Well, I really am famous. A lot of people would be really excited to talk to me.

It had to happen. We were trying so hard to avoid being tourists, but how could we justify being film/tv kids in Los Angeles and never seeing the Hollywood Walk of Fame? The Kodak Theatre, site of the Academy Awards? The footprints outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Photo cred to Laur for this blog's pictures :)

So, we took the plunge and drove a few miles down Highland to the heart of Los Angeles, and walked all up and down Hollywood Boulevard. Oh, the wonders we found.

Signs that this is the Times Square of LA? Shops like this.

So, what did we do? Embrace it! Helllllo, Hollywood!

We saw so many praise-worthy names on the boulevard, and some...interesting ones...

When we had our fill of stars, we checked out the hand prints at the Chinese Theatre.

My love.

Outside the Chinese, there were a great many impersonators. A few Michael Jacksons, a few Jack Sparrows, and a medley of cartoon characters. However, in a series of escalating dares, I think we found the greatest photo opportunities Hollywood had to offer.

This is my favorite. Laur's always getting compared to KStew, anyway...

Gah! If you know me, you know how I am about scary movies...this was terrifying.

Ironically, this was the scariest moment of all, as Elmo sang softly to himself.

After that, we headed to the grocery to stock up for the next week. I love how fruit is so fresh in California, and how you can get blood oranges in the winter.

Til next time!
-Jenn

Let's make some sweet, sweet music together.

Picking up right where Erin's entry left off, I will continue the adventure of our Saturday night:

Josh (whom you may remember as the former Executive Producer of Bay State), Justin (whom you won't remember unless you date back to the days of Microwave Tinfoil), and Josh's friend Chris (whom you can't remember because you haven't met him) were waiting to hang out with us once we got home from the Observatory. Unfortunately, their dark, twisted plans required being 21+, so Erin was unable to attend.

Jenn and I spent about six minutes at home before Josh pulled up in his car to pick us up, and we headed to Korea Town, where Chris's apartment, and various Karaoke establishments, are located.

After a few episodes of Stella at Chris's (accompanied by a few beers), we and Chris's roommates walked to a Karaoke lounge where you could rent private rooms. Thanks to the large number of people, it cost almost nothing between us, and we had unlimited songs to sing. Or yell. Or rap. (Maybe I knew all the words to "The Real Slim Shady," and maybe I requested that right off the bat.)

As the night progressed, the attendees thinned to just the five of us, and the activity escalated to a full-on rock-out session. Tambourines included!


And, we were endlessly amused by the background to the songs we sang, which chronicled the lives of this young Asian couple, and had nothing to do with any of the lyrics.


Finally, I offer the following embarrassing videos for your viewing pleasure:

(Specifically dedicated to DJ and Amadeo.)


(Truth be told, I have no excuse for this one.)

Basically, we danced and sang, screamed and yelled, drank and laughed, until 2 AM, when we grabbed a cab home. And then we watched those videos and realized that we made pretty big asses of ourselves.

The best part? We'll do all of that with you, as soon as you come visit us. If you don't, you'll have to keep reading this blog and being jealous. (Actually, after those videos, you're probably going, "Is that supposed to be enticing?" It is, but maybe I should refine my argument next time so that it doesn't include videos.)

--Lauren

(Photo cred. in this entry goes to Jenn.)

You want to throw a party?

After an exciting but tiring first week of classes and internships, we were ready to take advantage of the weekend and knock some items off our new "things we must do in LA this semester" list. We decided to start with the Griffith Observatory, which is supposed to be the best viewing point of LA. After a crazy drive during which the sights included a liquor store that delivers and a Hummer limo driving in reverse (uphill!), we reached the Observatory just after sunset to find that many other people had the same idea as us. We followed the signs for "additional parking" and parked on a winding road on the side of a mountain (don't worry, everyone else was doing it, too).

We trekked our way up to the Observatory, pausing briefly to admire the Hollywood sign (on our right, no less!). The next planetarium show was sold out, so we got tickets for the one after that and decided to look around the museum and outside first.

Photo credit to Jenn for all of these!

