Last Week of Freedom

From everything that I've heard, once business school starts it's a complete whirlwind.  The first quarter especially is supposed to be very intense with classes, getting involved in school clubs, recruiting and networking, and just getting acclimated to the student life again. Us first-year students have been warned by everyone in the know to take care of all of our business before orientation starts because free time will be at a premium after that. I think I've used the past week pretty well, both to take care of essentials and to mix in social events to meet a lot of students before everyone is thrown together in orientation.  The way lengthier than I intended summary of the week's events:

Monday
Made my second trip to Target to buy a bunch more apartment things and do my first batch of grocery shopping.  Installed a shelf into my bathroom which I'll probably be charged for two years from now.  One of the UCLA guys from DC that I had met at some of the DC happy hours back in the spring just got into town so we all met up for a quick drink at O'Hara's, the closest bar to my apartment in Westwood.

Tuesday
Made my third trip to Target.  I actually repurchased a bathroom rug which I had returned the day before.  Bought some more imporant kitchen appliances like a toaster oven and coffee maker.  Afterwards I met up with Reich who was at happy hour with a couple of his law school buddies at a wine bar in Culver City, and then got some food in the area.  One the way home I stopped at someone's place who was advertising a cheap TV and printer on Craigslist, the two most important remaining items on my list.  After I had dragged the heavy tube tv back to my aparment  I realized that the spot where the coaxial cable should connect was missing.  I'm still waiting for my refund check in the mail.

Wednesday

Worst DMV picture ever?

I headed to the DMV to get a California license and get my car registered in the state (mostly because this would allow me to get in-state tuition next year), and somehow this turned into a full day event.  I purposely got into Santa Monica early (at 8:45, 15 mins before the DMV opened), but had trouble finding parking.  By the time I got in line I must have been behind 150 people.  It took over an hour and a half just to get inside and get a number.  I was told I had to move my car to get it "verified."  I picked up the car, waited in another line, had it verified, and then found some street parking a good 6 blocks away.  When I got back to the DMV I waited for my number to be called and when it was, I was told I had to get my car inspected.  I brought the car a few blocks away for a smog inspection.  Turns out the trip hadn't treated my car so well, so I failed inspection (check engine light was on, gas knob was damaged, and some other made up problems).  I went back to the DMV anyway because I still wanted my license.  I waited on lines some more so I could be told to wait on another line where I could get my picture taken.  Since the computers at the DMV had broken down earlier in the day the line was quite long.  It took another hour to get my picture taken, and then I had to follow that up by taking a written drivers test, which was surprisingly difficult.  I figured the only way this day could get any worse was if I failed the written test and then had to make a return trip to the DMV to do it all again, but fortunately I passed.  I returned to my apartment 7 hours after I left it, a couple hundred dollars poorer, and still with some car repairs necessary before I could get it registered.

The evening was more fun because it was Wednesday and Anderson always has a Wednesday night get together.  This one was located in Santa Monica (about 5 miles from Westwood), so a girl from my Pre-O trip and I decided it would be a good time to figure out the LA mass transportation system and take the bus.  We had to wait a bit for it to arrive, but it seemed like a fairly efficient system.  Besides the vomit in the seat next to us, and the homeless people on board, it was quite the lovely ride.  It was a pretty fun night out, I ran into most of the people from my Pre-O trip, a good chunk of the DC crowd, and met a bunch of new people (who's names I don't remember, of course).

Thursday
In the morning/early afternoon I took care of some laundry, apartment cleaning, and a trip to the gym (got some serious deja vu/weird feelings about being back in a campus gym).  Later in the day it was time for the first Section A happy hour.  The Anderson class is divided into 5 "sections," where everyone in your section has the same class schedule as you.  These are the people you will be seeing every day, all day, and working together with the most during core classes in the first quarter.  So to help meet people before orientation began, someone organized a happy hour just for our section, Section A.  Around 20-30 people came out (there are roughly 75 in the section) to some bar named Arsenal.  The happy hour was fine, and people seemed nice, but I was a driver and got my very first LA parking ticket during the event.  Didn't read the fine print on the parking sign.  Not cool.  Our apartment complex (Weyburn Terrace) happened to be having a party in the courtyard when we returned so I went to that for a bit, but it was pretty poorly organized.  Beer lines were long, and you had to fight to get any of the pizza they promised to provide. 

