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ULCA and the driving tour of LA
Aug. 20th, 2019 06:56 amOne of the very few planned events of this week was a tour of the School of Science and Engineering at UCLA.
We got up early because I had no real idea how long it would take by metro and bus. Google map said twenty minutes, but in a strange to me town, I don't trust myself to execute transfers flawlessly, etc.
I'm also anxious anytime we have to be at a place at a time. Knowing I kind of just needed to feel "underway," we left the hotel and klled a little time at a neighborhood Mexican deli. I'd stopped there once before to grab empanada for breakfast. There was what looked like a full restaurant next door and I really wanted eggs. Mason thought the adjacent restaurant looked too fancy for his tastes, but he spotted a menu on the wall of the deli side that had things like breakfast burritos. So I ordered that a he got nuetla and banana pancakes. Mason later said, "That might have been the best breakfast I have ever had." Apparently, we have simple tastes and they involve chocolate and hazelnuts.
The trip, in fact, took twenty minutes. Despite the fact that LA buses are like the ones in St. Paul, in that there is no real indication of what stop you're approaching. You're just expected to recognize your destination. Luckily, UCLA plaza was the terminal destination of our first bus. On the way home, I was reduced to watching the 'blue dot" on Google maps GPS as it made it's way along the route. I would complain, but as I said, the busses are really no better at home.
One way our MTU is better is that our Go card covers all metro transit. You can beep the same card on train or bus. In LA, they are separate fares. Luckily, Mason had two dollars cash so we didn't have to get off the bus and figure out how to purchase a bus pass. We did end up 25 cents short on the fare home, but the bus driver let us get on anyway.
Not that having to get a bus pass would have necessarily mattered to our timing. We arrived at UCLA over an hour early. We argued a little about what to do with the extra time, but we share an anxiousness about appointments so we hung out at the science school's food court area.
The tour itself was a mixed bag. Our guide was a student going into her second year who seemed to have drunk the Kool-Aid (considering she was in a sorority and enthused about 'the Greek life,' maybe literally) that science was something to be awkward and ashamed of. Which... is NOT what you expect when getting a tour that starts in a part of campus called the Court of the Sciences, or where one of our first stop was the very room the precursor to the Internet, ARPA Net, was born. But, our tour guide kept saying, "It'll be hard, but...sure you can..." to a lot of the questions like, "Can I also minor in music?" or whatever. It was only Mason, me, and one other family, so at one point I broke. She was saying something like you can take your general electives in the summer, most people do, "except me, I decided to take physics instead of something fun," and I said "Physics is fun, isn't it? I think you mean fun, but rigorous." Oh yeah, ha ha. I gave her another squint and said, "You do know we're ALL nerds here, right?" And then she talked about films that were shot on campus and literally all of our eyes glazed over because none of us has seen "Legally Blonde" or have any interest in the Cohen Brothers or other stars name we didn't recognize.
The guide was kind of a poor match, but me and the other mom got excited about the binary code on the floor and Mason and the daughter pressed their faces to the glass to see the makers space. So, the nerds found a way to be excited.
Afterwards we wandered a bit, but then made our way home. Rachel picked us up and we got a accidental driving tour of all the things you're supposed to care about. We saw the Hollywood sign on the hill, drove down Sunset Boulevard, saw Beverly Hills and Hollywood Boulevard with the stars in the sidewalk. We also fought someone for a parking space (and lost) but had a lovely dinner at a Korean place and dessert in Thaitown. We ended the night hanging at Rachel's place, talking shop.
Another really great day. Today we drive up the coast in search of tide pools!
We got up early because I had no real idea how long it would take by metro and bus. Google map said twenty minutes, but in a strange to me town, I don't trust myself to execute transfers flawlessly, etc.
I'm also anxious anytime we have to be at a place at a time. Knowing I kind of just needed to feel "underway," we left the hotel and klled a little time at a neighborhood Mexican deli. I'd stopped there once before to grab empanada for breakfast. There was what looked like a full restaurant next door and I really wanted eggs. Mason thought the adjacent restaurant looked too fancy for his tastes, but he spotted a menu on the wall of the deli side that had things like breakfast burritos. So I ordered that a he got nuetla and banana pancakes. Mason later said, "That might have been the best breakfast I have ever had." Apparently, we have simple tastes and they involve chocolate and hazelnuts.
The trip, in fact, took twenty minutes. Despite the fact that LA buses are like the ones in St. Paul, in that there is no real indication of what stop you're approaching. You're just expected to recognize your destination. Luckily, UCLA plaza was the terminal destination of our first bus. On the way home, I was reduced to watching the 'blue dot" on Google maps GPS as it made it's way along the route. I would complain, but as I said, the busses are really no better at home.
One way our MTU is better is that our Go card covers all metro transit. You can beep the same card on train or bus. In LA, they are separate fares. Luckily, Mason had two dollars cash so we didn't have to get off the bus and figure out how to purchase a bus pass. We did end up 25 cents short on the fare home, but the bus driver let us get on anyway.
Not that having to get a bus pass would have necessarily mattered to our timing. We arrived at UCLA over an hour early. We argued a little about what to do with the extra time, but we share an anxiousness about appointments so we hung out at the science school's food court area.
The tour itself was a mixed bag. Our guide was a student going into her second year who seemed to have drunk the Kool-Aid (considering she was in a sorority and enthused about 'the Greek life,' maybe literally) that science was something to be awkward and ashamed of. Which... is NOT what you expect when getting a tour that starts in a part of campus called the Court of the Sciences, or where one of our first stop was the very room the precursor to the Internet, ARPA Net, was born. But, our tour guide kept saying, "It'll be hard, but...sure you can..." to a lot of the questions like, "Can I also minor in music?" or whatever. It was only Mason, me, and one other family, so at one point I broke. She was saying something like you can take your general electives in the summer, most people do, "except me, I decided to take physics instead of something fun," and I said "Physics is fun, isn't it? I think you mean fun, but rigorous." Oh yeah, ha ha. I gave her another squint and said, "You do know we're ALL nerds here, right?" And then she talked about films that were shot on campus and literally all of our eyes glazed over because none of us has seen "Legally Blonde" or have any interest in the Cohen Brothers or other stars name we didn't recognize.
The guide was kind of a poor match, but me and the other mom got excited about the binary code on the floor and Mason and the daughter pressed their faces to the glass to see the makers space. So, the nerds found a way to be excited.
Afterwards we wandered a bit, but then made our way home. Rachel picked us up and we got a accidental driving tour of all the things you're supposed to care about. We saw the Hollywood sign on the hill, drove down Sunset Boulevard, saw Beverly Hills and Hollywood Boulevard with the stars in the sidewalk. We also fought someone for a parking space (and lost) but had a lovely dinner at a Korean place and dessert in Thaitown. We ended the night hanging at Rachel's place, talking shop.
Another really great day. Today we drive up the coast in search of tide pools!