Abbi's L.A. Times

For me, this year represents both the most transitions and changes as well as the most amazing and enriching experiences I have ever had. From start to finish, I have faced hurdles and achieved more than I ever thought possible, even at the beginning of the year.

The first big event of 2011 was the new addition to our family--our English Golden named Trixie. She is a retired breeding dog that we got from the breeder. It was an amazing coincidence that I emailed Louise about puppies right at the time when she was trying to find Trixie a home. She's an amazing, cuddly dog, and we are so glad to have her in our family now. I actually was not there when Trixie actually moved into our apartment, but I did get a chance to meet her a few days before I left for London.

2011 also brought me the most enlightening study abroad experience I think I could have ever had. I learned to "cook" (using the term loosely) for myself, search for apartments, and live with basically a random bunch of other girls. Despite my homesickness at how stressful it was arriving in a foreign country with all my worldly belongings and being jet lagged as I searched for apartments, I quickly began to develop a sense of myself in London. The independence I gained simply through being forced to do even mundane daily tasks on my own was invaluable, which is saying a lot because I've always felt as though I am an independent person. Pretty soon after getting to London, my friends and I decided to branch out and visit other countries as well. Here again there were learning experiences and stressful situations, but I also learned an incredible amount about the cultures of the world. I wouldn't change my study abroad experience for the anything. In London, I saw about 11 plays, went to basically ever museum London had to offer, saw the Crown Jewels, attended the Royal Wedding, took walks with Bill around the city, drank TONS of tea, and interned at a content-provider for the BBC. But aside from the sights in London, I took 4 trips to with school (Bath, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Stratford) and went to Dublin, the Scottish Highlands, Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris, and Versaille with friends. I did everything and went everywhere I had hoped to go at the start of the semester, and I'm so glad I did.

While I do consider London a second home now, I was still happy to return home to Boston for the summer. There though, I found my parents in less-than-full house searching mode. I knew they were looking, but they hadn't yet gotten anywhere. We expanded the search, and I actually picked the house we ended up moving into in my first house search with them. It's a lovely house, a little smaller in the bedrooms than we are used to, but still very nice. Actually, my bedroom is much bigger than what it was. I can actually fit a desk, bed, bedside table, and bureau in it at once! We have two living rooms, a dining room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms, and it's just really nice to have a place of our own. The backyard and shed are great for Trixie. In the middle of the summer, as we planned the move, my dad decided to take me on a 5 day-long vacation to Disney and Universal Orlando to see Harry Potter World. I think he was jealous that he didn't get to visit me in London, and my mom did. It was great to be able to spend some time with my dad. We sure crammed a lot into the days that we were there. We saw all the Disney parks in 2 days, and then all of Universal on the third day! It was incredibly exhausting, but I'm so glad we both got to see it together. Even though I'm more hard core than my dad about going on roller coasters, he was a trooper for walking around everywhere with me. It was great reliving things at Disney that I only vaguely remembered, and I think my dad like watching me try to pull those memories out of my head. Also during the summer, my mom and I did our second triathlon and Ben graduated from his post-graduate year at Hebron Academy and enrolled at Merimac for the Fall 2011 school year. At the end of the summer was the move. We had to push it back a week because we weren't packed up quickly enough, so that meant we moved literally 2 days before I was on a plane headed for a semester at the Ithaca College LA campus. Not much time to enjoy the new house, but I'm glad I got to help pick it out.

Los Angeles was a completely different experience than London. It was a much simpler transition as I didn't have to find my own housing and the time difference was a little less dramatic. Also, while London, and the rest of Europe, is more educational and historical, LA is entertainment-based. Despite the fact that LA isn't necessarily that educational, they do have a lot of really cool sites. I think my favorites were the Hollywood Sign, the Getty Museum, and Griffith Park. The best part about living in LA was being able to relate with the people who want to do the same work as I do. There were so many networking opportunities that I felt the need to order business cards! I even met someone at a bus stop on one of my last days in LA and networked a bit. I got an internship with The Bold and the Beautiful, the most watched soap opera in the world, and it was an incredible experience. I was able to observe different departments, interview the staff, and learn about professional television production. Also, I was one of the few paid interns who was doing the ICLA program, and I was stunned when I found I even would be getting paid. The people were so friendly and willing to teach me, and I really felt like I contributed to the show. Along with interning at B&B, I had the opportunity to work a various events, including the American Music Awards, the AFI Film Festival, and the Creative Arts Emmys. I had never seen what goes into event planning before, and so these short-term internships allowed me to expand horizons as to job possibilities. It was also great to be relatively close to my cousin, Kate, who I rarely ever get to see because she's from Canada. I got to visit her in Arizona for Thanksgiving week, and she visited me for a week and came again to attend the AMA's with me and one of her friends as seatfillers. I've seen her more this year than I have in any other year. In driving back to Arizona with her, I found out that I can actually drive for a long time without it being too difficult, so that's cool. Arizona was beautiful, and Kate's husband, Steph, was nice enough to take me out to see some nature. I saw the real kind of cacti! I also turned 21 back in October, so I'm finally not restricted from anything anymore...except the typical illegal activities. The biggest news came half way through the semester when I found out that Ithaca College changed the curriculum for my major. I was already looking into going half-time during the Spring semester, but the changes they made meant that I was not required to take the one major class I was going to go back to IC to take. I did have to drop my history minor with one class left, but I was excited and nervous to find out I would be graduating a semester early on top of having been to both LA and London. What with school going on, I haven't have the time to really apply to that many jobs, but I think the game plan is to stay at home and save some money working at BSC while I try to find a job in whichever city will have me. It's a huge adjustment thinking about myself as a professional and not a student, and I actually can't believe how fast this semester, and college in general, went by.

To sum it all up:
I spent all of 2011 away from the main campus of Ithaca college. I basically attended three Ithaca Colleges as I went to our branch locations in both London and LA. I have been to 6 different countries, including the US, this year, and I have been to 5 different states, including the ones I was laid over in trying to get connecting flights. Also, I have taken a total of 17 planes just this year alone! My family got a new dog and a new house, meaning that I have moved three times this year. I am graduating early and trying to create a life for myself in the real world, which is the biggest transition of them all. I felt like all this change and news in my life warranted a nice long Christmas letter/blog post. Wish me luck in the real world!

Happy holidays!

On Friday, I worked with Danielle until 7pm, and when we got back, I helped her move her stuff to another apartment for safe keeping until she comes back in January (she's spending another semester in LA). After that, I went back to my apartment, cleaned my room, and cooked the rest of the food I had left in the house. I must say, I pretty good judgement on the amount of food I needed for these last two weeks. After that, I washed the dirty dishes and packed up all the stuff we had to take over the Pendleton center. A friend of mine, Tori, is coming next semester and is buying everything from Shelly and I. There was so much stuff! Danielle was nice enough to help run it all out to the car and then upstairs to the school. I turned in our final program evaluation forms and my Pendleton key. When I got back, I vacuumed living room and packed before heading over the South Clubhouse to turn in my apartment keys and check in for my flight the following morning. Last thing I did before bed was clean the kitchen. It was a LONG day, and I was really stressed out, which made it hard to sleep that night.

