Becoming an elite traveler

On Monday I completed the steps to receive Global Entry for the next five years. After I returned from my interview my grandmother told me that I had entered the ranks of being an elite traveler and thus why I named this blog post what I did.
When I originally started this blog I was writing about teaching in a village in the arctic. I posted about daily life and also things about packing because I knew that one of the things I had done was read as many blogs about this as I could as I was deciding to go. Now I read blogs on a lot of topics related to living abroad and so I am writing today's post because one of the things I couldn't find much about was the global entry program.
The global entry program is for people who enter the United States frequently and allows them to bypass the lines and go to a special kiosk to do their processing. One of the things I learned in my interview was that when I enter using global entry I do not have to fill out the card on the plane. There are four questions I will answer on the kiosk and then it will print out everything I need. The fee for applying is $100 regardless of whether your application is approved and before I spent $100 applying I wanted to know that it was worth it. So I spoke to my brother-in-law and also a student (this one actually came about because I was asking a co-worker and he was nearby), both of whom have global entry. It seemed worth it, especially because for that same 5 year period I also get TSA precheck. Thus, I applied.
The whole process was really quite simple. The first step was an online application that you could save and come back to finish as you had time. The only difficulty here was as a teacher my contracts have expired usually in May (my most recent one was in June) and my new contracts (when I switched jobs) didn't start until August. The system would not allow you to leave any type of gap and so for each of those, I had to put down unemployed (really irking because I wasn't REALLY unemployed). The other catch was similar with addresses. I left each of the schools in the bush in May but didn't move to the new location until August. This meant that I did not have an address for June and July of those years. Thankfully, I had mostly stayed with my grandmother and I put her address down. It probably wasn't a big deal, but I was concerned about my application being rejected if I wasn't completely and utterly honest, but at the same time some of my situations are shall we say, unique.
I'm not completely sure how long it took, but I think about a week later I received notification that my application had been conditionally accepted. Now I needed to schedule an interview to finish the process. Unfortunately, there was nothing available in Los Angeles until after I departed for Anchorage. I had wanted to have the process finished before I left for Anchorage so that I would have TSA pre-check. There were openings as early as the next day for Anchorage and so I scheduled my interview for a day when I would be in Anchorage and I thought it would be convenient.
 My interview was scheduled for this past Monday at 10:30 am. On Sunday evening I was reading over the list of what to bring and I got rather concerned. I was supposed to bring proof of address. I had filled out my address correctly, but I had moved since then. Therefore, I put together a collection of documents to demonstrate my residency at both locations. I even added a bank address change notification to the pile. All because I was concerned they would reject my application.
The next morning I woke up hours early and tried googling this process and found very little information.
Thus, I left early, quite nervous. There was no need to be nervous.
I arrived at the office about 20 minutes early. I checked in and was directed to wait. I waited 5-10 minutes and then was called back into an office. She asked for my notification letter if I had it. She said if I hadn't printed it, it would be okay, my passport and my driver's license. I gave her all three documents and then I told her that I wasn't sure what to do because my address had changed from when I filled out the application and I wasn't sure what needed to be done about that. She told me it was no problem. It did cause here a little bit of trouble in some extra steps to change my address, but otherwise no issue. She asked me some pretty standard questions about any convictions, and other mundane questions (sorry I don't remember). Then she took my fingerprints using a small fingerprint scanner connected to her computer. The fingerprints were easier than most I've had because I only had to do four fingers of 1 hand together, then four fingers of the other hand and finally my two thumbs together. Next, my fingerprints were sent to the FBI somewhere on the east coast (my how technology has changed things) for approval while she explained how the program worked. I was approved a few minutes later and finished. I will receive in the mail a card to use if I cross into the U.S. on foot (not very likely people don't usually cross the Alaska/Canada border on foot and I don't see myself crossing the border from Mexico, but you never know..) and when I renew my passport, since it will expire before my global entry does, I will have to go to a processing center and have them scan my new passport. I won't need an appointment and it should only take about a minute. I received a number to use as a known traveler number for getting TSA pre-check and I was finished. My worry, concern and inability to sleep had all been for naught.

My rather tired passport. It will be getting quite a workout soon!

