This blog post will be written true retro journal style... with (almost) daily entries! Get excited to hear about how I spent my last week before orientation starts on Monday. And so we begin with...
Labor Day Weekend
My girflriend and our dog, Campbell, flew in on Friday night for their first visit to Los Angeles. Friday night we had dinner at Tavern in Brentwood, which was a pretty incredible meal. What made it even more awesome is the fact that we can walk there! Coming from Houston, not having to drive everywhere has been quite a nice change.
Saturday began with our first trip to the beach at Santa Monica, where we were greeted with gorgeous Labor Day weekend weather.
(Beach...blue skies...sunshine...I think every weekend is going to be like a mini-vacation, perfect way to relax and take a break from the action-packed MBA schedule of class, recruiting, and clubs.)
(Wiped. Out.)
On Saturday night we joined up with Brady Clegg, his wife Liz, and a couple of their friends to attend our first LA "cultural" event. We went to see Dirty Dancing at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which was playing as part of a summer movie series hosted by Cinespia. We arrived at 5:30 because, even though doors opened at 7 and the movie started at 8:30, we heard that the place gets packed. And by packed I mean it looked like this...
(The crowd that arrived between 5 and 5:45 got to sit in the shade and enjoy their picnics.)
(The crowd that arrived after 5:45... stretched down the block.)
Once 7 came around it was a dash to the part of the cemetary where the movie was playing. It's not everyday that you see a crowd of people with picnic baskets rushing through a cemetary, especially to see Dirty Dancing.
(The movie was projected onto the back of a large building.)
Having never seen Dirty Dancing before I had a great time, but I'd say 99% of the crowd had seen it before. Which meant there were A LOT of Patrick Swayze fans who enjoyed his shirtless scenes and smooth dance moves.
Sunday we crossed one of our to do items off the list when we ventured into Westwood to check out Diddy Riese, which has PHENOMENAL cookie ice-cream sandwiches.
(So many choices! So good! So cheap!)
Monday my girlfriend and Campbell had to head back to Houston, which leads us to...
Tuesday
On Tuesday I went to the full-day Math Seminar, which was designed to help refresh incoming students on key math concepts that we'll need during the year. Fellow blogger Kate Edwards already has an awesome post up about her take on the seminar, so I'll just throw a couple of photos in here.
(Going over exponents...)
(The Professor, David Ravetch, was AMAZING. Energetic, enthusiastic, brought his A-game in terms of comedic math jokes to keep people engaged, and also threw some audience interaction into the mix.)
On Tuesday night I also attended my first Dodger's game, which was organized by Kenny Liao, one of the UCLA Challenge 4 Charity Co-President's for this year. We had over 105 Anderson students in attendance!
(The stadium is located at a pretty incredible place.)
(Part of the block of seats filled with Anderson students.)
Wednesday
On Wednesday I was back in action at the full-day Excel seminar, where I learned some new tips, tricks, and formulas that will help me out shortly once class starts.
(Professor Ravetch was also back in action on Wednesday, and made learning Excel extremely exciting. How about that alliteration?)
Thursday
Thursday I went to a BBQ / potluck, where I had a chance to meet some new people and test out their baking and/or cooking skills (or ability to pick out a store bought item, which is equally important). I have to say, based on the below, we have some pretty good bakers.
(A UCLA pie and Anderson cupcakes!! Delicious.)
After the BBQ I headed down to Santa Monica pier with some people to watch one of the Twilight Series concerts, which last night featured Best Coast. I'll let you guess where the band hails from, and while you guess, you can also enjoy a few pictures from the evening.
(Cool view of the pier at night...)
(For the concert, you could either be on the pier close to the stage, or you could sit on the beach and watch via large screens. We chose the beach so that we could also have an impromptu picnic.)
(Fellow classmate Lauren, me, co-blogger Ashley Mallinson, and the aforementioned Brady.)
(Ashley's fiance Tom, classmate Brooke, her boyfriend Scott, and classmate Pete.)
Today
That was my week! Tomorrow I'll be attending my first UCLA home football game at the Rose Bowl, where the Bruins will be taking on the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Sunday there might be a Section C gathering, and then it's Orientation on Monday! Hard to believe it's finally here... but don't worry, you'll hear all about it soon enough.
Until next time,
~Kyle Forrest, follow on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA
