Well, Well, Well. I have arrived in L.A. But let me atart at the beginning...

At the airport, after waking up at some ungodly hour, then went to the airport for check in an 8.30. So then wandered for aq while before called to board, and then shock horror the plane was delayed, not ten minutes, but three hours, which meant that a 6am arrival in LA became a 10am arrival. But we made some friends at the airport stacey and katie who are in texas for their camp. We were on the same orientation, but they arent doing the American Red Cross (ARC).

So then, got to the hotle, and had to wait for 2 check in, so wandered around,l went to the local shopping centre, (which by the way is a Westfield, weird hey) where i took photos of the macy store, which is cool. Then went back for check-in and all that. Orientation started at 5pm, and was sooooo boring, with about 40 people in the room, there was heaps on the floor sleeping. But Scott the leader guy, from Perth didnt really care. In my room theres Beth, Me and a girl from Perth, Jess. Shes cool, but describes things by saying "hell (insert word)" so now I have picked that up. Everyone here, bar none, is soooo nice. You just wander around and people starrt chating to you. Problem is that names are about the last  thing yuou ask, so you often know them really well, and have no idea what their name is. but oh well. So after orientation which was hell boring (told you it was contagious) we pretty much crashed, as we all had no sleep on the plane, and were stuck listening to scott talk about all this boring stuff.

So next day, bright and early rise at 7am for breakfast and then 7.30 to the first ARC session. But of course, our alarms did not go off so we were about an hour late. The first day was super boring, but the instructors are awesome, with their american accents, they are all from 'the hood' around compton i think, (think the cheerleaders from the hood in bring it on). they told us all scary stories about guns and knives, and the tragic healthcare system (its like $6000 a week just to stay in aa hospital).

So that afternoon we got out at 3.30, then tried to find a supermarket, which appears to be impossible. we aksed about ten people and noone had any idea what we were talking about or where one was. we finally found one about a 40 min walk from our hotel, underneath this massive highway. speaking of roads, they are sooooo cunfusing. the whole wrong side of the road thing, is so hard to get used to. you always look the wrong way and evn if you do look the right way, you have to look to the left because you are so used to it, and worried that there will be a car coming. and in the shuttle from the airport, just looking was confusing, and you always go to get out of the bus on the wrong side. werid. then there is the pedestrian crossings, where the drivers pretty much go whenever they want, and the pedestrain light is green for about 5 secs. it is seriously scray.

but anyway, today we had to get up at the same time and were on time today, at least. we learnt all this CPR stuff that everyone already knows. then we had lunch, and then swimming. where we have to swim 300 yards which is 400m i think. that was fun. then we learnt proper pool entrys and saving techniques, and oddly enough how to keep a drowning victim away from you (so they dont drag you under, but it was pretty weird).

so the swimming was in santa monica, so after that, we decided to go to santa monica pier (evryone was freaking out that it was ages, which it wasnt, prob about the distance of my house to the other side of a'ville, except all downhill) so we got there and had lunch at bubba gumps shrimp (i think it was called ) from forest gump. it was cool. then we walked south to venice beach, and wandered around there. the peopl are so amazing, athere are all these randoms singing, and dancing. at santa monica there was all this circus stuff, like parallel bars, and trapezes and stuff and all these randoms were doing it, (it was so hard). so then we caught a taxi back, and hung out with some other ARC kids in the spa (dont asl me because i dont know there names)

its really great here, and sooo cheap. shampoo and stuff is about $3US a bottle, which is abot $4. and meals are about $8 ($12). i bought a shirt today for  $3 America, which is awesome.

anyway, i have sleep to prepare to swim tomorrow.

talk later.