I had to get up at 5am to make sure I was ready for my 5:30am taxi. My flight left Burbank at 7:10am, so I wanted to make sure I was there early, and it's a good thing I was! One of my suitcases was 15 lbs overweight! There wasn't a lot of leeway with the other suitcase given that it was only 3 lbs underweight. I was shocked. I still have no idea where that weight came from, but in an amazing turn of events, I was able to take out and shuttle enough things around between my carry on and my other suitcase that I didn't have to pay a fee! I'm quite proud of myself for that. This is the first time I've ever flown with a "personal item" (backpack) and a carry on, so I was a little nervous, especially because I had to be really careful with my carry on the whole time because everything in it was breakable. My flight from Burbank to Dallas went smoothly--no delays or anything. Unfortunately, once I got to Dallas, I found out my flight back to Boston, which was supposed to leave at 1:10pm, was cancelled! They had to move me to a flight at 2:05pm to Chicago where I would then get a 5:40pm flight to Boston. This craziness made me 4 hours late coming home! So needless to say, it's been a really freaking long day! Best part is, my suitcases ended up on the direct flight from Dallas to Boston that was leaving at 5pm from Dallas and not getting in to Boston until 11pm, so they have to delivery me my suitcases tomorrow morning. Air travel is just great. Before going home, we stopped at my grandmother's house for some spaghetti. She was thrilled to see me, which is nice of her. Despite her forgetfulness, my grandmother is really sweet.

Since I got home, I've been unpacking and acclimating myself to our new family home. It's lovely, much less dismal than when I left it. But it also means that I've been unpacking my stuff from LA and organizing my new bedroom at the same time. It's been kind of stressful so far, but I can't wait to be home for the holidays and have a few days to relax!

Not only has this week been about finals and packing to go home, it's been about holiday events. It started off last week when I decided to take pictures of the Grove/Farmer's Market all decked out for Christmas. They are playing classic Christmas songs on the speakers and have special live performers and bands come each night. Also, there's a huge Santa gingerbread house all decked out with fake, massive candy. The (probably fake) Christmas tree at the Grove is gorgeous and gigantic. There are lights up on the palm trees, snowflakes dangling in the air, and special happy feet glaciers around as well. Lucky me, in my picture-taking venture, I got into the Grove as they started to blow shaved ice out as "snow." Nothing like shaved ice to get you in the mood for the holidays! Still, it's really pretty there, and it's even been a bit chilly this week, so maybe the weather does change here sometimes.

This weekend was the ICLA holiday party at the Steves' house on Mt. Olympus. It really was like being up in the clouds. They had an amazing view over the city. Their house was gorgeous, and the party was really fun. It's for alums as well as current ICLA students, so I got to see a lot of familiar faces of friends who graduated a few years ago. Just like at Cortacal, it's nice to be able to catch up with people. The food was amazing also, and who doesn't love a free, tasty dinner when you've been cooking for yourself for four months! The Steves were awesome and gave each apartment a present of study snacks for this week, which is finals week technically. I just took my open-note government and media final, and I'm sure it was fine. I also found out I got 100% on my huge government and media paper that I was worried about! Coming up later in the week, I have to turn in my final paper and do my final presentation for Senior Seminar. My topic is the portrayal of gender in Disney Animated Features.

On Sunday, Abby, Jill, and I went to use our second days at Universal Studios Hollywood for Grinchmas. I wanted to get some pictures of the park decorated for the holidays, so I thought it was a good time to go back. Grinchmas doesn't technically start until next weekend, which is annoying, but there were still decorations up, and it was nice to get out of the house for a few hours. We didn't stay too long, but Jill hadn't been yet, so we did a few of the most important things with her.

The last holiday event I have to tell is that B&B shot their "remote" (meaning next door from the CBS TVC building at the Grove) Christmas scenes. I was helping to escort extras to set from wardrobe, so it was a little crazy at first. As things got rolling, I was able to take some pictures of the crew and scenes. They did a bunch of different holiday activities in and around the Farmer's Market. It was really fun to watch, especially because we had a legitimate Santa! The child extras LOVED it! That man was Santa from the moment he arrived until he wasn't around the kids anymore. He was even telling me that he has a motorized sleigh at home. He was pretty fantastic.


It's so crazy that it is already my last week out here in LA. I still have the B&B intern night. The staff at the office are taking us out to dinner, which is really nice of them to do. I've enjoyed working with them so much, and I've loved it in LA in general as well. See everyone when I get home Saturday night!

