L.A.

I'm in L.A. now, on my way to Kuala Lumpur, then to Perth. I arrived around 9 pm (pacific) on Friday night. Arriving here was a little bit of a shock since I've never been west of St. Louis. I slept for most of the plane ride, and didn't look out of the window much--then all of a sudden, we were landing in California, surrounded by the Rocky mountains, and a beautiful sunset as the plane descended. Meeting Kim and Hark at the airport went pretty smoothly. They found me at the baggage claim.

The next morning, we went to the "Hollywood bowl" and saw the sights in Hollywood. We drove up the mountain next to Hollywood, up to Griffith Observatory. The observatory, with telescopes and a planetarium is closed for a few years, but the view was awesome. We walked along Hollywood Blvd., and saw the stars on the sidewalk, and went in a few shops. For lunch, we had California pizza, which seems to be very thin crust, and cut into huge slices. Three slices we so large that they took up an entire pizza box, and one had to be stacked on top.

I posted some pictures of LA on my fotki site, but it's been slow since I'm using a dial up connection right now.

Today, we went shopping in Beverly Hills at Rodeo Drive, which is a very very ritzy shopping area, with stores like Gucci and Prada. I did buy a shirt at Guess though. Later, we drove up Pacific Coast Highway (highway 1) to Malibu. The scenery in that area is amazing, with million dollar homes high on the hills above the highway. It was just what I imagined of California beach culture.

Lastly, a girl on the beach asked my if I wanted to be in a MTV music video! I said, "Sure, why not." They took me into a sound-proof van, and shot footage of my reaction to Linkin Park's "Papercut". The camera work was done with night-vision, with no lights on in the van. If they thought I was interesting, then they'll use me in the video. Let me know if you see me in it!

I'll write another update when I get a chance. Tomorrow, we're going to Santa Monica, and to the Santa Monica beach.