I'm just casually sitting here somewhere between 1,400 (Texas) and 2,300 (Tennessee) miles away from my family/everyone I love. I've now lived here for 10 days.
So anyway, I'm sitting here in my apartment in Malibu looking out at the palm trees blowing in the wind and I can't believe it. I am officially an adult. My parents moved me in, helped me furnish my space, and shipped out.
The people here have been so welcoming and kind. I even attended neighborhood bingo night on Thursday and won the prize for having the worst bingo cards (long story). These women are serious about their bingo, and I was the youngest one there by at least 30 years. AKA, my kind of party.
I met a woman who used to sing with many of the greats, like Frank Sinatra.
I met my fellow graduate students, and 4 out of the 5 are from the South (though two of them have lived in L.A. for a few years). After spending the day with them at orientation, I'm even more excited than before about spending the next two years with them.
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| The 5 ladies in the graduate program at Pepperdine for orientation |
I met the man who owns the local farm across the street, and hit the jackpot with the avocados he's selling.
I met a woman who has owned a local dog grooming business for years, and has recently started cremating animals with water, a process called Aquamation, which is more environmentally friendly. Welcome to California.
(Curious how the heck that works? Click Here.)
Differences between the South and Malibu I've determined thus far:
1. I say "y'all" more than I realized. "Y'all" is definitively not a thing here.
2. Everything - I repeat everything - is organic/healthy here. It's amazing.
3. The weather. It's mid-seventies and sunny with a cool breeze year-round. As my dad recently said, "It's like the outside is air-conditioned."
4. The beach. Malibu is 27 miles long and 1 mile wide, so it's almost literally all beach. The closest public beach sits right at the end of my neighborhood, so you can probably guess where I've spent most of my time.
5. L.A. traffic is INSANE. To all of you asking if it's as bad as Atlanta traffic, yes. Just yes. Worse.
6. Air conditioning doesn't exist in my neighborhood. People just open the windows and it serves the same function, and for some reason bugs don't fly in.
7. Every other car is majorly upscale. I'm talking Bentley convertibles, Lamborghinis, G-wagons, etc. All over the place.
8. Everything. Is. Expensive.
I realize this blog has been extremely random and doesn't have much of a flow to it, but it's a culmination of what has been running through my head over the past 10 days. I'm hoping to blog pretty frequently this year, so stay tuned!
Much love to all of you reading this!!
Malibu Harbie
