(Finally) visiting Los Angeles!

My friend Jackie went to USC for college, and she has been asking me to come visit her in LA since before she even left Houston to go to college. Four years went by, and I still had not paid her a visit. This did not go over well with Jackie!! So I finally booked a plane ticket and went this past weekend. Luckily, my waiting paid off! Our friend Michelle moved to LA about six months ago, so we all got to hang out. I also got to see my friend Laura from college who now lives in the LA area. It’s like I planned this all along, Jackie!!! 😉

I stayed with Jackie in her apartment located in the La Brea area. She lives so close to so many things! I got to LA really late Thursday night after class, and sweet Jackie picked me up from the airport even though she had work Friday morning. While Jackie was at work Friday, I went to go do some school work at a nearby coffee shop, called Verve. Cue photo of extremely overpriced LA coffee:

I later met up with Jackie for lunch, and we went to Soom Soom, a yummy and quick Mediterranean food place. Afterwards, I got to visit Jackie’s work and meet all her coworkers! She works in a beautiful office in the Beverly Hills area – so different from what I had envisioned.

Afterwards, I ventured over to Echo Park to visit my friend Laura from college. I hadn’t seen her since this summer, so it was so nice we got some time together! We went to Andante Coffee Roasters (lot of coffee shops on Friday haha), and then we walked around Echo Park Lake around sunset time.

Afterwards, I met up with Michelle who lives in the Koreatown area, and we just chilled until we met up with Jackie and some of her friends for dinner at Din Tai Fung. I unfortunately took zero photos of dinner, but it was so yummy! Basically it’s a Taiwanese restaurant specializing in Huaiyang cuisine, and it started in 1972 and has locations all over the world. The highlights of the meal were the pork shumai, different variations of xiaolongbao, but especially the CHOCOLATE xiaolongbao. Sounds weird, but it was delicious. This was my favorite meal of the trip, and Jackie’s mom came in clutch with a gift card that paid for about 90% of our bill. THANKS MINDY!

We were super tired and ended up staying in on Friday and watching the movie Sleepover which I had never seen. It has a star-studded cast (Steve Carrell, Brie Larson, Jane Lynch, Alex Vela, etc.) which is super random, and there were a lot of holes in the plot/relentless undeserved shaming of the character named Yancy, but I won’t get into it on here!

On Saturday, Jackie and I went on a hike with her friend Pooja. We went to Los Liones in the Palisades, and it was a lot of incline for an incredible view!

After the hike, we went and ate brunch at Cafe Vida. It was delicious!

Afterwards, we went back to Jackie’s apartment and hung out until we went to Perch, a rooftop bar in downtown, to try to catch the tail end of the sunset.

We walked to the Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown to see a show put on by Pop-Up Magazine. Jackie got free tickets for us to see it through her work, and I really have no idea how to describe it! It was amazing – it ranged from comedians singing songs about how Urban Outfitters should carry sizes that actually fit people, to people sharing the most personal and intimate stories about themselves that were so crazy you could not make it up! There was also a lot of social commentary stuff, and as people read their stories, there was a projection of different animations, videos they recorded, etc. as a live orchestra played instrumental music in the background. Here’s a link with somewhat more information: https://www.popupmagazine.com/

After the show, we met up with Michelle at her apartment and hung out till we decided to venture out. Eventually we made our way to BCD Tofu House, and I got kimchi beef tofu soup that was baller. Best late night food haha AND Jackie was awake after midnight which is unheard of if you have met her!!!

On Sunday, Jackie, Michelle, and I went to a farmers’ market in Larchmont and grabbed some food after at Brick & Scones and some ice cream at Salt and Straw. The rest of the day we just chilled in Jackie’s apartment watching the red carpet before the Oscars until my flight that night.

SHOUT OUT to Jackie for being a wonderful host!!! I had such a fun time 🙂