This was the best summer of my life! I visited a lot of places in LA while I was enrolled in what was probably one of the toughest courses I’ve gone through, while at USC. Like I always say, it’s very important to stay motivated in grad school and my way of rejuvenating is by going out and visiting new places. So this is what I did this summer!
While I was enrolled in the summer course, I and my team, made it a point to take a day off after every assignment so we don’t go crazy. And during one of these breaks was when we visited local tourist spots. We started with the Broad Museum and without doubt, my favourite was the Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room. For the benefit of the readers, Yayoi Kusuma is an 89-year old artist from Japan. If you want to know more about her and her work. Inside Infinity mirrored room, it looks like we’re surrounded by an infinite number of lights because of the reflections from the mirrors all around the room. It feels like we’re in space, surrounded by thousands of stars. We waited for an hour to just get into the museum and then we signed in to get tickets for Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room.
We had to wait for nearly 4 hours for this. But the good thing is, we can check out works by other artists while waiting for our turn. But most importantly, do check out Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream truck outside broad Museum. They make the best ice creams ever. Their truck is located outside broad museum from 11 am to 7 pm ( Except on Mondays).
The same day we visited Thien Hau Temple in China Town. It’s a small but beautiful temple. They do have a dress code. So find out more about that before visiting the temple. We also visited the Hollywood Sikh Temple (Gurudwara) the next week. After praying to Waheguru (which means God in Sikhism), we all sat down for a community meal. Everyone sits on the floor and the volunteers serve the food. This is to show that everyone is equal. There is no dress code as such but wearing something modest is very much recommended.
This summer definitely had a lot of firsts for me. I took my first train ride in LA to Camarillo. We took the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. We visited a couple of places there. One was the Ventura Pier which is one of the longest piers in California. I did a little reading about this pier and was surprised at the number of times this pier had been reconstructed because of the damage caused by storms and floods. But don’t worry! It’s safe and should definitely be on your list of places to visit in Ventura. Then we also visited the Ventura Harbour Village. Our friend drove us back to college and she took the famous pacific coast highway. It’s one of the most scenic drives i’ve ever been on.
I also took my first roller coaster ride in Knott’s berry farm. It was amazing!!! I’ve been to amusement parks before but never got onto a roller coaster. But this time, it was different. A friend of mine was pretty good at convincing me about the safety of the ride and how irrational my fear of roller coasters is. So I did it!
This trip was organized by Office of International Services for the student workers. OIS also organizes several other events for the students, so definitely check out their site to stay updated about such events.
Conclusion: It was the best summer of my life. I had the chance of visiting places that completely redefined Los Angeles for me and I can’t wait to see what more Los Angeles has to offer.
For more pictures from my trips this summer, follow my instagram account. I’ve been posting a lot of stories lately. 😀
Published on September 14th, 2017
Last updated on January 20th, 2021