Kristin goes to Disneyland

A little over a week ago I went to Disneyland and California Adventures with a group from school. I had so much fun! It was my first time ever going to Disneyland (I have been to Disney World twice, but the most recent time was 20 years ago - hard to believe my junior year of high school was 20 years ago). One of my students had heard it was my first time and so he brought be his first-time button. I wore it for a while and then I went to City Hall on Main Street and got my own (one of the few things i
n Disneyland that are complimentary). I proudly wore my button for the rest of the day.
Disneyland has a great system now called fast passes. You can get one fast pass at a time. However, what I quickly realized is that you are eligible for a new pass when your current pass is available for use, but you have a one-hour time frame in which to use it. Thus, I (and a student most of the time) would go and get fast passes right before we would get on whatever ride we had a fast pass for. The other great thing is that with the Disneyland app we could check out wait times and the availability of fast passes (and what time they were good for) and make our decisions appropriately.

I got to ride everything I wanted to ride, many of them twice. I think my favorite part was the Tower of Terror over at California Adventures (we had park hopper tickets). The Tower of Terror is basically an elevator that goes up and then in the dark plunges down and flies back up and so forth. On the ride, you're frequently changing directions and free falling. I had just recently been teaching about projectile motion which is similar to free fall (the vertical component of projectile motion is free fall). As a result, I found myself thinking about the physics of it each time we rode it.
We were also able to get tickets for the World of Color show at California Adventure (fast pass tickets, but they don't count toward your one ticket at a time you're allowed to have). Then we decided to go early and wait so that we could get front-row seats. We got them. We were standing right on the edge of the water. This also meant we got wet. The World of Color is a neat show (See the video below) it uses water fountains, water screens, projection, fire, music video, lights and more. When I lived in Baotou (Inner Mongolia, China) they had two parks with nightly shows. One was a water screen where they projected video and the other was a fountain with lights synced to music. The World of Color was like these two combined, but so much more!

World of Color

The videos are of 1) The World of Color Show, 2) The California Screamer roller coaster - note this one might be problematic if you have a weak stomach and 3) a Newsies presentation at California Adventures.

The 50s invade Vistamar

Last weekend the students put on 6 shows of the musical Grease. The first two shows were on Friday and then there were two each on Saturday and Sunday. Thus, Friday was declared 50s day. Unfortunately, apparently only the teachers were told this because a number of us, myself included were surprised when the students didn't dress up. Actually, the students not only didn't dress up, but they had no idea why some of the teachers were dressed like it was the 1950s.
I'm a huge fan of the 1950s and so a couple of years ago I had my mother make me a poodle skirt. She did an incredible job. Unfortunately, I realized at Halloween that none of my Halloween costumes, including my poodle skirt made it to California. I'm pretty sure they are at my grandmother's house, but I have been back twice and I never remember to look for them. Thus, when they announced 1950s day I was sad. I decided I still really wanted to participate and I found a cheap poodle skirt on Amazon (sorry mom I really would have preferred the one you made!). I ordered it and then the night before I bought a curling iron. I wanted to create a style that appears to be called a bouffant (I think that was the style I wanted it has been almost a week). Well, I didn't actually know how and I couldn't get my hair to do quite what I planned, so I tied it back with a scarf. It was really cute nonetheless. We took a picture of the staff that dressed up. Originally, I wasn't going to include that picture here, but then Sunday morning at swim practice one of the women was like, "Do you teach at Vistamar School?" I replied that I did and she told me she had seen a picture of me (and the others) on Facebook. She said I wasn't tagged in the picture, but I figure between that and the fact that the picture went out in our school newsletter last week, it is fair game.

"Rydell Staff"

On Saturday morning, I gave my students a mock AP Chemistry exam (I of course only gave this to the students in AP Chemistry) and then in the afternoon I went to see the musical Grease. I was rather tired since the play started at 2 pm and I had arrived at school at 8:40 am (on a Saturday after of course working a full week) so I wasn't sure I really wanted to be there. However, the performances were limited to 100 each and I already had a ticket so I didn't want to not go and leave an empty spot, so I went. I am glad I did. It was the most interesting play I have ever been to.
The audience came in and sat down in chairs to wait for the performance to begin. Then Eugene and Patty (I will refer to everyone by their character names here) came and welcomed the audience to their first day of school. They let us know that the day would be interactive and told us to come on. So we followed Eugene through the halls. As we were walking down the hall we started to see cast members hanging out and then all of the sudden the started the first song moving up and down the hall with us as we proceeded towards the back patio.

On the back patio

We don't have a cheerleading team. I was impressed by
the routines they learned.

