It all began...

...in Jacksonville, Florida on Wednesday, June 10, 2009. On my way from home to Seoul, South Korea, I made a pit stop for a week in Los Angeles, CA to stay with my cousin Brian and his girlfriend Meg in Beverly Hills 90211 (just one number too high, still loses on the Price is Right).

Brian works for an investment company, and Meg was staying with him for a summer law internship before returning to UC Davis for her final year of law school.

I had sooo much fun with them! We went out to some awesome places, from Angelo's on Melrose (imagine the thick Italian accent of our waiter, who ended every statement with "We are here to make you happy for your pleasure. Enjoy.") to Trader Vic's famous bar in the Beverly Hilton--complete with asian transvestite--to a dive bar. And that was just Friday night.

We went to the Santa Monica Pier and ate at The Lobster (got the lobster of course), and we saw all the zany street performers in the Promenade. Brian and Meg really took great care of me, and I thank them ever so much for that. (Now where's my nephew! hahaha)





The Santa Monica Pier












I also had my first Korean experience and Korean food in Los Angeles's Korea Town. With all the signs in Hangul and the kimchi, I felt like I was already there.











Soju Town (for my Three Sheets crew!)









My friend Ben Carson had also just moved to LA to work for the IRS (boooo), and HIS girlfriend, Michelle, was staying with him for the summer, too. My first night out, I went with Ben and Michelle to a comedy show downtown (pic above). We were late and saw just 2 comics, but the last one was hilarious, he came out as a Mexican in a sombrero, sunglasses, and aluminum foil teeth, and ended up being Korean (who was part Mexican).

I think that's LA for you, lots of people pretending to be something else. For instance, Ben's roommates: one is an aspiring actress who happens to do secretarial work; the other is "in a band" but actually edits porn for a living. The scantily clad woman below was also involved in the comedy show somehow, I'm just not sure how exactly (probably just to be scantily clad).



Oh, and it was Michelle's birthday while I was there, so we three went out on Saturday to the Getty Center Museum (aka Dr. Evil's secret lair). Next, that night to the old Pig 'n Whistle for a dinner and drinks. Then we met up with a buddy of Ben's (UCLA student, they met in Spain) at a ridiculously packed UCLA bar, because their graduation was the day before. Ahh, those days of being young and in college that I pretty much already put behind me after graduating a month earlier...

















Views from the Getty Center


















So what now? Well, I'm already in Korea--Ansan to be exact, a suburb of Seoul. It's my second day here, and I have pictures from my first, but I will have to wait to post that in the second installment on this blog. After all, if I spend too much time talking about the past I won't have time to have new experiences to talk about later. Annyeong! :-)