Friday
Day 2 of car related activities brought be back to the scene of where I failed my inspection.  I had them fix whatever they could.  They said it would take an hour, but after wandering the neighborhood and coming back after that amount of time they hadn't even looked at it yet.  I decided to hop on a bus and take it down to the beach and killed sometime there, reading some of my orientation homework packet while there.  Finally they finished up the work so I returned to the shop and picked up the car.  The cost was actually not as high as I thought it would be, but they said I'd have to return again before I could pass inspection b/c they had just reset my check engine light and it needed to be driven for a little while first.  Whatever.  I think its healthy not to go out drinking at least one night a week, so I took the evening off.

Saturday
Went to the gym in the morning and then later a UCLA student's home to watch the first UCLA football game of the year.  I was impressed by how large their apartment was, just a couple miles from Westwood.  They're splitting the apartment 3 ways so it was pretty affordable too.  Seems like it might be a regular hangout spot.  UCLA lost a tight one.  I pretended to be really into the game. 

Sunday
I signed up for "The Amazing LA Race" which is basically a local event based on the show of a similar name.  16 Anderson students showed up, which we broke into 3 teams, and there were maybe another 10-15 non-Anderson participants broken into another 3-4 teams.    We were initially given a clue which led us to the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and then had to continually solve a series of puzzles to point us to our next destination and unlock our next set of clues.  The puzzles were surprisingly challenging, and since everyone was feeling pretty competitive we were running around a decent amount.  The game took place mostly in Hollywood, but we were also given two Metro tokens so we could go to Downtown LA and back.  I didn't know any of the other participants, so it was a good way of meeting people in a different setting, while seeing some sites in LA.  Our team rocked and we ended up winning the event, clocking in at around 3 hours.  At the final destination they had some free food and drinks for us, and also a free game of bowling at Lucky Strike, which a few of us stuck around for.  When I got back to Westwood I met one of the DC guys for a couple drinks at O'Haras, and then called it a night.

Monday
Hit up the gym, finally did my fantasy football research, and then tried again to get a cheap TV on Craigslist.  This TV was even bigger and more difficult to carry but at least it worked.  Somehow I was able to get it up all the stairs and into my room, and although its way too big for my tiny bedroom, I'm keeping it.  One of the girls in my section was having a Labor Day BBQ, so I went over to that.  It was a fairly small event, and I got back to the apartment with a few hours to take care of some final things (mostly just writing this blog) before starting up orientation tomorrow morning.

Weekend Kayaking Trip

The Anderson crew for my Pre-Orientation kayaking and camping trip

Fri-Sun (August 27-29)

Traffic jam on the Pacific Ocean

Last weekend's optional pre-orientation kayaking trip was definitely a highlight of my short stay in LA so far.  The roster ended up being 12 first-year students, 1 alumni who graduated last year, and 2 guides.  We met on campus at 7 am on Friday, fought LA rush hour traffic on a group bus ride to the marina, and then took a ferry to Catalina Island.  The ferry ride was a rocky 25 mile trip that left a lot of folks very queasy, but at least we got a scenic look along the way, passing by a bunch of dolphins and whales.  Once on the island we made lunch, packed up our dry bags for the trip and loaded up the kayaks.  I got matched up with one of the girls who had been freaking out at the trip meeting the day before because she was afraid of everything wildlife and camping related.  This made me a little nervous about how her kayaking abilities would be (not that I had any myself), but she ended up being able to hold her weight and was real entertaining to travel with.

View of our campsite from above

We kayaked 4 miles through the Pacific Ocean to our campsite, which was actually a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  There was one part with especially large waves and strong wind, which tried to push us into the rocks surrounding the island.  After 3-4 hours we arrived at our site.  Because of the steep incline on the beach and the strong surf, getting our kayaks to shore and dismounting was also a difficult task.  A lot of people wiped out getting off them, and dragging the kayaks up the shore to a safe spot was pretty strenuous.  Eventually we all made it to the beach, and we set up our campsite.  We started up a fire, cooked some dinner, and then had the expected getting-to-know-you icebreaker activities by the campfire and then went to bed (no tents, just sleeping bags on top of tarps).

After hiking to the top of one of the nearby peaks

We woke up at around 7:30 on Saturday morning, and since the weather was overcast and chilly, we postponed any kayaking/snorkeling activities for the morning and went on a hike instead.  That got the blood flowing, and once we returned to the beach, we went snorkeling for a little while.  Even in wetsuits, the Pacific Ocean is VERY cold.  There were more fish to see than I expected, but nothing overly exciting.  We had lunch and then a lot of people (including both guides) decided it was naptime.  One student is a part time magician, so he put on a short show (plug: for more information check out shahmagic.com).  Afterwards some of of us walked around the beach for awhile and then 4 of us decided to go for another hike.  We made it to a pretty high peak overlooking much of the island, which was really cool.  When we returned to the campsite it was just in time to play "2 Truths and a Lie" followed by what the guides called "The Greatest Game Ever."  It was some weird combination of Pictionary and Telephone.  For anyone in the family reading this, remind me to introduce this game at the next big family gathering over the holidays because it actually was a lot of fun.  We had "fried" mac and cheese for dinner which was surprisingly delicious, and then more campfire icebreaker games before bedtime.

