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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sunday morning - back to LA

sunday was amazing.

i was able to go back to santa monica 2nd ward, where i attended church as a missionary for 6 months and see some of the people that i had come to love so much. 

the santa monica 2nd ward building

derek came with me and it was so fun for me to introduce him to all of these people. it was so good to see them all again. most people couldn't remember where they knew me from, and many of them thought we had been friends in college. i found it funny. 

we left after sunday school to rush to the spanish ward (barrio tercero) before everyone went home...

luckily, i was wrong about the meeting times, and we got there just as everyone was  going to class! it was SO awesome to see these people. i realized that my spanish was horrible and i need to basically re-learn it. it was lucky derek was there with his amazing spanish to translate for me. 

i was talking to people and having a lovely time, when out of the corner of my eye, i saw someone that i really didn't expect to see. jose castellanos was a man that i had met tracting in his apartment building. we taught him somehow (in spanish) and he was baptized.

jose and i 

i had heard that he had moved, maybe even back to honduras, and i had no contact information. i didn't think i would ever see him again. i ran to him and gave him a big hug and through happy tears tried to explain how surprised i was to see him. i had to turn to derek, and explain it all to him and he was kind enough to explain things to jose.

 

this is rebekah. she would come with us for hours at a time (she's only 17) and would help us with our spanish. she's such a sweetheart. 

gloria was studying to get her citizenship when i was there, and she finally got it! Teresa spoke no english a year and a half ago, and she totally surprised me when she said "it's so good to see you!" in perfect english with no accent! i'm so proud of both of them. 

gloria & teresa

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after church we went over to koorosh's house for a persian feast of a lunch. it was amazing. his dad, mehdi, made us kabobs, rice (persian-style tadig!) stews and salad. 

this is tadig (ta-DEEG). they cook the rice till it's hard and golden-brown on the bottom, and then they serve it upside-down. you put stew on top of it to soften it up but it's still pretty hard. i broke a fork on it once. 

kathy (koorosh's sister - i love her SO much!) and koorosh

(also, please note the delicious kabobs in the foreground)

we ate a lot, and it made us rather sleepy.

One of my favorite things about my time in LA was sitting in this persian family's home right after the iranian election had happened. it was so interesting to sit there with them watching the news and the footage of tehran, where they lived, asking them questions, and hearing their opinions. it was especially interesting because koorosh was a little kid during the revolution in 1979 and remembers all sorts of interesting things about life in Iran, pre- and post-revolution. they're not too happy about the election. 

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Kathy and I (her english is getting so good too) 

me and the khirabadi family (mehdi, kathy, koorosh) we passed the rest of out time looking at pictures from koorosh's childhood in iran and from his first years in america, which was so funny, and then headed off to dinner. 

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we had dinner with brooke and kelly (the friends that so kindly took my into their home during my stay in LA).

they had their friends brandon and dave over, and we had such a fun night. we ate tacos and key lime pie, played this game called sequence, listened to cheesey love songs, and laughed a ton. i love these girls so much!

that night, i drove derek back home to san diego. we stopped at his parents house to pick something up, got talking and discovered that derek's dad and my step-dad were roommates in college! what in the world are the chances? i had such a fun weekend, and i was so glad derek came so i could have someone to reminisce about it all with. 

derek and i. very full. very tired. very happy. 

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LA - well, San Diego.

i went to san diego on saturday to see some of my favorite people on the planet. first, i went to see christopher. his house is very modern. i like it a lot.

he's like a boy version of me, and i love that he's my cousin. 

we had fun dying and cutting my hair. 

we went to little italy and had pizza. 

and then we went to christopher's work, where he gave me as many samples as he could fit in between his fingers. it was so delicious. he's so good at that job. 

We went back to his place, where we wrote a song, made a music video and a cd cover, and basically impressed ourselves with our talents. 

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it was hard to say goodbye... but not really that hard, cause i was on my way to see derek and david! they're my dear friends from my days in jerusalem. i love them so much!

i hung out at their place for a bit and then derek and i went to la jolla and played at the beautiful beach while the sun went down. 

we had a funny encounter with this man: 

he was trying to make his way across the rocks to get to the big rock, but he slipped on some sea scum and fell in. we held his shoes and wallet for him while he took advantage of his already wet clothes and accomplished what he'd set out to do. 

