Los Angeles: Day 3

We woke up early on Friday June 15 so Lynea could prepare for her meeting with Dr. Stanford from USC. She had planned out her outfit “to the T”… literally (yeah, she’s a nerd, but we love her for it). She felt quite empowered with the outfit she chose. After reading articles that Dr. Stanford had written, we started walking over to the closest Panera Bread (Dr. Stanford’s place of choice to meet). Lauren was a little upset about this, but she didn’t blame Lynea. After walking a little over 30 minutes to get there (and surprisingly not getting lost), Lauren ordered food and set up her computer while Lynea kept a lookout for Dr. Stanford. Since she had only seen his picture online, she was nervous she wouldn’t recognize him immediately. After awkwardly staring down every customer that walked into the store, he finally arrived. They ordered drinks and sat down and talked for about an hour. They discussed their research experiences and potential opportunities at USC. Lynea is excited about the possibility of attending graduate school in the future at USC.

Afterwards, we left Panera and began the LONG journey to the USC campus where Lauren had a meeting scheduled with a faculty member of the Gerontology school. This journey began our love/hate relationship with the LA public transportation system. After taking a bus to the LA Union Station, we found the stop for the free shuttle to USC campus. Not knowing the exact schedule for this shuttle, we waited several minutes before one arrived. Once we FINALLY arrived on campus, we found the Gerontology school pretty easily. Lauren met the faculty member she was supposed to meet with, who informed her that the assistant dean of the school was going to give her a personal tour of the school. The assistant dean showed her around the building and introduced her to several professors and faculty of the school. She discussed all the research being done in the field at the school. After the tour, Lauren met with the student advisor who gave her general information about graduate school. Meanwhile, Lynea wandered around campus by herself (no friends) and was impressed by the architecture and found it to be a beautiful campus. After Lauren was done with her meeting, we explored the campus bookstore, but didn’t buy anything. After grabbing a quick bite to eat on campus, we took some more public transportation to get to Olvera Street.

Olvera Street is a marketplace in LA with several street vendors and restaurants with a Mexican vibe. We explored the shops and enjoyed the live music. Lauren especially enjoyed all the masks that the vendors were selling while Lynea enjoyed her newfound (wooden) boyfriend (sorry Will). We walked to a gazebo area right next to Olvera Street that had even more live music and watched some couples dancing. 

Lauren was excited about the masks

Lynea with boyfriend #2

Sadly, we did not purchase any of these

A view of Olvera Street

Street/restaurant performers on Olvera Street

Couples dancing

The gazebo

We wanted to fulfill every tourist's dream of going to Hollywood Boulevard and strolling down the Walk of Fame. We walked down the boulevard for a while, looking at the names of all the celebrities who have received stars. This is not necessarily a good idea because you cannot pay attention to other pedestrians AND look at the names of stars at the same time. We had several almost-collisions. We also briefly stopped by Universal Studios, but decided we were too tired to climb up the giant hill and take the shuttle. After visiting Hollywood Boulevard and Universal Studios, we got a quick dinner and then started walking back to Elena’s aunt and uncle’s house. On the way back, we stopped at CVS to fulfill Lynea’s chocolate craving (PMS much?). We got some Dove dark chocolate with almonds and obviously needed some milk. Then, to complete our girly needs, we got the latest Cosmo magazine. After leaving the store, we were walking across the street, and got quite confused with the walk signal. We stepped on and off the street several times before staying back to wait for the next walk signal. We made ourselves look like idiots in front of everyone. We almost died. Yes, it was this dramatic. After this near-death experience, we continued on our way. The walk back to the house was much more difficult since we had to go uphill almost the whole way. We did not enjoy this physical exercise. We hoped (dreamed) that a celebrity would see us and offer us a ride. Sadly, no one came to our rescue. Not even any non-celebrities.

For John and Romelia :) 

Lookin good walking down Hollywood Boulevard ;)

Once we got back to the house, we hung out with Elena and watched “Good Luck Chuck”. It was just the movie we needed to unwind after a high-pressure day. We enjoyed our chocolate very much and fell asleep content. Goodnight.