On the back patio, we were directed to seats which included some among the cast members who then interacted with us. The band was set up back there and the first scenes played out on the patio before we moved to the gym. From the gym, we went to the front parking lot, but we went along the back fence and characters were hanging out pretending to smoke and so forth. After the parking lot was the intermission. There were popcorn and candy grams available. Then we went into the performing arts space for the prom scene. Here the cast members pulled audience members up to dance with them. Being a teacher at the school, I had one student pull me up to dance with her, then another cut in and I danced with him. After that, I sat down, but it wasn't long before another student was asking me to dance. They made small talk as we danced in character, which I thought was pretty cool. The play continued in the parking lot again where they even had a carnival set up with real games and a dunk tank (they had wanted teachers in the dunk tank, but I don't think many volunteered. During the performance I went to it was a student in the dunk tank).

There's both a train track and a metro track right behind here
(you can see the metro track in the picture). Unfortunately, a train went
 by during one of the outside scenes making it difficult to hear for a while.

While there were some issues, especially with the costumes (during the prom scene, for example, the students tried to have appropriate dresses, but many of them were simply too short and/or had way too much back exposed) and the sound (imagine trying to do tech for a play that not only moves throughout the entire building and two outdoor spaces, but also involves wind - the wind knocked over some of the equipment at least once), but it was the most unique and engaging play I have ever been too.

When life gives you lemons...

When life gives your lemons... you watch hockey. Okay, Okay, I know that's not how the saying goes. A couple of week's ago one of my students excitedly found me at school and told me he was going to Alaska for a hockey tournament (he is on the same team as 3 other students of mine). I asked him for details, and while he didn't know a lot of the details he knew the dates of the tournament and I realized that while I would be in Alaska during the tournament, I would be in Nome. I told him it was too bad that I couldn't be there, but I already had tickets to Nome.
After my flight to Nome was canceled for a second time thanks to Mt. Pavlof, I decided it would be better to cancel my trip altogether. Tuesday's morning and afternoon flights were both canceled and I was rescheduled for Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, this flight would put me into Nome basically three days later than I planned. With the danger of the eruptions continuing and my having to be back at work in Los Angeles on Monday, I thought it was a better idea to just cancel altogether (Alaska refunded me the Nome portion of my plane fare). Of course, this meant I now was in Anchorage during the hockey tournament, but I didn't know anything about it. Google to the rescue. I found out the National 14U hockey championships were in Anchorage. I didn't know which team my students played for, but there was only one Los Angeles team on the schedule - LA jr Kings. So I went to the game today.

Not sure why I thought I should take a picture of the welcome to Anchorage sign. I've never in my life been able to truthfully say I've never been to Anchorage.

I quickly figured out which players were my students (with all that gear on it's not as easy as it might seem), but the first period was really sad. Thankfully the second period was better and in the third period, they tied the score at 1-1. Regulation time ended with a tied score and so the game went into a five-minute overtime. After overtime, the score was still tied so the game went to a best of five shoot-out. The first player from the LA jr Kings to shoot was my student and he score a great goal. They won during the shoot-out. It was great fun to watch my students win the game!
After the game, I wanted to see them (among other things so that they would know that I had come) so I went down to the area where they would come out when they left the locker room to wait. As I was waiting I overheard comments at the table run by the Anchorage visitors' center. Being me I chimed into a conversation about Alyeska (a ski resort in Girdwood). The hockey mom in the conversation mentioned the time of her children's game tomorrow and I realized she must be a Kings' mom. I told her who I was and she was super excited. It was kind of funny of the four students (2 are twins) I had only met 1 of the 6 parents (although I had emailed with some of the others). She introduced me to the parents, including one who was one of the coaches. They were all really excited that I was there (not to mentioned puzzled). After explaining that I was from Alaska and what happened with my trip to Nome one of the mom's commented that her son had told her about a teacher from Alaska. I replied, "that's me."
They took pictures of me with the boys and I had them use my phone too, but I'm not going to post that picture on here because it too clearly identifies my students.
I also met with one of my friends from Nome today as she was going through Anchorage on her way to Nome. Thus, while I was sad my trip to Nome didn't work out I have had some good times and neat opportunities (after all it's not every day a teacher in California watches her students play hockey in Alaska).

It's rather difficult to take a clear photo with the speed at which they move.

Preparing to shoot - that's my student

Celebrating after they won!

The start of third trimester

It's rather hard to believe that I have already finished 2/3 of my first school year in Los Angeles, but today marked the first day of the third trimester. After 1st trimester grades were completed my colleagues got me a cake, but since it said, "congratulations on your first trimester," a lot of people thought I was pregnant (I'm not!!). When I posted a picture of the cake on Facebook even though I put a caption explaining, I still got such comments. I've included the picture here for your enjoyment. Now, we have finished another trimester and there's only one left.


