Driving to UCLA with the Getty up front.

I never thought I’d truly settle down in a city until I was older, closer to my 30s, but I may just find myself in LA indefinitely.  Though I still want to work in other cities for a few months at a time, I think that home base will still be in the sunny landscape of Southern California.  Much of this has to do with Panda’s preference, since he is a born and breed Los Angelian (or whatever they’re called).  This city is all he’s ever known and all he cares to, at least when it comes to living.  I’m fine with that as long as I still get a fair share of travel and interstate and international time.

As my departure date draws near, the anticipation for all the things I’ve missed grows – I keep imagining how it will be like to see Panda again and hang out with my old friends.  There are plans to go to Six Flags, eat all you can eat Korean BBQ, chase after the Korean taco truck, pig out on Red Mango/Pinkberry, go do yoga on Santa Monica pier, skate around, enjoy the beach, get the best boba in the world, and so much more.  The greatest thing about Los Angeles is the breadth of activities that you can do.  Granted, everything is rather spread out and parking is a hassle, but it’s not so bad.

Just another day on the job! 🙂

I also miss bumming around at my house and hanging out around campus.  Panda’s moving to his new location for the year soon, so I’m also excited to go see it (and have a place to crash :-P).  Some of my friends are still going to be on campus, so when I miss my undergrad days, I can just go visit them too.  It’ll be nice to see the places that I’ve gotten so familiar with and be able to drive around again.  It’s a terrible internal conflict between wanting to drive around on my own and enjoy the peace of that, versus not wanting to be a polluter.  I’ll just enjoy the drives I do need to make and hope that the traffic isn’t too bad.

I’m sure that when it comes time to actually leave Singapore, I’ll miss it a lot, but right now I’m still here and able to hang out.  I’m happy that I’ll be getting back early enough to catch some Orientation sessions – after all, that defined my summer last year and it was so much fun.  I can’t wait to go visit and see how things are this year.  Things have changed a lot in the past year and it’ll be nice to get back in touch with old friends.  I’ll never forget my Orientation experience, not only because I met Panda, but also because it had been my dream since starting at UCLA.  Being able to fulfill that in the last summer I would have the chance is truly a blessing.