This title refers to the business of University students hosting potential applicants to their campus. We did the rite of passage in visiting some Southern California campuses as our kid prepares to apply for ongoing learning at one of the (esteemed) houses of education.
Some observations of this endeavor we endured. Endure perhaps is too strong a word but it does get exhausting. Show up at appointment time and get your car parked. Spend around $12 for that privilege. Then get yourselves checked in to an auditorium or lecture facility on campus.
Cue the arrival of docent / paid interns who have a prepared speech to provide highlights of the school. This is the Rah-Rah moment. All great things with amazing people - faculty, students and the like. Bunch of metrics that start looking the same with a few schools crammed into the trip as we did.
I get to ask 'what is one thing you would change', knowing it will be treated like a rhetorical question.
Hopped on caffeine kids who are usually in their junior or senior year of school take groups of around 20 people and start walking. Backward. As in facing their guests but walking backward and narrating the schools many features and comforts and qualities.
Above - a hole going to where? Near the building where UCLA likes to claim they invented the internet few decades ago... good thing the tour guide stopped walking backward where she did..
It is fun to watch them do this .. something like an acrobat trick. I was busy taking pictures of these elite institutional grounds - some were pretty amazing. So Cal as a place is brilliant - sunshine and well coiffed people with palms swaying in the breeze and whatever cliche comes to mind.
The days we visited fortunately was not too hot given the onset of summer so I for one could continue walking and not faint or fall off the hill. Hill because the UCLA campus is full of them.
Historic hundred year buildings completed the setup. More of the same in a private school called USC right in heart of LA and finally a school near the Mexican border called UCSD rounded out the trip.
Below some spectacles from this journey...
While the writing on the above planter may suggest some thirst quenching pub to the Angelites.. in Mumbai, India this may be literally construed as 'c'mon child urinate'. Which is not to say that it does not happen in LA - and there seemed to be odoriferous evidence pointing to it.
I stood on a manhole cover that highlighted the number of streets in the city of angels. Apparently there are many such historic markers right under your feet.
A Mexican inspired food joint along the streets of LA. What is missing is RAM truck to have a Ram - Sita jodi (reference to Hindu mythological duo that has more cachet than Beyonce and whoever Hollywood might think is cool).
Above sign an homage to good food. This is in the Grand Central Market - a foodie haunt I had missed going to in the past trips to LA. This time I made it.
The sign to the left is an homage to one of my favorite food critic who was a LA native- John Gold. Died recently and he is remembered via this plaque at the market.
Another fun spot across the market is the funicular (now operational for a $1 ride) up Bunker Hill. It is called Angel's Flight - that lasts about a minute to go 315 feet at 33% grade, which translates to approx 100 feet elevation from downtown to top of the hill.
Above is me scraping the road to see the Sky Scrapers of LA..
At USC a controversial bronze of OJ Simpson and the Heisman football trophy won.
Above the spaceship like architecture of the Geisel library named for the 'Cat in the Hat' fame author in the UC San Diego campus..constructed in the Brutalist architecture style made popular by the same guy who designed a structure close to our home called the TransAmerica pyramid.
Some observations of this endeavor we endured. Endure perhaps is too strong a word but it does get exhausting. Show up at appointment time and get your car parked. Spend around $12 for that privilege. Then get yourselves checked in to an auditorium or lecture facility on campus.
Cue the arrival of docent / paid interns who have a prepared speech to provide highlights of the school. This is the Rah-Rah moment. All great things with amazing people - faculty, students and the like. Bunch of metrics that start looking the same with a few schools crammed into the trip as we did.
I get to ask 'what is one thing you would change', knowing it will be treated like a rhetorical question.
Hopped on caffeine kids who are usually in their junior or senior year of school take groups of around 20 people and start walking. Backward. As in facing their guests but walking backward and narrating the schools many features and comforts and qualities.
Above - a hole going to where? Near the building where UCLA likes to claim they invented the internet few decades ago... good thing the tour guide stopped walking backward where she did..
It is fun to watch them do this .. something like an acrobat trick. I was busy taking pictures of these elite institutional grounds - some were pretty amazing. So Cal as a place is brilliant - sunshine and well coiffed people with palms swaying in the breeze and whatever cliche comes to mind.
The days we visited fortunately was not too hot given the onset of summer so I for one could continue walking and not faint or fall off the hill. Hill because the UCLA campus is full of them.
Historic hundred year buildings completed the setup. More of the same in a private school called USC right in heart of LA and finally a school near the Mexican border called UCSD rounded out the trip.
Below some spectacles from this journey...
While the writing on the above planter may suggest some thirst quenching pub to the Angelites.. in Mumbai, India this may be literally construed as 'c'mon child urinate'. Which is not to say that it does not happen in LA - and there seemed to be odoriferous evidence pointing to it.
I stood on a manhole cover that highlighted the number of streets in the city of angels. Apparently there are many such historic markers right under your feet.
A Mexican inspired food joint along the streets of LA. What is missing is RAM truck to have a Ram - Sita jodi (reference to Hindu mythological duo that has more cachet than Beyonce and whoever Hollywood might think is cool).
Above sign an homage to good food. This is in the Grand Central Market - a foodie haunt I had missed going to in the past trips to LA. This time I made it.
The sign to the left is an homage to one of my favorite food critic who was a LA native- John Gold. Died recently and he is remembered via this plaque at the market.
Another fun spot across the market is the funicular (now operational for a $1 ride) up Bunker Hill. It is called Angel's Flight - that lasts about a minute to go 315 feet at 33% grade, which translates to approx 100 feet elevation from downtown to top of the hill.
Above is me scraping the road to see the Sky Scrapers of LA..
At USC a controversial bronze of OJ Simpson and the Heisman football trophy won.
Above the spaceship like architecture of the Geisel library named for the 'Cat in the Hat' fame author in the UC San Diego campus..constructed in the Brutalist architecture style made popular by the same guy who designed a structure close to our home called the TransAmerica pyramid.
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