I realized almost immediately that taking the bus to school wasn’t going to work for me. Quite frankly, the bus system in Los Angeles was a bit of a culture shock. First of all there was no schedule posted by the bus stop so I wasn’t sure when, or even if, the bus was supposed to arrive. As a person with a constant fear of being late, that was an issue. I also learned the hard way on my first ride that the bus driver doesn’t carry any change. This – and the fact that the people who were on the bus made this big-city newcomer a bit uncomfortable – made me decide to start walking to school instead. Yes, walking. In Los Angeles.
Maybe the decision to walk was less about the issues with the bus and more about feeling the need to be in control of something when bigger decisions, such as who I lived with, were largely out of my control. Either way, I really enjoyed those walks, and within a few days Tianna decided to join me. It was such a great way to start the day, and a great way to get to know each other. Instead of a stressful bus ride, we enjoyed a leasurly hour-long walk that gave us a real opportunity to talk.
Our walk took us through three distinctly different areas of West Los Angeles; we started on the very busy Sepulveda Blvd – which is the longest street in the City and County of Los Angeles – walked though a quiet residential neighborhood with beautiful trees lining the streets, and ended up in Westwood which features a multitude of restaurants and a variety of stores.
We sometimes made a couple of stops on our way to and from school. In the morning, we might stop at the Coffee Bean to get a deliciously cool Ice-Blended Mocha and in the afternoon we might stop by Trader Joe’s and pick up a snack or spend a couple of hours at Barnes & Noble. As broke college students, these little things felt like major splurges.
About a year or so into our studies, Tianna and I upgraded from walking to riding bikes; we had gone to Target and bought the least expensive bikes we could find with money we had earned working on campus. It wasn’t exactly a great bike, but that didn’t matter to me – I had a bike with two wheels and a seat and I felt like I could go anywhere. The beach, the movie theater, and the park were now within our reach without relying on anybody else with a car to take us.
Eventually we were both able to buy a car, but our walks and our bike rides will always be a fond memory. It was something we did together, it gave us a sense of freedom, and we had a lot of fun in the process.
Very cool story. You and Tianna must have been the only folks ever to walk that far in Los Angeles. They’ll make a documentary about that someday.
Yes, we were the only ones who walked. And biked around the city. As I was reading Linda’s post, I actually visualized those many days walking together along the exact street she mentioned. *Sniff sniff* There was this one really big crack on the street that we would avoid because it was so impossible – we would ride into the street and then ramp back up onto the sidewalk. We loved it when it was autumn because the leaves would turn and we would talk about how beautiful it was to appreciate this reminder that the seasons changed (you really don’t get many other indicators in most parts of sunny California).
I also remember all of the free goodies we would get when I closed at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Those were fun days.