Setting up in LA
15 May 2003
Summer is about to start here and that means rain and fog in San Francisco and blockbuster movie releases. We've been escaping some of the rain and fog by going to LA but the movie releases have caught us squarely with X-men 2 last weekend and Matrix Reloaded next weekend.
The weekend of my birthday I went to Los Angeles instead of Robert coming to San Francisco. I drove there with Terry West, as we were taking some furniture with us. I was surprised how easy the drive was on the 5 freeway once we got beyond San Francisco; it took about six hours, which made for a late night.
We had dinner with friends on my birthday and were treated to the LA experience of having a celebrity (in both senses a minor one: Li'l Bow Wow) at the next table.
In the picture from dinner you can see that I had my hair cut for the weekend. This was because I had an interview on Monday at UCLA. It was the first time I had not cut my own hair since arriving in the US and the barber cut it much shorter on the sides than I was used to. The other people in the photo are Will on the left (a friend in LA but originally from Melbourne) and Alfredo and Richard on the right.
The apartment now has a little more furniture in it and so is more liveable. When I arrived we still had no chairs at all and I realized the reason I got tired in the house was that I had to walk around all the time unless I went to the bedroom to sit on the bed.
We spent much of the weekend looking for furniture. Here Robert is sitting in a furniture store. The digital camera was useful for recording colours, styles and prices. We ordered a sofa and sofabed which might arrive by the end of May. Robert had seen a table and chairs in San Francisco which he wanted to get shipped to LA but fortunately we saw almost the same setting in a shop less than a block from the apartment so we carried them home and now could sit down to eat.
While we are waiting for the ordered sofas, our friends Bruce and Billy loaned us a sofa and coffee table, shown here in the front room of the apartment.
I was not very enthusiastic about moving to LA after seeing the very bleak and unattractive areas which compose much of the city on previous visits. There are, however, pockets of much leafier streets such as the one where our apartment is. This, and the fact that there are shops within a short walk so we are not completely tied to using a car for every journey, have made me much more optimistic about the prospect of living there.
Fortunately the interview at UCLA seemed to go well and so I have entered the long process of paperwork involved in possibly moving to another academic institution. It requires agreement from the California Medical Board, the Department of Labor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and of course the administrative departments of the University itself.
For the Easter weekend we visited Palm Springs together with our friend Jay. It was a big party weekend there with the White Party on Saturday night. We didn't go to the White Party but instead spent most of the weekend relaxing by the pool at the hotel where we were staying.
On Sunday afternoon we went to the Tea Dance party. We met quite a few friends from Australia there as well as people we knew from San Francisco. The was a Ferris wheel at the party which we had a ride on and from which I took the photo above.
We had all taken Easter Monday off, and in the morning we rode the cable car from Palm Springs to the top of the adjacent mountains. It is a 15 minute ride from the desert where it was hot and dry to the mountain top where there was still snow on the ground and we were a little underdressed for the temperature.
The only other news here is that I sat my STEP 2 exam a few weeks ago and am waiting to do my clinical exam at the start of June. These are required to maintain my temporary medical licence in California.
< Previous
The weekend of my birthday I went to Los Angeles instead of Robert coming to San Francisco. I drove there with Terry West, as we were taking some furniture with us. I was surprised how easy the drive was on the 5 freeway once we got beyond San Francisco; it took about six hours, which made for a late night.
We had dinner with friends on my birthday and were treated to the LA experience of having a celebrity (in both senses a minor one: Li'l Bow Wow) at the next table.
In the picture from dinner you can see that I had my hair cut for the weekend. This was because I had an interview on Monday at UCLA. It was the first time I had not cut my own hair since arriving in the US and the barber cut it much shorter on the sides than I was used to. The other people in the photo are Will on the left (a friend in LA but originally from Melbourne) and Alfredo and Richard on the right.
The apartment now has a little more furniture in it and so is more liveable. When I arrived we still had no chairs at all and I realized the reason I got tired in the house was that I had to walk around all the time unless I went to the bedroom to sit on the bed.
We spent much of the weekend looking for furniture. Here Robert is sitting in a furniture store. The digital camera was useful for recording colours, styles and prices. We ordered a sofa and sofabed which might arrive by the end of May. Robert had seen a table and chairs in San Francisco which he wanted to get shipped to LA but fortunately we saw almost the same setting in a shop less than a block from the apartment so we carried them home and now could sit down to eat.
While we are waiting for the ordered sofas, our friends Bruce and Billy loaned us a sofa and coffee table, shown here in the front room of the apartment.
I was not very enthusiastic about moving to LA after seeing the very bleak and unattractive areas which compose much of the city on previous visits. There are, however, pockets of much leafier streets such as the one where our apartment is. This, and the fact that there are shops within a short walk so we are not completely tied to using a car for every journey, have made me much more optimistic about the prospect of living there.
Fortunately the interview at UCLA seemed to go well and so I have entered the long process of paperwork involved in possibly moving to another academic institution. It requires agreement from the California Medical Board, the Department of Labor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and of course the administrative departments of the University itself.
For the Easter weekend we visited Palm Springs together with our friend Jay. It was a big party weekend there with the White Party on Saturday night. We didn't go to the White Party but instead spent most of the weekend relaxing by the pool at the hotel where we were staying.
On Sunday afternoon we went to the Tea Dance party. We met quite a few friends from Australia there as well as people we knew from San Francisco. The was a Ferris wheel at the party which we had a ride on and from which I took the photo above.
We had all taken Easter Monday off, and in the morning we rode the cable car from Palm Springs to the top of the adjacent mountains. It is a 15 minute ride from the desert where it was hot and dry to the mountain top where there was still snow on the ground and we were a little underdressed for the temperature.
The only other news here is that I sat my STEP 2 exam a few weeks ago and am waiting to do my clinical exam at the start of June. These are required to maintain my temporary medical licence in California.
< Previous
Next >