First couple of weeks in Los Angeles: A whole lot of crazy

Hello my lovely readers,

I have now been in LA for the last three weeks and still can't quite believe I'm here. I feel like I have done more in the last three weeks than I have in my whole time living in London. It's so exciting, yet so daunting at the same. Being here at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts has probably been one of the most amazing experiences of my life, I have learnt more at Aada the past few weeks than I

 did the whole year that I was at Italia Conti. 

Sitting in my acting class listening to my teacher talk about objectives and intentions I just felt a massive sense of clarity regarding what I am here for and knowing that this is where I am meant to be. I am working with the most amazing and talented actors and teachers that it doesn't quite feel real. I just keep thinking to myself that I am so lucky and proud to have made it this far. I become so much more aware of my skills and accepting of my little flaws. Before coming to LA I didn't feel confident in my acting ability and the thought of opening up emotionally or embarrassing myself scared the shit out of me. My biggest fear was singing, after my negative experience at Italia Conti the thought of singing in front of my class mates made me feel sick with nervous. Since being at Aada my attitude has completely changed and I'm excited to take on every challenge that is is thrown at me with positive attitude. 

Besides being at Aada I am finally starting to get a feel for the real la lifestyle. I have to admit walking down N. La Brea in West Hollywood is not the nicest of walks and after doing it for three weeks I'm still not really getting used to the amount of homeless people there is. The other day I was walking home from school going through a monologue in head when I see this man with a huge trolley full to the brim of bags, clothes, food and household accessories walking towards me. Not really thinking much of it I continued to walk at my regular pace with my headphones in. As we got closer to one another I noticed him staring at me intently and then directing his eye line to the floor. My eye line followed him down and to my horror I noticed that his pants and underwear were down and he was completely exposing his penis to me. Seeing my horrified face, he continued to walk towards me at a faster pace breaking out into hysterical fits of laughter. After this awkward situation I decided it was best for me to start taking the bus instead as it was probably more normal.

i was sadly mistaken, the buses are almost as bad, there's a whole lot of crazy on the metro. Last week I was sitting on the bus on my way home and I see this lady in front of me staring straight at me mumbling something strange. I couldn't quite make it out at first but I could see her trying to get my attention. I avoided eye contact for most of the journey but then she moved closer to me mumbling, I turned around to look at her and she started shouting "curse you, curse you" louder and louder in my face. Getting a little but freaked out now, I decided to get off and walk the rest of way. I wasn't sure if it was better to stay on the bus or get off, neither of my options seemed that appealing at the time. I had put off getting a car for the last month as I driving on the right hand side of road scares the crap out of me, but i think after experiencing the public transport here I am going to have to invest in one. 

Other than my La Brea experiences, the rest of my time has been amazing. I went shopping on Melrose Avenue before heading to Calabasas for sushi. My friend from Italia Conti also is in LA for the next three months, which is amazing. I took her to Griffiths park yesterday to hike to the Hollywood sign before we headed out to lunch at Birds Hollywood. I've done the hike before but for some strange reason this time, I literally though I was going to pass out, three hours hiking up the steep mountains with no sun screen and hardly any water was not the best of ideas. By the time our three hour hike was over I felt like collapsing. Looking out at the view of Los Angeles from the very top makes it all worth it. When I'm at the top I feel a massive sense of freedom and accomplishment and I feel so proud that I've finally made it to LA. As clean bandit say.. 'There's no place I'd rather be'.