In the seven months that I have been here I've done a variety of things (after all this blog isn't called Kristin's Kapers for no reason).
Early in the school year the Head of School had tickets to see the LA Philharmonic play at the Hollywood Bowl. She asked for people who were interested to e-mail her and she'd put their names into a hat for a drawing. I won, but I felt a little bad for two reasons. 1)Everyone was so excited for me because they were sure it was my first trip to the Hollywood Bowl, but it wasn't (I went back in 2002 when I was in Pasadena for training) and 2) there were two tickets, but I was so new and it was such short notice (and on a Thursday night) that I couldn't find anyone for the second ticket. I ended up wasting that one.

The Hollywood Bowl

I also started going to television tapings. I remember as a kid I would watch the Cosby Show and you would always hear them say, "the Cosby show was filmed in front of a live studio audience." Other shows would give indications about being filmed in front of an audience, but I never really thought about what that meant or how you could be in the audience. Shortly before my first day of work I stumbled across how to get free tickets to television tapings and went to see a Tim Allen sitcom called Last Man Standing. I had watched some of the show back when I was living in Kobuk (the origins of this blog) and so I watched everything that was available on Netflix in preparation and then went to the show not knowing what to expect. It was awesome! There was a warm-up whose job it was to entertain the crowds throughout the numerous pauses between takes and a DJ and overall it was just a lot of fun. So I looked into it and found what else I could go to. With work a lot things became very difficult to attend because even if they film in the evenings Los Angeles traffic is a nightmare and so getting to the studios (which could be just about anywhere) can be a real challenge!

One Saturday I went to America's Funniest Home Videos. That one films in Manhattan Beach within walking distance of work. Unfortunately, I did not have a good time so I will not be going back to that. We had a couple of Jewish holidays off and since I'm not Jewish I used those opportunities to attend some filmings. I was on the Price is Right (it aired January 6th, I didn't see it), but I wasn't called down. I was on camera when I attended Jimmy Kimmel Live (my parents recorded it and I saw myself when I visited them at Christmas). JKL was fun because James Taylor was a guest on the show and afterwards the studio audience all went out to the parking lot and after the first two songs (which were recorded for the show) they allowed people to take pictures and film (many of these tapings don't even allow your phone on the lot so I don't have pictures).

My name tag from the Price is Right

James Taylor on the concert stage at Jimmy Kimmel Live

What I have really taken to doing though is going to the filmings for the show Baby Daddy. This films on Friday evenings and school ends earlier on Fridays and we're allowed to leave earlier (although traffic also backs up earlier) and of course I have Saturday to rest after a somewhat late night. I have become enough of a regular that when I went last Friday with a co-worker I had to point out to the woman checking me in that there were two of us this week and she replied, "woah," and later commented that I had surprised her. It's fun though because I know the warm-up and a number of the pages and so forth (often we don't know each other by name, but by face). However, there are some guests who are much more regular (seasons-long) and they got some special privileges last Friday. My co-worker told me I just have to become even more regular so that next time I could get us those privileges.

Now, before you think Kristin has gone all Hollywood (after all my previous post was nearly 7 months ago and it was about going to Hollywood) let me leave you with pictures of some of the other things I've done in California. Maybe if you're lucky my next post won't take 7 months...

The space shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Center

Venice Beach

A rainbow as viewed from my balcony

My advisory group's door for the door decorating contest was so creative they actually added the category of most creative so that we could win it.

Years ago in China I had heard that Little Sheep (my favorite Mongolian Hot Pot Chain) had opened a restaurant in LA. Currently they have several around LA and even some in other parts of the country. I had to try it out and it did not disappoint. 

Me on the USS Midway (in San Diego)

USS Midway

Kristin goes to Hollywood

After getting settled (for the most part), I still had time before I start work (tomorrow) so I decided it was time to do some sightseeing. First, I went to Hollywood. I saw the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theater  (now called the TCL Chinese Theater rather than Grauman's Chinese Theater) and of course the iconic Hollywood sign. It was funny, but when I got there there were all these tourists and they all seemed to know what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. I stood there for a minute wondering why I was so different, when it hit me. These people had all planned this trip, contemplated where they wanted to go, what they wanted to see. I had driven to a metro station and gone to Hollywood on a whim!

While I was on Hollywood Boulevard I saw a sign for free tickets to Jimmy Kimmel (I tried to get tickets, but failed) and this got me thinking about two other things I'd like to do - tour studios and attend be a part of a studio audience. So I found tvtickets.com and signed up for a couple of tapings and researched studio tours.

