welcome to LA

I'm sitting in the Starbucks on the corner of La Brea and Sunset sipping a latte (tastes worse in the US). IN front of me there is a hassidic jew attempting to log in to his WiFi and having problems... A little mexican lady is helping him.

I think I love LA.. it's such a strange place, but it doesn't feel as strange as I thought it would. It is all mexican style dwellings (from shack to villa), wide open spaces, McDonald's-s and palm trees. Honestly, palm trees are EVERYWHERE... giant tall ones punctuating the extremely flat skyline.


I left Brisbane at 11am this morning. Mum and Alison came to the airport to see me off. I must admit I got a little misty eyed as I walked into customs- it's a long time before I'll see everyone again. However, the girl walking through behind me into the security check was bawling her eyes out- so i felt like less of a wuss in comparison.

I got chosen for a random explosive test, where I was taken into a small room, scanned with a scanner by a man and the patted down by a woman. I know they got the woman in there to pat me down as, you know, it's appropriate. However, the woman was a big lesbian lady, so it really seemed unneccesary to have her in there.. but they were both very cheerful about the whole thing.

The flight was pretty sweet - the 13 hours passed fairly uneventfully - although without any sleep. I think V Australia is great! I recommend it to everyone- the in flight entertainment was awesome. I watched "the men who stare at goats", "Fight Club" and seemingly endless episodes of 'the office', '30 Rock', 'Better off Ted' and 'Family Guy'. Was pretty sweet.

I was seated behind a girl who was also in transit for a job with the same cruise line as me - she's a Registered Nurse. So it was good to have a chat to someone in the same boat as me (see what I did there?) and also to have someone to lament about the 'stylish' uniforms with.

From then- I Got off the plane, checked in to my hotel (which is a smoking room and absolutely REEKS) had french toat + bacon +maple syrup for breakfast and made my way into Hollywood, where my giant latte is currently almost finished.

I bought a 580ml coke zero, hair spray and a packet of reeses' pieces for $4.10... Food here is extremely cheap - especially the sugary stuff!

I'm about to wander off down sunset boulevard and see what I can find- I really have no idea what I even want to see and I forgot to set my phone so I have no idea what the time is either.

Tomorrow I sail. SO EXCITED!!