One Month Down

Hello everyone.

I've officially been here for a month, and I'm absolutely loving it.

I've signed up for an acting class with my friend (and fellow Communications masters student) Bonnie, who is an actual actor. Since this is bound to be one of the most hilarious/embarrassing events of my life, I'll keep you updated. But seriously, how can I be in LA and not take an acting class??
Answer: I can't.

Truly one of the biggest blessings in the past month has been FaceTime. Most of you won't be surprised that I FaceTime with Addison (my niece) at least every other day. Huge shoutout to Amanda (my sister-in-law) for dealing with my incessant requests to FaceTime a 1-year-old, which is even harder than it sounds. Here's a small video of how this usually goes.

I've FaceTimed pretty much everyone I know, including:

• Katie Holthouser, who is about to move to Spain to teach English. Follow her adventures on her blog - she's one of the best and funniest writers I know, so it's bound to be a great read. She hasn't posted anything yet, but she moves in less than a week so stay tuned. 
• Sarah Wright, who's getting her doctorate in Psychology at Southern Miss. She's legit and should have a blog. I'll work on that.
• Claire Mayo, one of my best friends from Knoxville, who is getting her masters in French History (it's more complicated than that, but it's over my head) at NYU. So, yes, we're literally as far away as we could possibly be from each other in the continental United States. *crying*
• Brooke Griffith, another great friend from Knoxville who is an incredibly talented artist and jewelry designer (check out her jewelry here). She spent this past summer interning at URBN, the company that owns Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People. Yes, she's that legit. And you also have her to thank (or hate) for this blog post, because she told me I needed to update it. 
• My parents... enough said. Kelly is so bad at holding the phone still, it makes me nauseated when I'm FaceTiming her. Richard was so distracted by golf today while we were FaceTiming, he asked me when my birthday was. It's fine. 
• Talking to (brother) Richard usually involves me talking his ear off and him making obnoxious faces at me before he figures out I'm screenshotting him. See below. 

#attractive 

I thought I would give a little overview of the girls in my cohort (which basically means first year Communications students). There are only 5 of us, so we bonded extremely fast, and have an absolute blast together.

Bonnie: As mentioned above, Bonnie is an actor who's originally from North Carolina, but moved to LA a few years ago. She and I have an absurd amount of similarities, from our extensive stomach problems to our favorite ice cream flavors. Her boyfriend is Australian, so naturally we make him talk as much as possible. Bonnie is one of those people you just click with and you feel like you've been friends forever. (Now that I think of it, that's how it is with all these girls...) But anyway, you can tell how sweet she is by the fact that she even considered taking a beginners acting class with me.
Mary Nell: As you might have guessed from the double name, Mary Nell is from the South (North Carolina to be exact). Where to even start... Mary Nell has a deep southern accent and outgoing personality that form the perfect storm. And by "perfect storm" I mean that Mary Nell can get anything from anyone for free in 30 seconds flat. I'm not making this up. To list a few things she's gotten in the past 2 weeks: an entire box of pizza, an extra cup of ice cream, and a bottle opener (while we were in class at Pepperdine, a dry campus). And that's just a few. She spent a month this past summer living in the woods with a bunch of kids, teaching them nature stuff. Aka my worst nightmare. Major props for that.
Martha: Oh, Martha. Martha is the only girl in our cohort originally from California. She's super outgoing and loves to laugh. She's Mexican-American, which ties into her research and interests in graduate school in an extremely cool way. I love that she's using her experiences to shape her research. She has one of the most interesting life stories I've ever heard, and she thinks I'm absolutely crazy (get in line, Martha). Martha's always down to hang out with whoever wants to and is one of those people you find yourself chatting with for hours.
Nicole: Nicole is the introvert/traveler of the group. I'm 97% positive that any location in the world you can think of, Nicole has been there. I'm not exaggerating. Nicole is probably the least talkative  of the group (which technically isn't saying a lot - we're talkers), but she always has really interesting things to say, and is highly intelligent. Nicole is also one of those people who seems to know something about everything, so almost literally anything you bring up, she can have an intelligent conversation about. She's also really funny.


Differences I've noticed between Malibu and the South:
1. Surfer-speak. Guys, it's an actual thing here... Here's the main vocabulary I've noticed, including, but not limited to:

• "That's sick" 
• "Yewww" (which apparently means "epic" according to my new surfer friend)
• "Rad"
• "Cowabunga dude" (Ok I'm lying about this one but it's only a matter of time)

2. How people dress. Most of you who know me from college will be genuinely surprised that I've probably only worn a t-shirt and athletic shorts out in public a couple of times. People here are always dressed well, so I dress well. It's also probably because on the off chance I run into Jake Gyllenhaal, I want to be prepared. Step 2: actually wearing makeup. 

3. People are much more forward here, especially guys. 

4. People here aren't "fake" like they are in the South (personality-wise, not physically. That's a whole other ball game). They're very much themselves all the time, and very accepting of who everybody else is. It's refreshing.

6. Pepperdine does not = Samford. I thought maybe since they are both private Christian universities with the reputation of attracting rich kids, they would be pretty similar. Um no. The students here are far wealthier on average than the students at Samford. Also, much more fashionable... no big t shirts and leggings anywhere, although I have seen one sorority jersey (you know those long sleeved huge shirts with writing on the top of the back). 

7. Guys are much more fashionable here... I met a guy the other day who had made the pants he was wearing that day and - trust me - they were cool. 

I've truly had so much fun in this past month. California is everything I thought it would be and more, and it's so fun to see God's hand in every decision and rejection I encountered in the past few years. 

XOXO

Malibu Harbie

P.S. Shoutout to Christian Calegari, one of my Samford professor's sons who just started a blog. He's 7, he's hilarious, and he can sing a mean Jason Aldean song. Trust me go check it out, it'll brighten your day.