For those of you that have been wanting to see where I live, I finally have some pictures to show!
door to my apartment
apartment attached to the left side behind the crazy tree
That’s pretty much it-kinda small, but better than I expected!
I made it through my first “real” week of grad school! I love it so far-I feel like such a dork saying that, but I have never felt like I was more called to a profession than this. I enjoyed nursing school, but I wasn’t passionate about it like I am social work. I know that I needed to start with nursing to point me in this direction, because I honestly had no idea what social workers did until I entered the realm of public health. There’s been a ton of reading already, but to be honest, I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of it! It makes such a difference if your heart’s in it than if you’re just doing it because it’s expected of you. Of course I’m a little anxious about starting my field placement at the VA hospital (mostly because I haven’t dealt with adults in awhile), and I’m anxious about doing papers and projects, but I’m so thrilled to be in this program and have the opportunity to learn so much! The professors are all social workers, so of course they’re super caring people that want to do whatever they can to help you succeed- definitely one of the benefits of getting your masters in social work! haha…Besides school this week, I officially became a California resident! I went to the DMV yesterday and registered my car, took the written driver’s test, and now have my CA license-yay! I feel so much more official 
I even registered to vote (for those of you that were worried I wouldn’t get around to it-haha)! Each day I’ve discovered more of LA and I’m loving every minute of it. I love all the different faces, cultures, languages etc…I’ve longed for that my entire life and it’s nice to feel “at home” in the midst of it all. I was laughing to myself the other day when I was walking to class, because in a matter of 5 minutes, I heard 4 different languages-so cool. Oh yeah, I finally got a TV last night! Of course I found it on Craigslist-haha…and it was only $25!!! I’m just excited to be able to watch a movie or something if I need to unwind for a bit and not think. I’m sure there will be plenty of moments where I need to de-stress! For those of you that are worried about my allegiance to the buckeyes…my heart will always belong to the Ohio State Buckeyes, but I have to admit that I did wear a USC t-shirt the other day-aagghhh! I’m feeling oddly connected to this school-I think because I like the program so much and all that it stands for. Not too much going on this weekend…I might go to the beach tomorrow and just relax for a bit. Definitely one of the perks of living in California! Other than that, I’m going to try and get caught up on sleep, read, watch a movie, and prepare for next week-I’m sure that’s when the real fun begins! Just thought you all might want an update since I haven’t written for so long-I’ll try to be more diligent Have a great Labor Day weekend!
Since we arrived in LA on Friday, Nicole and I have been working pretty much non-stop to get my apartment put together. There’s still some stuff to do, but we decided we’d had enough and needed a day to just have fun. So Seth drove Nicole and I around Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and then he took us to The Grove and Farmer’s Market-two outdoor shopping places. It was fun to see that stuff again and I was glad that she could experience it too. After that, we got directions to Santa Monica beach and spent the afternoon there. What a great Sunday! We walked through the 3rd street Promenade in Santa Monica and saw a couple paparazzi but didn’t see any celebrities. Here’s some pictures from today!
At the Kodak Theater
Santa Monica Beach
I also went back to USC yesterday to pick up my ID and find the Social Work Buildings. While I was there, I remembered to take some pictures so you all can see how beautiful the campus is!
Tommy Trojan-haha
2nd of my buildings
We arrived safely in LA yesterday around 12pm and got to experience some of the lovely Los Angeles traffic already! I had to go downtown to pick up my keys from the rental office, so I was thrown into maneuvering through LA traffic while looking for an address that didn’t exist. We ended up just parking and finding the right building-it took us all of two minutes to run in and get the keys, and then we could head out of there to my apartment.
We got to my apartment around 1pm and started to unload the car-finally!!! I cannot tell you how excited I was to get the car emptied out-5 days of driving with stuff up to the ceiling and creeping into the front seats was getting old. It only took about an hour to get everything into my apartment, so that was a lot better than trying to pack it all into the car! My apartment is pretty nice-better than I expected. It’s definitely not my Columbus apartment, but it’ll do for this year. It’s attached to the side of a large house, about 1/2 a block from the University. It’s basically all students that live on this street, and it seems pretty safe so far. I do have bars on my windows and door, so that made me happy! The kitchen is a little smaller than my old one, the room is about the size of my old living room, and the bathroom is a little bigger than the last. I have one closet by the front door, but it’s pretty deep, so I should be able to fit everything in there. The only thing that I’ve done so far is make my bed, assemble my nightstand, and clean the bathroom. We are planning on trying to do some more today, but it’s hard to push yourself after traveling for so long! I want Nicole to see some of the city while she’s out here too, so the unpacking can wait. I need to get some sort of a dresser or something, because my under the bed boxes don’t fit, and there’s nowhere else to put my clothes. I’m already tired of living out of a suitcase!
