This week in my life took place from March 10th until March 17th. This week was special because it was spring break, and I was heading to California for 6 days.
First, I started the week on Friday, March 10th. I don’t work until 1 pm on Fridays, but I had some things to do before work and crawled out of bed around 9 am.
Once my bed is made, I sit at my desk to do my makeup. I only wear makeup on days I want to look more presentable. This day was unique because my friend and coworker, Nivi and I were hosting a Feminist Friday at the Women’s Center.
After doing my makeup, I headed out of my apartment and walked to catch a ride on the Wolfline. I had planned to meet my best friend at Cha House to grab a Purple Taro Boba before work. Luckily, my Wolfline route has a stop right in front of Cha House, making it very convenient for me to arrive on time.
Song of the bus ride:
After chatting for a while, we decided to head to the Women’s Center, so I could arrive early in preparation for Feminist Friday.
For our Feminist Friday, I led a meditation and did a few tarot card readings for those who attended. My coworker did some chair yoga and discussed the importance of self-care and its relation to Feminism. Overall, our discussion was very engaging, and I enjoyed hearing how our attendees used self-care to empower themselves.
Not long after Feminist Friday, it was time to head home and begin spring break.
My aunt, uncle, and cousin came to pick me up at 7 pm that evening because our flight was leaving at 5 am on Saturday morning. Thankfully, I was drained and quickly fell asleep once I laid down. It was a short-lived sleep since I was forced to wake up at 2 am so that we had enough time to arrive at the airport and go through TSA.
Our first flight was from RDU to DFW, where we had breakfast at IHop during our 3-hour layover. I saw a KYLIE cosmetics vending machine for the first time and found it very interesting it was in an airport because, realistically, who will buy a lip kit at the airport? Probably more people than I think. I might have bought one if I hadn’t been sleeping on the airport floor.
After an exhaustingly long flight, we made it to Burbank, California. I thought the mountains were really cool, and one of the guys at the hotel gave me water (sadly, I left my water bottle at home). Most importantly, I had a bed to lie down on. However, food is most important, so after checking in, we walked across the street to Del Taco. I had been dreaming of trying Del Taco since the days of Vine. It measured up to the hype I had been giving it in my imagination.
It was only 3 pm when I fell asleep and slept until 5 am the following day, which happened to be the morning we were going to Universal Studios Hollywood.
I’ll admit, I was most excited to see Harry Potter World (and get a wand, of course). We went on The Mummy ride first because it had the shortest line. Surprisingly, I was highly impressed by the Simpsons ride, and even though we waited an hour and a half to get on, it was completely worth it. It was pretty simple but ended up being really fun. I also had a yummy veggie burger from Krusty Burger. It was the best park food I’d ever eaten. After eating, we went to Harry Potter world, and our first stop was Ollivanders. Unfortunately, I wasn’t picked for the personalized wand. Still, when we entered the store, I asked someone to pick one based on my personality. The employee asked me a series of questions, and they concluded that a Black Walnut wand with Dragon Heartstring was perfect for me.
After getting a wand, we rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It was probably my favorite ride that we rode the entire time. What made it even better was that we got Butterbeer afterward.
Our day ended at Universal Studios reasonably quickly because the park was pretty crowded, and we wanted to go back to our hotel to rest. Before we called it a night, we ate Japanese food. Because our hotel had a Transformers Convention, we saw Peter Cullen, who voices Optimus Prime.
The next day, we aimed to get to the park early to get into Super Nintendo World. However, it seems that everyone else going to Super Nintendo World had the same idea. Even though we got to the gate an hour early, it was already incredibly packed. However, my competitive streak was quite happy when we finally entered the park. My cousin and I took off from my aunt and uncle, and we began racing with this woman standing beside us in line and decided to jump in front of us. It was our goal to beat her to Super Nintendo World. The escalators down to the park’s lower level were packed, and weaving our way ahead of her was a challenge. Once we descended the first escalator, my cousins’ parents called her and told her to come back up because it would be too crowded. We made eye contact with the woman as we rode back up the escalator. Once we reached the top, my cousin’s parents called us back to tell us we could go back down. Suddenly, we were again on a mission to beat the woman to the bottom. It took a lot of running, but eventually, we made it to Super Nintendo World before her. After all that, we decided not to go in because there were too many people. Overall, we just wanted to prove that jumping ahead of someone in line does not get you to your end goal any quicker.