In the end, I chose Sony Picture studios. I chose them for a couple of reasons. First, and most importantly, they were the cheapest, second they were the closest and third it was a walking tour. The other tours were in golf carts and I liked the idea of walking a lot better than spending two hours in a golf cart.

"Main Street" They change the facades to be anywhere they want.

Unlike other studios, Sony doesn't have a big back lot.
Therefore, their facades are in front of real (studio) offices.

Sony pictures is on the lot that was once MGM (where the Wizard
of Oz filmed). They built this recently as part of an art in public spaces thing.
Supposedly you can see it from anywhere in Culver City.

 As part of the tour, you get to go on one of the sound stages. Usually, it is either for Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy. Wheel of Fortune was filming while we were there so we couldn't go on that stage (the red light came on while we were outside of the studio, but that was part of the tour where we weren't able to take pictures (another part was when we saw the actual Oscar statues that Sony Pictures has won for best picture). We did get to go on the Jeopardy sound stage though.

The stage was being cleaned and reset for the new season.

Too bad it's not for real!

They used this stage for Sports Jeopardy and were getting it ready for the next season of the original Jeopardy. Everything was on the stage except for Alex Trebek's podium.

The Emmys won by Jeopardy

They had vehicles from Breaking Bad too, but those didn't mean
anything to me.

While that's all I have pictures of, that's not all of my trip to "Hollywood" (most of this isn't actually in Hollywood). On Tuesday (the day before yesterday), I attended a live taping of the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing. It was so much fun! I arrived at the parking garage (some studios have free parking for audiences and some do not) and had to first check in there with my ID to get into the garage. I followed the directions for parking and the going to audience check in. When I got to audience check in there was a woman (she'll be important much later in the story, don't forget her) who asked me about what kind of ticket I had and then directed me on where to go. I checked in (they say to print out your ticket, but you don't actually have to - everyone else had, but I hadn't). I got number 83 and waited in line. After a very short while (not everyone there had gotten to check in yet at this point) they started leading us through the studio lot to the sound stage. The set was too main parts - one was the house and the other was part of the Outdoor Man Store. Since there is more that is regularly in the show they must have another set somewhere else. There were some scenes that had already be recorded and were shown to us as playback (these were mostly filmed elsewhere).

After about 30 minutes they had all of the audience speaker and the warm-up, Allan Murray, introduced himself and the DJ (Clark somebody). He explained how he had prizes to give away and performed some comedy, explained about laughing and showed us how he had a deck of cards that he would give away for laughing a participating. These cards would be used to give away the prizes (that included everything from an autographed script, to $50 Target Card to an iPod shuffle). Next, we viewed an episode from last season and then it was about time to begin.

There was some sort of delay on the making of the announcements. During this, and all the pauses between scenes, Allan Murray would perform different sketches and incorporate the audience into a separate show from the one they were filming. I sometimes wondered if it wasn't distracting to the crew, several times I saw crew members watching the audience show (hopefully they were just people who were waiting and not people who were supposed to be doing something at that time).

They announced the producers, directors, writer of this episode and then the cast. Tim Allen took a few minutes and spoke to the audience and then they began filming. They filmed each scene more than once with small changes, including sometimes changing the jokes. Sometimes, they didn't film the whole scene again, but just a part of it. Of course sometimes the actors messed up too. That was funny in itself.

The show was film was filmed in order, except for scenes that they had filmed before and played back to the audience to score the laughter.

While the whole thing was a lot of fun (and even included a bottle of water and pizza) there were several really interesting events. One was when they called for a scene and there was a ringing sound. You could tell the warm-up and the DJ were at first worried it was coming from the audience (I think the DJ was the first to notice it), but it was quickly clear it wasn't coming from the audience, but the crew couldn't find the ringing. They were looking all over the set, it was really quite funny. If I heard right it was an alarm because the gas was on (I guess on the stove - a little scary if you ask me).

Another funny moment was toward the end there was a pause and Tim Allen was joking about being Santa Claus with some of the kids who were extras in one of the scenes.

All in all it was so much fun that I not only went to see what other filmings I could fit into my schedule (and that had tickets available), but also added a couple more episodes of Last Man Standing. I don't know though if I'll actually be able to make those because that (and Instant Mom and Baby Daddy which I have tickets for) films at 6 pm and I have to work until 4 pm.