Then we went outside to one of the terraces, where we were greeted by this:


Some people may say that LA is not the most aesthetically beautiful city, but I don't think anyone can argue that the lights at nighttime are gorgeous. We all took turns posing for photos with the skyline.




Then we decided to kill the remaining time before the planetarium show in the gift shop, where we discovered these:

Because we're five, we could not leave without each purchasing a glittery bouncing ball. Then it was time for the planetarium show, which was entitled "First Light: The Telescope Changed Everything." It taught us about Galileo, constellations, and featured a trip back through time and space. Definitely worth the $5 price of admission.


As we left the planetarium with the intention of heading home, the greatest surprise of the night was still to come. We came upon a lawn full of amateur astronomers with telescopes set to various planets, moons, and constellations. Turns out we happened to visit the Observatory on the night of their monthly "Public Star Party." Amazed by our luck, we got to look at Mars, the moon (that was the coolest one), and various constellations for free.

Then we hiked back to the car and began our harrowing journey back down the mountain. After encountering a worrisome sign proclaiming the road was flooded (turned out to be a false alarm), we happened upon a small pack of baby coyotes. Contradicting all common sense, Jenn asked if we wanted to do a U-turn and go back toward the coyotes. We decided against it.


All in all, we couldn't have chosen a better day to visit the Observatory! It definitely seems to be a must-see attraction in LA, so if you visit, we can take you there. No promises of a party, though, because that kind of luck probably won't strike twice.

-Erin

I think we always seem to be in the same place at the same time.

Hello again!

So, the BU in LA program is pretty lax about us taking off and flying around the city at our leisure on the weekends (can I fit any more airport puns into that sentence?), but occasionally the administration does require us to be at certain places at certain times.

The Getty, and the garden.

This weekend's field trip was a Saturday morning excursion to the Getty Center, an art museum that is free to the public, thanks to the trust of the savvy and philanthropic oil tycoon, J. Paul Getty.

The view from the tram.

To get to the Getty Center, we parked at the main gate (at the base of a mountainous hill), and took a tram up to the actual complex. As we learned on the tour, this tram is a horizontal elevator. It will come into play more prominently later in our day.

Fossils! Also, lots of travertine.

Once all of the students were gathered up, we took a walking tour around the Getty, learning about the architecture and the landscaping. The whole complex is made of only three materials, all of which are only two colors (minus one notable purple structure). The architect, Richard Meier, prefers to only use the color white in his creations, so everything around is either T-Shirt White, or Getty White. However, the man who designed the central garden, Robert Irwin, took the opposite approach to the complex. His gardens are ever-changing and colorful, a bright complement to the minimalist architecture surrounding the garden.

The garden was filled with a variety of strange plantlife, accurately deemed "SPACEPLANTZ" by Amadeo.

That's enough learning for now. See, BU? Clearly we gleaned something from that tour. I think that means we've earned a trip to the beach. But ducking out of the Getty so soon would be a waste, so we checked out the garden, some famous Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Picasso paintings, then headed back to the tram.

We had some fun on the tram, because we were given an empty car. No harm, no foul...right?

This horizontal elevator is comparable to the Tower of Terror, ob-v.

After that madness, we felt a little hungry, so we GPS'd the nearest IN-N-OUT Burger. I mean, as long as we're being tourist-y this weekend, shouldn't we eat at this famous establishment? Answer: Yes.

Erin approves of this.

And, great minds thinking alike, we ran into another group of BU in LA kids there. Success. The burgers were great...and inexpensive. Double success.

The very condensed pier at Santa Monica. It's like Jersey...but in SoCal!

When our street meter ran out, we decided it was high time to head to the beach. We got back on the 10, and drove to Santa Monica. I think this blog is about to be transformed into a serious picture post. Ready? Go!

Hellllo, sand and surf!

View from the pier, looking at the beach.

View from the pier, looking toward the ocean.

"Is that a baby?!" One ride allowed young children to be strapped into a bungee cord.

The Promenade.

After exploring the pier for a while, we killed time pre-sunset by heading to the Third Street Promenade. We saw musicians, clowns, kittens, and even a monkey. Also, you can shop there, I suppose.