We were all bummed that Super Nintendo World was a bust, but we still had a studio tour to look forward to. It was enjoyable, with many interactive sections and an opportunity to wear 3-D glasses. Finally, we all decided to leave Universal Studios and walk to In-N-Out Burger. I think Cook Out is better, but it was still pretty good.
For the rest of the day, we laid by the pool and relaxed.
The next day, it rained. I expected a light rain, at most a drizzle, but I was mistaken. We anticipated that public transportation would be better and easier to use in Los Angeles than in Raleigh. That was also a mistake. Our first bus took us to Hollywood, where we saw a small segment of the Walk of Fame, and because it was raining, no one else was really out and about. We aimed to go to the Beachwood Cafe, the cafe Harry Styles mentions in his song “Falling.” As a huge Harry Styles fan, I was happy to brave the rain to go to the restaurant. However, we missed our second bus due to an unforeseen detour and had to get an Uber. The Uber driver was amiable and told us to go to the Fashion District when we had time.
Once we got to the Beachwood Cafe, we were welcomed by the sunny environment of a little cafe with yellow and blue flooring. I got a lavender lemonade and a black bean burger, and it was probably the best meal I had while we were in LA.
After leaving the cafe, we took the bus back to Hollywood. We had a pleasant conversation with a man from Cleveland, Ohio, who had relocated to LA. He said he knew immediately that we were from the Southern United States because we were super friendly. I figured our accents also gave it away.
After getting off the bus, we thought taking the metro back to our hotel would be a good idea. This was not the transportation that took us home because the metro station we went to was quite grimy and dark, and we decided to take the bus back to the hotel.
Our next day in LA was Wednesday, March 15th. The night before, we all decided renting a car would be a good idea because getting around LA with public transportation in the rain was not as easy as we expected. Once we secured reliable transportation, we went to the Santa Monica pier and played games at the arcade. My favorite games were ski ball and Mario Kart. Despite being slightly rainy when we arrived, it eventually cleared up in time for me to stick my feet in the Pacific Ocean, which was incredibly cold. Before deciding we needed to get something to eat, we rode to Venice Beach to see the canals. The recent rain flooded many of the streets around the trenches, so we had to stick to the clearest path.
Lastly, we ate Mexican food at Don Cuco’s. I had shrimp enchiladas and fried ice cream, then we went to Ikea, and it took way longer to get through than we anticipated. After about an hour and a half, we became bored and began speed-walking through the rest of the store.
On our last day in LA, we had a Hollywood tour. We decided to follow the advice of our Uber driver on Tuesday and go to the Fashion District.
During our Hollywood tour, it was freezing, and the bus we were in didn’t have windows, meaning I had to keep my hood up the entire time. Besides freezing to death, it was entertaining, and our tour guide had a lot of energy, which was pleasant because he kept cracking jokes and telling stories about celebrities that were most definitely fake. Since we were so hungry after the 2-hour tour, we got Indian food reasonably close by, and I thought it was really yummy. My cousin and aunt didn’t feel the same way. They thought it was too spicy.
After we finished eating, we went to Santee Alley, which is basically a flea market in Downtown Los Angeles. I purchased a Prada Re-Edition 2005 in black (obviously, not a real one) for $150, and I was pretty happy with the purchase. Soon after buying the bag, we left and returned to our hotel.
We were heading back to Raleigh the next day, but I didn’t mind. Although I enjoyed the vacation, the environment in Los Angeles was so different that it made me miss home.
Key takeaways from this vacation:
- Rent a car
-
Los Angeles public transportation is okay, but you’ll save time if you rent a car.
- A 12-mile drive is 50 minutes
-
I don’t need to say more about this.
- Go to super Nintendo world after the hype is over
-
People were swarming the area like flies. It was definitely not enjoyable when it was so crowded.
- Cook out is better than in-n-out
-
Cook Out has more options.
- La is not always sunny and 75
-
It was actually very cold and rainy while we were there.