Student Blog
Living in LA

Biking in Hollywood ⟩
February 6, 2012, by Chris

Living in LA School/Life Balance

The weather in Southern California lends itself very well to the practice of outdoor occupations. This past Saturday me and a couple of my friends decided that a biking blitz through Hollywood was a great idea. We started off at the Occupational Therapy House (Centennial Apartments) and headed north. We took the scenic route through neighborhoods I didn’t know existed. We finally made it to Hollywood Blvd where traffic was almost at a standstill (perfect for the cyclist), we split the traffic down to the Kodak Theater where we decided to walk around for a bit. After getting our fill of all the characters out in Hollywood we decided to head west toward enemy territory, UCLA. The hills throughout Westwood provided us with excellent cycling routes, with very little traffic. After we made our way through UCLA, we decided to ride through Beverly Hills. The streets throughout Beverly Hills are incredibly smooth (cyclist’s dream). Finally, about 2 hours later we decided to head back to USC. We made it home around 11:30 pm and rode approximately 30 miles.

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Don’t Look Down! ⟩
February 3, 2012, by Chelsea

Living in LA What are OS/OT?

In occupational therapy we learn that different people have different sensory thresholds. Some have low sensory thresholds and get all the sensory stimulation they crave just by trying a new type of food. Others have high sensory thresholds and crave activities that will boost their adrenaline such as rollercoasters, snowboarding, dirt-biking, and rock-climbing. Well my boyfriend happens to be someone with a high sensory threshold and enjoys all of the adrenaline boosting activities I just mentioned and more. Last weekend we took a group of friends on a treacherous hike to a hidden waterfall. We didn’t really specify that the hike would involve rock-climbing and so all ten of our friends agreed to go. The hike was just north of Pasadena in a place called Eaton Canyon, which runs along the San Gabriel Fault. The beginning of the hike is easy until the rock-climbing begins. It involves cliffs, ropes, rocks, creeks, and at the end a beautiful 35-40 foot waterfall. Once we reached the waterfall there was an awesome area in the rocks that had been carved out and smoothed by the water so that it formed a fun waterslide that we could slide down and it would shoot us out about 30 feet above the water into the pool at the foot of the waterfall. I went on the waterslide the last time I hiked there during summer, but this time the water was much too cold for my liking and I’m pretty sure my sensory threshold had already been met without having to drop 30 feet into a pool of freezing cold water!

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Clipper Nation ⟩
January 31, 2012, by Kimberly

Living in LA School/Life Balance

One perk of living in downtown LA (if you are a sports fan) is access to Staples Center. The arena is literally 7 blocks from my apartment and still it has taken me 2 years to make it down there. Last night I was able to attend the Clippers / Oklahoma City Thunder game and it was awesome! I love sports; learning them, watching them, playing them, but I don’t really have a team that I am 100% loyal to. Thus it is fun when I go with others who are really into their team . . . and you could definitely say this about Clipper Nation. The energy of the fans at Staples Center was contagious! Plus the game itself last night helped a bit too as the Clippers held a continuous tight lead on OKC Thunder, Blake Griffin made an amazing dunk, literally jaw dropping to watch, and the clippers left at the half with a 12-0 run solely on 3-pointers. It was phenomenal! Even If I am not a life-long Clippers fan, I became one for the night. The other highlight for me was seeing the devotion of one particular fan, “Clipper Darrell.” From starting arena-wide chants to dancing in the aisle along with Clipper Spirit Dance Team to wearing a fully decked out blue and red 3-piece suit, he epitomized the intensity of these fans’ loyalty. The whole experience was a great break from school and a refreshing interaction with an entirely different crowd. If you live in LA and haven’t rooted for our local teams, I would highly recommend it!

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My Mom Came to Visit Me! ⟩
January 26, 2012, by Chelsea

Living in LA School/Life Balance What are OS/OT?

