City of Angels

Los Angeles, LA. All I heard were negative things about it: its dangerous, its dirty, there’s nothing to see, its expensive.Where can I start... its bullocks!!
LA is a giant city. I arrived late at night flying in from Atlanta, it was totally dark. Twenty minutes before the first wheel hit the tarmack the lights started, a sea of lights that never ends! To someone coming from the outermost end of tiny Belgium, its a country on its own. Several planes land at the same time, next to eachother. LAX is incredibly big and busy. When I got my bags I took the supershuttle to Pasadena, about a 40 minute drive. The highway does not have 2 or 3 lanes like in Belgium, its 6 to 8. Where highways cross, you got 4 or even 5 sandwiched. CalTech is located in Pasadena, a beautiful part of LA.
Many rich people live there. Streets are wide, with high palmtrees on each side. Its so well maintained there! I live on campus, in one of the Catalina apartments. They are wooden buildings, very pretty but getting a little old. Or at least they should spend more money on maintaining them. In our contracts it says we got cleaning ladies for all the flats, but those have not been seen anymore since a year or more. My 3 flatmates are Martina, the most crazy and fun Italian girl I will ever know (hope you read this girlie!), the very smart Olive from Boston, and Kristy from Texas. Kristy is one of America’s best female bodybuilders, she got 3th in the Nationals if I remember correct. Impressive! Check out her webpage at www.kristy-hawkins.com. Windows open day and night, doors never locked, I feel safest ever living with her. Kristy will be very famous one day I’m sure, she is SO talented and hard working! Our flat is not the cleanest I admit, especially the kitchen is a lost case. When we eat at night, nobody seems to bother about doing dishes, so we leave everything as it is and clean all when we run out of cups or plates. We had a little fruitfly crisis in our kitchen, but thats solved. Christmas decorations are in our living-room all year round, guess they are pretty... there are books, clothes, bags,.., everywhere. Kristy borrowed a hoover once but it took a week before anyone bothered to use it, and then it stayed sort of clean for a day or two only. Our flat is just not destined to be clean. On saturday mornings, Martina and Olive often go to the farmers market, bringing home giant yummy tomatoes and other vegetables and fruit. I made a good deal with a guy selling imported French cheese there: I recommended him some good cheese and he gave me a reduction on a big piece of Chamois d’or. Mmmm! My flatmates are shocked to see me being addicted to chiapatta bread with irish butter and bananas. Can’t get enough of that!! Martina goes to the gym almost every day, and takes long hikes with Min in the weekend. On my very first weekend in LA, they convinced me to go with them on a hike in the San Gabriel mountains. A killer-hike!!! Christopher, a Swiss guy living nextdoor, came too. He was kind enough to wait for me when I was exhausted half way up the mountain whilst Martina and Min simply ran up. Poor him! Reaching the top was amazing though, I was proud I made it, more dead than alive, but I made it. The others rewarded me with a vietnamese dinner making me forget all the suffering within seconds.