Student Blog
Living in LA

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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I Got a Car!!! ⟩
January 18, 2012, by Kimberly

Housing and Transportation Living in LA

Yep, it’s true. And here it is. Little ‘98 Honda Accord. I finally succummed to the pressure of LA and to my class schedule this semester and had to get one. I mean it is possible to use public transit in LA as I have managed for almost 2 years now but there are some places that are a little harder to get to. I will still probably use public transit for close commutes, but for those far-away, spur-of-the-moment happenings, it will be a great asset. So I’m very excited! (And I know that my friends are too, the ones that have been giving me rides . . . thanks guys!) Actually some of them still ask me if I need a lift occasionally. But now I can pick them up instead. So new year, new mode of transit. I’ll keep you posted on all my adventures. Happy Driving!

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Appreciating Los Angeles ⟩
November 3, 2011, by Alix

Living in LA

I’m heading home soon to CT. I can’t wait to see my family and friends, but I’m also worried about the fact that it is freezing cold and there is still no power after last weekend’s snowstorm. This means that I will be sleeping in below-freezing temperatures with no heat. I’ll probably bring an additional sleeping bag to put underneath the covers in my bed.

In Santa Monica, on the other hand, it’s 75 degrees and sunny. I’m starting to wonder how I ever lived back east. In fact I’ve been appreciating LA a lot this week, especially after Halloween. I remember all too well how in CT and NYC, Halloween costumes always had to be constructed with inclement weather in mind. It was useless trying to wear a cute outfit, because you always ended up putting a parka over it. High heels were unrealistic in the mud and slush and piles of leaves. For this reason, my costumes usually depended on a single key piece worn as a hat (bee antennae, angel halo, etc.).

So my costume this year turned out great (we dressed up as Yoshimi and the Pink Robot from the Flaming Lips album), but I do feel upstaged by my fellow ambassador Chris and our friend John, who both completed a surprise mid-party costume change into Dr. Seuss’s Thing #1 and Thing #2. Those costumes, being based on long-sleeved flannel pajamas with built-in slippers, would also have done well back east.

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Halloween Weekend ⟩
November 2, 2011, by Chris

Living in LA School/Life Balance

Halloween weekend was quite eventful. It started off with me catching a 9:30am flight to San Francisco for a fair at USF. Immediately after the fair I made my way to the airport to catch the first half of the USC v. Stanford game. I barely made it through security in time to catch the opening kickoff. I was able to watch most of the first half before having to board my plane back to Los Angeles. My plane landed in time for me to listen to the end of regulation and I made it home to watch the three overtimes that followed. After the game, my roommate and I decided to get our costumes ready for the greatest Halloween party ever. We actually planned a costume change during the party. We showed up to the party as Forrest Gump and Chinese take-out, but changed to Things 1&2 during the party. Now, it’s back to the reality of class and work.

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