Shu's blog: Get to Huntington Library with new friends.

May 13^th is move out day.
Sadddd, I need to move out from my apartment.
Oh Annenberg, I will miss you.

After one day of packing and cleaning the apartment, I am really tried.
But good news is I found that I can still squeeze more stuffs into my luggage.
And I just receive my housing deposit and insurance refund from USC.
Well, now I have money and space in my luggage, I want to do more shopping.
Hohohohohoho~~~~

Moving out to downtown is really troublesome, especially I don’t have transport and it is impossible to take public bus as I have 3 luggages.
But luckily, Kai Jian (a USC student from Singapore)is willing to help me.
He rented a car and helped me brought all my luggages to the hostel I stay.
My hostel located at south main street in Downtown LA.
The hostel is nice, with really modern renovation.
Orange, white and baby blue are their main colour.
When I was online at the lobby, some people came in and asked me whether this is an art gallery.
I answered him, nope, this is a hostel. He looked impressed.
The hostel is really nice, they provide free internet access at lobby, the reception is friendly.

I live in a shared bedroom with 2 sinks. Well, probably it is not very nice to have 5 people sharing a bedroom with you.
But I only have a roommate who moved in later than me on the same day.
So, when I first moved in to my room, there is nobody in there.
Well I don’t think shared room is a big problem, I have been here for 2 days, and I only have a roommate.
So I probably won’t have a full room.

The hostel is nice, but the environment around my hostel is not very nice.
I don’t mean that the area is unsafe, just there are a lot of homeless people (most of them are Blacks).
They won’t commit a crime but they will disturb you, like begging money from you, trying to talk to you.
I get freaked out on the first day when I walked around that area.
Cause normally i walk in a big group with my exchange peeps but they are no longer with me, I alone in downtown LA.
On the other hand, I not really loitering around Downtown LA, downtown LA is not as attractive as it may sounds.
Just like Hollywood, Hollywood is over-rated, I get disappointed when I visited Hollywood.
I got approach by two or three blacks, they are not homeless but they just tried to disturb.
it was so scary and I get cursed as “Chinese Bitch” by one of them…..
After that, I figured out that in order to avoid this people, I need to walk in the opposite direction and get to other street then walking back to the direction I want after crossing to the next block which has less these crazy people.

Later in the day, I have a new roommate.
Her name is Anatasyia, from Russian, just reach in LA.
We have a short talk, she is on Work and Travel program and is her first time in US.
She asked me whether it is safe to walk around at the area.
I told her that maybe those homeless people will disturb you but they will not commit a crime.
And, the same thing happened, she got freaked out like me.
The blacks and homeless people are really annoying.

I get to know that they are going to work at The Huntington Library, which located at San Marina, another city in California. (Not in LA but somewhere near LA.)
We (exchange students) wanted to go to Huntington but we don’t have time.
After knowing that she has totally no idea how to get around in LA, I volunteer to help.
I help her to check with Metro (bus service provider in LA), how to get to The Huntington Library in San Marino and provide her some tips how to get around in LA.
Since I have nothing to do on the next day, I asked whether I can tag along with them (she and the other 2 friends) to go to Huntington.
And she agreed.
SEE, it was not that bad to stay in hostel. You get to know some random people, but isn’t it fun!!!

The next day, we get to San Marino by Metro, it took us 1 hour to get to San Marino from Downtown LA.
After 15 minutes walk, we finally reached in The Huntington Library.
It is named library but inside Huntington, it is actually a combination of art galleries, botanical garden and library.
I got a free ticket, haha.
The ticket cost USD 15, I really saved a lot.
I wouldn’t go in if I need to pay by myself.
Haha, but why I get the free ticket at the first place.
This is because that three Russian girls need to enter the park to meet the manager. So the officer at the reception office just gave us 4 tickets in order to enter the park. YEAHHHHHH!!!

Huntington garden is so beautiful, especially their Chinese garden and Japanese garden.
I love their art galleries, I love to see the paintings.
But art galleries in New York is the best, no one can beat New York. Haha
I walked around Huntington garden when they are filling their paper work.
So I tour around by myself, cannot cam-whore, just take photo for the surrounding.
Their Rose garden also very beautiful, this is my first time being surounded by thousand of rose plants and the natural roses scent.

chinese garden