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July 17, 2011

IT'S OFFICIAL! Check out this link to see my name on the list for The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Summer Internship Program website! It lists all of us lucky interns by category, our university, and our host company!  http://www.emmysfoundation.org/current-interns.

The past week at my internship was good. I still can't talk about much of what I do there. It's all "Top Secret," sorry! Once Project Runway airs on July 28th and The Real World: San Diego airs around late September I'll be able to tell you all more!

I try to take advantage of every weekend by doing something new and fun. Although, like most of you around the country have heard about it was "Carmageddon" this weekend. Meaning, one of the most used interstates, 405 N and S is CLOSED for construction. This highway is used heavily because it connects The Valley to the lower part of Los Angeles by driving through the hills. I use it to get to my internship in Van Nuys every day. Seriously, everyone was making a huge deal about it. People heard about it all the way in New York. Many LA citizens did not go into work on Friday or the weekend to avoid the horrific traffic that would be caused from the closure. Many people stocked up on food and stayed in for the weekend. I heard doctors and nurses slept at the hospitals to avoid driving to work. Over the radio people were offering helicopter rides for people to get to work. It was insane how the news was covering "Carmageddon." I live in Westwood currently, which is RIGHT by the 405 interstate, so I have been hearing news helicopters all weekend. Luckily! The construction to blow up a bridge to widen the highway was completed ahead of schedule and was already re-opened by 3pm on Sunday. (It was suppose to open by 5am Monday morning, and for every 10 minutes it was postponed the contractors would be fined $6,000). No wonder it got done quickly.

So to avoid crazy traffic, Andrea and I stayed in and had a fantastic quesadilla dinner that I made Friday night. Saturday we hung out in The Village by UCLA. Andrea later surprised me with tickets to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 3D! We saw the movie at the Fox Westwood Village Theater. It is so beautiful inside and much bigger than I thought it would be, by seating 1,400 people.  This is a picture I took of the ceiling of the historic theater that was built in 1931. The movie was incredible, BTW. EVERYONE MUST SEE IT! (But please read the 7th book first).

Sunday I decided to take Andrea to Beverly Hills. We walked down Rodeo Dr. and Via Rodeo, along with many other connecting roads. This is the entrance to Via Rodeo. There were so many high end stores, including many I had never even heard of. Luckily, it was blue skies and incredibly sunny day. The last week it has been very gloomy and cool outside. We only let ourselves walk into 2 stores: Juicy Couture and Guess. The inside of the stores are beautiful. We stared at all the amazing clothes that we cannot afford. There are many foreign people, recognizably as Europeans taking pictures and acting very touristy on Rodeo Drive. Luckily we found a friendly Dad with his teenage daughter to take Andrea and my picture on the steps of Via Rodeo in exchange for me to take a picture of him and his daughter on the stairs, too.

Welcome to Fro-Yo Land!

 July 11, 2011

Sorry people, its been awhile since my last post. I've been trying to
think about what to blog about...Sadly, I cannot talk about most of what I do at my internship because of the confidentiality contract I signed. But! I will suggest that you watch The Real World: San Diego Season 26 (yes, 26 freakin seasons) and Project Runway Season 9 because I have worked on both shows so far this summer!!! (I'm not sure the release date for The Real World just yet...I'm predicting it will be sometime late September. I'll keep you updated when I find out).

So, the second day I was in Los Angeles my good friend Adam Raque explained how Frozen Yogurt is kinda big here. That was an understatement...
People are OBSESSED.

There are so many frozen yogurt places here, it is insane. So far I have seen all of these ^^^^
These are just the big name frozen yogurt places around Los Angeles, so I'm not even counting the smaller Mom & Pop joints. So far I have only tried Yogurtland. Instead of frozen yogurt I have discovered an awesome ice cream place in The Village. For those of you IU students, The Village is pretty much UCLA's Kirkwood. Since I am staying in Westwood, which is right in front of the UCLA campus I walk around The Village quite often. My roommate Andrea told me about this ice cream placed called Diddy Riese. Apparently, I am not the only one that loves Diddy Riese because the entire Westwood neighborhood is there every night. Seriously, the line to this ice cream place stretches so far you wait a solid 30 minutes or more. The main reason everyone loves this place is because it is SO CHEAP. They are known for their cookie ice cream sandwich. You choose your 2 cookies and ice cream to create your delicious ice cream delight for only $1.50. (Those prices are rare in L.A.)
You can check out their website here: http://www.diddyriese.com/home.php

Side note: If I officially move and work in Los Angeles I plan on buying a new, shorter car asap. Parking my long Nissan Maxima is not easy. I wish I had a Smart Car or Mini Cooper every time I am searching for a parking spot for over 10 minutes in my own apartment neighborhood. Frustrating. L.A. and Bloomington have 2 things in common: Horrible parking and traffic. Los Angeles is just amplified 20x.

June Gloom

Few days ago I thought, "I've been in Los Angeles for almost 2 weeks now, and I have YET to go to the beach." I had to fix that problem.

I wanted to plan a morning to go to the beach with group of The Academy interns whom I have made friends with. My current roomie, Andrea Saavedra and I woke up at 8:30am to leave around 9am for Santa Monica Beach! Sadly, "June Gloom" is still with us (even though it is officially July). What is "June Gloom" you ask? Well, let me tell you. As soon as I arrived in Los Angeles, the people here were explaining this weather forecast to me. Unfortunately, L.A. is not as warm and sunny all the time as you may think, especially in June. Every morning you wake up to cloudy skies. Usually, the sun will come out each day around noon, making it pretty warm outside. Once the sun starts to set around dinner time, it gets pretty chilly outside again. I've learned to always to make a cardigan part of my outfit each day. So, "June Gloom" was with us for most of the day. The beach was pretty foggy looking. When I went to Santa Monica Beach in January you could see everything very clearly, but not during June!

Although, even with the cloudyness we still got some sun on our faces. A bunch of Academy Interns found us on the beach. I got Zac Kinman and Sullivan Fitzgerald (Sully) to play nerf vortex whistle football with me on the beach. It was awesome! Around noon we were all getting hungry and went to this new mall nearby to eat. From there we went to Santa Monica strip that is home to many popular stores like Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Ed Hardy, Michael Kors, American Eagle, Zara, and tons more! What is neat about this outdoor road is that it is the home to many types of street performers. Crowds of shoppers gather around to watch them perform their music, dancing, or other talents. After I came out of Forever 21 I saw one of the interns, Minh Vu had been pulled from the crowd to be part of his man's acrobatic act. It was fantastic.

Next, I took Andrea to Hollywood Blvd to see the Walk of Fame stars, the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater right next door. She tooks dozens of pictures with the stars and hand printed slabs at the Chinese Theater. I took Andrea, Minh, Melanie Lubin (fellow IU student!), Jason Ikeler, and Brian Pacek to the Kodak Theater balcony to get a good view of the Hollywood Sign in the hills. By this time we were all draggin from a long day of walking and being in the sun. We all said our goodbyes around 8:00 pm. I got home around 9:00pm and ate the best bowl of fruit loops I've ever had and crashed. So yes, Andrea and I were in bed by 9:30pm on a Saturday night in Los Angeles. ha.

Now we have to figure out what to do next during this long 4th of July long weekend! I'll let you know what happens.