Saturday, June 27, 2009

LA - the last of it.

my last two days in LA were lovely. 

when i started packing up to leave on wednesday morning, i felt like i had done everything i wanted to do, and seen everyone i wanted to see... and then some. it was perfect. such a good feeling. 


monday was super relaxed. i went shopping with my friend kelly in camarillo. she found some shoes, but i came away with nothing. we drove home on the PCH through malibu, and it brought back many great memories of my mission. that's my favorite drive... when there's no traffic. 

that night kelly and brooke (the lovely ladies that i stayed with) took me out for dinner at the Gypsy Cafe on westwood. i loved it so much! they told me it was mediterranean food, but it was just completely middle eastern! they had falafel, shawarma, baba ghanoush, even hookahs! they also had the most amazing tomato soup ever. they were playing arabic music too, which made me so happy, and to my joy and surprise, one of my favorite songs (Nour el-Ain) came on halfway through dinner. i couldn't have asked for anything greater. it was so fun being back on westwood, where there's so much middle eastern culture, especially now that i understand it so much better. 


so much of what's written on the buildings is in farsi script, and since it's just about the same as arabic script, i could finally read it! what a great feeling. 

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the next day i went downtown where i met up with some of my favorite people, morena and gilmar. they took me out for lunch at a little el salvadorian restaurant (that's where they're from). it was so good! i had forgotten how awesome pupusas, empanitas and empanadas are. 



about an hour later, even though i was so full, my friend jose (as seen in previous post) insisted on taking me out for lunch again. this time the food was honduran, like jose. he's such a sweetheart. he gave me a little english-spanish picture dictionary, so i can improve... yeah, it's gotten that bad. it was funny trying to communicate. my spanish got increasingly better as the day went on, but it seems to have gotten much worse. thank goodness for my new dictionary. he also gave me these pictures: 






he had them taken to send back to his family in hondruras, so he made copies for me and the other sister i taught him with. i think they're awesome. 

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that night i met up with jonas. he's awesome. we went out for ice cream and he told me all the latest ideas he's come up with. he graduated from film school a few years back, and now at the tender young age of 25, he's already writing scripts. he's got 2 or 3 completed, or nearly completed i think. they're all pretty good too. he's just writing and researching, and will make it big in no time i'm sure. he told me he'll take me to the oscars one day. and i made him promise to include me in his thank you speech when he wins one day. 

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well, it was sad to say goodbye to LA.


it was so nice though, to feel like i had had such a perfect trip. nothing went wrong, and all i had to be frustrated with was the horrible traffic on the I-10 as a result of the victory parade for the lakers on wednesday morning... i was a little sad to return to provo, but as i came into utah county, i was welcomed with beautiful rainy weather, and such a lovely rainbow. that made me happy to be home. 


i love that my mission is so accessible. i plan on taking advantage of that for the rest of my life. 

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2 comments:

  1. can i take advantage of it with you?

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  2. I just read all of your blogs about LA and it made me homesick for you to be on a mission again. I love these people who you love and am so glad I was able to meet many of them. You were their angel...
    glad you made it home safely!
    I hope it works out for you to go again this weekend.

    ReplyDelete