On Friday, we all took a trip to Tucson to drive/hike Mt. Lemmon. Kate was still not feeling well, so she didn't do much hiking. We stopped in one location at the bottom of the mountain and the hiking there was pretty steep. That got old quickly, so we decided to drive up the mountain, stopping at vista points along the way to walk and climb on the rocks. It's amazing going from the base of the mountain where it is hot and dry with cacti all over to the top of the mountain where there are normal tree you might see at home and even snow! Kate and Stef informed me that a cactus only grows arms if it has been alive for 70 years or more. Stef and I took Supai all over the rocks at a really amazing vista point with rocks that jutted out from the mountain.

Yesterday was Cortacal! Back at IC, the big football game is played between Ithaca and our rivals, Cortland, and it's called Cortaca. So Because we're in LA, they add the extra L on the end and make it Cortacal. Pretty nice play on words there I'd say. Basically, we do the same things in LA as what the kids back in Ithaca are doing: get up really early to watch the game and drink. Except we have to do it even earlier here given the time difference. The game started at 9am, so people were drinking starting somewhere are 8am. Cortacal is usually held at a bar here called The Casting Office, but it closed, so we had it at Dillon's instead. It was really fun. They had a ton of TVs set up to stream the game and a highlights reel of old ICTV shows. We got a "Happy Cortacal" message from my adviser and the best man on the planet, Pete Johanns. Someone even made a video with a Cortacal theme song for this year! Sona had t-shirts made for the game that looked like the In-and-Out sign but said Cortacal instead. They are grey and really soft. I got a pear cider at the bar. It was awesome to have cider back in my life! I even convinced my boss at B&B, an IC alum to come. I'd been pressuring him into it all week, and he actually did! It was really awesome to see a ton of people I knew who now live out here. It was a really good community atmosphere. After the game, we were all exhausted from getting up so early, so we all went home and crashed for a few hours. It's really confusing to do this to your body because it felt like all of this occurred in the course of two days when it was really only one.

That night, Danielle, Siobhan, Sarah, Maddie, and I all went out to the local dive bar, Dimples. It was the first karaoke bar in the United States, so of course we wanted to check it out. A ton of celebrities have sung there over the years, but I'm not sure how popular it is now. Apparently, the IC kids used to go there all the time, but no so much this semester. I got a pina coolada finally! Siobhan, Danielle, and I decided to sing "Livin' on a Prayer," and the bar loved it. People were dancing and singing with us, so it was kind of funny. I was really nervous to do it beforehand, but it wasn't so bad. My first time ever singing karaoke. Newbies get a free picture and DVD, which is nice of them to do. We did have one celebrity citing that night though: Dennis Haskins, the principal from Saved by the Bell. He was a pretty awesome singer actually. It was a pretty cool night even though the bar was a bit sketchy in general.

Today, I had an RA event to go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena held on the second Sunday of every month. Although it's weird to charge a fee for entrance, we had a really great time. It's HUGE! They have a whole section of antiques and stuff on top of all the normal craft items. We spent a few hours looking around, got to go inside the Rose Bowl, and then went home. I'm glad we went. Seeing more things that are unique to LA. This was a pretty fun weekend. Now back to the grind for another week to get things done before Thanksgiving break!

Tonight, Danielle and I used our other voucher from volunteering at AFI to see Jeff, Who Lives at Home with Ed Helms and Jason Segel. It was a really funny movie about the relationship between brothers as well as living a lifestyle of just going with the flow, believing that "everything happens for a reason." It was a fantastic, and a lot of the conversations were improvised. There was a Q&A afterwards, and Ed talked about the difference between improvising for comedy and improvising for drama, which I found really interesting. So we got to see Ed and Jason in person and take a picture with Ed Helms, and I got Jason Segel's autograph! I love him in How I Met Your Mother and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and I can't wait to see the new Muppet Movie. It was a great evening, and I'm glad I got to see two awesome movies at AFI.