Surfs Up

Definitely not a picture of me

One of my biggest goals that I wanted to accomplish at some point during my stay in Los Angeles (in addition to the relatively less important items like getting a degree and a job) was to stand up on a large object made of foam in the Pacific Ocean.  I am happy to say I accomplished this when I went surfing last month.

Anderson has their own surf club who held a Beginners Surf Day at Manhattan Beach on a Saturday in October.  I figured there would be no better time to knock something off my to-do list, so I signed up and after picking up our rental equipment (wetsuit and a board) we were off to the beach.  A few of the 2nd years gave us about 1.5 minutes of instruction and then told us to get out in the water and like totally hang ten, dude.  It took a little while before I was able to push myself up at all (mostly in a kneeling position) while riding a wave, but over the course of about two hours I was able to get myself into an actual standing position riding small breaks toward the shore.  There were a bunch of dolphins swimming nearby us in the water too which made it extra gnarly.  The water was freezing, the weather was crummy, and I swallowed a lot of salt water, but it was a blast.  It's something I definitely would want to do again, but the rental fees seem expensive (~$45) so if I want to do it with any regularity I think I should purchase some cheap equipment.  I haven't really had a chance to look into it, so I haven't gotten back since, but hopefully I'll make a point of doing that soon. 

Hanging with Sponge Bob at Universal Studios

So that was the highlight of random activities I've done since I've been in LA.  I realize I haven't really described any other non-school related activities since orientation, so I might as well give a short, vague summary to fill in some blanks.  I've actually been using weekends more to relax because the weekdays are so hectic, and there's actually still a decent amount of work to do on weekends, but I've been having fun and seeing different people.  Scattered in the past couple months with classmates there have been various birthday parties, pool nights, bbqs, beach days, and Halloween festivities.  One of my old friends from Cambridge lives in Long Beach now, so I met up with her last weekend, which was especially nice since I hadn't seen her in more than a year.  Also, I've actually hung out with Reich a decent number of times.  A couple weekends ago we played some basketball (and somehow ended up in a 3-on-3 game with some drunk gang members in the middle of the afternoon), and yesterday we spent the day at Universal Studios.  We did their backstage tour first, and then rode the rides and watched most of the shows, pausing only to pose with various mascots. Good times all around. 

Halloween Party in West Hollywood