.

we continued playing on the beach, catching crabs and sticking our fingers and toes into anemones, running away from waves, climbing over rocks, and enjoying immensely one another's company. it was perfect.  

he took me to seaport village, which was sadly just closing down as we got there, but it was still so fun. since no restaurants were open, we went to one of derek's favorite places, juanitas, and i experienced for the first time (and hopefully not the last) the california burrito. dang, that juanita really knows what she's doing. 

we drove to LA that night, cause derek wanted to see my mission and meet my people. 'twas a pleasant drive. 

'twas a pleasant day. 

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LA - day two

koorosh is from iran. 

he's lived in the states for about 15 years now. he is one of my favorite people on the planet, and i had the distinct honor of teaching him on my mission. it was so good to see him, and to see that he still had the book of mormon we gave him (complete with every little book mark we'd put in there for him to read certain chapters). 

He's the most kind and selfless person i've ever met, and he never ceases to amaze me with his devotion to what's right. he took me out for a lovely italian lunch and then we went to the marina, where we saw some beautiful boats, and lots of little crabs playing on the rocks. 

later in the day, i went over to the apartments where i used to live, which are right by the temple and the mission office/mission home. 

luckily, president and sister blackburn (my mission president and his wife, who are seriously like second parents to me) were home. it was so nice to catch up on life with them. they are amazing people.

it was kind of a strange day. i felt a little being in LA as a normal person, with no obligations to speak to everyone i saw about the gospel. it was weird being alone as well. i felt a little lost and like i just didn't have much of a purpose there. i wished for a minute that it was just the same, but then i had a realization. throughout my life, i plan on returning to my mission frequently, and that's how it will feel for the rest of my life. 

my mission was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and now i have to learn to see LA in a new light and enjoy the experience no matter how different it is from now on. 

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LA - day one

Provo to LA 

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I never realized just how much i loved road trips until i took this trip. i love driving, i love listening to music and singing along so loud, and i love going places. my favorite thing in the whole world is to be on a train, a bus, an airplane, a boat, car, camel, donkey, or anything really, and just moving. i love it so much. especially when i'm alone with my thoughts and my ipod. i can't think of anything that makes me happier. i love watching the world go by. this was how i got to spend eleven hours about a week ago. 

when i'm so incredibly happy, i tend to take a picture. either of myself, or of what i'm looking at, just to remind myself of that moment. usually no one knows when looking at a picture of mine just how meaningful it is to me. i took a few pictures of myself on the road, and i'm not ashamed. it's a little awkward sometimes to take a picture of yourself and then show other people, but these pictures, to me, are like secrets. only i know the lovely thoughts that were dancing through my mind at the time.

at the beginning, my hair was straight. when i stopped in st. george for gas, i put my hair up in twists. by the time i stopped again, i had curls. 

fun how that happens.

i loved stopping in nevada. it was hot and it was windy. i'm absolutely in love with wind, especially when it's warm. the place i stopped was like a little ghost town. i can't remember what it's called. it had this old diner called jenny rose. i wanted to eat there but it was closed. maybe for good. 

something else i love is being completely alone. it sounds weird, i know, but i truly love it. i think that's why i loved this stop in this empty town. i felt like i was in the middle of nowhere with no one but myself and my thoughts. 

it's kind of an eerie feeling, but i thrive on it. 

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 the feeling that came over me as i approached downtown was completely indescribable. i was so excited about the smallest things: pigeons, graffiti, spanish on signs, twisting overpasses, ferraris all over the place, and horrible traffic. 

the memories i have walking between those building are so awesome. we didn't work there as missionaries, but we were close. we often had dinner with members who lived there. my memories are mainly funny cause my companion and i were usually running through the horribly lit streets, arm in arm, cell phone in hand with 911 dialed, but not called, trying to avoid stepping on sleeping homeless people, and fearing that we were seconds from robbery or murder. those were frightful times. but i loved it. 

my favorite thing about going back to LA to visit my mission, is the fact that i lived right behind the los angeles temple for a year of my time there. for me, for one whole year, going home meant going to the temple basically. i think for the rest of my life, the first place i'll go when i return to LA is the temple. 

as one takes the I-10 going west toward santa monica, and takes the overland exit and heads north, this is what they see as soon as the get off of the freeway:

 

way down at the end of the street is the temple itself. it's so fun to drive all the way down overland with the temple looming over you. this is where i feel truly at home. 

