First day in Cali
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2008
1
3
22
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Lake Forest,
California,
United States
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Wednesday November 12th
I made it! Yesterday was such a looooong day. I went for lunch with mum before being dropped off at Terminal 3 for my 3.15 flight. The wait at the airport wasn't too long and before long I was on the VS23 to LAX.
On board, I watched a couple of movies, listened to my iPod and read Glamour for the duration of the 11-hour flight. I've done long flights before (Miami and New York) so it seemed to go quick enough, although I was pretty tired by the time we touched down in LA. It felt like 3am to me, but locally it was only 7pm.
As we came in to land, the man next to me pointed out some of the sights below as we hovered over downtown LA, all lit up at night. I discovered he lived in Irvine, the next town along, and he gave me advice on places to visit on my stay. Upon arriving, I queued to go through immigrations then waited and waited for my suitcase, as the conveyor belt had got stuck and held up a lot of bags. Finally I saw my familiar grey bag come around the corner and made my way to the arrivals hall, where Paul was there waiting.
We drove back to Lake Forest - about 45 minutes from the airport, and he pointed out local sights along the way, from Laguna Beach to the LA Galaxy Soccer stadium. We stopped by the supermarket to pick up some bits, where Paul pointed out a British aisle with all things UK, from tea bags to Heinz baked beans - all twice the price they'd be in Tesco.
We drove home, where Amanda and her parents Donna and Ned were still up (it was pretty late by then) and I got a tour of the house and met the pets. I settled into my room, complete with huge TV (my dad would love it) and a cable box... I could easily spend the next 8 weeks just watching all those channels...
I thought I'd adjusted to the 8 hour time difference well as I went straight to sleep... only to wake at 5.30am. Luckily I was able to get a few more hours sleep again after that and got up around 9.30, the sun shining outside. I had some breakfast then Donna dropped me in the local mall in Irvine so I could check it out and do some shopping. There were sooo many shops, like an outdoors version of Lakeside where shoppers bring their cute little dogs with them. I browsed for a few hours under the hot sun, looking for new clothes since I only had wintery stuff with me and it was too hot! I was in heaven in Urban Outfitters, as it's sooo much cheaper than the London one, and my other favourite, Forever 21. I couldn't figure out my American shoe size so I stuck to H&M for that as they are a European label and print both sizes... I now know that my feet are a size 8! I got some new jeans, some tops, some shoes during my shopping trip, as well as lots of cosmetics in the amazing store that is Target (like an uber-Tesco) I also purchased a pay-as-you-go cell phone as I'll need one while I'm here. Later I met Amanda when she finished work in the book store and we drove to a nearby Mexican restaurant with her friends Chris and Sarah.
After a chicken chimichangas and margarita coktail, we drove to an amazing alcohol superstore that had every kind of beverage you can imagine, all at bargain prices. Needless to say, that is my definition of heaven and I got a large bottle of melon liquer and ameretto to take to Vegas at the weekend. We then drove home, where I am now. Tomorrow I'm probably heading to LA to do the two S's of my trip... sightseeing and shopping. I'll make sure I take my camera so I can share the sights with all of you back in rainy England... don't be too jealous ;)