Last Monday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my amazing mom drove two and a half hours from San Diego just to hang out with me for the day. We are both avid beach-goers and so, naturally, we decided to beeline for the Pacific Ocean. We hopped on the 110S, merged onto the 105W, and didn’t stop until we saw the bright sun shining over the sparkling water. One of our favorite restaurants in Manhattan Beach is called the North End Café, which had a debut on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and has been a hot spot ever since. We drove down Highland Avenue, but passed the North End Café since it looked so busy and we decided to try somewhere new with a good view. Well we got a great view, but the food was nothing to brag about and I can’t even remember the name of the restaurant.

After eating, my mom and I went to a small grassy park looking over the beach and sat down. There were four blond little girls ranging from 2 years old to 7 years old and they had three skateboards. The grassy park started on Highland Avenue and went almost all the way down the hill to the beach. It started with a plateau, then curved downward, then plateaued, and so on. The four little blond girls would sit on their skateboards and ride down the hill from the top to the bottom laughing and screaming for joy. My mom and I had so much fun watching them and I couldn’t help thinking about my Sensory Integration elective and how these little girls were organizing play and integrating their senses so flawlessly. In my head I’m thinking, “Wow, they are receiving proprioceptive, vestibular, and tactile input from this activity, all of which is aiding their childhood development and they don’t even know it!” The proprioceptive skill of knowing where their body was in space will help their motor coordination, the vestibular input of motion caused by gravity will help their postural control, and the tactile input of holding onto the skateboard will help their skilled movement as well as emotional development! After taking this sensory integration course I don’t know if I will ever be able to look at kids playing without thinking in occupational therapy terms!

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Living in Downtown LA ⟩
January 19, 2012, by Chelsea

Housing and Transportation Living in LA

This year I decided not to live in USC housing and rather live in Downtown, Los Angeles. Although it isn’t as convenient as living on or right off campus, it only takes me 10 minutes to get to either campus and I couldn’t be happier in my apartment! One of the perks of living in Downtown is having so many great food places that I can walk to or that are a quick cab ride away. Some of my favorite restaurants are Bottega Louie, Mignon, and Pattern Bar. At Bottega Louie you can count on everything being delicious. It is Italian-American Cuisine so they have everything from pizza and pasta to burgers and filet mignon. Mignon is a small wine and cheese bar. They also have delicious smoked fish and croquette monsieur. Pattern Bar is in the fashion district, hence the name “Pattern” Bar. I recently tried it for the first time and it has become my favorite location in downtown for tapas, drinks, and ambiance. My favorite dish so far is the Cachapa, which is the owner’s grandmother’s recipe. I would describe it as a sweet corn crepe with Venezuelan cheese in the middle, drizzled with agave nectar, and topped with a sliced strawberry.

Another thing I like about living in downtown is the Peace Yoga studio I go to. Peace Yoga is not just a studio for yoga, it doubles as a raw foods café. In fact, the reason I went to Pattern Bar in the first place was because I met the friendly owner at the Peace Yoga café after class one day and discovered that Pattern bar was right next store. At the Peace Yoga café, Sherri makes the most incredible raw shakes and meals. She gets her ingredients from all around the world: Himalayan rock salt, Madagascar vanilla bean, spices from Bali, etc. Her fresh fruits and vegetables she gets from all the different farmers markets around LA. I love her cacao, coconut and cashew shakes, her raw mango sorbet with strawberry drizzled on top, her flavorful savory sauces for salads or “pasta”, and sometimes I’ll just ask her for a fresh cold coconut to sip on!

I love all of the cultural experiences Downtown LA has to offer such as the monthly Art Walk where hundreds of people walk the streets of downtown and wander into tons of art galleries or stores converted into art galleries that are open late into the night. I love the view from the rooftop area of my building. I love living conviniently close to the 110 freeway. I love the people who live with me and near me. All in all, I guess there aren’t many things I don’t love about living in Downtown!

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