Asian backpacker

UCLA

Most people who visit Los Angeles wouldn’t think about going to the local university, but my friend wanted to go get one of those college sweatshirts and I wanted to check out where the Fresh prince of Bel-Air went to school. So off we went! The campus itself was impressive, when I was in college, we never had a campus of this size. The atmosphere around was really cool, the whole college feel. There is a lot of school pride too. I saw tons of people wearing the colors of the school and UCLA sweatshirts and t-shirts. Made me actually want to buy one too. Just almost. We just spent a few hours walking around the campus checking out how college life is. My friend actually is about to go to college in his hometown, so for him, this was really inspiring and actually told me that he can’t wait to attend college. I’d wanna go back to school too, just for this…..

Meeting up with friends I

I guess I never told you guys how I met all these people from the internet. Well, I used to play an online game for about 6-7 years on and off and during this time I’ve met tons of people. Before you yell NEEEEEEEEEEEERD~~~ I do admit it’s nerdy but it also gave me the chance to meet all these wonderful people. During this time I joined several guilds and groups of people. In Colorado I met some people from my first guild and in LA I’ll be meeting up with some others from the first guild and some from my second guild.

I met up with Steve first to drive down to Irvine and meet up with Kristi. I’ve known Steve for a long time and used to spend a lot of time talking to him online too. Quite a crazy person though and is now a gun fanatic. He picked me up at my hostel and when he popped the trunk to put my backpack in there I saw a few gunboxes. It wasn’t until we were driving halfway that I asked what he actually got back in there. He calmly answered me: “Oh 2 rifles and a handgun, but it’s cool though, I’ve got the magazines for the gun here.”. I wasn’t exactly freaked out but it was kinda cool I guess, he even offered to take me to a shooting range and fire a couple off. Too bad time was too short and I didn’t get to meet up with him again though. Anyways in Irvine we were waiting for Kristi to get off school to hang out for a bit. She always kinda gave me this little girl vibe when we first met. I think she was like 14-15 ish? No I’m not a pedophile or anything, it’s perfectly ok to be friends with a 14-15 year old without any bad intentions. She’s fun to hang out with though, quite the bubbly, cheerfull girl. Though I do wish she would loosen up a bit more though. She’s crazy smart, she even skipped like 1 year of school! Asians really do know how to study! Then again, Steve is Asian too and he skipped school in general…… Anywho… nothing special to mention besides we had a great time, snapped some pictures before going back. Just wanted to give a special mention to them here. Oh and Steve…. YOU NEED TO SMILE MORE!

Meeting up II

The second group of people I actually met twice. First time we went for Korean BBQ with like 6 people. Oh and before you ask, yes they are all Asian too, except one. You might be suprised how many Asians are running around LA. Most of them are hella rich too. Probably spoiled too. But we met up the first day for food, talked a bunch and had some good laughs. I told them I was doing a trip around the world for a year and they just kept wondering how I manage to avoid getting raped. Priorities huh…. I went on by telling them I’m using couchsurfing to sleep on a couch of strangers that I’ve never met before. And again they wonder why I’m not raped yet. Though I do appreciate the concern, I never did ask myself that question. I guess sometimes you have to have trust in humanity. The fun thing about this group of people is that they are hardcore basketball fans, just like me. And when you’re in Los Angeles you’re either rooting for the Lakers or Clippers. Although most of them are Lakers fans though. It was very interesting to talk about basketball and the Lakers with them. They seemed to show a strong strong love for their hometeam(s) and hate for their arch-rivals. The second day me and a couple of guys from the first group met up again to watch the Boston Celtics – LA Lakers game on TV. We went to a buffalo wings joint with TV’s everywhere. Man I had a blast! It’s one thing to watch the playoffs at home with your buddies, but watching the rivalry game between Lakers – Celtics in LA was equally amazing. They people get so into it and I just got sucked into the atmosphere. It was a close game and everytime the Lakers scored, high-5’s were giving out like candies. The game ended with Lakers beating Celtics by 2 points and the rest was history. I’m sure that if I actually lived in LA I’d meet up every week to watch a game together. One of the dudes even suggested me getting a girlfriend or wife in LA so I could get a green card like that. I’ll think about it Aaron. That kind of sums it up for Los Angeles I think. People will not get bored here. Though I only stayed 6 days, I do have the feeling that I’ve seen most of what there’s to see. A lot of people suggest you take a roadtrip up to San Francisco, but since time was short, I decided to just stay in LA.

Los Angeles also marked the end of my trip(s) in the Western hemisphere. I’ll be going to Tokyo, Japan next and start the Asia part of my trip around the world. Stay tuned!