Today, I did something else quite interesting (and still on this Kristin goes to Hollywood theme), I attended a rehearsal for America's Funniest Home Videos (AFV). Saturday begins the taping for the 26th season of AFV and they have a new set and a new host. The new host is Alfonso Robiero (Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel air). With a new host and a new set they needed a rehearsal to determine where things need to be placed, how to film their shots and even for Alfonso to have a chance to practice his marks, lines etc. For this they needed a small audience (at least 15, there were 19 of us). They had us stand an sit in many different places as they practiced the shots. They used a stand-in for Alfonso named Buddha and we were the stand-in audience. Then after about an hour Alfonso himself came and practiced. In between things he chatted with the crew and with us. It was a lot of fun. We talked with him about his children (he has 3: 12, 21 months and 3.5 months) and he told us a story about his worst fan stalking incident (I don't think it's my place to share online, but it was crazy! I couldn't believe someone would cross the line that far). I also chatted with some of the crew and they had people still working on the sets as we were there. It was cool.

My ticket had said to arrive 60 minutes early and listed the time as 10 am. So I arrived at the studio (which is very close to my new school) about 15 minutes before 9. Apparently, I was early enough that security didn't know what to do with me. The studio information said that if you were going to a filming on the weekend to park in the studio parking garage, but for a weekday filming to park in the Marriott garage and there was a gate right beside the garage. Yesterday, however, I received an email telling me to park in the garage. When I got to security and they didn't know what to do with me, I of course got nervous. They made me do a U-turn and wait outside the gate while they checked. Then they motioned me back in line and I was given a pass into the garage and told someone would meet me on the first floor. After parking I got to the first floor and found Tomeka, the audience coordinator. I spent a long time talking to her (the others came in a group of 14 and a group of 4) and discovered she's the boss of the people in charge of the audience for several things including Last Man Standing (she was the woman at the table I spoke to), Instant Mom and Baby Daddy. When I expressed my concern about not making it to the Instant Mom filming on time next week because of work she said if I told her I was coming for sure she'd mark my name and make sure I could get in. I didn't have a chance to tell her that I would do that, but I hope to have a chance to speak to her about it on Saturday. Now you're thinking, "Saturday? What is she talking about now?" Well, Saturday is the filming of the AFV that we rehearsed today. Tameka said she was in charge of seating the audience and told me if I really dressed up she could hook me up with a good seat. Hopefully that'll work out. I've picked out my outfit and I think the likelihood of that occurring is high because not only did she say that, but she asked the others if they were coming (they aren't) and confirmed which one I was coming to (there's 2 filmings on Saturday) and said that the stage manager (a woman named Geri) was asking. 

So there you have it, not everything I've done (kind of hard to believe after all that, isn't it?), but Kristin's adventures in Hollywood. Tomorrow I start my first day of work with New Teacher Orientation...

