time travelling

11:24 p.m. nikki sp
ok. i am still weird about which time zone my body is in. but also, i am concerned as to how i should resume my travel tale telling...

i may as well go in order. but before i dive into mi aventura de ecuador and my previous cali trip and mi viaje a mexico... i'll just throw some things out there about my latest trip...

*it's really cool being able to see your neighbourhood upon landing in the city. the cn tower is a good point of reference.
*i want to move to cali. i need to work out the logistics later.
*i wish all my friends and i were underemployed but still able to sustain a fun and active lifestyle wherein we could play in the park all the time
*there is so much to do at the beach. but nothing you have to do
*i need a west coast mindset
*it is a very good idea to just pack up and go. and have a starter job where you can meet people you wanna hang out with socially. before finding a real job where people may be less fun.
*i need to look on craigslist to see how attainable my dream is
*i need roommates too.
*more places need fro-yo bars. it just makes sense. for the health. and the happy.
*NEWSFLASH: I'D BE HAPPY AND GOOD AT BEING A TRAVEL AGENT for the first little while... i should really look into this

...probably more. but i will get into the other country tales NOW
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too tired to think of a good title

3:56 p.m. nikki sp
but i just wanted to iterate for the first time since i've been on this trip (since i have been avoiding internet), and likely last time (since i will be going home soon)...
i fucking love it here.

i will recount all the adventures when i get back home. but i will have to do it in order. after i rack my brain remembering the last few trips.

ok.

that should help keep me preoccupied at work :)

must.
sleep.
now.
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ethnic saturday dancing

8:46 a.m. nikki sp
so where was i... yes. saturday.

oh saturday. so i experienced l.a's rail system. it wasn't my first time, but it was my first time on the gold line. i was coming from figueroa and marmion (heritage square station methinks) and went to union and did a transfer to the red line, which is the one i'm used to.
now this was interesting for a couple of reasons. first of all, the ride took forever. i think it took me an hour to get home, and had i known this, i would've asked josh to pick me up instead of opting for this cultural experience.
but it did give me a chance to acquaint myself more with jh, and it wasn't awkward as things usually go for me after nights like that. despite being massively hungover, it was a pleasant ride, albeit a looong one. so i guess it worked out.
he got my number but had just lost his phone, so he used a key to ingrave it into a piece of paper. it was a little unnecessary, as he would have no use to call me when i am in canada. but i shoulda gotten his number, for fun times when i return to cali. oh well. we had a conversation the night before about our last names and the different ways they could be pronounced, so that works out for adding him on fb/myspace. however, im being realistic. like with constantine from '06, i may never ever see or hear from him. but i enjoyed the times for what it was.

so i got back to josh and michael's and we recounted tales from the night before. it was great being able to fill in the blanks for each other. well... more like josh filling it in when michael and i blanked out. apparently michael was perfectly offensive without my assistance, dropping the f-got word with one of his potential suitors.. this is why i enjoy the idea of roommates. because often i would go to parties and not remember what happened the next day. i mean, im sure there are more practical reasons to have roommies, but this whole day embodied why it's great to have a friend around. let me explain...

so i guess i got back to their pad around 1ish? ... we decided that we were gonna do dimsum, which im really glad that was suggested as i often forget that is an option even though i love it. so many odd race moments happen with it too! ie when i did yumcha (thats what they call it in oz) with lynn. and then when my mom visited me, it made it so clear as to why i have odd habits with the chinky kind too! i am my mothers daughter.
so around 230ish, we made our way there. again on public transit. see i could have saved my train experience for this ride, as it was the same route... or i coulda stayed with jh had i known i coulda just met them in chinky town. alas...

the dimsum experience did not disappoint. the interaction with the servers and the communication barriers are priceless as ever. the food was delish. and just incredibly cheap. for the three of us it was like $20. and we all had the 'itis after the fact too! (i had to teach em about the itis too, and its origins)

despite our sluggish state, we missioned on in dtla. and it's a good thing too. because this is the awesomeness that happened..





yeah. these chicks were dancing on tables. at the front of a thrift store. class up the ass. i suspect this is why michael is gay.