Cooking on the beach

We had to wake up bright and early on Sunday (around 6:30) to eat and then clean up the whole campsite before heading out.  We played one more game (something reminiscent of Simon Says) to get energy levels high before kayaking from the beach.  We made one more stop at a nearby beach to snorkel some more, and then kayaked the rest of the way back to the marina at Two Harbors.  The return trip was considerably easier because the weather was calmer, and everyone was relieved to be back on solid ground in a location that had running water and most importantly, showers (the campsite only had a few portapotties, and no other amenities).  We all took 1.5 minute showers for 50 cents, and then bought some lunch and scarfed it down before the ferry ride back to LA.

Overall, the trip was a ton of fun and I'm very glad I did it.  It was a good opportunity to get to know a small group of other Anderson students very closely in a short period of time before being thrown into a huge group of people during orientation.  The students on the trip ended up being a really fun group and everyone had a good time with each other.  The experience was made better for some people who weren't outdoorsy because of the extra sense of accomplishment of roughing it on the kayaks and in the camp scene.  Although I've done plenty of camping over the previous few weeks, the kayaking was an interesting experience I have never really had before, and camping on a beach was a really cool, new experience for me too.  Waking up to hear the rush of waves, and going to bed without tents with a star filled sky above were definitely very nice aspects of the trip.

Snorkeling picture from underwater

Cross Country Road Trip Recap

I was planning on writing a big recap after the trip, but I've been pretty busy, and honestly not sure what more to write that I haven't said already.  Although I've had vacations that were more relaxing, or fun, or cultural, this is definitely up there with the most personally rewarding trips I've ever taken.  I think contributing to this is that I planned almost the entire thing myself, the activities and sites were so varied, there was a sense of accomplishment (the distance involved, the planning required, the strenuousness of the hikes, etc) and that it happened during a major transition point in my life.

A special shoutout goes to Mr. Kolko for taking two weeks off from work to travel through the middle of nowhere, splitting expenses and driving responsibilities, and hooking me up with baller hotel stays.  Although I actually really did enjoy the few days I had on my own, especially some solo hiking, I would have gone insane from boredom on the road if I was traveling alone, and all of the other activities wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable or memorable either.  Also, very glad that Mark and Tom were able to make it to Vegas to help me end my trip on a fun note.  And finally, thank you to Honda for making a car that even after 13 years was able to handle a cross country road trip without breaking down in the middle of the desert.

And just because I like pointless stats and lists, here are my random stats and favorite and least favorite aspects of the trip.  Honorable Mentions are listed in italics on the lists at the bottom.  If anyone still reads this and has any additional superlatives or stats I should throw in, feel free to post it in the comment section.  Either way, I'll probably add more stuff later if I think of fun categories. 

Days: 20
States: 15
Miles: 4,705

Citrix Comped Hotel Nights: 8 
Paid Hotels Nights: 6
Camping Nights: 5

Ballparks: 3
Amusement Parks: 1
Museums Dedicated to Corn and/or Spam: 2
National Parks: 6
National Monuments: 2 (Devils Tower, Jewel Cave)
National Memorials: 1 (Mt Rushmore)

Approximate Miles Hiked (organized trails): 36+
Gas Expense: Don't want to think about it
Motorcycles Seen: Millions
Times Pulled Over: 1

Favorite
Meal: Tamari in Pittsburgh; Fiddler's Roof in South Bend, IN and Perkins in Rapid City, SD
Bar: Church Brew Works, Longbranch in Pierre, SD
Ballpark: Wrigley Field
National Park: Arches; Zion
Hike: Angels Landing in Zion
Highway Drive: I-70 in Colorado
City: Denver; Chicago
Random Stop: Spam Museum; Notre Dame Stadium and Football Jesus
Hotel Employee: Girl at Rodeway Inn desk (mostly b/c she was hot)

Least Favorite
Meal: Our breakfast attempt at the Custer Campground
Hike: Devils Kitchen in Colorado National Monument (still enjoyable, but more boring than the others, and no great payoff at the end)
Highway Drive: 8.5 hrs from Hoover Dam to LA; Minnesota, Eastern South Dakota, and Wyoming for its boringness; From Kadoka to Pierre and back b/c of its pointlessness
Hotel Employee: Old Man at Dakota Inn in Kadoka (mostly b/c he was insane and a big stupid jerk)