Bits of LA

It took me forever, but I'm finally blogging about my trip to LA trip!!! I just can't put in EVERYTHING that I did, so I'm limiting it to just the best and bare minimum! And it's not in any particular order hehe~

I just want you to know that I LOVED LA. And one of the reason's why I loved my trip so much was because I woke up seeing this every morning. ISN'T IT PRECIOUS?!?

I'll start off with why I decided to go to LA in the first place. Last year, my spring break was just bad, bad, bad. That's not how college students should experience their first spring break! It's supposed to be fun, crazy, and memorable with your friends. So for my sophmore year, I wanted to have a spring break like that to make up for my shitty one. My awesome group of friends planned to go to Canada for at least 3 days and just go clubbing for hours and hours. But the plan just failed because there were too many of us that were "thinking about it" and I hate indecisive people, especially when it comes to traveling and having group get-togethers!

So I basically said "screw you guys" and then bought my round trip plane ticket to Los Angeles after getting my parents permission just like that lol. And I decided to go ALONE.

Besides, a few of my cousins visited me and my family a couple years ago in Boston and they wouldn't stop begging my parents to send all of us to LA. My other guy cousin that moved to LA a few years ago also tell us to go visit him. I also strangely made a lot of friends that were from LA and they were also going back to their hometown for their break and they were all telling me to visit as soon as possible. And the last time I went to California was way back when I was in middle school. It was just the perfect time to go visit my cousins, explore California at an older and smarter age, meet friends, and party! That's what a spring break should be like.

My flight was on March 16 around 8AM, and it was a Friday so I had to skip classes so that I could get to the Logan airport hehe. (SO WORTH SKIPPING CLASS)

I read my 1Q84 book by my favorite author, Haruki Murakami, for like 30 minutes during my flight and then knocked out for the rest of the time since I didn't sleep due to being super excited to leave Massachusetts.

When I landed, I got a call right away from my guy cousin, Mike, that he was going to pick me up from the airport. As I left the LAX airport, I ran to Mike and gave him a BIG hug haha. I missed him so much since I pretty much grew up looking up to him and he had finally left the east coast for the west. He drove around the area and then when I saw the palm trees, it hit me that I was finially in Los Angeles!

The first thing that we did was go to the Los Angeles Gun Club to go shooting! I've never gone shooting before so it was just scary. The guy wouldn't stop saying "don't point the gun at something that you don't want to shoot because they CAN KILL. Don't ever point it at yourself or another because they CAN KILL PEOPLE." Then my cousin picked the rifle and a revolver for us and just gave it to me to try... Never in my life have I felt so scared to just hold something. But after a few shots, I got used to it and what can I say? I was really good for a first timer!

I personally picked the dirty looking man to shoot at :)

After we ate at Philippe's! That guy from the TV Show Man vs. Food, Adam something, had been here before to do their food challenge but they didn't have a picture of him for some reason... But they're known for their French dipped sandwiches and stuff and I didn't take a picture because I ate it so quickly. It was that good haha.

Then we left LA and headed to the house that other cousins lived in which was actually in Glendale. And their neighborhood was the prettiest and cutest neighborhood that I've ever seen! Then again, the weather is beautiful in California and Boston just doesn't have tropical plants and lemon trees just growing around. (and the house that the Prince of Bel-Air was shown is super close to my cousin's house! I got to see it up close!)

When I got to my other cousin's house, I was greeted by ALL SEVEN Maltese dogs. THEY WERE ALL SO CUTE! I just couldn't get a picture with all seven of them together because they're always on the move. But they all took a liking to me immediately even though it was my first time seeing them, probably because they knew I was family :)

I got the names down quickly and one of my favorites, Xena liked to sit in my legs all the time if Junior wasn't already there. 

Junior, my other favorite is the tiny one sitting on my lap. He's the smallest out of all the dogs and has that Napoleon syndrome where he just thinks he's the boss of everyone and always tries to take my lap first for himself.

Eventually the rest of my cousins came back from work and my week of fun began! So the rest of my cousins are Kristen, Alex, and Song, and they're all sisters. I hung out with all of them, including Mike during my time, but the one that I explored LA with was Kristen since she was the one that I kept in contact the most while I was "planning" and she took the week off of work to just play with me!

