Leaving Suburbia
I didn’t need any more of a reason to leave Montgomery. Living with my aunt on the other side of the United States sounded like the best way to open my eyes to the world around me. It's big, and there's a lot of it and a lot of people in it. All different types of geography and personalities. All co-existing, with different landscapes and lifestyles.
Everything falling through on me was probably the best blessing I could have ever received. I’ve finally had time to do ‘me’ and be selfish, independent, curious, I will cease to ask questions out here. And it’s never felt better.
I want to find my passions, I want to find out what makes me different from the average Jane walking down the street. I'm looking for a sign or a direction to go in. While observing how people on the West Coast do this whole "life" thing.
On top of it all there was also no better time to become close and get to know some distant family.
The first week in Cali, I worked like a dog trying to find a job. Anything. I was about ready to do anything for something. I was able to work on my interview skills and my resume a lot, but nothing in the way of jobs. That's when I started thinking, maybe this is meant to be. I need to explore more schools and my passions out here. I don't want to have to miss out because I have to go to work. Lastly I want to relax, let go, and define myself.
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| Home- block and a half from the beach =] |
So what now? I have no job.
What do I want to do with my time here? My aunt is paying for my food at home and letting me stay with her. I couldn't ask for a better aunt. I have a whole summer to kill. To make it better, I have no job and a small savings account. Life couldn't get better. lets live it up.
Purifying Body and Mind
This summer my aunt is trying a "vegan experiment", eating vegan inside the house for most meals. However when we eat out, we can have the choice to stay vegan or not. I'm game. I was trying to be a vegetarian at home just because of how unhealthy meat is these days unless it is grass fed and/or free range. Vegan is healthier and more eco-friendly than vegetarianism. It has also been a cool experiment, its really not that hard if you have time to cook and enjoy eating at home or bringing it with you. The meals have been surprisingly delicious. I have also discovered some foods I've never heard about. The only difficult part is taking vitamins to supplement your diet and eating enough protein.
I am looking for some clarity out here and being a vegan is maybe just what I needed. I want to be able to give back to my body after a whole school year of stressing, cramming and being confused. I want to clear my thoughts and learn how to slow them down with yoga. I want to also try to be as active as possible with my free time. California is a beautiful place to explore.
Cali Surf
Being in Cali for the summer meant one thing to me, surfs up. It is my goal to learn how to surf (well) and to do it as much as possible because I am so close to the beach. I got a neighbor to lend me a board within the first 2 weeks. I'm psyched! My uncle's cousin Eric, also offered to take me out to Huntington, also known as Surf City USA.The small dilemma is that I don't have a car. My aunt has a Honda Civic and I don't drive stick nor does a board fit gracefully in a Civic. But we've been creative about solving this problem. Making surf very possible.
The surf out here is sick. My only regret is not surfing earlier in my life. I've surfed with some young kids and they just make me so envious that wasn't me as a kid. I've also surfed with some older people who didn't pick it up until later in their lives but religiously hit the surf as much as possible now (I hope that's me when I get older).
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| Waking up at 6:00 am to surf and squeezing (meat packing) into my wet suit |
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| Waxing up |
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| Lovin' it. |
After the first day of some huge surf at Huntington I was already dreaming of catching the perfect wave and how it would feel like beneath my feet. "The surf is never the same, which makes it difficult to learn" Eric told me, "it takes a lot of practice, you have good days and you have bad ones... when you're just learning, you can catch the perfect wave, which can just make your day."
The LB
Long Beach is an great city.
Located in Los Angeles County in Southern California. It's the 7th largest city in California. It's so different from any of the cities I've seen on the east coast. I still can't put my finger on it, maybe it's the beach or maybe it's how spread out the city is. All I know is that it's quite beautiful.
It has a Mediterranean climate meaning that it's warm and beautiful almost every day. In June it can get pretty overcast in the mornings but that usually burns off around noon time. It almost never rains here, such a drastic change from the Garden State. It's very dry here though meaning you can get dehydrated an sun burnt very quickly and not even know it. The sun just evaporates your sweat before you see it appear on your skin.
The other thing that shocked me was the nights can get really cold. It's not like hot humid summer nights in Jersey where you lay in bed sweating to the covers with the fan on and all the windows open. You need to carry a jacket or sweater if you plan on being out past after the sun sets.
The Golden or Oil State
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| Oil-Condo Island |
The other thing that I still have trouble getting used to are the oil rigs. They try to pump oil out of every nook and cranny out here. Not far off the coast, there are 2 fake oil islands. They even disguised them with fake condos and made waterfalls on them so they don't seem to be that much of an eye sore.
Long Beach is also well known for the Port of Long Beach one of the biggest sea ports in the US. This explains the high air pollution rates. The freight boats release mass amounts of bunker fuel as well as the trucks and rail systems that carry the freight inland release even more diesel-pollution.
The other very upsetting part about Long Beach is the breakwater. In the 1950's it was put in to protect the US Pacific Fleet. Unfortunately this makes surfing in Long Beach impossible. I read in one of the Local Newspapers that Long Beach used to be well known for it's incredible surf before the breakwater was built. It's a surfers worse nightmare yet it keeps my aunt house safe from flooding so there is a small upside to this devastating fact.
Yet the breakwater does help lead to even more pollution in Long Beach. It traps all the trash and debis that run off from the sewers in Los Angeles all he way to Long Beach. "This runoff contains most of the debris, garbage, chemical pollutants, and biological pathogens that are washed into storm drains in every upstream city each time it rains." The Los Angeles river bed is also paved to prevent flooding this just inhibits even more trash to be directly poured into the ocean. Which explains a lot of the trash in the beach. Locals know not to go in the water right after it rains because the water can be so polluted.
Minus the downside of the pollution and lack of surf, I have been really enjoying Long Beach. I am so close to a lot of things which makes not having a car not as much of an issue. It's an extremely bike-friendly community. They have bike lanes built into the roads and bike racks all over the city. I am super close to the beach and not far from 2nd street which makes shopping easy. I don't need a car to get much and I'm loving having zero emissions.
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