We are finally here, settled (somewhat) in our apartment in
Irvine, California. The road from Pittsburgh to Irvine was long and tiresome,
but we had our fun, memorable moments, too. Gabe and I were very blessed to
have his parents and his sister make the trip with us. His parents helped us
move our things into a Penske truck, which we packed up and drove the six hours
to their house in Kentucky within a day. I think Gabe and I agree that the day
we left Pittsburgh was our longest and most stressful. But it wasn't until we had picked up
Kala, Gabe’s sister, in Springfield that we felt like the move had truly begun.
We must have made quite a strange sight on the road. We
had the truck towing one of our cars on a trailer with our second car following
behind (cars with license plates from two different states, on top of
everything else). Surprisingly, the two and a half days it took us to get to
California were not so bad. We started seeing new and interesting landscapes
after our first day and especially once we entered New Mexico. Along the way, we were even
able to stop at the Grand Canyon. We went to the Canyon early in the morning,
and we were all freezing. I never knew Arizona could be so cold!
Any landscape can become boring after a while, no matter how
beautiful or grand it is. We were all happy to finally reach California after
five days full of packing and travel. Once we reached California, however, our
new source of anxiety was finding an apartment quickly and finding me a job.
Gabe had already been in contact with a UCI (University of California-Irvine)
student willing to sublease her room for the summer. And I already had an
interview set up with a school where I was hoping to teach ESL students for the
summer. I am thankful to announce that both the living and the job situations
worked out. We are no longer homeless and we'll have enough money to pay the inflated California rent so that we won't have to return to being homeless.
Gabe’s family stayed for a few days after we moved our
essentials into the apartment, so we were able to explore Irvine and even take
the hour long trip to Hollywood to see some sites. Gabe and I will have many more
chances to explore Los Angeles further, but what I first saw of Hollywood
definitely made me cringe. I enjoyed seeing the Hollywood stars etched with names
of famous actors and actresses, but the surrounding shops were dirty, grungy,
and honestly a little scary sometimes. I was glad to leave and go to Rodeo Drive, which
had dramatically different scenery. I came so close to buying a purse that was
far too overpriced for its small size just so that I could say I bought
something there. But $40 for a purse that can barely fit my phone? I still
can’t do it.
You can tell there’s too much that I want to cover here
since so much has happened between the time we left Pittsburgh over two weeks
ago and now. Living in California is a big change in a lot of ways, but every
night Gabe and I come home and have dinner
together, like always. Although it was hard to say goodbye to our family, we’ve
been restoring some normalcy and getting along pretty well, just as we have had to do in
Springfield and in Pittsburgh.
And more details about Gabe’s internship will be coming
later, but he’s loving it so far!
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| The Grand Canyon! |
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| Gabe and I in front of the Canyon - we are freezing but smile for the camera. |
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| The Kodak Theater - I never knew that it would look so small from the street. |
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| The coolest thing I saw among the Hollywood stars: footprints of R2D2, C3P0, and Darth Vader. |
