India Adventures!

re-using this old blogspot. wow, my cali blogs didn't last that long. now using it for my trip to india, so this blog is now called "travel adventures."

i arrived in mumbai at 8:30pm indian time and checked into the marriott renaissance until my 30 minute domestic flight to pune tomorrow morning. this hotel is swank. how come all the cool ones are in 3rd world countries like the hanoi we we stayed at??

i hope the pune marriott i'm staying at for the month is as nice. flight was 15 hours long but it's good it departed at night b/c i fell asleep and was delighted to wake up 8 hours later. saw black swan, due date, and tangled on the plane.

their autorickshaws here are what scooters are in vietnam, all over the streets and no traffic lights or laws it seems. saw lots of big stray dogs too on the road when i was in the taxi. free wifi in the business lounge and then going to walk around and take pics of the hotel.

Thanksgiving visit

Chau came to LA last week which was more fun than doing stuff alone. We did San Diego, Warner Bros. studio Tour, Robertson Blvd, Marc Jacobs and Penguin, The Grove, Venice Pier, Century City, Getty Center, Disneyland (last time it was California Adventure Park), Pacific Design Center, lots of brunches, Asian grocery shopping in Little Saigon, and Jonas Brothers at Jimmy Kimmel. We are very efficient. I also went to the American Music Awards and took the Metro which has very shady stops and an honor system for tickets which is wierd.

Tonight I'm going to see Keane on Jimmy Kimmel. Loving the free concerts. I tried to get Snow Patrol and Taylor Swift on Carson Daly but no luck. I have an all-day work meeting in Anaheim this Friday. Thinking about going to the All-American Rejects concert next week in San Diego since I missed their LA show. KROQ has a cool Xmas concert with the Killers, Paramore, Snow Patrol, the Cure, Death Cab, etc. but I'll already be in DC. This is random, but I'm obsessed with Twilight and Robert Pattinson now.

Coming home in 1.5 weeks! I hope Dumpling runs over to me when I'm home. But he'll probably either not care or not remember me. Oh well, we'll still frolic in Bethesda and I'll give him a haircut (and snuggle). I've discovered there's a bus from my area that goes to the airport so I don't have to drive and park, so it's good I live like 10 minutes from LAX.

Paramore and cast of Twilight (minus the dreamy Robert Pattinson, but his character is actually cuter than he is) at Hollywood and Highland Center mall


NKOTB at American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre LA Live downtown


Friends' Central Perk at Warner Bros. studio tour in Burbank

Really cool garden at the Getty Center in Brentwood

Pacific Design Center (NT will appreciate this, Top Design contestants get the expensive furniture here, it's a huge bulding)

Jonas Brothers at Jimmy Kimmel, omg (TY would've appreciated it more than me and Chau, although I do like their song Tonight now. And Burnin' Up and SOS)

One Republic @ Hollywood Palladium

Went to the One Republic concert at Hollywood Palladium Saturday night. They sang a cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy which I really liked, and I don't even like that song. And of course I liked Apologize, Stop & Stare, and Say (All I Need). They were good and I'm an expert at finding free parking in LA now. I just go a couple blocks off of the main street instead of the ripoff parking that's $20 valet on the Sunset Strip. I did that in WeHo and Venice too.

I'm taking full advantage of all these concerts and events in LA while I'm here. The Paramore concert at Hollywood & Highland Center is indeed free tomorrow, so I'm going. You just need to buy a wristband if you want a better seat and autograph, which is sold out anyways and I prob wouldn't buy it. And I got a $15 for Phantom Planet at the Troubador in Dec. This will be the first time I'm going to Phantom without Nutmeg, we've prob seen them like 3 times. Going to concerts by myself is fine b/c there's no seats so I don't look weird. Plus there's a gazillion AZNs in LA so I blend in.

I bought a lot of fruit like tangerines and pumelo grapefruit at Costco which is really good b/c know I'm eating a lot of that instead of the Ben & Jerry's mint chocolate cookie which I knew I shouldn't have bought in the first place. And the Twix I got just in case trick or treaters came, which they didn't, rofl. I also got those prepared foods like the steak wrapped with mushrooms, chicken parmigiana, and salmon with butter. So I just freeze most of it and refrigerate what I can eat that week.

Lanny will like this Costco story/say I'm lying. Last time I ditched and ran when I used Chau's old Costco card at the Costco right by my apartment b/c only the cardholder can use it and I said I'd get my sister who was "parking the car." So I tried again on a weekend when it's crowded and there's more distractions. And this time I picked a guy instead of a girl b/c they pay less attention. He said I looked nice in my dress and let me get away with using my debit card even though it wasn't my Costco ID. But now I think I'll go to the other Costco where they don't care who's ID it is.

