Like a Rolling Stone

            The goodbyes begin. “Last time in this restaurant. Last time that coffee.” In the movies, rain accompanies goodbyes, however this week we had a heat wave. The temperature is really good. The weather is a good companion in new experiences, a great accomplice that embraces the experience.

I have been going out for several nights to walk around the campus as if I wanted to capture all the possible images in my head. I ruled out going to any study room to absorb its essence, nor any hall or corner of a new building to be impressed by. Just walking outdoor on campus. I walked around my memories of six weeks.

At no time did I feel like I was wandering like a homeless person in search of his bench, but I walked in a different way than the first time I arrived. Crossing the Bruin Walk, I felt the rush building up in my feet to not be late. There was no one playing the piano at the door of Bruin Plate nor were there Asians dancing under parking lot number seven. I have realized during the walk that I have kept a memory of each corner..

I have given a meaning for each day here. Also for each color. The flagship blue and yellow no longer belongs solely to the Swedish furniture chain. I kept the green for the grass in the central area of ​​Royce Hall and the stairs. In the housing area, it smells pine. Red for the spiciness of the food and the orange tones of the bricks of the buildings.

While walking, the papers I was carrying in my hand fell several times. It's what happens at goodbyes that things get messy again.

While going through the less traveled places I have been able to see buildings from the inside that during the day the reflection does not allow us to see. The night allows me to discover new spaces that are illuminated, paying attention to the steps I found it, the railings and benches. During the night you can also see some people training. Cultivating their bodies or finishing a goal for the week.

This place never ceases to surprise me at any time of the day while my friends and family wake up in another part of the world.  Without a doubt this is an inspiring and powerful place. I didn't enter to the Botanical building  but I had more than one conversation with the figures at Sculpture Garden.

On this type of trip abroad, I wonder if it is worth having put the tick on the Bucket list. Totally yes, UCLA was the main one. Everything else has been a gift full of contrasts in the San Francisco Bay, Las Vegas and of course Los Angeles.

The city where the lights of Hollywood are tinged with the shadow of  Downtown’s sorroundings, but where one can always catch a breath at Venice Beach and see the sunset in Santa Monica Pier. Unquestionably, it is worth traveling to visit the most iconic places in Golden State.

This inmersive and self-development experience has not been about making friends, but about realizing the different paths of life that coexist in the world, the different types of people that exist while you live with them and realizing that all of them are valid. Within them and within the group we are one more, nothing else.

Summer Sessions is about widen horizons in addition to overcoming academic challenges. It is an international coexistence in which the first foreigner are you. It doesn't matter who discovered America, what matters is how America wakes up today.

I have been able to hear my voice at many times at this GPS point. UCLA has been the best birhday present I could have given myself ever. Maybe there is a part of me that never fully says goodbye to this desk because at night not only dreams talk but they are also written. Zzz…

            The end.

Carmen De la Rubia :) 

Acceda rápidamente a otras entradas sobre UCLA o haga clic aquí para ir a la página principal.

• Getting to know Los Angeles

• Differents maps
• Closeness and distance
• Buy space but first coffee. Line starts here
• Inside America with me

• Some extracts from my articles at UCLA

Closeness and distance

It is not the first Central Market that I have visited in a city, nor a contemporary art museum that I have entered inside. In fact, I can boast of the CAC and Pompidue a few hours by plane from this place. It is not the first library I have visited and even though it has most of the same great works at its core, I also do not find similarity between walking through a corridor of Powel Library or others.

Nor the first tram or funicular that I have ridden for only a few meters as a tourist attraction; far from it the first skyscraper that I have climbed to its terrace, purchasing a ticket to contemplate the views from its roof. However, in all cities I disperse in the same way along their sidewalk (looking up and down their facades) while I ignore that time passes and places close. In America the time is really an important change for Europeans. Even more so for the Spanish. In my country, local stores close between 8 and 10 pm. Shopping centers and main streets at 10 pm. Normally business (brand stores included) do not open on Sundays.

Housing could also be understood as just a place to sleep but in no country that I have visited is it. In Bali everyone lives together, in Spain it depends on whether the next street is considered living with your family or not. But in America, everything is really huge and it's something they take for granted and it's a fact: space. The model home, as shown in the movies, is a very spacious house.

Perhaps this information about breadth is related to privacy and personal physical distance from others discussed at other times. Grocery stores are terrific. Lots of hallways competely full of stuff and people  apologizing for passing behind you who are a meter away from you. In Spain, my local supermarket is half the size of any other store at UCLA. So, imagine how many times we would have to apologize to each other. There is one important difference: we all know each other - not just our name, but also our family names -. Who are you, who your friends are, what your interest are it’s no secret in small town  of approximately 2000 inhabitants.

One feature that I love about apartment blocks in America is their emergency stairs. It seems to me something iconic and that in itself is the co-star of a shot in a movie. What about driving on wide and endless roads? Same.

In relation to taking an emergency EXIT, I have really felt Oatkland as an unsafe place last weekend. It is difficult to feel insecure in Spain. It is hard for anyone to get used to that uncertainty about whether there will be a shooting in your neighborhood today or not, and the police sirens in the streets. I honestly believe that the gun culture is a red flag of The United States.

However, people come here, emigrate and overcome contradictions on a daily basis. The challenge is not only to leave your country but to adapt to the new one.

Something that seems curious to me is that some of them become more patriotic when they go abroad. In Spain, flags are hung on balconies or facades of houses to support soccer teams. The linkage with the flag is different. In fact, politically there are those who want to make it more of one party than another. In America the flag is hung not on every corner but on every building facade - McDonalds included -.

Personally, I believe that everything is far from home for those who do not transit their area often and are lazy. The modus operandi is repeated outside the home. There are immigrants who are within this country without knowing the meaning of the American flag, nor the origin of the bagel or fried chicken. Understanding the world as something global allows you to travel through places appreciating them instead of comparing them. We should hang the flag of peace in every corner instead of creating political speeches and merchandising. It would be more effective.

 

Acceda rápidamente a otras entradas sobre UCLA o haga clic aquí para ir a la página principal.

• Getting to know Los Angeles
• Differents maps
• Buy space but first coffee. Line starts here

• Like a rolling stone

• Inside America with me

• Some extracts from my articles at UCLA