...and it's decorated with dinosaurs!

...for reasons we can't explain!

Anyway, after walking up and down the promenade, we walked back to the pier for some serious sunset-over-the-ocean action.

Underneath the pier.

Josh joined us for some kettle corn and coughing.

As the sun set, we listened to some great covers by musician James Valenti.

The sunset. Y'all know how I feel about sunsets.

After the glorious colors faded from orange to pink to yellow to blue, we walked back down the pier to take some photos with the ferris wheel. Because, if you know Lauren, you know how she feels about ferris wheels. It's akin to how I feel about sunsets.

The ferris wheel...the pier...the water. Sigh.

Happy Lauren is happy.


The Ferris Wheel!

Let's be honest, we're all happy.

Some people might think all-green is boring, but I think it screams "Science!"

Last picture of the evening. What a good day!

So, that was our first Saturday in LA. Come visit us, we'll take you to the beach...in winter!
-Jenn

How did you...how did you get this picture?

Shawty's like a melody in my head...

As is customary for LA folk, we have been spending a lot of time in the car. And, as the cast and crew of the musical know, that means we've been listening to a lot of radio. While no station will ever replace SoJo, we have found one with a pretty decent rotation of songs--just enough repetition of Gaga, "Down," Ke$ha, Britney, and (fittingly) "Replay" to keep us entertained. And to keep us singing this song...on repeat...like my iPod's stuck on replay...(okay, okay, I'm done).

Anyway, the point is, we've been driving a lot. Usually, though, we only drive to get from A to B. However, last night, after the Youth Alumni Panel (a mandatory event from BULA), we realized that we didn't have any plans. Most people in our program (including us) don't know Los Angeles well enough to offer any decent suggestions, so after the Q & A ended, we were left without a concrete idea of how to spend our Friday night--especially knowing we had to be up at 8 AM for yet another mandatory event this morning (to be discussed in Jenn's upcoming entry).

So, to solve the we-don't-know-LA problem, and the we're-bored-on-a-Friday-night problem (and to ease the Bay-State-read-through-is-happening-and-we're-missing-it pain), we decided the best idea was to drive around aimlessly, using our GPS's "points of interest" feature as a guide. I grabbed my DSLR, Erin grabbed her Flip camera, Jenn grabbed her car keys, and we were off.

We started driving to Sunset Strip, which wasn't really what we were looking for. So, we tried to turn around. But finding an appropriate place for a U-turn was difficult, and as we continued down the road, it became increasingly less appealing; we realized we were headed up one of the mountain bluffs that I've been staring at in awe for the past week, and that was way cooler than doing a U-turn.

It was not an easy drive--it comprised nothing but S-curves straight out of a video game, and it wasn't exactly well-lit. Jenn managed, though, and once we caught one glimpse of the view, we knew we had to soldier on. Erin did some quick google-searching on her Blackberry, and found out that apparently the best view of LA at night is at the top of Mulholland Drive, which we'd driven past moments before. Done...and done.

We kept pulling over to enjoy the view before realizing that it only got better with each passing hairpin turn.

We finally found the actual outlook point, and stopped to enjoy the beautiful view of the twinkling lights in the city (and to finally appreciate how enormous Los Angeles truly is). And, despite the loud couple that broke up in an explosion of expletives slightly to our left, we were blown away by what we saw. Our pictures and videos can't really do it justice, but lord knows we tried anyway.





In the end, though, there are a few moments we felt couldn't really get across outside of video. The first video is a compilation of what I've told/shown you. Observe:



The second is when we thought we were going to get attacked by a mountain lion.
You heard me.

Keep an eye out for Jenn's next update-- it promises to include some more pretty incredible photos. Apparently, for the last 24-hours of our lives, we've taken the scenic route.

--Lauren

I’ll forward you all an email with the new phone number for Facilities.

I was going to wait to write my first post for this blog until we had a new adventure I could tell you all about, but realized I should just focus on some of the as yet untouched upon hilarious moments from the past few days instead.