The first seven days

Sometimes it's hard to believe that I arrived in Los Angeles just last Thursday, and other times it's difficult to believe that it's already been seven days. I have accomplished so many things in seven days, but I still have so much to do that it feels overwhelming at times.
I landed about 8:30 am on Thursday morning. I took the Avis shuttle to their rental area, rented a car and was at a bank in Redondo Beach by 10:30 am to open a bank account. Opening an account (and having the funds ready right away to pay cash for a car) was more difficult than I thought it would be. It also didn't help that I was so tired I sometimes had trouble seeing straight. I ended up spending about 2.5 hours at the bank on Thursday morning, plus going back briefly on Friday morning to finish things up and Friday afternoon to get the cashier's check. Each time I went back the security guard remembered me an remarked about my being back.
After ensuring that the funds would be transferring from my credit union in Alaska, I went car shopping. I bought a 2013 Ford Focus (picture below) with lots of really cool electronics. It's rather neat to have all these new-fangled gadgets. My newest car before this was a 2003 so I upgraded by 10 years. At the dealer I got my most expensive free meal ever (they have a cool cafe there and they gave me a coupon to eat there).
I couldn't drive two cars at once so I left the rental car at the dealer and drove my new car to the home where I was staying. The lady I was staying with had had to work on Friday (and on Saturday), but I was hoping she'd be able to go back with me to return the rental car. Unfortunately she was out and when she got back she was waiting for a friend to deliver a desk she'd just bought. She offered to squeeze it in anyway, but I told her the dealer wasn't far from the airport so I would just return the car and take the public bus back to the dealer. We ended up having a really fun evening talking with her friend and her friend's son. It was nice to just hang out with people.
Saturday I returned the rental car. I was hoping to get money back because the rental contract was until Monday morning, but I was concerned that I wouldn't get any back because it was already Saturday afternoon (car was due back about 9 am on Monday) and there hadn't been a price difference between a Sunday morning return and a Monday morning return. I was excited that I got a little over 45% of my rental price back!
While I was waiting in line at Avis there was a German family that came in. One of their little boys commented (in German) that the line wasn't long, there was only one woman in front of me. Me being me I couldn't resist playing with the kid, so I turned around and said to the kid (in German), "I'm not one woman, I'm three woman. Don't you see them?"A moment later I turned back and told the kid I was kidding of course. After I finished returning the car I asked the woman at the counter about the best way to get to a bus stop. She spoke to the shuttle driver for me and he told me to sit near the front of the bus and he'd let me off at the city bus station. As I was waiting the German family came on the bus and sat next to me. The mother said (in English), "Are you American?" "Yes." "We thought you were German, but you can speak German?" "Yes." After that she switched to German and said, "So we can speak German?" I had a fun, but brief conversation with the family (it didn't take long to get to the bus station). I do wonder though what changed their mind from thinking I was German to asking if I was American. I guess they probably overheard some of my conversation at the counter...
After I picked my car back up, I went to the beach. I had a nice relaxing time at the beach (if you're going to live only a few miles from the beach you have to go there after all). I put sunscreen on, but unfortunately while I was laying on the beach either my shirt rode up or my pants rode down, but the strip of sunburn on my stomach made it clear I had unknown separation there - oops!
Sunday, I went to the same church I had gone to when I was apartment hunting. I spent half an hour after church speaking with the pastor. I really feel God is leading me to this church.
Sunday afternoon the woman I was staying with and I went to an El Salvadoran street festival in downtown. My new friend's air conditioning wasn't working so I drove. I had thought I would avoid driving into downtown LA (take the metro), but what did I do, but drive in my first weekend! I got to try some tasty food and had a great time. Afterwards we drove out Pallos Verdes Peninsula.
Monday I began my A.P. Chemistry workshop (it runs Monday through Thursday) and signed my lease and "moved" into my new apartment. I put moved in quotation marks because I only have (currently) the things I brought with me on the plane.
I've spent the last few days getting necessary items like soap, shampoo, sponges, paper towels, cleaning equipment etc.
Today I also added Internet. My Internet here is more than 16X the speed of my Internet in Nome with unlimited usage (I got 15 GB per month in Nome) and it costs about 45% less than I paid in Nome. This means that as I've been typing this my iPad has been streaming videos next to me.
Overall, things have gone well so far, but there is still much to learn, do and just get used to (including my new job, which I haven't started yet).

I thought the clouds as we descended into LAX were really cool looking so I took a picture.

My new car!

From the Palos Verdes Peninsula

Me on the cliffs

Just over a week!

