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in the end, i lose. again.| | Hello you beautiful peoples,
I do quite apologise for being so rather tardy with my correspondence. I have been extremely busy that, sadly enough, the only time I could actually write to y'all is when I'm actually at home, sick.
Yay. Hopefully this time it's not bronchitis...
I just got back from the Union City, Fremont and San Jose in the Bay Area (up north, the San Francisco area) to visit a couple of my uncles. I just want to say that my stay was way way too short. I had a great time there - there are beautiful natural features up around that area that LA does not have. It's amazing, the contrast between the "concrete jungle" that is LA and the natural beauty of the Bay Area. I'll actually be sending over photos to show what a gorgeous drive it was going North.
Yet, I still feel like LA is home to me. Maybe because I only spent a couple of days up in Norcal and I've been here for a month, but there is something indefinable, intangible about LA. When asked why I liked LA as compared to the Bay Area, I replied "It's because...LA is just LA". I can't justify it any other way.
So what other crazy adventures has the Homer been up to? Weeellll...one fine day, one of my American classmates took a group of us International Students for a drive around Hollywood. In the car was an Australian, an Austrian, a German and a Swede. All fantastic guys and it was enjoyable going around. We say Rodeo Drive, drove around Beverly Hills and took a tour down Sunset Boulevard. We passed by all these clubs, such as the (infamous) Viper Lounge, the Chinese theatre and the Walk of Stars or whatever it's called.
Oh yeah, we had lunch at Hooters. DON'T GET MAD AT ME!! The guys wanted to go and I had heard so much about it, so I decided to join them. Trust me, it isn't as bad as it's made out to be. Sure, there are girls wearing skimpy clothing, but look past that - and making sure you treat them like PEOPLE, not objects - you find that it's a restaurant with great service and fantastic food. Although, I did feel sad that there are people who go to Hooters with more shady intentions and just go there to have a perv at the girls. And I felt sorry for the girls because of the way that some jerks treat them - who just leer at and harass them. So I tried my best to be extra nice and polite to them, hopefully it made their day that much better. And the guys in my group were really nice as well. At least the waitresses wouldn't have had to put up with morons for a little bit of time at least. Oh and try out the wings, they're great.
How's school? It's stressful, but enjoyable. As mentioned before, I went Hollywood with a few good guys, but really, I'm surrounded by fantastic people. All of the people in my drum class (only 26 of us) are totally focused on drums. No egos, no wannabe rockstars, no drug addicts and no alcoholics. All we care about are drums drums drums and we spend all our time just doing drums. There are sooo many great drummers and I really look up to them, knowing that I have to lift up my game to merely be competitive, let alone surpass them.
Personally, one of the things I have to work on is my performance anxiety. It's so challenging - normally when I really know how to play a song and am confident, I can play pretty well. But when faced with having to play a style that I have never played before and have to sight-read music - add to that having to play in front of 20-odd OTHER drummers - I get extremely nervous and I end up screwing up the song and making myself look bad. But you know what, the guys in my class are extremely supportive and encouraging. I suppose, I really need to knuckle down and get a'practicin even more than I have been.
I did mention in my last email that I missed everyone back at home. But in the past couple of weeks, it's gotten even much worse. I'm pretty much suffering from heartache and homesickness, because I miss my home, I miss my friends, I miss being able to call up people and go out and do something. I haven't even watched a movie since I've been here! Well, talking to my cousin Ate Tricia has helped quite a bit because she knows what it was like when she moved from the Philippines to here. I actually told her, if it wasn't for her, Kuya Ruel and my uncle and aunt letting me stay at their house, I would not have lasted a week before wanting to go home.
Ya, although I come from a medium-sized city such as Melbourne, I still felt like a country boy coming to LA. As I've mentioned before, everything here is so fast-paced, the people here can be more ruthless and ambitious and RUDE. They would step on or run over you without a second thought or any concern. It's a dog-eat-dog world here, which is still something so foreign to me. Actually a lot of things here are in direct conflict with the more friendly and laid-back attitude that Australians tend to have, and something that I think I have myself. Well, I think I'm pretty affable anyway. I'm shocked by how badly people can treat each other here.
But...I guess you have to shrug it off. It's too easy to be cynical and become rude yourself because of the way people treat you. But I realise that I still have to be friendly, I still have to be nice, because that's my upbringing. And that is how AUSTRALIANS are.
But nevertheless, I am still having the time of my life here. Please don't get me wrong. There are negatives, but they are all overwhelmingly overridden by the awesome things that LA has to offer.
Ooooh yeah, I have finally gotten myself a car! After a month of stressful 2-hour bus rides, wrangling with used-car dealers and test-driving cars that were about to fall apart, I finally got myself a Scion xB (http://www.scion.com/showroom/xb/gallery/). We actually drove that up to the Bay Area and back to run it in. I chose it because it is a) made by Toyota, so you know it's reliable, b) it has a 1.5L engine so it's extremely economical and c) it has enough luggage space to hold all my musical gear. It's a funky car, and before you make fun of it, you should see it in the flesh. It's quite distinctive, gets a lot of attention, especially from girls *wink*. Or so I heard from someone...
Because I'm not a U.S. citizen, my cousin's husband offered to put the car under his name. All I'll be doing is paying my cousins every month. I'll be sending photos of it as well.
Actually, I'd like to thank Pastor Jay here at church, because before I got the xB, he actually lent me the use of his wife's car (a green Honda Civic) for two weeks while the both of them went to the Philippines for a conference. I drove that car to school and back, so I got valuable practice for my driving test. Although I did something stupid. I was in a hurry to get to school, I tried to squeeze past a car to turn left. I hit her side with my right-side mirror! D'oh. Well, luckily there was no damage to her car, just some markings that will come off with a sponge and soapy water. But I looked at my passenger side mirror and realised that it wasn't one of those mirrors that "bounce back" once they hit something, which most cars in Australia have. It was a FIXED mirror, so the whole thing had broken!!! D'oh! Cost me $150, but thankfully it only took 5 minutes to replace. Easy as. But still it was excruciatingly embarrassing...
Oh yeah, I took my driving test last Thursday. I failed. Failed to get 100, that is. The lady docked off 3 points so I only ended up with 97! Needless to say, I was devastated. Just kidding, that's not bad considering this is crazy-driver LA! So now I have my Californian Licence, I am now officially under the iron-fisted rule of the Governator Schwarzenegger. Yay!
Anyway, it's gooood to be mobile. Now I can really get to do the things I need to do while here in LA. I can even be able to privately teach now, which will help with living costs.
On an unrelated note, I was driving around and I saw this guy selling roses by the side of the road. Today I saw a girl doing the same. I felt so sad for them, the roses were so beautiful. If I had a lot of money, I would've probably bought the whole lot off them. But I can't afford it and I felt bad. It's kinda like the Philippines that way.
Wow. I realised that this is a loooooong email and a lot of writing.
Oh, I apologise that I can't get back to each and every one of you who emails a reply back. I've got like 60 people on this list!!! Please feel free to reply back to my own emails though, I always read them, even though I can't always reply.
Anyway, I hope you're all doing well.
Gotta go,
Homer
P.S. I will be sending another email with a few pictures. Let me know if you can't open the photos or if you don't get them so I can re-send em to ya!
me school is the black building between the pink and green buildings
A Los Angeles bus!
me scion
Driving up to the Bay Area on the I-5
Beautiful Salt Marshes near Fremont. On the other side is Palo Alto.
On the way back, on the 152
Back on the I-5 going home
life goes on, i suppose.
| | | Posted 4/24/2006 10:28 PM - 1 view - 2 comments
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