Thankfully the past week has been my lovely and long spring break. And I had the joy of visiting my grandmother in what I call paradise, Palm Springs. But my parents being the savvy people that they are decided we should fly into Los Angeles and drive the (quick) three hours into Palm Springs. It sounded like a dream, my first time in LA! It was actually one of worst experiences ever.

First of all, the traffic is my own personal hell. It eventually took us six hours to reach my grandmother’s house. But as we were on our way to Palm Springs my mother thought it would be a grand idea to go down Sunset Boulevard. She thought wrong. Yes, at first it was nice seeing the overpriced and extremely small houses as they expanded into enormous and exorbitantly priced houses. But I kept getting the feeling I have seen houses like these in my hometown… And even better I almost puked in the rental car. It is so hilly I literally could barely stomach it. Every sharp turn felt like a punch in the stomach. Best part of my day was when I begged my parents to stop at an In n Out for some much needed food. We finally reached the mothership, my grandmother’s fabulous home, and I almost fell out of the car door I was so relieved and amazed that I could ever get out of LA. As I crawled inside my grandmother’s house, the  view out of her spacious windows almost made the drive worth it.

Long story short, my time in Palm Springs was a marvelous as it was the year before but I had this sick feeling lingering over me all week. I only realized it until it was too late. I had to go back to LA to fly home. My stomach dropped and my face turned into an immediate and painful frown. That was the sick feeling that had been dogging me all week. So the day arrived, we had to drive back to LA. Taking deep breaths, I enter the car and three hours later (might I add only half an hour late) we arrive in the “City of Angels” if thats what some call it… But we did go to the Getty Museum which was very very cool. Only thing I regret is accidentally coming upon Robert Mapplethorpe’s “X Files”. I strongly advise you for your own sake not to look at those photos. They were unique but not what I had intended on seeing that day. But for my parent’s hopeful highlight of the day: Rodeo Drive. In my head, I was squealing at the thought of going into Miu Miu and Gucci and all of my favorite stores. Then reality hit me; I have absolutely no money. So that dream went down the drain, but I thought window shopping is enough for me. And it was. The window displays were like nothing else. My parents also said that we were going into the Beverly Wilshire hotel. You know that kind of popular hotel from the semi- rememberable movie Pretty Woman? Of course you know it and I was dying inside to be in the same place as the Julia Roberts. So we enter the hotel and it was so lackluster I cannot even remember anything significant from it. But that is LA? Maybe I did all the wrong touristy things? Or maybe I am not destined for the golden state and dreadful traffic? At least I got to see the “Human Ken Doll” walk in front of me on Rodeo Drive.