We went to USC yesterday after we got here to pick up my orientation packet. I didn’t take any pictures yet, but wow! It’s basically it’s own little city and amazingly gorgeous! It doesn’t hurt that the weather out here is perfect too-haha…I already feel at home and really think that I’m going to love it here. We went over to Seth’s house last night to watch the Olympics-I never appreciated sitting on a couch and watching TV more in my life!
I’m not sure what sights we’ll see today, but I’ll write about it if it’s anything interesting! Love and miss you all already!
We left Santa Rosa, NM around 8 this morning and started the long drive again-haha. The scenery in New Mexico and Arizona is just beautiful. We drove through the mountains for pretty much the entire day-the highest elevation we got to was 7,000 ft. Pretty scary when you’re afraid of heights!
Our big stop for the day was at the Painted Desert in Arizona. That was the most amazing sight! It is just so colorful and you’re up so high that you can see the cloud shadows on the desert. The elevation is about 6,000 ft and we had to drive on a road that was close to the edge without a railing-talk about almost passing out! For those of you that have known me a long time, you know how deathly afraid of heights I am-this was not good for that-haha…I did it though and we’re still alive That is one stop that I’m so glad that we made-it was definitely worth it and I would love to go back!
We stayed at the Painted Desert for about 45 min. and then had to move on. After that, we came across a sign for a “meteor crater”, so we decided that we should stop at that too. We thought it might cost about $5 a person or so; we were shocked when we found out it was $15 each! We had already driven there though, so we just decided to pay it and make the most of it. It was pretty interesting to look at and I’m glad we saw it, but it wasn’t worth the $30! We did see some interesting cow crossing signs along the way though, so that was worth it-haha…These signs were in the middle of nowhere and we definitely didn’t see any cattle roaming, so I’m not sure about the necessity of the sign!
Real view through the wall by the crater
We drove through mountains the entire day, and finally got to our destination in Twentynine Palms, CA around 8:30pm-what a long day! I drove the entire time too, so I was ready to get out of the car! Our hotel was very cute and quaint-wouldn’t have wanted to stay there longer than a night, but it was a neat place to experience. Their claim to fame is that U2 stayed there when they made their Joshua Tree album years ago. We didn’t go to the Joshua Tree National Forest because we got there too late, but we did get to see the trees along the road.
Our room
We tried to stay up and watch the Olympics, but we both fell asleep because we were once again exhausted from a long day in the car. More to come tomorrow!
We then crossed into Texas and what a change. There’s still an overabundance of undeveloped land, but a lot of cattle ranches, horses, and basically beautiful scenery. We were in awe for the longest time. We drove for awhile before we came across the leaning watertower in Groom, Texas. We also saw the 2nd largest cross in the western hemisphere-it looks exactly like the one we saw yesterday in Illinois. We ddn’t stop at either of those, just took pictures out the window. We made it into Amarillo from there where we found the Cadillac Ranch. That’s where all the fun began-haha…we found the back road to get to the “Ranch” and parked, grabbed our spray paint that we bought earlier (scarlet and gray of course), and headed over to the cars to leave our mark. We took a few pictures and then I started to try to spray my initials on one-the wind was blowing too hard, so my sister said we should walk around to the other side. It was a little muddy, but I thought if I walked lightly enough it would be okay. I took 2 steps and my feet got stuck, seriously. I couldn’t get them out of the mud until I pried them out with my hands. It was the funniest thing-by the end of that I had mud all over my flip-flops, feet and hands, so I couldn’t really paint. My sister took care of that-we represented Ohio well I tried to get some of the mud off of me, but it was like clay and was very sticky. I rode with my feet in a plastic bag until we got to the hotel later. We couldn’t stop laughing about it! As we were driving away from Amarillo to get to New Mexico, we encountered a storm. It started out just being a little rainy, but then we ended up with hail. My sister was terrified that a tornado was coming since those are apparantly the intial signs of a tornado. I’ve learned lots of random facts from her already on this trip! We made it safely through, and thankfully my car was unharmed. 
Cadillac Ranch
stuck in the mud!
Our car says
Nicole and her masterpiece
We finally got to New Mexico-what a beautiful state! Pictures don’t even compare to what we saw with our eyes. It’s just so amazing to see the hills/mountains in the middle of flat land with the big sky above. We drove into another storm and it was awesome to watch the lightening with all the scenery. We are staying in Santa Rosa at the Hampton Inn, and we probably have the nicest room I’ve ever stayed in-thanks Dad! We checked in, I washed my feet off in the tub (which took a really, really long time to get off the caked on clay!), and then went to dinner at a diner down the street called Lake City Diner. We’re staying on the Old Route 66 and it was neat to just drive down the street for a bit and look at all of the old buildings and hotels. We were starving by the time we got to dinner, so it all tasted amazing. Now we’re both exhausted…again….I don’t know how sitting in a car all day can wear you out! I can’t wait to climb into bed and stretch out under all the comfy blankets. What a great ending to an interesting day! Tomorrow we’re driving across New Mexico, into Arizona, and will end up in Amboy, CA by Joshua Tree National Forest. I don’t know if we have internet at the hotel tomorrow, so I may not be able to post on here, but I will as soon as I’m able. Hope you enjoyed my stories for the day and I’ll write more soon- Miss you all!