West Hollywood and Daniel Vosovic

This blog is a little late but awhile ago I went to West Hollywood because I saw this online sale for Revolve clothing and noticed their one store is on Melrose Ave. Marc Jacobs is down the block too so I went to their accessories store. The store definitely does not have as much as they do online, it's like those minimal boutiques. So I got cute wedges online that were also in Lucky mag b/c they have free shipping and returns http://www.luckymag.com/shopping/blogs/shop/2008/11/well-heeled.html. The Marc Jacobs store is on the right with the building covered in green leaves. Herve Leger is to the left.

I also got J. Crew pumps in store and if you show them your student ID, you get 15% off, just like Madewell in patent blanched almond http://www.jcrew.com/AST/Browse/WomenBrowse/Women_Shop_By_Category/shoes/heels/PRDOVR~96716/96716.jsp. So now I'm not allowed to shop anymore for awhile. Except there is an Ella Moss sample sale this weekend, hmm. That's how I decide which neighborhoods to visit, where sales are, although I usually just window shop.

I went to see Daniel Vosovic at FIDM for his book signing and lecture. I wanted to get a photo with him but you had to buy his book so I nixed that. I listened to his lecture though, it was about his life story, what he's been doing since, and design career advice b/c most of the audience were very trendy FIDM kids. He didn't talk much about Project Runway unless someone asked him a question about it. Sweet P was there to listen to Daniel b/c she lives in LA and she answered some questions at the end. The photo is small, but Daniels in the front with a grey sweater and black tie and Sweet P is sitting next to him in the purple shirt.

All-American Rejects and the Donnas had a concert that was only $15 last week! But I didn't read about it until this week so that sucked. Paramore's playing at Hot Topic for some kind of Twiilight promotion, but you had to buy a special edition t-shirt and it sold out I think. It was $30 anyways, but maybe I'll just go to see if the paid part was just to get an autograph. It's true, whenever I hear that Twiilight song, it sounds like Flyleaf, which is not good. That movie is really hyped up, I might go see it or try the first book if the movie gets good reviews. And I want to see Bolt next week, $5 first weekend showings at the theatre down the block!

Weekend exploring

On my birthday I treated myself to some shopping since I haven't done any since I got here. I went to Barney's Co-op section in Beverly Hills and Alice+Olivia, but didn't see anything. I went to an outdoor shopping mall in Century City that had Cusp and Madewell. A lot of the malls here are outdoors, which make sense b/c it hardly rains. It rained a little yesterday and people were slow and freaking out on the road. Madewell had a good sale and I got a white chino blazer for only $30 and a white vest for $40. I really liked the vest but one of the gold buttons already fell off! So I'll have to sew that back on. And I got Macaroni Grill's seafood linguini to go b/c I had a huge craving for it. I'm cooking steamed fish with lemon and cilantro and sauteeing broccolini with spring onions tonight. And using the rice cooker that TY and Lanny got me!

I had to network at my work reception, but it actually did some good b/c I talked to a girl on the Warner Brothers project and she said soon there will be a lot of roles open. That would be really cool if I got on that project, that's one of the reasons I wanted to live here, to good media & entertainment projects.

Went to a Thousand Oaks, CA sample sale on Saturday, which is 45 minutes up north passing through Malibu. I saw a lot of surfers sitting on their boards waiting for waves in Malibu. Then I drove through this huge canyon which was a little scary b/c it was curvy and had cliffs. It was pretty though. Thousand Oaks pretty much has nothing and the sale sucked, but it was good to see another part of SoCal. They had knock-off Marc Jacobs bags, and for a second I was excited.

I window-shopped in Venice on Abbot Kinney Blvd on Sunday. It has cute boutiques that are hippyish, eco-friendly, but expensive. But I guess all boutiques are pricey. A lot of people biking in Venice, which is next to where I live. I'm gonna take a photo of every neighborhood I explore. Below is Venice:

Apartment photos

Alright, here are some iPhone photos like I said I would post:

I'm starting my blog now that I'm settled in LA. Everything is good now, I have a lot of time to organize everything since I'm not on a project yet. I've been cooking stuff like pad thai with shrimp, pork chops with sauteed onions, and tonight I'm doing a turkey burger with sweet potato fries and asparagus.

The LG LCD tv is good in HD but for standard definition tv shows, it's kind of grainy unless you're farther away. But then I googled that and that's what all HDTVs are like, which I think is stupid. There's an annoying dog in my complex that shrieks every time someone walks by. He reminds me of Dumpling. Annoying people were riling him up and barking like idiots.

I went into the Accenture LA office today, it's nice but it's a lot smaller than Reston. I'm going again next Thursday for people who have been promoted to do training/celebrate. The office is in El Segundo, which is about 15 minutes from my apartment and near the Manhattan Beach Toyota dealership where we got my Prius.

My roommate and I are both polite and quiet so I like that, it's kind of like living by myself because she works until around 8pm at her nail salon. She is off on Tuesdays and works on weekends.

I'm going to the One Republic concert in November at the Hollywood Palladium. Chau and I signed up for tickets to the Ellen Degeneres show for when she visits, but we only get tickets if they email us. I might try to see the High School Musical movie this weekend because there are 2 theatres that I can walk to from my place.