Disneyland, night-time adventures and Halloween.

I can't believe I haven't written about Disneyland yet!

So our trip to Disneyland on the 11th October consisted of a lot of singing, a lot of trying on hats and a lot of laughs. Having never been to a Disney park this was another first for me. Everyone here seems to be in love with it and go back again and again so we had high expectations. I was wondering what the fuss was all about! Due to Halloween coming up it was Halloween themed, which was cool. We went on the rides (Space Mountain was the best), we met Mickey Mouse, saw the parade and shopped. I bought a christmas tree ornament already! In the evening we went to California adventure which is just next door and saw the World of Color show, which was AMAZING. It was so clever how they did it. I was surprised at how much I loved the day, I started off thinking it wouldn't live up to expectations but it really did! Apparently there is a lot we didn't see so another trip is needed this year.

Halloween themed Disney:

The castle, Walt, Mickey and Us:

Donald:

Pumpkins:

Sonnee complained that she has not been mentioned by name on my blog, so here's a personal shoutout; "without you, life would be blue, I'd be Doctor Who without the Tardis" (Big Bang Theory/Dr. Who inside joke, she'll love it)

California Adventure:

World of Color:

On the next day which was Saturday, we went to the mall in the day, and then at night a group of us went to visit a cool place downtown by the sea, called Shoreline Village. Its a really cute place with little shops and food places and you can walk down to see the Queen Mary. The lights looked really beautiful at night reflected in the water. Matt insisted I try funnel cake which I had never had before. It was a lot of food, and it was good! There's a hat shop there, which we really wanted to go to (i love trying on hats), but it closed. So I'll have to go back soon!

Shoreline village and my first Funnel cake:

The Queen Mary:

On the Sunday night I hung out with friends at the Hillside halls, we went a bit crazy that night.

My mum sent me a package of English goodies, a card/letter (she knows how much I love cool postcards), and a postcard off my grandparents from their holiday which was really nice to receive. 

So with Halloween coming up we decided to get into the American Fall spirit and carve some pumpkins. I first did it last year at uni back home and did a complicated one, so this year I decided to keep it simple.

Dress up at Target:

Last Saturday night I went to Coldstone's for ice-cream at Seal Beach, and walked down the pier where lots of people were fishing.  California life right there! We then went to Signal Hill again to see the lights and then ended up at the boathouse, where the crew team practice (i seem to be learning a lot about crew recently haha). Its really pretty at night, sadly I have no photos to show.

This past Friday we went to a halloween party, not a frat party just a friend of a friend's apartment. Everyone was actually dressed up! We spent a lot of the night taking photos, I've never made so many facial expressions in my life as I did that night! It was really fun and great to experience another American party.

Me and Steph:

On Sunday night we went to the cinema to see Gravity in 3D (definitely see it in 3D, it's totally worth it). It was really well done, beautifully shot. Photo credit to Sera ;)

I have an exciting couple of weekends coming up, its Halloween this Thursday, I'm going down to visit San Diego with my friend Rachel, and then for Veterans Day weekend I'm going on a road trip to Phoenix, the Grand Canyon and Vegas! Cannot wait for that! Ready to cross some states off my map. We have also signed up to go whale watching in November so that should be fun! And then there's my first American Thanksgiving!

I still need to write up that list of things I want to do this year, I already have a few to cross off!

Until next time! (which will most likely be in a few weeks, in-keeping with past tradition.)

California dreamin' just got real!

I haven't updated in a while, thinking I didn't have much to write about, as my time has been full of homework. But actually this post is going to be kind of long as I now realise I've done quite a lot. The first kind of interesting thing I did since my last post was go to the Cheesecake Factory a week last Thursday with friends for someone's birthday. This was good American food.

Last Saturday I went downtown with Steph, Sera and Sara. We went to a Spanish restaurant, Sevilla. The food was really good, and having a Spanish friend there made it even better, as she knew what to order! We walked around downtown, and it was nice to finally see some tall buildings! I now actually feel like I've seen Long Beach, and not just the area around campus :)

Downtown Long Beach:

Sevilla:

Downtown at night:

We then went to see CSULB's Ice Hockey team play against San Diego State. We lost but it was still a lot of fun as it was the first time I'd seen an ice hockey game. It was cool to get into the school spirit and it made me excited for the basketball season to start.

Ice Hockey:

This week my friend Meghan came to visit which was exciting. We both do American Studies back home so she is at university in the states right now too. When she arrived on Thursday I took her for lunch, then showed her around CSULB's campus and took her to 2nd street where there's a lot of cool places to see, like the sweet shop Powell's (where we dared to buy bacon flavoured soda). We walked down to the beach and then had dinner at a restaurant called Simmzy's. It was great to catch up after 3 months! It didn't feel like it had been that long at all! Its quite ironic that we can't arrange to see each other in England but in the US its no problem at all haha!

My new hat, prepared for my future trip to Utah:

Simmzy's, pretty lights:

Thursday evening we had a Karaoke night at mine so some friends came over from the other dorms to join us. After literally being dragged off the sofa to sing, I actually quite enjoyed it and ended up doing more than one song with friends. This was very new to me haha. It's surprising how confident people here are to just get up and sing in front of a crowd of people. Back home in the UK no one would really do karaoke sober!

On Friday we went to Huntington Beach, which I hadn't seen yet so I was excited to go! It was also really nice to get out after the last couple of weeks which have been jampacked with homework. I loved it! I felt like I was living the California dream; the beach, the surfers, the sun. We walked around, went in a couple of coffee shops, paddled in the sea and took lots of photos. We then went to dinner with some other friends to the Cheesecake Factory, again!

Huntington flags:

The beach:

Posters:

Me on the beach:

Surf:

The beach again:

A surfer:

Me and Meg:

Surf shop:

Huntington Pier and surfer:

We heart Cali:

On Saturday, before Meg had to fly back to Utah, me and Matt showed her Cha for Tea and then Signal Hill, which I really wanted to show her as you can pretty much see everything in the area, all the way to downtown LA and the Hollywood sign. Plus, I also hadn't been in the daytime yet so it was really cool for me to see everything and take some pictures. We hung out there for a while, watching the planes, catching up and teaching Matt some things about English culture! We then got lunch from a great sandwich place nearby, Rocco's deli, before taking Meg to the airport where we said goodbye, but hopefully not for long! I plan to visit Utah soon, and see her life in the states.

 On top of the world:

View of campus and the Walter pyramid:

Meg, some miners and me:

A pretty cool picture:

After we dropped Meg off at the airport, we went to the boathouse, which was so pretty. It's weekends like this one when it hits me where I am and how much I appreciate being here. It kind of overwhelms me! I still love the weather, I think I always will love it and the lifestyle that comes with it! Although 7 weeks without rain is starting to feel a bit weird, 32C in October, is this real life?

Stupid seagull trying to steal my sandwich:

I've had a great couple of weeks, this past weekend being a highlight with Meghan's visit. It was great to get out and see things; I hate being inside, I always want to be out and about having new experiences!

I can't believe that on Friday I will have been here for 2 months! Time flies when you're having fun! I've made some amazing friends and had many great experiences!  I should be going to Disneyland on Friday for the first time, which will be the perfect way to celebrate 2 months away from the UK!

I'm also starting to write a list of things I want to do while in the states, so I may post that up soon, so I can tick things off as I go :)

Until next time!