My trip began with a very teary goodbye at Christchurch airport, to my surprise I was even worse than mum! It wasn't until I was half way to Auckland that I manage to get it together again... Time passed quickly as I wandered around the airport ready to board my flight to LA. This was the longest flight I've been on so far and it wasn't too bad! I watched a movie and Trinny and Susanna- it's not the size but the shape that counts ladies- had a very yummy dinner served at around 11pm then went to sleep for the greater part of the rest of the flight (I even slept right through breakfast!)
I've met lovely people here, an Irish couple on their way home, a lady named Linda who was heading on a cruise to Hawaii and a textiles lecturer from a nearby university!
Today in LA I went to Venice beach which was a true American style location, gangsters playing basketball, people roller skating, miles and miles of little junk shops selling fake labels. This was also the location where Baywatch was filmed! I bought a lovely silk scarf and some glasses (I thought they would make me look sophisticated at the conference!) I visited Santa Monica and the star studed Rodeo Drive. Every shop was Gucci or D & G and a vase I looked at was a mere $46,000 (thats US). It was a really gorgeous place and quite surreal to imagine this is where all the stars are snapped doing their shopping. After it got dark we went to Hollywood Boulevard, LA's equivalent of Time Square. It was all aglow with neon lights, I took pictures of the stars on the footpath, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Tom Cruise and stopped off at a massive shopping mall. There were so many cool shops but sadly I ran out of time & after nearly buying a $380 jacket I thought it was time to get out of there!
It's crazy seeing a real skyline with huge sky scrapers and driving on those spaghetti like highways on the left side of the road! So far I'm really enjoying it, it such a crazy and cool experience! Things i've noticed especially is the number of people bombarding you about strange religions you've never heard of and random guys on the street with walkmans shouting "I'm as good as Kanye! Take a listen!" If you turn them down then it's "you'll be wanting my signature when I'm famous!" It's certainly a different culture and lifestyle here but it's really cool and huge... A tour guide said to me- you know how you have suburbs in your hometown, well we have cities in ours" The number of cars in LA is more than the population of Australia!
I'm missing everybody and would love to share it with you but I have taken lots of pictures and they will have to do! Im off to Miami then Managua tomorrow where I will spend the night before heading to the conference in Granada, I will write whenever I can.