but it didn't end there. just across the street, we rocked out to this :



what a beautiful rendition of twinkle twinkle little star. with josh's interprative dancing.

and there's more. after scoutin for some cocktails, and encountering more racism when we went to have long island iced teas at another dim sum place, we headed into little mexico. where josh expressed his love for churros here:




it was a beautiful thing.

we also headed to a bbq of some of michael's associates, which was... i dunno how to describe. but i was not doing so great cuz the long island iced tea was retroactively punishing me. also, nothing could've topped the awesomeness that was the night before. so.. when the sprinkler timer went off and we all got drenched, we got a free get out of jail card and went home to do our own thing.
so what did our own thing entail?
well michael wanted to have a black experience. so i immediately knew he meant he wanted some fried chicken.
this was not in josh's favour. so we opted for another black experience - african food.

so we went to this african resto that had valet parking. we were the only ones there. and got food to eat with our fingers. it was pretty fun, being all uncivilized and cultural like that.

and once we were done, we went back home and finished up the epic that is sybil. a saturday well spent.
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one of the best nights of the year

11:59 a.m. nikki sp
i don't know if it is possible to get the true essence of why this night was awesome. but to be honest, it was probably experiencing this night that pummelled me into wanting to move to cali for good.

after such a chill day in the sun in the park, i headed back to josh's and got ready to party. there was someone's birthday in echo park, and the boys were pretty delighted that i could go there with them to potentially offend a lot of people. i was just excited to party.

michael got started pretty early, with some gin and juice. and i copped some of josh's rum and got an early buzz. however, i was really jonesing for a beer/wine kind of drunk, so josh and i hit some bargain store. food 4 less? that sounds right. and i picked up some beers and a wine. which i started to drink on the way home. i finished off 2 bottles, but i encountered some close calls as i heard and saw a cop car and was super paranoid that it would bust me and deport me back to canada before i could really party. alas, i evaded them and we made it back safely.


at this point, it was getting later and later and we had yet to figure out how we were getting there, but soon enough settled on public transit. fun! this meant i needed to pour my bottle of wine into a less incriminating beverage holder. this was a good idea because the wine tasted of this lovely nectar and was even easier to drink. once that was ready, we hit the bus... michael brought josh's cat. he had wanted to wear fur. josh is a vegetarian and promptly objected to that. in efforts to compromise, josh let michael take the cat out after arguing that michael would lose it. at least we didn't have to pay extra fare for it.


when we got off the bus, i really needed to pee. and josh reassured me that we were a couple blocks away.
he lied.
i consequently had to pee in a bush.
now this is pretty par for the course for me. but in cali, it is very hilly. so the bushes on the median of the street were elevated, and i had to endure this hike before i could even do my business. it was the trickiest pee of my life. but it felt so good.

so we got to the party, and i wish i could remember more of what happened. for the most part, michael and i went around being offensive. and eating. i chowed hard on some cheesies. and tried eating some cupcake, but im pretty sure it was vegan and not delicious. also, to josh's dismay, he was right about michael not being able to keep track of the cat. because soon enough, this dude frank grabbed it and threw it into the fire.
this is what happened.


holy crap that cat is evil. i guess the bonfire was a fitting place for it then.
after that debacle, i started to complain about the lack of straight boys there. michael and i did not see eye to eye on this, so michael went to look for drugs and i made some new friends. and through these friends i met the few straight dudes at the party. the first ones were nothing spesh and also a little bit creepy. por ejemplo, within like 10 mins of talking to eugene (what an unfortunate name. amirite?!), he told me to go home with him. this was still so early on in the party too, and i was still eager to meet more people because quite frankly i was not impressed with him. so i tried makin up some excuse about how i didnt wanna be shady to my hosts, and he kept trying to convince me that i wouldnt be sketchy. so i found josh, and this is the conversation we had:
n-hey josh... would it be sketchy of me if i went home with someone??
j-nikki, you can do whatever you want.
n-but... i don't wanna go home with him. can you tell him i'm not allowed???
so josh just shook his head, and i walked away and tried looking for michael. despite not intending to go there to score, i was getting more and more bitter at how many unavailable (ie gay) boys were out there. even a lot of the straight ones i encountered were pretty prissy and i was not into that. but luckily, one of the ones i met later in the evening more than made up for all the subparity of the evening.
it's hard to explain how jh brought so much awesomeness to my l.a. experience this time around, but it happened. and boy. it was quite the highlight. mainly because he felt like my idea of a true cali boy. it was the best cultural experience i could have asked for. one of my favourite not-quite-tourist attraction, no doubt.
yeahh....


