things they'd love but that are really heavy. Anyway I was in one such store when I cam across a Magic 8-ball (the things you ask a question to, shake it up and they answer you) in the shape of both Buddha and Jesus! It probably wasn't serious, but i loved it anyway. Unfortunately they were slightly to expensive and really heavy, otherwise I'd have brought the Buddha one for Rhiannon immediately (on the understanding that I could benefit from his wisdom occasionally). Next to Buddha and Jesus was a toy action figure of Jesus that came complete with glow in the dark hands, 5 loaves and 2 fish (although, alas no 5000 to feed) and a jug of water/wine. That was very tempting to buy, he is so light, although I'm not sure he's worth the $10. This decision may well be reversed. I took photos of them, expect them to be added soon (provided I can work out how...).

Next I came to a square where instead of the old men gambling that my guidebook had told me to expect I came across a well organised protest against the Communist party. Apparently the Party are torturing people who practice Falun Gong, a secular practice that involves Tai chi style exercises, compassion, truthfulness and generally being nice. They remove their organs to sell whilst they are still alive and then cremate their bodies. Its horrific and I hadn't heard a single thing about it, despite being relatively good with current affairs. There were speeches in what I assume to be Chinese Mandarin going on and I was pretty much the only white person there. Then a protester came up to me and explained everything a bit better, I was being very supportive of their cause and he asked me if I could be interviewed on Chinese TV, I was a bit taken a back but agreed. They asked me how I'd come across it, what my feelings about it were and whether I thougth the West should get involved (only if the Falun Gong practitioners want our help, we shouldn't go sticking our nose in where it's not wanted, let the people try and sort themselves out first, we don't want a repeat of Iraq). Looks like my chances of getting a Chinese visa just decreased significantly...

I then found myself back near the Scientologists, so brought back my personality test for them to have a look at. According to them I am relatively irresponsible, emotionally withdrawn, aggressive and critical (read bitch), although I'm also fairly happy, active and some other nice traits to. They told me that they can help me fix these nasty traits, all I needed to do was buy their books and follow their teachings. It strikes me that they are a glorified self-help bookstore, they think everyone wants to be fixed and want to make a lot of money out of them whilst they do it. The place was obviously rolling in money, it was so posh and they represented a beautiful, polished veneer - become a Scientologist and you too can be this successful/rich/happy/beautiful/perfect (delete as appropriate). In my mind its everyone's faults and foibles that make them unique and whilst I accept that they were fairly accurate about me I won't accept that it makes them necessarily bad qualities. We're taught to be critically minded at University, to take nothing for granted. I would not call myself irresponsible at all, in fact I'm one of the most responsible people of my age group. Aggressive, yes, but that comes with standing up for your rights and opinions, as long as you're open to other people's views it needn't be a problem. The interview with the guy who did my test was exceptionally personal, "if you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?". "Have you ever done anything you know is wrong?" etc. But I found myself opening up to him (so perhaps I'm not emotionally withdrawn after all). Safe to say that I like myself the way I am and won't be joining the Scientoloists in the foreseeable future.

I stopped off in a few churches and Cathedrals along my walk and was most unimpressed at them, the Americans really need to take a few lessons on Cathedral building from the Europeans. Old Mary's was dark and small, not the glorious large open spaces and beautiful stain glass and artwork that I have come to expect. Although the gift shops were better.

My walk finished at Coit Tower, which is something like 500 ft above sea level and is supposed to afford great views over the city. I was most disappointed, there are only small windows allowing you to see out and there is glass covering them that is dirty, preventing the true colours from coming through. St Mary's tower in Oxford is so much nicer, relaxing with views unimpeded by glass.

Today San Francisco is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the summer of love with a big festival in a park, I'm going along and hope to see some really interesting New Religious Movements (cults) and hippy culture. We'll see.

San Francisco and Scientology

I've become a tourist for a week, I'm currently in San Francisco before heading up north to see some giant redwood trees. I set off this morning at 4.30am in style - the taxi I had order turned out to be a limo! However my journey did not continue this way... The greyhound bus was about three quarters of an hour late and I had to wait in front of the bus station, even Santa Barbara is slightly chilly at that time in the morning. Eventually the packed bus set out just as the sun was beginning to rise and I was lucky enough to see it rise over the mountains. The journey was fairly uneventful, although very long (ten hours), thankfully I slept for a lot of it. We travelled up Highway 101, past many mountains, through valleys and past loads of Mexican immigrants working on farms (the Californian economy depends on Mexicans, they are a large minority and most signs are translated into Spanish).

Eventually I got to San Francisco and after finding my hostel I set about finding my first real meal of the day (at 4pm - prior to that I'd had 2 apples, 2 oranges and a packet of crisps, nothing like a well rounded diet). I walked into Chinatown and found a cheap and cheerful restaurant, I asked the waitress for the most authentic meal they have and ended up with a "Chow fun with Beef and Greens", it consisted of bean sprouts, beef, spring onions and something that I'm concerned may have been thin strips of fat. Whatever it was it was a delicious bargain - only $5! There is an Afghani restaurant near the hostel that does a lunch buffet, I have to try it. I also did a bit of shopping, buying a travel journal, a tiny statue of a Boddhisatva for my friend Rhiannon and a Christmas present for my sister.

After dinner at the hostel an Australian girl I've met and myself decided to go to a comedy club for the night, once we had go there we discovered it cost $19 and decided our money was better spent elsewhere, but we took a slightly different route on the way back and ended up walking past the Church of Scientology, that happened to be offering tours, so we decided to go in. It was fascinating - it was set out exhibition style and the first five or so boards were dedicated to the life of L.Ron Hubbard, much less time was dedicated to actually explaining what Scientology is. They had videos of various speeches all of which had massive flaws in their arguments - the assumptions just stood out. The rules Scientologists have to follow mean that they cannot discuss any problems they may be experiencing with their faith and they have to promise allegiance and devotion to any group they are involved in (which presumably includes Scientology). There is so much brainwashing, all of the exhibits showed pictures of beautiful people enjoying themselves and prospering. It was very commercial and very judgmental. They laid claim to a lot of things other people have done (such as administrative systems, drug rehabilitation, etc). It was very interesting, but at the same time very concerning. I've filled in their personality test (200 questions!), what will they make of me? They also have seminars in the day, I may pop along and pose some exceptionally awkward questions. I'm very glad I walked that way home, it has made my day much more entertaining.

As you may be able to tell I'm feeling a lot more positive today, life is easier as a tourist and I've had an enjoyable day. I've also learnt that a dime is worth ten cents, for some reason the American mint assumes everyone automatically knows what a dime is and so doesn't feel the need to put its monetary value on the coin... Hopefully these little discoveries will come easier as a tourist and I won't feel nearly so awkward as I have done recently. I think that I'll have to learn to be very patient with myself and then I'll be fine. I'll take plenty of things for granted soon enough and life will become easier.