The more I have to say, the less I want to write about, fearing that as soon as I put some thoughts down, it will take away from the immediacy and the vividness of these these thoughts. oh well, I'm no artist (eddy, give me a call!), so here it goes..

My life, post graduation, post Kansas city has been a whirlwind of many things. I feel like a vagrant. After arriving in LA, I spent barely 3 days when we left for Hawaii for a week.

Hawaii was amazing, full of all the things that make my family vacations at least, great. There's something to be said about backing down and letting things happen, swallowing your pride and just reveling in the fact that I am in Hawaii. Besides getting a tan, I enjoyed snorkeling almost every day. I got to see so many kind of amazing fish. The sea turtles still make my day when I think of their little rotund bodies, cruising along the water. Even the octopus, which I admit scared the crap out of me was quite a sight to see, nature is quite amazing. The fresh sushi (haha!) was quite tasty as well, and I enjoyed that fact that I was paying for some of the most fresh sushi I will ever get to eat. The vacation came and went way too fast.

After coming back to LA, I was only able to spend about 3 days in my new home before I had to move into the University of Southern California for Teach For America pre-induction. This week was filled with many things, workshops, info sessions, and yes grad school information. Dammit, I am still a student. I decided that a practically free masters degree from the quite renowned Loyola Marymount University was too good to turn away, even if it meant that I would be a full time teacher while pursuing a masters degree in Special Education. I do have to pay a bit more than my non special Ed counterparts at LMU, but I think I have a cooler masters degree title! Masters in Teaching Special Education with a cross cultural emphasis. say that 3 times as fast!

And of course, the people I have met are just amazing. Even though this group of future teachers share similarities in our beliefs about our role in the education system are shared, there are still many diverse people here. fraternity/sorority persons, jocks, punk rockers, hip-hoppers, gay/lesbian, african america, asian american, hispanic, caucasian etc...
Its truly amazing to be surrounded by so many great people. You can't possibly meet and relate to everyone ,but its refreshing that everyone truly does look out for one another. we realize that all of us are in for the biggest fight of our short lives, and we have to be supportive of eachother. its cool to already meet a small group of people that I have bonded so far with.

lets talk about girls because its frustrating. I tell myself not to get caught up in the game of love, but of course its impossible to do so. it hurts, and it hurts your similarily unconfident friends that some girls are just unattainable. it also frustrates me that I find myself getting mad when girls whom I really don't find to be my type, are taken away from a much more capable self confident dude. its even worse when the guy is cool as hell, and is a good friend. whatever, I figure I won't have much time to worry about shit like that.

nightlife in LA is interesting. you can go to one club and get the typical "LA" experience, fake boobs, bleached hair, indifferent patrons. the drinks and cover is expensive, at least the music is good.
or you can go to an amazing club and fall in love with it immediately. THere is this little club off of Melrose called Gahah. On thursday nights they host a night called Root Down, filled with underground hip hop, dub, latin, reggae etc..
I'm standing in line with some friends, and guess who I see? Cut chemist from Jurassic 5! holy shit, just standing there with a crate of records. The night was the Style Wars DVD release party so it was filled with lots of underground and old schoool hip hoppers and related people. Dj Dusk, MC percee P, cut chemist all threw down sick beats while super skilled graf artists did murals on stage alongside the musicians. it was an amazing night, something that I hope to go back to again and again.

now im back in my new home, Lakewood, enjoying one last week off before I move back to USC and begin the hardest , yet most rewarding time of my life so far...

I'm excited, terrified, homesick, happy, and pumped that I am finally doing something that other people believe in as well.

i'll try to provide reports from the battelfront when possible. just know that I'll be thinking about all of you, I hope you guys are doing fine as well.. drop me a new line on my new email Addy afg42e@comcast.net

peace
Alex  ¶ 6/29/2003 04:41:00 PM 0 comments

  ahh... now in L.A.
more on that later.
i'm just glad I got to say goodbye to all my friends and homies.

more info soon, just busy unpacking.  ¶ 6/08/2003 03:22:00 PM 0 comments