Lake City Diner
Inside the diner
Dinner after a long day
I am officially on my way to California-so weird! My sister and I left PA yesterday afternoon and drove out to Xenia to stay overnight with some friends. Here’s a pic of my loaded car-it feels like we’re sitting on the ground because there’s so much weight in the car!
Starting the drive to Ohio
We got there about 10:30 last night, had rootbeer floats, watched Olympic swimming, and then went to bed. Not too eventful but fun to see my friends one last time…This morning we left Xenia around 8:30a, loaded up with coffee and water and hit the road. We drove through Dayton, into Indiana and past Indianapolis (much bigger than I thought it would be), saw a lot of farms in Indiana, and then finally entered Illinois. We wanted to stop and see random things, so we saw a sign for the old statehouse in Vandalia and decided to stop-it was a cute little town and the statehouse was beautiful. I probably wouldn’t visit there again, but it was neat to see.
Former statehouse in Vandalia, IL
We stopped and filled up and got huge diet cokes at McDonald’s to recharge
Needed caffeine
(they were the cheapest-I couldn’t help it-haha)
After that, we finally got to Missouri! St. Louis is gorgeous-I would love to go back and explore the city sometime. We didn’t drive through the city because of traffic, but the arch looked amazing, and the scenery was just awesome. I didn’t realize Missouri was so beautiful! This was definitely the best part of the drive- a lot more exciting than the flat farmland in OH, IN, and IL. In Missouri, we stopped to see the Old Route 66 State Park, the World’s largest Rocking Chair, saw 50 million signs for caverns and the Mule Trading post, and just enjoyed the view. Here’s some pics from the drive:
So awesome!
Who would build this?!
weird...
We finally got to our hotel in Springfield, MO around 6:30pm and I was so happy to be done driving for the day! We saw a sign for Cracker Barrel about every other mile on our trip, so we both had been craving that all day. Needless to say, that was our dinner-guess the advertising worked! I’m now back in our room, so excited to take a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow we’re heading through Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico-should be a fun day! Here’s the last pic of the day-you can tell we’re a little worn out, but I think it’ll be worth it in the end!
End of Day 2!
I can’t believe it’s here-my sister and I leave this afternoon to start our fun little trip to California! I have to wait for her to get back from babysitting, so I’m basically sitting around twiddling my thumbs until we can leave. My car is completely packed, and when I say packed, I mean to the top with a little hole through the mess so that I can somewhat see out the back window. The trunk is so full that I have to basically lay on it to close it. Oh my… We atleast have our front seats pretty empty, but now I’m trying to figure out what to do with all the snack food everybody so graciously gave to us so we won’t starve-haha…I’m thinking a lot of food items will end up being stuffed into the little compartment on the door and maybe under the seat. Who knows, I’m just rambling because I’m bored and ready to get going.
I officially said goodbye to Columbus this weekend. It was surprisingly really hard-I didn’t know you could grow that attached to a city! I really will miss the small town feel with all the big city stuff to do. I will miss my friends even more…I questioned my decision to move quite a bit this past week and wondered if I was crazy for going to LA. I cried pretty much the first half of the trip back to PA. I just have to trust that I really do want to do this even though I can’t really think straight anymore! I’ll be ready for all this craziness to be over so that I can get settled once again and start working on school, figuring out LA, and enjoy the California weather! Well, I think this blog is boring enough for today We’re just driving to Dayton tonight, and then taking off from there tomorrow to get to Missouri. I’ll write more as we see fun things along the way!
I can’t believe I caved-haha…I always thought my life was too boring to blog about, and never intended to begin, but this move is bringing out a crazy side of me I decided to give this blogging thing a try because it’s the easiest way to stay in touch with all of my wonderful friends and family that I will be so far away from now. I’ll try to write about my experiences through the day, my thoughts, my fears, and all of the exciting things that are coming ahead that I can’t even fathom at this point! I’m hoping that this makes you all feel like I’m sitting next to you on the couch, telling you about my day. I can’t guarantee that it’ll be interesting, but it’ll be me. I figured the best time to start is next week when my sister and I try to conquer the trip west. I’m sure there’ll atleast be a few things to read about at that point, and who knows, maybe I’ll love this thing! haha….just like me to overthink starting a blog. Happy reading!