and look! josh found this pic on say cheese and die. and i became friends with the photog preston. good times.
but it still prob doesn't make sense why this night was as awesome as i felt it was. deal with it.
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one of the best days of the year

3:01 a.m. nikki sp
it's going to seem like an overstatement. but in its simplicity and weird turn of events, today was an amazing day. all parts of it.

the worst part probably would have to be the start. but only because i didn't get to sleep in. but it worked out because it got me a headstart on my day. josh and michael tried giving me some pointers on places i could check out. but i didn't wanna have to use public transit, and i didn't wanna have to pay for anything so i just ventured on foot to whatever was cool in the area.

it was still pretty early, however, so most businesses in the area were closed. so i kept heading west in search of signs of life. this left me hollywood-bound which was both alright and kinda lame. i managed to hit a vintage store that preoccupied me for a good stretch of time and left with a few good steals including a tiger print slap bracelet that would suit my watch perfectly, among some other things.

i eventually came across the place where i got my second tattoo and was thisclose to checking to see if leonard was still working and if there was other stuff i could get done. but i didn't wanna rush it, so i held off. got lunch. and enjoyed some eavesdropping. these are my observations at 12:42 pacific time:

in kino sushi. currently loving life. trying to eat healthy throughout this whole vacation means eating japanese. place is almost just across from my tattoo place. kind of wanna get inked right now. or pierced. some sort of work.
a little distracked. eavesdropping on the next table's convo. it was initially interesting until i got up to order and the topic changed when i got back. they were discussing how the social dynamic of some people they knew were akin to ross/rachel in friends. they were discussing how distance was necessary in a breakup, but very difficult when both are in the same tight social circle. oh exes. and other people's exes.
oh they are discussing relationships again. i love this shit. i can learn so much. notes/observations:
-pity dates - esp to make one feel better about themselves
-man, even straight guys are gay
-datinf around is lame or just a huge waste of energy
-if people want something, they will go after it
alright observing 2 new tables - 1 of students and 1 of a couple.
this couple - apparently "scene kids all have sidekicks". hilarious. self defined hipsters/scene kids...
the table of students discussed canadians (one was from bc), made fun of accents. so original.
this place attracts some interesting clientele. i'm glad i chose to eat here. it's almost too busy right now to single in on specific parts of the convo.
the table to the right of me it seems like this bigger girl is getting hit on.
i'm in a state of discomfort as i believe i ordered too much food.
the student table...the most fashionable/hip one kind of sounded foreign. like possibly french/scandanavian.
i should not have ordered all of this. i would have been fine with just a salad.
aw, big chick who's getting hit on just rejected the dude. this is both entertaining and uncomfortable. but maybe that's just the food. also, my body/mind schedule/sync is all off.
if only i could record all these convos.
it's prob not the most helpful either still having more than half full plate of sushi in front of me that i really want to eat but not now but i do not feel like packing it up and carrying it around. oh well, at least it gives me license to loiter here a little longer.
i also think i just felt something go through my intestines. i dunno if i'd even be able to fare walking around right now. i wish there was a park i knew of where i could chill. the last time i felt this uncomfy was when i got my shots in mtl. owwwww.

i'm really glad i noted those feelings. i totally forgot. how funny it is to get raw, relatively unprocessed thoughts as they happen.

so i crawled over to hollywood and highland so i could loiter till i felt better and figured out what my next move was. i texted josh and asked him 'if i wanted to sit in a park on shitfree grass, where might i go?' and he promptly got back to me with a 'HEY there is a nice park on a hill between hollywood and sunset and vermont and edgemont' and so, i knew what i had to do.