LA driving is good so far, except within the labryinth that is Park La Brea. For example, the gated entrance about 30 feet from our building that seems to open about 28% of the time. The other 72 you have to look like an idiot as you do a U-turn and block traffic, and cry in frustration as it opens for the next car to approach it. It is, however, frightening that my life is essentially in the hands of my GPS. Take, for example, our adventure the other night as we attempted to locate the building where both Lauren and myself had an interview the next day. First, we discovered that my GPS has a strange setting where its volume is proportionate to the speed of the car. Therefore, driving on the freeway= angry GPS yelling at you. Combined with the fact that we had ignored its last three directions and it would conceivably be annoyed, it really seemed to be yelling at us. Then, we confused it so much that it decided the most direct route would be to drive through a building- literally, there was a dotted line with the car on it going directly through one. As we laughed so hard we nearly cried and approached delirium due to a lack of sleep, a Winnie the Pooh balloon appeared in midair, just floating in the street. I had to confirm that Lauren and Jenn also saw it to make sure I wasn't losing it. The whole experience was very bizarre, especially considering the fact that the next day my GPS took me a completely different, much less complicated route.

Then yesterday morning I woke up, went to the kitchen to make breakfast, and stepped in a puddle of water. We suspected it may have come from the dishwasher, which we had run the night before. It didn't make complete sense, however, since the puddle was at the end of the kitchen farthest from the dishwasher. Last night we ran it again and everything seemed to be fine until we realized there was soapy water everywhere.

And of course, we did not even have a mop, so aside from a roll of paper towels, we were helpless. We had no choice but to ask the very kind Park La Brea maintenance people to bring stuff to help us clean up. In the meantime, Lauren expressed her frustration over not being able to navigate the very wet kitchen. Josh, who was visiting, reminded her that "the only thing your neighbors will appreciate more than water coming out of their ceilings is you stomping around angrily."


Embarassingly enough, it turns out the incident was completely our own fault- apparently this dishwasher can only use the powder kind of soap, and you should never put any kind of liquid soap in it. Oops? According to the very friendly maintenance guy, however, this is a common mistake.

Mechanical failures aside, LA is great so far. Just going to the offices and lots where my interviews were was one of the craziest, most surreal experiences of my life, and now we all have at least one sure-to-be-awesome internship lined up. Tonight we comforted ourselves over not being able to attend the 118 read-through by taking an amazing scenic trip to the top of Mulholland Drive- pictures and videos to come!

-Erin

Well...you're the only person I knew in LA.

Hola!

My name is Jenn...I'm from Massachusetts...I'm a Film and TV Major...and my favorite movie is...Galaxy Quest?

It only seems right to start this blog post with an icebreaker, so I used the one from the BU-in-LA residence meeting last night. Because, yes, I am in Los Angeles, as part of Boston University's internship program. And it's awesome. Four days in might be too early to call, but...the weather is beautiful, the apartment is gorgeous, and the company is wonderful.

Sunrise over the Atlantic! What a way to leave the East Coast.

Getting here was easy enough--my direct flight from Logan to LAX was very smooth, and because of the surprise-lack-of-headwinds, only four and half hours. Though, it felt more like four and a half months, because I stepped onto the plane in the middle of January and came out in June. Goodbye, wind chill. Hello, sunshine!

Yes, those are tank tops and t-shirts! Weather win!

Our first few days have been filled with orientation and errands, so we didn't get a chance to take an adventure until this afternoon's walk around the La Brea Tar Pits. Which Lauren informs me is the most redundant title ever, meaning "The The Tar Tar Pits." It's a bilingual chiasmus.

The underground spring...pushing forth the bubbling asphalt...

Just in case you were planning to go, don't be disappointed.

There may not be dinosaurs, but there ARE direwolves!

And around the grounds, we fell in love with the giant ground sloths.

Lauren took one of the sloths out dancing.

And I took the other out for a spin.

Once in the museum, we found that if we got into a fight with tar, we would lose.

Meet Zed, the Columbian mammoth, pride of Rancho La Brea.

Animatronics! Please notice the camel in the background.

The Fishbowl!

Look at this--the museum won a Telly! Reminds me of a certain show back home...

That's all for now!

Hope all is well, and look for Erin's first entry soon!
-Jenn