I can't believe that I am moving to Los Angeles one week from tomorrow! I went down to California a couple of weeks ago to go apartment hunting. It was unlike any other apartment hunt I had ever done. The housing market (at least for places I can afford) is very tight. I looked at several places that I thought I would be interested in, but the neighborhood made me nervous. Considering I am unfamiliar with the are I feel it is important to go with my feelings. Then I looked at an apartment in North Redondo Beach. I really liked the neighborhood and so I called to see about touring the place. When I called I was told to come to the office to check out the keys. Since I had no idea what things were like I thought, "Okay, I'll go eat lunch and then go the property management office." The place had just come on the market that day, but there was apparently great interest in it. My experience with the property management company left me a little nervous and so I held off applying. I decided, "well it doesn't hurt to apply," and so I went to the management office first thing in the morning. When I tried to submit the application, I learned that they had received so many qualified applications (in 1 day!) that they were no longer accepting applications.
After that I continued to look for places. I was growing very frustrated. Some of them were no longer available, others no one answered (or returned) my call. The app I was using showed one more place in the area, but the address was on street I had visited the day before. The street had high-voltage power lines running right down it and I felt I couldn't live on a street with those lines. I was so frustrated with my apartment search that I put the address into my phone a went there anyway. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised! This was a different part of the street. I was quieter and didn't have the high voltage power lines. It was a nice street and the building looked really nice from the street. I called to see about touring the place and the on-site manager answered the phone. He said he was showing the place until 1. Could I make it? I laughed and let him know that I was just outside the building.
The building has gate with an intercom system, and an subterranean garage with each tenet getting a remote. You enter into a courtyard and then the apartments are all around the courtyard, closing it in. The apartment was nice. The walls had just been painted and they were putting in new carpet on Monday (the 13th). I immediately asked to apply and the manager was like, "don't you want to see the rest of facilities?" Oops. He showed me the garage which comes with a storage locker in front of each space, the laundry room (amazingly clean), the pool (not big enough for lap swimming) and the community room which has a pool table in it. I filled out the application and the manager said he would call me either way. I was under the impression that I would hear from him on Monday. Regardless, he told me he would call me either way.
After that I couldn't find anything else that I wanted to even view, except for one place that was having an open house on Sunday afternoon. I considered going to Culver City (I had been looking in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach and had elimination Hawthorne when I checked out places there on Thursday), but it just seemed too far away from work. I don't want to spend all day commuting (LA traffic is notoriously bad and I'm moving there from Nome, a place that doesn't even have a stoplight). So I went to the beach (Hermosa Beach in the afternoon and Dockweiler State Park Beach in the evening).
Sunday morning I went to church near the apartment I had applied to (it was actually even closer to the one that was having the open house on Sunday afternoon). The church was smaller than I expected, but super friendly. I really felt that God was telling me that was the church he wanted me in. This made me confident that I would be approved for the place for which I had applied.
In the afternoon I went to the open house. There was another prospective tenant there as well as the owner and her son. I really enjoyed talking with all three of them, but unfortunately, the other prospective tenant had come before and was now back and the owner made it clear that she had made the decision to rent it to him.
Now, I have only one option in the works and nothing else in the area I'm looking at. I don't really know what else to do. So guess what? I went to the beach. This time I went to El Segundo beach (There was more that went into the decision, but that's unimportant).
Monday I ran some errands and returned my rental car, but didn't hear about the apartment, nor did any of the other people I'd left messages for return my call. Before I knew it, it was time to go to the airport. Thus, I left California without an apartment lined up.  Needless to say, I was frustrated. I felt I had learned a lot about neighborhoods and orienting myself, but I really wanted to have a home for when I came back (although I was still hoping to hear from that one place).
I was going to call and follow up on Tuesday, but I got too nervous. Tuesday night I tried to look up the listing again and it had been taken down. The automated texting system said the place had been rented. Now I'm crushed!
 I got asked to go to LaVerne Griffin Camp (where I have lifeguarded this summer and last summer) on Wednesday and Thursday to lifeguard for one of the camps that had rented out the facility. I loved seeing everyone who works at the camp again, but I hated telling them that I hadn't been successful at getting an apartment.
Wednesday afternoon while I was at the lake lifeguarding, my phone rang. I saw that it was an LA area code and immediately became hopeful that it was the apartment I had applied to (which is kind of funny since I had left messages with a bunch of people). I went ahead and answered the phone, and it was! It was the manager and he wanted to know if I was still interested in the apartment. I told him I was and he said he was still waiting for approval from the owner, but should know by the next day. Suddenly I was excited again!
After lifeguarding I forgot my phone in my cabin when I changed clothes and so I didn't check my email until about 7:30. When I did I found an email from the manager. I had been approved, but they had in fact rented out the apartment I looked at to someone who could move in sooner, but they wanted to offer me another apartment. The other apartment is supposedly in better condition. It is the same size, but a different layout. It's also on the other side of the building and supposedly has a city view. The manager sent me some pictures (I'm going to include them here, but the previous tenants haven't moved out yet and so their stuff is still in the apartment) to help me get an idea of the layout and I have sent in the deposit and gotten a copy of my receipt. Unfortunately, the tenants aren't moving out until the 31st and then they are painting (they paint after every tenant) and cleaning the carpets. Therefore, I can't move in until the 4th of August (I arrive on the 30th of July). Nonetheless, I am excited. It's starting to get very real. I am in fact moving to Redondo Beach, California.

This is the view of the apartment I looked at. My future apartment is on the other side of the building.

Come on in to my new home (of course I don't currently own any furniture)

The bedroom is through a bathroom area. The sink is here and I believe the shower and tub are in a separate room to the right.

Another view of the living room and part of the kitchen.

The dining area and kitchen.

New Blog Title and an Announcement

So I have decided to change the blog title from Kristin's Kapers in Kobuk to just Kristin's Kapers because 1) I have lots of travels all over the world that I'd like to be able to share and 2) I haven't lived in Kobuk for nearly three years. I left Kobuk in May of 2012 and moved to Nome, Alaska in August 2012. I have been teaching a variety of science classes in Nome, but and here's the big announcement... I'm moving to the South Bay area of Los Angeles! We have 16 days of school left and it's bittersweet. I'm excited about my new upcoming adventure, but I'm also sad about leaving everyone here.

Here are a couple of pictures that show the contrast in where I'm leaving and where I'm going. I'm excited about the fun and the sun, but also nervous about missing winter...

Nome, AK - March 2015

Manhattan Beach, CA - March 2015