Lazy days in Los Angeles...

Well, here I am in Los Angeles. The last few days have been pretty weird. On Friday night, Lauren, Kat, and Mel came over to hang out for my last night in New Jersey for the next five months. Kat and Lauren ended up sleeping over and we basically just chilled all night and I stayed up until 4 cleaning and packing. Woke up early the next day and by 12:30, we were off to the airport to send me on my way to LA. The drive wasn't bad and we got to the airport in time for coffee and some hanging out before going through security. I cried :(. I was so sad to leave them at the airport. They stayed for the whole time I was in security. My dad made them leave however when they could no longer see my arm in the line. I thought I was going to be late for boarding because security took forever and the line was so long,. But, when I got to my gate I found out that my flight was delayed because the plane decided to stop in Little Rock on it's way back to Jersey and it "hadn't arrived just yet". The lady working said she expected our once 3:00pm flight to now leave by 3:30. I started getting worried when at 3:30, there was still no plane and time was tickin! I had a connecting flight in Dallas that was supposed to leave at 7:45 so I didn't want to be late for that! Finally, the plane showed up, we boarded, and flew to Dallas. It felt like we were flying forever, but I think that is only because I didn't sleep well on the flight and woke up to realize we still had an hour left.

We got to Dallas on time and I got to my gate for my flight from Dallas to Burbank. I began to get a little worried however when I was the ONLY PERSON at the gate the captain told us was for connecting flights to Burbank. I finally saw a monitor above my head in this ridiculously SMALL font on a BRIGHT BLUE background in WHITE WRITING (it was so hard to read!) saying that my gate had been changed to a different one. Lovely. Thankfully on the plane, I found out my flight was delayed and since we were 2 hours early, I had time to get dinner and go to my new gate. When we finally loaded, I got seated by the tallest man ever who happened to reak of vodka. I couldn't get over how much he smelled. He must have had a grand ol' time at the bar because he was literally sweating vodka. It was gross. I slept alot of this flight, but occasionally woke up to see tall-drunk man slouching asleep and leaning towards me. Ugh. He finally woke up and I guess was overheated because he kept rubbing his armpits and was sweating profusely and looked rather uncomfortable. I was scared he might throw up on me, and thankfully, he kept it down.

I arrived in Burbank at 9:15pm Cali time, 12:15 am NJ time. My aunt Jessica picked me up and we gathered my luggage and were off to her house. I spent the night out on the porch drinking wine under the stars with her, my cousin Charlie, and his girlfriend Taylor. It was so nice just drinking and talking and laughing and having fun with them. I haven't seen Aunt Jessica since middle school and the last time I saw my cousins (Charlie, Noah, and Sasha) was when I was REALLY little. Sasha is at school now, but I'll get to see her when I come back here in June. Getting to know Charlie more this weekend was nice and I got to see Noah a little bit yesterday morning. Yesterday, my aunt Jessica took me to the Getty Villa and we got lunch and went on a tour of some Greek Gods and Goddess statues and were able to learn the mythology and stories behind them as well as learn about the antiquity and restoration of the pieces. It was very interesting! After, we went into the gardens and they were absolutely beautiful. I loved everything about them. Later that night, we went to dinner, ran some errands, and saw the movie InkHeart. It was very good! I would definately recommend it to everyone to see. Despite all the bad reviews, I still thought it was very good.

Today, Charlie took me and Taylor out to breakfast at a cute little place in Topanga Canyon. I had the most amazing breakfast ever. It was so good!! Now, I'm back at the house and hanging out writing this. I have the rest of the day to relax. I finished re-packing my suitcases so I'm home free until we leave at 8:30 tonight for my flight at 11:45pm to Sydney. I'm super excited and nervous as well.

On a funnier note, my dad was emailing back and forth with one of his friends from SoCal and this is what his friend had to say about me going to Australia:
"Hope your daughter is taking 5 mos. supply of birth control pills w/ her. Surfer's Paradise is a pretty wild place to be this time of year. The Ozzie's just love to party AND they love Americans. "

I'll update as soon as I get some good stories or something from Australia!! :)