Day 2 -UCLA Campus Tour/Orientation, Work practice run, & Transformers 2 Premiere.

I feel like such a lame ass. A bunch of people went out, including my 2 roomies over 21, to the bar a little while ago, but I chose to stay here. I just can't do it at this point...my body is still not adjusted to the time change (I started yawning leaving work at 6pm and I realized it was because it was nearly 9pm at home) and I have to wake up super early to get ready and catch public transportation (which takes nearly an hour to get me to work). As much as I'd love to further my social experiences here right now, it would just not be a smart decision. Which makes me look like a loner, but whatev.

Plus, though I am an incredibly social person, I still always have and always will like my alone time. Especially since I've grown accostomed to it this past summer having virtually no social life. So even though my other roommate is home right now (the under 21er), I spent a couple minutes in the living area with her and now I'm in my room with the door shut and the light off taking advantage of my actual roommate who sleeps in here being out. It's so weird, when I want to be social, it seems no one else does and I have to settle on being alone. And then when I want alone time, everyone else is going out and having fun. Ugh. I have such a complicated psyche.

But seriously? The second day of our internships are tomorrow (first day for my roommate, she didn't start today!) and you're out. at the bar. drinking. I just can't comprehend it. Not saying it wouldn't be fun, but again. Logic tells you otherwise in this situation.

So anyways.

I think this is going to be a longer one. Because I made the realization today that I need to stop blogging a day behind because then it looses the flair of the actual feelings I had and I'm actually a hyped up about something else.

So yesterday morning we met at 10am for a campus tour. Which some people skipped and others didn't take seriously, which kind of annoyed me...I want to have my bearings on this campus while I'm here thank you very much. It was hard enough to hear the tiny voice speaking let alone over others rudely talking. Alas we didn't get a tour of the entire campus (which is huge), like we didn't go over by the academic buildings much, but what we did get to see was absolutely gorgeous. Especially over near the center of campus...like holy crap my jaw literally dropped when we turned this one corner and the view was just spectacular. You can definately tell it's an older campus, but it has just enough updated flair to not make it feel ancient. And the flowers were absolutely everywhere, which just enhanced the view more. So i found out where all 3 dining halls we can eat at are, where the tennis courts Andy Roddick sometimes practices at are, where the track where Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel have often been spotted walking early in the morning (I'm going to have to wake up super early one day to see it for myself), the main campus store and student center (like Kirkhof I guess, but I haven't been inside yet), and where the gym is. (The hike to the gym, however, is a workout in and of itself since it's quite far from my actual residence hall and as I previously stated, the entire campus is built on steep hills. So you're either going up/down a massive hill, or up/down a large staircase.) We took our big "Dreamers" (that's what we are referred to as and how we refer to our group in conversation) picture, and headed back to Covel Hall for orientation.

Orientation was kind of boring. Minus getting to look at Bryce and his fine physique. Basically it was all the information they gave us in the folders they put together for us when we first arrived on Sunday. I don't think I mentioned them in a previous post, but I'm actual quite impressed by the little packets. Not to mention our participant advisor, Anglea. Check-in on Sunday you had to walk up to the table and get your folder with your info and blah blah blah. This other guy and I walked up to the table and Angela looked straight at me and said, "Stephanie...Plona?" and I looked down to make sure I wasn't wearing a nametag or a sweatshirt with my name on it and I wasn't. I looked back up and I was like, "wow, I'm impressed." She had studied all our facebook pictures and names and internships prior to us arriving so we didn't feel like we were going into a cold, uncaring enviornment. How classy and dedicated, if you ask me! Anyway, so back to the folders. In the folders on the right side is basic UCLA/University of Dreams info, rules, phone numbers, schedule for the first few days, etc. Below it is a slot. If there was a card in the slot, you were taking the bus to work (as I am.) If it was baby blue, you took the metro (as I do). If it was royal blue, you took the big blue bus. On the left side of the folder was your internship information, and detailed instructions how to get to and from your internship on the bus system. So in other words, UofD employees mapped out the best bus route (for those who could get to work on bus routes. some have to be driven in uofdreams vans) for each and every dreamer to get to work and then typed them all up and personalized them. It was pretty impressive. So yeah, he went over the folders, and went over transportation stuff. People who were going in vans found out what van they were in and what time it left and they were set free for the day, while us on buses had more detailed instructions. A special shuttle picks us up from the dorms every morning and takes us down into Westwood (the area of LA closest to UCLA...within walking distance, but I don't think they wanted to make us walk in work clothes down that massive hill at awful hours of the morning) where you get off at one of 2 stops, depending on which bus you're taking. From there you pick up your bus and go. So they wanted us bus riders to do practice runs so we didn't get lost or anything today. (And suprise suprise, those who skipped out on mapping their routes to work this morning all encountered problems. One kid even found out his business had moved buildings within the last few weeks and had to take a taxi cab to the new place!) So after orientation I came back to my room and changed into a sundress for 2 reasons. 1)I was going to wander around Hollywood for pete's sake! and 2)Everyone was going to the "Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen" premiere later and I wasn't sure if I would make it back in time to change and get a prissy. (I wore my purple sundress and black flip flops for your reference, mom.) Then I went and caught the makeshift shuttles for the day and headed off on my merry way.

P.S. Have I mentioned how GORGEOUS Greek Row is here? They have so many fraternities and sororites, and all their houses are to die for! The weird thing is is that fraternity row is just off campus...every time I walk to and from some parts of Westwood I see all their houses. But sorority row is settled further off campus and the first time I saw it was on my bus ride to work. Some of the frat houses are actually bigger than the sorority houses, but they are all so so so nice. I'm way jealous. If they had a Phi Sig I'd be all over spending time at their place!