I really didn't have a plan on what I wanted to do while I was in LA, but I trusted Kristen who is pretty much a true Korea-California girl and we just went to as many places as we could physically go to. AND EAT.

And already the first night of my stay, we went out. I thought I was just going to have family catch up time with all of my cousins and my aunt and uncle, but that was going to be another day lol. Kristen wanted to take me out to a rooftop bar and a club right away. I'll save that story for my later post because that was special. Either way, it was a memorable first night in LA.

The only problem about my entire stay that we had to watch out for was the weather... The one week that I stayed in LA was the COLDEST week that they experienced that whole month!!! And that same week was one of the HOTTEST weeks back in Boston! But that didn't stop us :)

I had to wear long-sleeves or a cardigan and jacket all the time. The funny thing was since Californians aren't used to low 60 degree weather that I saw kids and adults in parkas and wearing mittens on some days! wtf they would die in New England winter storms then...
Moving on, one of my favorite places that I went to was Little Tokyo! It's not that big, but that entire place is just gorgeous! What I think is the main/most popular entrance is built like this:

And right across the main entrance is the illest store!!! I didn't go in it because I was a little skeptical about what it was, so I took a picture of it instead... I REGRET IT SO MUCH! If you don't know what illest is, it's a Korean brand made by underground hip hop artists and they sell things like clothing, hats, and more! The illest store itself sells more things from other brands and it's almost only for guys who wear that hip hop style. But I love the Korean hip hop artists that associate themselves with "illest" and UGH I'M GOING IN THERE NEXT TIME!

There many, many stores in Little Tokyo where they sell tons of Japanese beauty products! They don't sell any Japanese products in Boston... There were much many Palty hair dyes in this store and I bought my Jewel Peach one here! I also bought my sister one but I forgot what color -___-

I'm sure many of you guys know about the Cure product that rids your skin of dirt and stuff in seconds. They sold so many of these and a bottle was only about $30! I'm pretty sure that's cheaper that buying it online. I didn't get it because my sister already has one and I personally DON'T LIKE IT. I put some on my hand to try and it works! The only thing is that my skin felt irritated for the rest of the damn day as if the chemicals burned... Thank god I didn't try it on my face or my face would have hurt.

Cute stuff and stationary galore! I bought a ton of things for my friends, my sisters, and my cousin in this particular store!

There's also a mall and inside they have thing Japanese bakery called Beard Papa's! They pretty much only sell fresh cream puffs and IT'S THE MOST DELICIOUS CREAM PUFF I'VE EVER HAD! It's a chain bakery found all over LA and apparently it's been featured on CNN too because it's just so fresh and yummy! They put the filling in after you order it so you know that's good lol. There are many different fillings and strawberry was my favorite! It's SO LIGHT AND FLUFFY INSIDE and I wanted to bring a box of them back to Boston with me, but then they would've gone bad :'(

The famous IN-AND-OUT burger restaurant! I didn't know that people that live hours away would drive all the way up to California to just eat some of their burgers and fries! Unfortunately, I've never eaten a burger in my life and I never will because I just am like that. So I can't testify how good and fresh the burgers are. But I ate the french fries and MY GOD THEY WERE THE BEST FUCKING FRIES. I never knew french fries could be good in general. It's so crunchy with the right amount of salt and crunchiness and ugghhhh. McDonald's and Burger King fries can go to hell. Inside IN-AND-OUT, you can see them cutting up the potatoes and deep frying them before they give it to you - that's how fresh it is! Same goes with the meat and the buns with the burgers.

SO! If the french fries are that good, it must mean that the burgers are even greater! As much as I hate burgers, the IN-AND-OUT burgers actually look good.

Unfortunately I barely went shopping during my stay, mainly because I was more focused on just experiencing the culture of LA. But of the few times that I went out to go shopping, I went to the Americana mall and it's the prettiest outdoor, plaza-like mall I've every been too! And they had another Beard Papa's there!

Me and my aunt <3

I fell in love with this store. It's by mainly Korean fashion designers and everything in there were soft colors and so pretty! I forget the name of the store and I really regret not buying anything there!

