I explored a bit too. Last Sunday I went for a beautiful bike ride in Long Beach with my host's family, and enjoyed meeting them all. On Friday we tripped up to the Griffith's Park Observatory, which is actually a really cool place. For absolutely free, you can look round enough exhibits to last you hours and get lots of info out of the friendly staff. The shows in the planetarium are not killer expensive either, and we enjoyed the one we went to see a lot.
It's also a pretty building and there's some nice views from up there:
We also did some film watching at home and it was apparently a week to discover a bunch of very cool women, in various ways. I hadn't seen Rabbit Proof Fence or The Hunger Games before and they're both really good, not least because of the strong, moral girls who star- both the actresses and characters are amazing role models. Obviously they're totally different films, one being based on a gritty true story about colonialism and good ol' social services, and the other a fantastical action, but they should both be compulsory viewing nonetheless (and both contain themes about what big sisters will do for their little ones, which as everyone knows is a lot :D). And I'd never even heard of Temple Grandin, let alone known there was a film about her. She (unless I'm the only one who didn't know!) is an autistic woman famous for her work in animal rights and in changing the US slaughter industry, and later for her autism advocacy. She's quite something, but the film about her is worth watching just for the incredible piece of character acting from Clare Danes who plays her.
When we went to view a horse for a friend of my host's, the woman selling him turned out to be pretty interesting too- she works as a weapons trainer and in medieval combat productions. She's also friends with one of my favourite authours from when I was younger, who wrote books about lady Knights! And now I've met one, or the closest you get these days, who knows her. It was fun.
More fun than what happened the morning before I left, anyway, which was both my host's dogs getting skunked and then merrily careering around the house spreading the smell. We had to hose them and scrub them with a hydrogen peroxide mix, this all being at 6am whilst needing to leave for a show. I take it all back about enjoying North American wildlife.
The smell was pretty faint by that evening, and we said goodbye over chocolate wine and then yesterday morning I took a bus to Tucson (hitching is not only illegal in Arizona but seems to actually be enforced that way, and I also had no clue how I was going to escape the mass that is LA), through desert and rising heat and lightning storms at sunset. My Couch Surf host here is lovely, and has even cut my hair for me!
So far, I like Tucson (based on one day wandering around). It has some pretty buildings although overall its quite functional, nice diverse restaurants and shops, easy to use buses, and a very friendly library (back in one again!). Also, cacti:
I've seen these exact leaves in the supermarket- haven't tried them yet but I'm sure it will come up.
It is hot, though. But that probably goes without saying.
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