Sunny California?

When you think of Los Angeles, what are the first things to come to mind? Movie stars, palm trees, SUNSHINE...Well, I haven't seen any movie stars yet, but that's not so much of a surprise. As for the palm trees, it turns out they're just like people: they look depressed in the rain.

Seriously, when it rains here, it pours. Streets have tiny rivers on both sides, and it goes on and on an on. This explains why Sylvia and I didn't do that much yesterday. We sat inside, first, waiting for the rain to stop. Finally, we decided just to go to the supermarket to get dinner and toiletpaper. Inside, we watched sex and the city episodes on my laptop (the dvd's of seasons two and three were here already), and "cooked".

When Nicole came in at ten thirty, I'd fallen asleep on the couch, the Law and Order marathon apparently not fascinating enough. She immediately started cleaning out her bad and room, and I decided to join her, unpacking my bag. I still slept on the couch, after reading on in my book and reaching the inner story (the book is like a russian doll, six related stories inbedded in each other).

For this morning, I'd bought the cereal that looked healthiest. "All Bran". It turns out, they sweeten even that! We'd already found out that bagels were sweetened yesterday, but this came as a surprise. Sylvia and I had agreed to meet in front of the supermarket at ten, so I had to go out, despite the pouring rain. We went to get our "BruinCard" (pronounce Broo-in), and we wanted to get an e-mail address but the library was closed. Then we went by the Bradley International Center, but we didn't have all the papers we needed so we still need to go back. Back at the apartment, we heard that Terry had moved in, but left already. Nicole then took us, in her car, first to eat some skewers for lunch, then to buy books (80 fucking dollars for one, not even that thick, book!, but I did get to use my credit card for the first time, and it worked!), and then to see her father. She needed to get a cheque from him, we mostly were interested in seeing the sights a little bit. Driving on US freeways is SCARY. Five lanes, weaving in and out, the car making roaring sounds because it's an automatic, and a driver not exactly very careful.

Now we are back at the apartment, and I've met Lisa, my other roommate. She turned out to like stroopwafels very much, but that's very much a given, who doesn't? Terry just came in with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, so it's very crowded and cozy: the four inhabitants, sylvia, and Terry's family.

Well, the rain will pass. Until now, at least this is starting to feel like home.

Hedwig