i decided to walk eastbound along sunset and happened by a yogurtland. i decided to have the real fro yo experience with the toppings and everything. i also got some samplers so i could get some free goods. and when i went up to the topping bar, much to my surprise there was MOCHI BITS!!! mmm. and a whole wack of other amazing stuff. i was in heaven. so i got some, topped it. considered taking it to eat to the park. realized that was far. so ate outside the store. what a wonderful idea.

when i finally got to the block where josh had directed me, i was surrounded by kaiser permanente and though josh was taking the piss out of me. but his clue of 'on a hill' tipped me off and i arrived at barnsall park, an amazing park that i wish we had more like in toronto.


and so, from like 3ish till 6ish, i spent on the grass. sleeping. reading. being amazing. for doing nothing much, it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.i didn;t have to spend money outside of food purchases. and my park nap totally compensated for my early wakeup so it was all golden. it made me really wish a life of unemployment and park hangouts with friends to jam and be awesome was sustainable. alas. one can only dream.
it made me really wish even moreso that this was my home.
it was the perfect start to what would be an awesome evening.
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l.a. bound

11:59 a.m. nikki sp
it was my goal to head to josh's house sometime after 6. i didn't wanna get there too early that he'd still be working and feel bad about entertaining me. and i didn't wanna get there late because i wanted ample time to enjoy the evening blah blah blah.

he had told me at first about hitting up this vegan happy hour place. i'm assuming this is what he was talking about. although i am not anything close to being a vegetarian, let alone a vegan, it seemed like a cool little place and i was into that. however, when i got there he was still a little bogged down by work so we didn't get around to doing any of that. he just started volunteering at the braille institute so i brushed up on that and saw (or rather didn't see... har har) what it was was like to be different kinds of blind. for the record, i think i would be a terrible volunteer for the blind as my vision is the only strong sense i have, and so could not be sensitive to the way they operate. i sound ignorant, but that's ok because that paved the way for how this weekend was gonna progress....

at some point into my reading, josh's roomie michael came home. and while he was cold and pretty indifferent to my presence in his apartment at first, he quickly warmed up to my political incorrectness and our relationship just blossomed from there. i got to teach him about aussie culture, and how racist they are and different words they use to describe different groups. and they seemed to really appreciate that cultural insight. i dunno what it is, but being as offensive as possible really helps me make my closest friends. it's great to see people's boundaries being pushed and seeing them push even further.

after much talk and hunger, we decided to head for sushi. josh fortunately had 2 bikes and some awesome helmets, so we were gonna convoy over to some local jap place. unfortunately, the limited visibility offered by the helmet plus the fact that it was a couple of inches too tall for me allowed me to experience my first fall off a bike sprawled backwards (i usually faceplant). how ironic is it that the helmet was a factor in my accident. it worked though, my head was not damaged at all. i think.
so plan b, we decided to drive downtown, which worked out well because michael joined us and we shared more ignorant stories about racism and degrassi. we actually headed very close to mikey's street. and i tried calling him but he never got back to me. shady business. whatever, we enjoyed dinner and talked about all the different ways we eat sushi improperly and it was kind of cool to show them the l.a. that i knew as a frequent visitor. sharing is nice. what a carebears moment.
also, i taught the boys some language things - how all words can be adjectivfied. for example, chink can be turned into chinky - ie: 'chink reads book' can be modified to 'chinky kid reads book'. language is a beautiful thing.

we got some pinkberry to go which was good in theory as we were gonna cut up some fruit to put on at home. but we didnt include the melt factor, and it wasnt the most appetizing when we got to it. we also tried playing a prank on michael, but he is naturally absent minded and so the joke was on us. finally we put on sybil and it was amazing. i mean we only got through like 1 hour of the 4 hour epic, but it gave me a huge new appreciation for sally fields and multiple personality disorder. and then i not so much couch surfed. but rather surfed on the floor mattress. it's as comfy as i coulda hoped for. the ambient music and weird lights helped. i am super glad josh and michael didn't creep me out. best friends forever.
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surf city usa

12:00 a.m. nikki sp
today was the day that i finally got over myself and got on a board. throughout my travels, i have had ample time to learn how to surf. but for whatever reason - not having a surf buddy, not having enough money, being a pussy - i never took it up.

