hi all....i'm really really rubbish at keeping you all updated on my goings on aren't i!? anyway, better late than never!

i'm currently in L.A having taking a trip from San Francisco down to here. didn't get to go to alcatraz in San Fran which was a little annoying but saw the bridge and lots of other great sights! i started my trip last monday with 12 others and our tour guide. met people from all over....scotland, england, oz and even ecuador. our first stop was yosemite national park which is just stunning. its famous for its waterfalls and granite cliff faces, and i can understand why...as soon as i work out how to upload my photos i'll bore you all with about a million different waterfalls and rivers! we spent two nights there and did about a 3 mile hike on one day which i was pretty proud of myself for completing! we couldn't reach the top of the waterfall because there was too much snow but it was still great! after we finished the hike and i had ate my sandwich (which barely resembled a sandwich after i stupidly put it at the bottom of my bag and everything else on top!), we had plans to drive higher into the park to the ski resort and go snow tubing. when we got there it turned out the snow tubing was designed for children, so in the mature way that a group of 20 and 30 somethings should behave, we had a snowball fight! i even shocked myself with the accuracy of some of my shots!!

our next stop was las vegas...all that stood in our way was a pretty mamoth 10 hour drive across the mojave desert!! it was much better than anticipated, and was broken up by a ride on the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in america which was wrapped around a hotel in the middle of no where! it was called the desperado (mum, i thought you might like the eagles reference!) and i only found out about the tallest and fastest facts after screaming my head off for over 2 minutes on it!!

eventually we arrived in 'The Vegas' to the tunes of Elvis (who else??) and despite the tiredness from the journey we were all jumping about pretty hyper by the time we got to the hotel...yes a hotel, sharing with only Alex the Ecuadorian and a bathroom all to oursleves, oh the luxury!! the first night we ate by the pool before our limo tour around the strip! the limo turned out to be a strech hummer with a very nice driver called Lee who gave all us girls a rose each. we got steadily drunker as the tour wore on, and i have a vauge recollection of hanging out the windows of the limo with kylie, one of the aussies, shouting at random strangers on the strip...it was all good fun, and some how the whole group managed to avoid a $250 fine and not be sick in the back of the limo!! we ended the tour at a hotel called the rio, and made our way to the club, which nobody remembers paying for so we can only assume we got in for free. we danced away all night on a terrace on the roof of the building which overlooked the whole of vegas. one word borrowed from my new aussie friends; awsome!!

the next day (nursing a pretty awful hangover!) i wandered around the strip, tried my hand at gambling and failed miserably. i went to the mgm grand where they have a glass enclosure with 2 Li-ons (no Li-gers unfortunately!) which was pretty cool. that night we went to see Lance Burton (for everyone at Elmbank, the 'Dove Man'!) a magician who likes to turn things into birds, and as i found out ducks. it was quite cool, but he was very american and annoying! we went for dinner in the Luxor after, but i headed home early after as my hangover was still lurking about!

the following day we started our journey to a town called flagstaff which is near to the grand canyon. an easy 5 hours we got there around tea time and had a pretty chilled night before a very early start the next day. we had booked to take a helicopter trip over the canyon which i was pretty nervous about. the first view was pretty amazing but after that i spent the rest of the 50 minutes concentrating on not being sick. by the time we landed i just had to run to the loo and lose my breakfast! not much fun! after a cup of tea though (i'm missing a good british brew so much, its rubbish here!) i felt much better and started a hike down into the canyon. after getting to a view point 4 of us decided that we should stop for some lunch and head back up while the rest of the group braved the walk right to the bottom. while i'm sad i missed some of it, the walk back up was very hard for someone who has done little exercise since sixth form! that night, tired and sore from all the hiking, we went out for a farewell meal at a thai resturant in flagstaff. it was a great night, but a little sad knowing that the group of people that i now considered friends would all be dispersing once we arrived in LA.

the trip to LA was another 10 hour marathon, with the added pressure of two people having flights to catch. we made it in time and checked into the hotel near to the airport. it was so nice to have my own bed with nice sheets and a hot shower!! luckily a few people are staying in the hotel for the rest of this week so i decided to stay here too so i have some friends to see the sights with. yesterday we went up to hollywood and walked the walk of fame and browsed the shops on melrose and sunset. melrose was cool and a bit alternative, managed to get two pairs of earrings for $7 which i was pretty pleased at. sunset was much less affordable with a gorgeous pair of shoes tempting me but the $1000 price tag put a stop to any dreams of them!

today i've been changing my flights as i've decided to spend less time in fiji after talking to some people who i was on the trip with. i've decided to only spend 10 days there before heading on to new zeland. tomorrow i think some of us are going to venice beach to people watch, and thursday theres rumours of disney land before i head to the airport for my flight to fiji.

anyway, if you've not already fell asleep i hope i've not bored you too much. missing everybody loads and loads and hoping your all well.

speak soon

xxx