Finals: Dinners, Cha for Tea, Signal Hill and Sunsets.

So it was our final week of the semester and Steph and Sera's final week in Long Beach. This meant filling our time with activities that needed to be done before we parted ways for Christmas!

Firstly, I went to California Pizza Kitchen downtown with Steph, Sera and their floor mates which was a lot of fun! Having spent the majority of my time last semester in their room, I like to think I became a part of their floor too!

After saying goodbye on the Wednesday afternoon to my fellow English who were flying home, I had one more day until I left. This meant one last day in Long Beach with Steph and Sera! On the Wednesday night we went out for dinner with Tori to a Greek restaurant on 2nd Street which has really great food. All too quickly it was time for the Aussies to say goodbye to Tori (little did they know they'd be seeing each other again). I teared up and it wasn't even me saying goodbye yet.

The next day we had a bad start with rain (for the 4th time in my whole semester) and problems renting a car. Long story short, we had to go open an American debit account, and our day improved from there when a lovely guy helped us at Chase (a bank). Then after finally picking up the car, and filling it with our suitcases, we were on our way.

Our first stop was Cha for Tea… of course! This seems to be one of Long Beach's most popular student spots so it had to be done one last time! Here's a snapchat screenshot of us looking quite exhausted:

We then drove to Signal Hill as Steph and Sera had not yet been and I had told them over and over that they had to go before they left Long Beach. It has great views of not only LB but you can also see Downtown LA and even the Hollywood sign in the distance. Although the weather wasn't too great we still had good views and fun taking photos. I'm glad we went there, I feel its something you have to do when in Long Beach.

CSULB's campus is in the background, see the blue pyramid:

We then decided to go get ice cream at Seal Beach and watch the sunset:

Steph and Sera then took me to LAX for my flight home and while they waited with me we were pleased to see the male Canadian water polo team checking in, who looked great in their uniforms. They were a welcome distraction. When the time came for me to go through security and say goodbye for Christmas, let me tell you, I was so glad I still had Hawaii to look forward to with these girls!

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!