And of course I had to eat some pinkberry froyo, even though we have it too.

This is Mr. Pizza! It's a chain restaurant originated in Korea and it's SO GOOD. KOREAN PIZZA IS DIFFERENT AND JUST SO GOOD.

I'll add a random, but super cute dog picture to take a break from food. It's Gong-ju (means 'princess' in Korean) and Junior!

This is TOM N TOMS COFFEE. It's another chain coffee shop from Korea and it's surprisingly really good. I used to think all coffee shops were pretty much the same until I tried their stuff. Their coffee tasted less like coffee and more like whatever they were flavored to be, but you could still taste the coffee. It had the perfect balance of that bitter coffee taste and sweetness! Like I think Starbucks can get too sweet sometimes and I hate it. But Tom N Toms, I just can't put it in words! And their sodas are hundred times better than canned sodas! It's a something in-between that sparkling water/soda crap and typical canned sodas. Why are Korean made food so freaking good?

Posing outside of the Tom N Toms we went into with the random monkey statue.

Tutti Fruitti froyo. I could not stop eating froyo for the entire trip.

I had to try out an all you can eat Korean BBQ restaurant in K-town! There are tons of those in California, very few in New York, and none in Boston. WHY WON'T BOSTON HAVE ONE?!?!

Me and Kristen!

Looks so tasty! I still remember how good it was and how much my cousins made me eat. We ordered so much and I tried cow tongue meat for the first time there too!

Korean Town is just... amazing. It has everything a Korean wants. Allston in Boston is kind of a mini k-town. Well not even. And the K-Town in New York is still pretty lacking. And Flushing in New York is just taken over by Chinese people and Koreans are slowly moving out. But the k-town in LA... it's big. And it has really good restaurants, karaoke, Korean styled bars (even indoor 포자마차 styled ones!), clubs, apartments, malls, clothing stores, makeup stores, banks, markets, and more. To people from the west coast are probably like, duh you dumbass, but I grew up in Boston and just go to New York once in a while, so it was all just new to me.

This is in the inside of the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Funny thing happened to me here. While I was walking in front of the Kodak Theater along the streets, this black guy came up to me trying to sell me his album. Of course I said no because they usually suck and it's a kind of a sham in trying to just get your money. It happens in New York and Boston all the time. But this guy wouldn't stop asking me where I was from and if I was Korean. I gave in and told him that yes, I'm Korean, and yes, I'm not from California but from Boston. He told me that I seemed really cool and instead of trying to sell me his new and awesome hip hop record, he wanted to get to know me and "show me the Hollywood nightlife". Then he bugged me even more pulling out the random Korean words he knew and telling me that he's friends with famous actors. He tried to get my number and just wouldn't leave me alone and followed me for the longest time. Eventually it went too far when he tried to hug me to say goodbye. This creepy asshole's name was HOTSAUCE. wtf.

And of course I went to a beach! I only had time to go to one and it was Venice beach! The weather was way too windy and cold to go into the water and even tan, but there were still some people soaking up the sun to get the amazing glow that Californians have. Venice beach, I guess, is known to have a ton of street performances and other weird stuff on the side. Tons of stalls to get medicinal marijuana too... Anyway my favorite with this guy with a super strong Jamaican accent that carved animal faces and other things on palm tree wood. He carves them really fast and on the spot. His work is amazing I think and bigger than you think! Kristen and I took a picture with him, but the stupid tourist didn't know how to take good pictures so we came out weird...

BEST. GRILLED. CHICKEN. EVER. I've never thought fast-food grilled chicken could be as tasty as this. They have a lot of different sauces too to eat it with and uagiudguhsdg SO GOOD. It was so good I packed some back with me to Boston to give to my family to try out. I remember on the plane when the guy opened the cabinet to get his stuff, his expression changed because the chicken smelled so strong LOL. I don't care because my family loved it too! My sister was fasting chicken for Easter, but even she couldn't resist vons oven chicken!!!

And that's it! Just bits of my LA trip. There were so many more things that I did there. And there are so many more things that I just didn't have time to do! EVERYONE MUST GO sometime in their early lifetime! I'm so happy that I went there for my spring break instead of staying home or even Canada. Canada can't compare ;)