LauraLee

Today I took my brothers (both car enthusiasts) to the Petersen Automotive Museum.  This was where the Viterbi Ball was hosted last month and out of everyone in my family, its surprising that I'm the only one that has been there before.  I surprised them by taking them there and I think I scored major sister points. It was even cooler the 2nd time because I was able to spend more time looking at the cars and reading the placards.  And this time all the exhibits were open to us.

My favorite was the "Streetscape" exhibit. In this exhibit, they displayed the transformation of cars during the 20th century and how the car helped mold Los Angeles into the city it is today. I love seeing really old cars, I think its really cool. And they had pictures of freeways like the 101 and the 405 from 50+years ago. I wish they looked like that today rather than the constant bumper to bumper traffic we see today.  They also had a low-rider exhibit that was really interesting, the cars were almost more of an art form than a car. Some of them contained murals depicting the history of certain parts of LA and East LA.

After we had exhausted ourselves looking at cars in the museum, we drove around the Miracle Mile and Museum Row, and through Beverly Hills and then got frozen yogurt at Penguins :-) 

On Wednesday I went with my organization called WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each other) to a gang rehabilitation center called Homeboys in East LA.  The work that they're doing at this site is truly amazing. Their mission is to help former gang members get on their feet and become contributing members to our society. They offer services like counseling, education, tattoo removal, and job training and placement. We were able to get a tour of their facility and listen to some speakers that have been effected by the work at Homeboys.

It was really benificial for our mentees to see Homeboys, and to learn that there is hope for their friends who are in gangs and are worried about how to get out.  Homeboys is completely self sustaining and they do this in part by an onsite bakery and cafe that is open to the public. The food looks great and I've decided that whenever someone comes to visit me I want to take them here so we can get awesome food while giving back to the community.  Its so great to know that organizations like this exist and are helping these individuals to have hope for their future.

I'm so grateful for WYSE and the eye opening experience that this has been. I feel like I have learned more from these excursions and from the wonderful 8th grade girls that we deal with than I could ever learn in any classroom. 

I dont even know where to begin to explain my Spring Break. It was exactly what the Doctor ordered, I feel relaxed and rejuvenated, and ready to tackle the few remaining weeks of school.

We kicked off Spring Break by going to The Edison downtown. Its this awesome lounge modeled after a 1920's bar, complete with flappers and newsboys. And then the rest of my break was spent in MEXICO!

I took an 8 day, 7 night Princess Cruise to Mexico with my boyfriend, roommate, and about 15 other friends. It was a blast!! We left out of San Pedro, CA and made stops at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo. This was my 1st ever cruise and it definitely went above and beyond all my expectations. I have seen cruise ships from afar but to actually be on one was amazing. Its absolutely huge!! Even by the last day I was still getting lost and confused. And the engineer in me crept out and I spent the whole week in awe over how this thing was built and the infastructure to maintain it. The number of passengers to crew was about 2:1! That is a ton of crew members to keep this thing running. And to imagine that a similar ship sailed across the sea (almost successfully) about 100 years ago is amazing. Sure it didnt have pools or a gym, but the engineering to have designed such a ship 100 years ago is unbelievable.

And then I could not believe how much there is to do on a cruise ship! In case you ever get bored of sunbathing on the pool deck (which is impossible to do, but in my case I had to call it quits when I turned the color of a lobster) there are constantly classes, shows, countless things going on. I took a ballroom dancing class, played Bingo, went to the club, went in hot tubs, went to a cooking show, got a tour of the galley, saw a champagne waterfall, went wine tasting, worked out, gambled in the casino, saw a magic show, saw a cabaret, and all without even leaving the ship! And dont get me started on the food (I think I might have gained 10 pounds just last week). After being on an all inclusive ship its hard to come back and have to pay for food. Because it was free I tried so many new things that I never would have ordered before like escargot and fish legs. And the lobster, steaks, and endless desserts were amazing. AND room service was FREE! Amazing I know.

With the boat being as amazing as it was it was difficult to get off at the ports but I suppose that was one of the main reasons we took this cruise and didnt just stay in the harbor at San Pedro. Our first stop was Puerto Vallarta. Here we wandered around the city until we found the perfect beach to relax at. The sites were really cool, but I was kind of let down because it was so "touristy" I feel like I didnt get to see the "real" Mexico. Before I'd left, my friend told me about a restaurant we had to try called PiPis. So we spent the rest of the day wandering around the town asking: "Donde esta Pipis" and everyone thought we were crazy and trying to find the bathroom but eventually we found it and the food was delicious. The next stop was Mazatlan were we spent the whole day sunbathing on the beach. This was even more touristy than Puerto Vallarta but it was ok because it was extremely relaxing. Then I didnt get off the ship in Cabo because I'd been there before so I stayed on the ship and had the whole place to myself, it was actually really nice.

8 days goes by surprisingly fast when you're having sooo much fun. It was hard to come back to school but its nice being back with all my friends. Now the countdown begins to graduation...

Though I have 2 midterms this upcoming week, my weekend has been fabulously lazy. Those are always the best kind of weekends. Thursday night I watched "The Life of David Gale" (which I highly recommend to anyone that hasn't seen it, it was amazing) at my neighbors house. Friday morning I woke up late and went to the beach with some of my friends, considering it was 85 degrees in LA that day!! 85 degrees in March! This is why I love California. The beach was *gorgeous*. It was the perfect temperature, I could have layed there all day. However, I couldnt stay there forever because I was meeting a friend to make fajitas and margaritas, and watch another movie. I felt like a waste of space not doing any work, but it was sooo worth it. And now I just woke up from an epic 3 hour nap.

 Now I still have tomorrow to do homework, and look at how much I've already accomplished this weekend :)

p.s. Spring break is in less than 1 week!!!  

Here I am, a senior, about to graduate and yet today was my first time to the California Science Center. And yes, the Science Center is the museum right acruss the street from USC. And yes, I do love science, so you would think that I would have visited long ago.

But despite all these things in my favor, today was my first visit. I took my 14 year old mentee whom I mentor at a local junior high school to the museum. (I think I enjoyed the trip a lot more than she did) We had a blast though. I loved all the interactive exhibits, and I even felt like I learned a lot and I know that she definitely did. The "World of Life" exhibit was my favorite, I guess this comes as no surprise considering I'm a biomedical engineer. I found it very interesting and I loved explaining all the stuff to my mentee, though she already knew quite a bit. And I'd never been fully able to explain to her before what my major truly does and what I did at my internship last summer so it gave me a great opportunity to explain what I do to her.

We concluded our trip with a stop at Coldstone across the street. I would definitely go back to the Science Center, and like so many other things I'm realizing lately- I wish I had been there earlier.