My new home

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Mein neues Zimmer

LA, Irvine…on the move

Now that I'm done setting up Carlo in his new single apartment, which is a loft in an old industrial building in downtown LA, Arts District, with about 1,500 ft.² space, I'm heading back to Irvine to do my own. I don't know exactly when I can move in but I know what I need to feel comfortable, so just one trip to Ikea and one click to Amazon and all is well.

LA is great and very different from Irvine as it is filled with small individual shops, bars and cafés instead of Irvine Company buildings with shopping centers that are all the same (which is nice too, as you can get all you need and you know where you can buy stuff). The "Urth Caffe" (spelled exactly like that!) is one of those great individual restaurants in the Arts District where you can buy funny things like "Green Tea Espresso" but also very good organic food, like scones, tasty sandwiches, cereal and all you can imagine for lunch & breakfast. If you ever go to LA, do not miss the opportunity!!!

We also visited a few bars and clubs in the evenings. One of particular interest is "Room 5" which is on the 2nd floor of a restaurant in West Hollywood. It is a room of about 600ft.² with a bar and a small stage where two or three bands perform each evening. The interesting part of this is the fact that University of Southern California students with a major in "anything music" make out the biggest group in the audience and also on the stage. The performances therefore are quite enjoyable. You should stop by there if you should come to be in LA. Maybe you'll see Carlo play! 
Interesting was also the Arts District itself. Carlo had not been out much there yet so we explored the ground around his appartment. We already knew the "Wurstküche" where you can get German beer and all kinds of Bratwurst, from the original to rattlesnake & rabbit meat sausage (I tried Alligator and it was good!), so we walked around a little further in the district that we would compare to Prenzl.Berg in the late 90s...a developing mekkah of arts and individual stores. The district borders on Little Tokyo, a very Japanese area where we got Frozen Joghurt on our way home.


In the inner city, West Hollywood, where Carlo stayed in a friend's apartment, there are many great clothing stores with a wide variety of fashion. I got a decent pair of long jeans for $9.99 and 2 short ones for 19.99 each (Urban Outfitters). Also, I finally bought a decent guitar so I am a little closer to starting my new 10-months-life at Irvine, OC…now how to get all that back to Irvine by train…

Anyway, David dug up another living opportunity for me to check out, it might be a little more expensive, but from what he says it is also a lot nicer than the place I was going to move into, so we'll see...also I could move in earlier. The guy from the other apartment called me and said that he does not want to move out until October 1^st which would be complicated because school starts 26^th already…well, life becomes even more exciting…!

Continuing party:

Hey, I’m here for about 2 and ½ weeks now and days seem to start flying by. I have finally found a decent place to live (cancelled the University housing contract…2 people in 1 room = impossible), set up a bank account, have my German crew and my High Society crew and surely will get to know loads of other people on the way. On the 26th I will move into my new room which is great, but more about that in 12 days.
The nightlife here is a little different here than in Berlin. People here say they heard that in New York, clubs have open until 4, even 5am which to them seems incredible. The cops seem very interested in stopping people from driving home at 2am when the clubs close and take their money or put them in jail. There is also a difference in handling the music here, as DJs in California do not play CDs but DVDs and on the big TV and projecting screens, you see the music video to the song they play. The boys here seem to be a lot keener on looking good than in Berlin, with fancy clothing (*bling bling*) and crazy hairstyles. Also, there are a lot more old-young couples hanging around – money makes the world go ‘round, I presume…anyway, for me not so much, thank you.
There is one club here that is much like SchwuZ with the GMF/weekend feature that it turns gay only 2 nights a week, called “Lucky’s” at TiaJuana. It’s the regional gay club where people usually meet and the place to be. Boys are good there too. Got a few numbers if you are interested ;D
On Thursday, Angel, a 22 years old designer(->http://www.dreamercollection.com/) I got to know here) took me to a party in Hollywood called “TigerHeat”, which might have been the biggest gayest party I was at with the biggest amount of richest gays I have ever seen live. After having eaten in a restaurant that serves breakfast 24/7 (Denny’s), Angel asked me to drive back because he was too drunk. Me, no license with me, having driven 3 years ago the last time, on an American freeway, in an American car (automatic)…well, ya gotta to what yeh got to do so I drove home 40 minutes and it actually was fun :D but tomorrow I will do the theoretical test for getting a driver’s license. Just for those lovely cops that stand on every street corner...
Anyways, on wednesday I will go to LA to meet Carlo and help him moving into his new loft apartment. I will stay a few days and try to get to know LA a little better so I can show you around when you (yes! YOU!!!) come to visit me.

I’ll keep you updated. Write comments! :D