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going home... kind of.

here i am. 

in the place where i lived for a year and a half, i taught the gospel, overcame my apprehension of homeless people, learned to drive aggressively, wore nylons every day, learned spanish, learned a little farsi, and fell absolutely in love with everything about los angeles. it feels like home.

i have pictures i want to post, but i foolishly forgot the cord i need to upload my pics. they shall come later. 

the drive was oh so pleasant. i came by myself. i left at 9am and arrived at my destination at about 8pm, which is only 7:00 LA time! i thought the drive was so fun, and i was kind of sad when it ended. i've never liked road trips at all, and i think part of the reason i loved it so much was because of the 10 hour play-list i made myself. 

i spent the day with the following, and yes, i recommend them all:

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teitur 

sea wolf

jose gonzalez

benoit charest

belle & sebastian

kings of convenience

architecture in helsinki

beirut (just got it, love it.)

the whitest boy alive

yellow submarine

regina spektor

sufjan stevens

yael naim

keane

stars

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and some swanky tango music by the likes of like maria grana, sandra luna, la chicana, la commora, enzo favata, el arranque, daniel malingo,  adriana varela, antonio agri & walter ross.

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i absolutely loved driving by downtown, and being stopped on the freeway. it seems weird, but i haven't been in traffic that bad since i left over a year ago. i LOVE trying to maneuver through it and i sometimes would change lanes just for the thrill of it. i also loved that at one particularly bad spot, the man in front of me got out of his orange mustang convertible, casually got something out of his trunk, and returned to the driver's seat in time to keep up with the crawling traffic.

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i got to santa monica feeling sick, so i cancelled my dinner plans and stayed at 'home' with brooke and kelly, who so kindly offered me a spot on their blow-up mattress. we had a fun night talking about boys, listening to brooke's amazing collection of old love songs, and playing this game called 'sequence' which i won three times out of six. i'm so glad i get to stay with them.  

i could not be happier.

(quick note: while we were playing, my former roommate and friend, kelsey (not former-friend... we're still very much friends...) got her mission call! she's going to russia! i'm so excited for her!)

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a strange encounter

there i stood at the counter, ready to purchase my goods, when the following conversation took place behind me:

"um, excuse me... is your name chris*"

"yeah..."

"hi, i read your wife's blog."

"oh! uh... great..."

"yeah, you guys have such an adorable family! i was just looking at pictures of your kids this morning. Lilly* was running through the sprinklers, SO cute! and your wife seriously has the most beautiful eyes!"

"yeah, she really does."

"my name's janet* by the way. it's so good to meet you!" (extends the hand for a handshake, which chris takes, very awkwardly)

at this point i smiled... well, laughed. out loud to myself. i don't think they heard. 

is it just me? is this weird? a little creepy? i mean, we all read random people's blogs, but to recognize and talk to a random person about their personal life just kind makes me feel squirmy inside. i guess this is the world we're moving into and there's probably not much to be done about it. maybe people like it? i guess it lets them feel like a bit of a celebrity for a bit, right? 

hm. 

right. 

*names have been changed to prevent embarrassment 

new blog, re: jerusalem

i just started a new blog. it's mainly for me, but you're all more than welcome to peruse. 

http://aziza-in-the-middle-east.blogspot.com/

since i had no time to keep up a blog whilst in the holy land, i've decided to go back in time, if you will, and recount my favorite experiences and to make those experiences available to family and friends. i had an amazing experience there, and i took thousands of pictures (literally... i think about 4,000). so i really look forward to finally putting these out there along with real stories and maybe even some videos. it may take months, many months, to get through my entire life-changing experience, and this is why i'm starting now. i want to get it done before i go back... in april 2010!*

so, go check out the new blog, and get your hopes up for when you go to the middle east, cause let's be honest, you'll go before you die. you have to. 

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*there's a mandatory study abroad for my major (darn...) so i'll be spending four months in Jordan (with trips back to Jerusalem and Egypt... and if i can swing it, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey on the way home... haha, we'll see... oh, if only). i'll be enrolled in 14 credits worth of arabic classes and will hopefully come back fluent! 

al-hamdalallah!

allahu akbar!