So anyway. My commute to work takes place almost entirely on Sunset Blvd. So every day I pass Bel-Air, Beverly Hills (yes, I freaked out when I saw that iconic little brown sign with yellow piping that reads "Beverly Hills"), plenty of gated mansions (I really would like to figure out if/what stars live in them...), The Beverly Hills Hotel, lots of iconic places in West LA and West Hollywood such as The Roxy and The House of Blues, One Nightclub (where many DWTS people hang out), and more. My mouth literally dropped open when I saw all these places. Seriously, every day i go to work I see all these places. And get this, my bus stop is at Sunset and Vine. Then a walk down a mile - ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME (everyday on my walk to work I walk over Shirley Temple, Janet Jackson, and my most exciting one Martin Sheen's stars!)-to the legendary intersection of Hollywood&Vine, where I work in one of the most historic buildings in Hollywood history, the Taft Building.

So i'm like freaking out about all this, right? So exciting. Here comes the really weird part - walking around in a foreign city (foreign as in I'd never been there before) really didn't faze me at all. I really hardly noticed I was alone...I didn't feel like I needed anyone there to hold my hand. I really just wished I was walking with someone so I could gush that I was on Martin Sheen's star and that was about it. I wandered up Hollywood about a block and found myself a Pinkberry (I see lots of celebs tweeting about this place and how much they love it) and decided to try it for myself....ugh their pomegranate soft serve is HEAVEN! And then wandered back to the bus stop and hopped back on the Metro 2 to head back towards LA.

This other girl who is on a smiliar route as mine was on her way back at the same time so it was nice to know when I got off the bus I wasn't going to be alone because I wasn't sure if we were getting picked back up from practice runs (we get picked up after work for sure everyday though) or if we were supposed to walk back or if they assumed we were all just headed to the premiere (which was at the legendary theatre in Westwood which i can't remember the name of now....Fox maybe...) or what. So I called when we got off the bus and they said yeah they just assumed everyone was heading to the premiere but they could come get us if we wanted but I said nah no big deal I'm cool staying down here.

And good thing I said that because we wouldn't have even been able to see anything! As it was we had a very obscure view and probably the furthest out of any of the spectators. Not to mention a helluva time getting through the security guy. Everything was blocked off,sidewalks and all, around the theatre and where they had everything set up. The whole block inbetween the theatre and another street was used because they set up Optimus Prime (he's the truck, right? if not, they had the real truck there) and the real car they used as Bumblebee there. It was absolute madness. The only way we could see half of anything was to sneak in Starbuck's back door and order a drink so the security guy let us out on their patio which is right next to the theatre's entrance. Unfortunately, most of the star's exited their limos and such on the other side of the main road from where we were, but we got to see them for like 2.5 seconds as they rushed inside the theatre. It was madness. And they give spectators free tickets to the premiere because PR people don't want empty seats,so they hand out free fillers. And they only handed out 6 where we were standing the entire night (who all happened to be lucky dreamers!), whereas across the street, though it was further away from the red carpet, was getting ticket after ticket after ticket (some of the uofdreams staff got in from being over there!)

But, quite honestly, I didn't really care as much about seeing this particular movie as I would about some of the others that are premiering this summer. Plus, if I wasn't in the area that I was, I wouldn't have seen Shawn Johnson get out of her car right in front of us and wave at me when I (and a few others, it wasn't just me thank you very much) yelled her name out! That was way exciting for me per my DWTS obsession! Unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of her - you can't see her face in either of them - but I'm sure I'll spot her at more events this summer...she seems to be going to a lot of them lately. And the whole yelling thing? Yeah the "seasoned veterans" who were there explained to us that a lot of stars aren't likely to come over and pose for pics, sign autographs, or even look your way at premieres unless you're making the most noise yelling their name out. So it was a necessary measure.

Other celebs I saw - some I got pics of, some I didn't thanks to my location - Shia LeBoeuf and Megan Fox (obviously as it was their premiere!), Josh Duhmel, Vanessa Minillo (she actually was wayyyy close to us!), Nick T. (I can't remember his last name but he was in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"), Jon Voight (actor and Angelina Jolie's dad!), Lala Vazquez (from MTV), Kristin Cavalleri (from "Laguna Beach" and "'The Hills"), and Ciara from a distance. I also heard Reggie Bush, Linkin Park, and Kim Kardashian were there, but I didn't get to see them.

Oh, and they had some guy dressed up in a lifesize transformed Bumblebee suit walking around and that was pretty cool to see.

All in all, it was a fun premiere and now that I know the ropes, I will know how to play it just right next time to get into the movies I want. Not to mention to get there super early to get good positioning to see my fave celebs.

After the premiere, we all headed back to campus and grabbed a last minute dinner at Covel Hall, which is the only hall open til 9 for dinner. Basically, it's the same exact concept as Fresh Food Co. at GVSU, so unfortunately for me not a ton of G-Free options, but there's always salad and there's always the option if I want to risk cross contamination of taking meats off of buns/sandwich breads/etc. And they had just plain rice you could add steamed veggies on top of so that worked out for me...salad, rice, and steamed veggies. No protein other than the boiled egg I had with my salad, but it worked at 9pm.

Wow. I am so so so tired now. I know I said I'm gonna talk about today too, but that's unrealistic at this point. So. Tomorrow at some point. I am going to do both. Plus i don't think tomorrow will be as eventful as it's the second day of work and all....i'm going to have much more to say about today than tomorrow I'd assume.

But anyways. Yes. 11:05 pm and i'm passing out for the night. :)

Muah! <3