Day 5, 23062008, Los Angeles

First lesson of the day: Guitar! Ivan's taking this module with me.

I woke up at 0740 to prepare for the 10 a.m. lessons HAHA so early. Walked to Ivan & John's to go to school together. John's taking an astronomy module at the physics building nearby which starts at the same time. We walked quite a distance to somewhere inside school and took the shuttle bus to class.

Here's the road that I live in currently.


Guitar class is at Schoenberg Music Building. The instructor's name is Brandon Mayer and his has a band called Brandon Mayer and The Hidden Powers. Mr. Mayer sings in pubs (for over-21 most of the time). Do check out his website but beware of the songs that will blast at you. The songs are nice, especially tracks 1 and 4.

Oh you can take a look at how he looks like in the photos in his website.

After class we went to meet DJ and CY and John (all had classes earlier) for lunch at Ackerman Union. Their Ackerman Union's purpose is like NUS' Yusof Ishak House. Just that Ackerman is waaaay cooler. Not the temperature cool but the cultural cool.

There's a food court there, along with several smaller eateries. We settled at the food court and had Italian food. There's Sbarro (Italian), a Mexican joint that I can't remember the name 'cos we haven't tried it before, and of course, Panda Express which may already tell you that it's Chinese. And Greenhouse, which sells salad and fruits and cold pasta.

I had spinach stromboli.


After lunch, the rest went for their classes and since I was free I walked around the main parts of UCLA.

This is the Wooden Center. I don't know what's there.


Ashe Center. There are clinics there.


SAY HELLO TO THE BRUIN BEAR!


The Bruin is the mascot of UCLA. So I'm now a Bruin for six weeks. Where's the lion? (deep inside my heart! HAHA)

This, is Ackerman Union I was telling you about. Can you believe it? This and YIH?? Shhh. Don't tell anyone I said this.

There's a huge huge huge huge huge UCLA store that sells not only your textbooks and fiction and non-fiction and stationery and electronics and whatever, it sells UCLA merchandise too. And Adidas, Paul Frank, Volcom, ... ... it's like shopping there.

The Paul Frank stuff in the US are much much much cheaper than in Singapore.

In the first week there was a bazaar selling UCLA merchandise for a cheaper price.


Then it's the athletics building. Student Activities Center.


Kerckhoff Hall. I think this hall has mainly got offices inside.


Kaufman Hall.


A side of the Powell Library.


Next up is Royce Hall. If I'm not wrong.


I think my favourite is Royce Hall. Grandeur!


At this open area there's a flag pole with the US flag flapping in the wind. But it wasn't flapping much when I was taking a photo of it haha.


There's a fountain up here named as Shapiro Fountain. This area is called Court of Philanthropy.


And here's the Janss Steps leading down to the SAC and the Kaufman Hall.


So pretty la. I hope NUS' University Town will look grand too, albeit in the modern way.

Fowler Museum. This is where I was going to have my Development of Jazz class the next day. The jazz class is at a theatre inside the building.


When I was walking past Kaufman to get to Fowler, I felt that there was someone who was looking at me. And then. Ah! The Dalai Lama!

That is scary. And I see the face twice a week.



Here's another hall: Murphy Hall.

I think their definitions of Halls can be anywhere between a building where students can reside in and a building where administrative offices plus classrooms are located at.


Murphy Hall is just opposite Schoenberg Music Building where I take my guitar class at.

There's a model of Duke Ellington, a well-known jazz musician at the court outside SMB. I'm gonna learn about Duke Ellington soon, there's an entire chapter on him in the jazz textbook.


I met the rest at Westwood (where the shops and cinemas restaurants and supermarkets are) to go grocery shopping. Here are some of the stuff we bought.

Haagen-Dazs ice-cream. Vanilla Honey Bee, it's damn nice. And for USD 3 +. Woohoo.


The next part was a surprise!

Supposedly.

So Ivan and the rest were planning to celebrate my birthday. I wasn't told of anything at all! It was planned to be a surprise ma.

Then guess what. Divya SMSed me to tell me that she, Elizabeth and Jessica couldn't make it for my birthday celebration because they were going to have a hall meeting.

*poof* goes Ivan's plans.

At that time CY, DJ and John were with me in my apartment, while Ivan went to get the celebration stuff. I feel quite bad that he was doing all these on the first day of school. They asked me to pretend that I don't know anything and act surprised. HAHA.

Ivan came up sweating! 'Cos from Westwood Village to my apartment is quite a looong dreary climb up. So sorry.

And so on with the celebration!

It was a mocha cake from a supermarket.


I think this picture is damn funny. It was as if I opened my mouth and the flames were already afraid of me.






Thanks guys =D Was touched by their plans and actions la. Heh. Hehe. Hahahahahaa.

Here are some of the new stuff I acquired today.

A UCLA notebook! It's like USD 3+! So expensive. But damn nice! There were dark grey and dark blue available too, and they were like stacked high from the floor till waist level. Sooo many blue and grey ones, I almost left with the blue one. Till I saw a glimpse of red light reflecting at me. Ah ha! It was in the middle of the stack, but I still managed to dig out this red one! HAHAHAHHAHAHA. So pretty.


And I got a UCLA shirt at USD 31.

All prices stated before LA County tax of 8.25%.


My BruinCard a la matriculation card. They didn't tell us that the card was gonna be made using a photo that they take on the spot. I was without makeup and it was so ugly. HAHAHA.


Ralphs Club! This is the membership card to one of the supermarkets in Westwood. And this can really save you a lot of money. It's free to apply.


Then this ASUCLA card. Some sort of benefits card offered by the UCLA's equivalent of Student Union.


And I bought green tea mints from Ralphs.


Alrighty, that's it for my 21st birthday!