Pennies from Heaven

For some reason, my housemates and I keep finding pennies amongst us. Even when we stayed at the hostel on Melrose, we would find pennies mysteriously appearing on the floor, on our beds and in the bathroom. Now that we’re in our new apartment, pennies still appear from heaven! However, because we already have so many of them, we don’t really want any more pennies.

Here’s typical banter:

Housemate: Hey, look I just found a penny!

Me: Really, wow, awesome, you’re getting rich.

Housemate: Nah, I don’t want it. Here, for you.

Me: That’s generous of you. Wait, don’t you collect pennies?

Housemate: Only if I can pay for your thoughts.

Me: Touché.

Los Angeles Observations #01

It’s the middle of day 10 in Los Angeles, with about 100 more days to go. Twelve of us left Singapore for Los Angeles for the Chapman summer immersion program. A week in and some of us have secured internships. I’m interning at Strand Releasing, a film distributor which handles indie, edgy fare. Someone is at Gersh, someone is at Vision Films, someone is at Forward Pass.

The air was cool and crisp when I exited the automated doors of the Los Angeles International Airport. I heard it underwent an upgrade so it’s “a much better airport now”, said Dan, Kening’s friend, who came to pick some of us up. The food is great but more expensive as proven by the Brazilian Churrasco lunch (long queue) I had when meeting Selise Eiseman at the Farmer’s Market. The vegetables taste fresher and are simply delicious, and despite the cost, it seemed value for money.

Seven days later, I ate a frozen microwave dinner instead.

Even though Singapore is a garden city, the flowers in LA are more beautiful and colorful. It makes the place unreal, and perfect. Since it is summer, it is extremely sunny. With the lack of tall buildings and trees, of which Singapore has a lot of, it is difficult to find shade from the sun. Sunblock is very necessary.

If you are living in populous areas in LA, one can get around quite easy with the buses (from July, $1.50 per trip by cash or TAP card, with daily, weekly and monthly passes). I get quite annoyed when people who have never taken the Metro buses say it is terrible. So far, it’s been reliable, with most waiting times similar to buses in Singapore (10 – 15 mins). Since bus-stops are road-identified instead of landmark identified, as sometimes the bus stops are in Singapore (e.g. Opposite Bras Basah), I found it much easier to learn and use the LA Metro. All buses have some form of announcements, e.g. “Approaching Fairfax and Melrose, followed by Fairfax…” Biggest complaint? Most bus stops aren’t sheltered from the sun, and could be a bit hard to spot.

Coming up next from me: LA Pride and West Hollywood (our apartment)