but this time it was gonna be different. i wanted to take advantage of this opportunity before i became officially lame and just went for it. after all, what else was i gonna do - i had a whole day at huntington. sure, it's satisfying enough to just lie on the beach all day and get a tan. there is nothing you have to do, but there are so many things you can do. i considered jumping into a random beach v-ball game, but i wasn't feeling that adventurous.

so when i got up (a little jetlagged because i tried staying up late to adjust my body clock, but still woke up very early cuz it was bright and i suck at staying asleep), i took a leisurely walk along the beach and realized that even though it was early on a thursday, it's totally worth getting up early cuz the beach is awesome. so to my surprise people were out and about and i figured i may as well join in on the action.

i rocked up to zack's surf shop right by the pier. the place i was staying had a promotion with them so my lesson was discounted. plus, i used my charm and they threw in a bike rental for the rest of the day. it was sweet. so i had to check out of my room and grab my stuff, but i put the deposit and payment down so there was no looking back. or, if i decided to look back, i would be out $90 and my pride.

so i grabbed my stuff, checked out, headed back. chris was my instructor and a very sweet man. had a lot of patience with me, which is very important in an instructor. apparently i am goofy footed as i lead with my right. so i got up a few times with chris's assistance, but it was hard to stay on for more than a second or 2. but an awesome first try for somebody who has not stepped on a board unless it was nailed to the ground. and part of the floor.

after an hour, chris's time was up with me. he had to catch his son's baseball game. so i had to venture off on my own. which was equally exciting and terrifying. so i took a bit of a breather and watched other boys do it. to learn. and also to ogle at their beauty. plus, there was a amateur surf comp on the other side of the pier, which i easily could've just spent all day watching. but i'm glad i got in on the fun.


...clearly, however, i forgot a lot about what he told me in terms of holding the board while i was idle. because not to long in my solo adventure, did i smoke the back of my head on something. the beach floor? my board? whatever it was, it startled me a little. yet i thought it was still a brilliant idea to motor on. so i did.
and this time i really disobeyed one of chris's rules, cuz this time the board nailed me in the face. my lower lip prety much doubled in size. i looked like i had a harelip. like i was perpetually pouting. my lip is already big as it is. i owned over anjelina.







so yeah, had to take more of a breather because i was bleeding and a little more embarrased at that point. but i went over for a couple more times then i dragged my board to zack's and had chris check out my lip. he mentioned getting the lifeguard check it out. to which i laughed because i thought he was joking. but apparentlysomething serious can come out of a lip-smoking injury. i was good to go, but i also thought of how in '04 i had to go to the lifeguard station cuz of my stingray sting. huntington beach is not my fan.

it was good enough timing cuz i had a good time to enjoy lunch in the sun on the pier and catch some babes catchin waves.














it made me wish more and more that i grew up in cali, convinced that if that were the case, i would be a pro surfer with the coolest tude. i'd have babes left right and centre and we'd surf everywhere and all that other rad stuff.
alas. i grew up in canada. and whilst i could have embraced the winter and ski culture, well... fuck that. snow can lick my balls.

so after my sushi salad and boy ogling, the girls turn came up and and i promptly lost interest, just in time to rent a bike and get some good tannage. i got this toothpaste green cruiser and my camera and ipod and i went as far south as newport beach, then the bike path kinda disappeared and i didnt know where to jump on again. so i turned around and went as north as sunset beach till it ended. all in all it took me about 2ish hours? and the views were beautiful. i have no idea why it took me so long to think to rent a bike. i couldve been way more active during previous trips.
oh well, live and learn.

around 4:30, i returned my bike. bought some hip shades from zack's and lay in the grass with an icepack to my lip as i waited for my mother to pick me up and take me to l.a.
a lovely start to my trip in cali... and still, it got better and better from there...
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all caught up

9:24 p.m. nikki sp
FINALLY.

i am relatively writing in the present now. no more backlog of posts. unfortunately i have not done much travel early this year. but i guess i do most of my trips later in the summer and winter. whatever.

ok. let's get into it.
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