The City of Angels.

It seems surreal that it's been five months since I last blogged. Five months since I was anxiously packing my life into candy-colored suitcases, counting down the weeks, days, hours in trepidation til I got on a plane and moved to the other side of the world. In spite of all my worries and oh-my-gosh-what-if-I-don't-make-any-friends-in-LA-and-everyone-thinks-I'm-a-total-loser fears, I've never been happier at any other stage in my life. People always say "enjoy high school, because college is a pain" or "appreciate undergrad while you can, because postgrad is torture" and somehow it's never really applied to me. I've always liked moving on to the next stage in life, and always enjoyed it more as I grew older. With the exception of law school, which was a bust, lol.

It's incredibly difficult to sum up over three months in LA in one blog post without making it look like a laundry list, so I won't try to do it that way. But I will say this: I live in a tiny bachelor apartment near USC, and the City of Angels is truly heavenly. The privacy that comes with living on your own, the sheer liberty of being able to make your own day-to-day decisions - yeah, that's priceless.

While LA in itself may not be the best part of the country to live in, seeing as how the crime rate near campus is almost as bad as it is in Malaysia, it's sure as heck a glorious stepping stone. USC is fabulous and my friends are even more so - life at grad school wouldn't be half as sweet if it weren't for awesome friends!

My best friends in LA (left to right): Ran, Vero, Carol, Cynthia.

Right this moment though, it's winter break and I'm in Austin, Texas! I've been here for about a week (and will be here til the end of winter break), and it's definitely turning out to be my happy place - the kind that therapists in movies are always asking people to imagine. I'm batting out a quick blog post while waiting for Darren to come home from work. :)