Well then, life in the city. What should I say about it? There are infinite opportunities available at hand. There is diversity that is unparalleled elsewhere. One example of this diversity is the church called 'New City' that I have started attending. It lies right downtown LA only a little over two miles away from Boyle Heights and people from every background and socioeconomic status come together there. There are some Biola connections there, but for the most part the church does not draw the college crowd. The other Sunday many of the streets downtown were closed for an event called Ciclavia. Spanning from right near our house at Hollenbeck Park and stretching to east Hollywood there were nearly ten miles of open road for cyclists and other pedestrians to enjoy. And enjoy I did! Not only did I use the route to cycle to church that morning, but I also used the open roads to run. Now, there were not many others who were running during this time, but the ones who were out running I was sure to wave to them. I did what I do best and I ran, and I ran, and some cyclists were commenting that I was staying at the same pace as them as they were riding. And I made it to east Hollywood right in the bicycle district. There, some booths that were set up at the 'finish' and the Bicycle Kitchen is right there so I said hi to some people I know there. Then, once I emptied a energy gel I kept running right to Reality LA. Reality is another church that is right in Hollywood and it draws quite a different crowd. Most of the people there are people who are or look like they are in the film industry...young, beautiful, and well dressed. Now, I had some time before the evening service began at Reality LA so I decided to go to Starbucks and get a drink there, and then I went to 'Out of the Closet' a thrift shop where I found myself a pair of corduroys so that I could look somewhat decent for church even if my scent would say otherwise. At Reality Tim Chaddock preached a good sermon about everything under the sun (aka he preached from Ecclesiastes). Then I got a ride back home with one of the girls from our house who had come to Reality also.
Well we finally have begun tutoring...sort of. Last Monday I went to go tutor at the 'alternative high school' but the system was not all that organized and we weren't able to teach anyone calculus (of course I would have to re-learn a lot of what I 'learned' in high school'). But, we did get to talk with the woman who is in charge of tutoring (Lettie) and she inspired us to make a video about why the students should come to tutoring. Oh the benefits of living with three film majors!
I have taken advantage of filling the void that homework used to fill, by putting in some creative energies there. Poetry is the most recent manifestation of that. I don't know really what inspired the desire in me to express myself that way, but I do know that going to open mic nights on First Street right in Boyle Heights here has propelled that desire to become volition. Maybe I'll share some of it sometime...
Another night other music was heard from our house. There was some banda musica that was playing and so myself and another member of our house went to go and check out the source of the sound. One of the houses around the corner was having a party. We knew some of the guys who lived in the house and they let us come in and check out the festivities. We felt like we stuck out like we were wearing purple on St. Patrick's day. But members of our house slowly kept coming over to the party and eventually we gained enough confidence to step out onto the dance floor (aka a large section of carpet that was laid out on the backyard lawn). The style of the dancing that the exclusively hispanic partygoers were dancing to was unlike what we would normally dance to. And to have the younger crowd and their parents all coming together at the same party was equally seemingly strange. The age range there was certainly diverse.
All in all, this certainly is a unique time in my life that I will miss when it is gone. Fun, adventurous, and stretching in certain ways characterize this season. More to come soon. Critical Mass, a rather large bike ride is happening downtown on the 28th so I will be sure to send an update about which riders were dressed up as an apple computers in memory of their founder. Til' then.
-Ryan
