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Diana's Visit As if first week wasn't crazy enough with my dad and Erik's sister Katie visiting, Diana and her friends came down to visit as well! I still don't know whether or not to be thankful they only harassed Barry on Sunday (the day I got back), simply because my week was so crazy... I'm not sure I could have handled the extra fun, er, uh, I mean stress! So, as for what exactly Diana, Lynda, Thao, and Ha did the first few days they were down here- that'd be Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to the best of my knowledge- I have no idea, except for spending a bunch of time in Barry's living room sleeping and stuff. That brings us to Tuesday; supposedly Barry and I were supposed to meet up with Diana and her friends on-campus... but that didn't happen. (welcome to the wonders of LA traffic, everyone!) Eventually they met with Barry after he finished his fraternity stuff and stopped by my apartment. Since there's nothing to do and very little to see here, we headed out to Volcano Tea for some pearl tea, then over to Barry's place to figure out what the heck we wanted to do. Plenty of Puzzle Fighter carnage while we were figuring out what to do, too. heh heh... Diana and her friends wanted to "see" Los Angeles, and that meant tourist spots. Heck, I'd never gone to most tourist spots myself, so we picked up Barry's friends Jason, Sam-sam (sp?), and Nancy, and headed over to Hollywood and Highland, home of the wax museum, Ripley's Believe-It or Not, Mann's Chinese Theatre, and a whole bunch of other famous stuff including part of the Walk of Stars. Wandered the shopping mall, met (and scared, probably) Minnie Driver, then explored the street outside. Ran into a reporter from KCAL 9, and when he was done filming we got to take pictures! Spent time outside the Wax Museum and the Guiness Book of World Records, too, but didn't go in. Looked for footprints and handprints at the Chinese Theater, too! That was lots of fun-- sort of the ultimate in stereotypical Los Angeles tourist activity, too! Nothing else too special after that, aside from being in an area generally considered very famous. That, and the sheer novelty of having never been there before! Came back to Barry's place, introduced Diana to alcohol (woah! We had the honor of devirginizing her to alcohol... crazy!), played some video games, then they went back to their hotel and I went back to my apartment... that little thing called school still awaited me in the morning! The next day, Diana and her friends went down to USC to explore the campus, then they were supposed to explore UCLA before leaving that evening. Met up with them for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) in Westwood, then headed to UCLA to meet Barry and go exploring. BTW, it's CPK, not Pizza California! (It confused me too, but they ARE different!) Explored UCLA, from Ackerman Student Union to Janss steps to the original four buildings (Kinsey/Powell/Royce/Haines) to the Sculpture Garden to the Inverted Fountain... including the mundane areas in-between too, like Bunche, Lu Valle Commons, Knudsen, Schoenberg, etc. We avoided a detailed exploration of south campus at Barry's request. =) Diana, Thao, Ha, and Lynda commented on something about the lack of hot guys at UCLA vs. USC, but Barry and I managed to avoid beating them over the head for that comment! We didn't subject them to any actual classes at UCLA, although I'm sure we could have arranged it... hehehe.... left Diana and her friends in Westwood while I dropped off Barry so he could go see his Giants vs. Dodgers game, then met back up with Diana and her friends at Starbucks. Stood at Starbucks for something like two hours (they were there for 3+ hours!) since it was next door to the premier of High Crimes, and I guess they always wanted to go see a premier. =) I hadn't been to one either... so, drank $3 coffee and snapped picture after picture of Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, and other stars whose names I can't remember. It was fun, although I wouldn't go again without friends who wanted to go! (aka not THAT much fun, but a novel thing once in a while!) Snapped before and after pictures on the red carpet... then they packed up and went home! Hope you all had fun, Diana, Ha, Lynda, and Thao! Photo credit: Various photos at the premier by Ha Le, Lynda Ly, Thao Tran, Diana La. Just because they were loony enough to wait there for hours and hours, they should probably get some of the photo credit... =) |