October 26, 2007
I Saw The California Fires From The Air Last Night
(NASA photo of the fires).
Fellas, I just flew into Los Angeles last night. I saw the fires from the plane.
It was absolutely amazing!! I just stood there looking out the window speechless watching the ember glow radiate the horizon. And was I saw wasn't nearly as bad as what's happing in San Diego.
I'm staying in the shadiest hotel(?) I think I've ever been in but it's amazingly fun (interesting). When I pulled up last night and saw the neighborhood and IMMEDIATELY drove away to call Travelocity to get my money back. I argued with them. I didn't get my money back.
I'm staying at the Tradewinds Hotel ("A Backpackers Paradise"), in Inglewood, CA. This place is almost like a European hostel. There are people here from all over the world. Here's who I hung out with last night.
(1) Jared, 32. He's from Ireland. He's been on a 7 year vacation. I'm NOT kidding. He's just been traveling the world living in various places. He's been staying at this place for 6 weeks. Yeah, 6 weeks!!!!!!!
(2) Christina, 32. She's an aspiring screenwriter from Detroit. She kept referring to her dog back home as her "daughter."
(3) Phil, 30s, this guy did way too many drugs. He said last night that he was a crackhead. I actually believe him.
I've got to take pictures of this place or else people won't believe I was hire.
I learned something this weekend: cheap hotels near the airport aren't always the best places to stay. Wow, I think this really is an American version of a hostel. Actually, I think people live here (seriously).
What's really odd, though, is that I would stay here again.
Right now, I'm sitting here coveting the computer of this Taiwanese guy from New York. It's like an LCD screen. Phat. He's in the midst of several myspace, AIM, and Facebook conversations. He's father is with him, who I'm sure is mentally ill in some way. He calls his son, who's in 20s, "Georgy, my number one, basketball player" (with a very thick accent).
This is so weird. . . I wish I had a video camera.
Posted by anthony at October 26, 2007 10:20 AM | TrackBackThere probably are a lot of people that live there. I used to help out with a children's bus ministry and we'd often pick up a ton of kids each week from the same motel. Their parents couldn't afford more than a week's rent at a time, so they rented a room a week at a time.
I've been through Inglewood a couple of times and have a pretty good visual of where you might be staying... have fun!
Posted by: Paul at October 26, 2007 11:32 AMyou coming to norcal any time soon? papi
Posted by: berkeleyrican at October 26, 2007 12:50 PMI had a similar experience a few years back at a youth hostel in Atlanta--a couple of miles from Tech's campus, if I remember correctly. I asked a guy on the subway if it was in a good neighborhood, and he said "it's OK" in a way that suggested to me that...well...it wasn't quite OK. Had a lot of fun, though, and the only time I ever felt nervous was when walking back to the hostel from the "Varsity" drive-in, and another time when I was walking in the vicinity of the Carter library.
Dunno if I needed to be nervous, but at times I was.
Lived in LA a couple of summers (Torrance/El Segundo) as well, and was always amazed at how quickly the neighborhoods change around there. Million dollar homes one block, and a mile or two away or less, it's bars on all the windows and razor wire on top of the walls. You could even notice the "neighborhood" change at the Del Amo Fashion Center a bit south of where you're staying--the mall is about half a mile long, and the demographics changed from caucasian/asian at the south end to more black/hispanic at the north end.
Posted by: Robert Perry at October 26, 2007 02:25 PMSounds like a great mission field. So how are the gospel-conversations going?
Posted by: jergen coudert at October 26, 2007 03:28 PMAnthony,
You've got to come down to San Diego. You don't know what you're missing. San Diego is south of "Southern California." Email if you can come another time.
Jim
Posted by: Jim at October 26, 2007 10:12 PM