Katharine Chu: Extern Swap

What an Awful Last Weekend to Spend Here. Day 20 and 21.

So I woke up on Saturday morning after sleeping in more than I should have and packed up all my stuff for a weekend trip to Diamond Bar to visit my cousin. This would be my last weekend here and instead of wanting to go out and explore, somehow I just wanted to stay in and just rest up.

I met up with my cousin Amanda, her husband Leslie, and their daughter Emily for lunch at a Korean BBQ place and had a very interesting lunch. Then we drove to the Beverly Center and walked around. Emily, who loves dogs, spent a good hour just looking at dogs. We let her run wild and tried chasing her around, but she was just too fast for all of us. After a whole hour of this, we were all extremely tired and Emily was the only person still up and running. I managed to run off and get myself a vest and a jacket to get me through my last week in LA in case the weather stayed cold, windy, and rainy for the rest of my stay.

We then headed back to Diamond Bar and just as we got in the car, we asked Emily if she wanted a nap. After a resounding no, we placed her in the car seat... but before we pulled out of the parking lot, she was already asleep. We got back and I watched the end of the Clippers game before watching one of my favorite movies, "Pretty Woman" and falling asleep.

The next morning, I woke up and helped make pancakes and helped eat them too! We headed out to another mall so Emily could ride the merry-go-round and went to a small Japanese noodle house and ate lunch. Then we headed back home and I caught up on some work.

Later on, I got an e-mail from one of the alums that helped me find housing in LA, and she invited me and the Larrys over to her house for dinner on Wednesday night.

I packed up my stuff and we stopped at Curry House before I came back home to prep for another week of work. As I was preparing, Sheldon Larry came in to talk to me for a while. The rain was still going as I was checking my e-mails. He was like, "What an awful last weekend to stay in LA," as he pointed out the window.

I do like the rain in small doses, so I smiled a little and realized that I might actually miss LA when I headed back to Boston.

Couga-roo. Day 19.

So today I found out that the office would be shooting a music video for a French rock band called Empyr.

Did I mention they were a not bad looking French band?

David apparently had a sit down with them and the record label was looking for something arsty, original, and not so mass media. We had a couple of music videos to look through that the band really liked to gather inspiration from and then got down to business.

Melanie and I started looking for older Victorian looking houses that were unfurnished and a little torn down. After going through several websites, we found several houses that would be great for shooting the video and placed them all in files for David to peruse at a later time.

Meanwhile, Arbi was completely heart-broken, nostalgic, and love sick going through all of his facebook photos. "Those Canadian cougars were really hot," as he flipped through his photos reminiscing the long lost times of Sundance. "Although, one of them was actually married," he shakes his head and continues scrolling.

Every once in a while he would make another comment about missed opportunities. He went as far as to look up the city of Calgary. When we asked if he wanted to go and visit them... he forlornly added, "What am I gonna do? Go to Calgary and ask if there is an Amanda?"

Poor boy.

For lunch we had some Koo-koo roo. Or, Couga-roo. Actually it was California Chicken.

It's Friday, so the office in general is all pretty chill and we're trying to wrap everything up for the week. I realized that I'm really behind on some summer internship finding... which I will try and get hashed out this weekend. I also have a UROP phone interview for spring semester this weekend. Wish me luck!

1.5 Days Off. Day 17 and 18.

I got the next day off to really recuperate and get some much needed rest. Being completely useless, I managed to sleep half the day away and then clean my room and unpack. I caught up on a couple of my favorite tv shows and headed back to bed.

The next day, I headed to work and started updating the wiki for a teen road-trip movie called "Sex-Drive" starring Seth Green and James Marsden. I looked up all the relevant information on the cast and compiled all the information in a cheat sheet on the wiki. Then, during lunch, at a Korean BBQ place, the group came up with ideas to help promote the movie. From shooting at various parties with the cast to shooting at a gas station... all of these were mentioned as possible ideas.

Later on that day, we heard that Fox had purchased the movie "Choke," and Melanie and I had heard the writer talk about the book earlier during Sundance. The office started reading the book and also gathering ideas about promoting the movie. After lunch, David gave us the day off and we all headed home.

Just when I got home it started raining and the power went out for most of the night. I got a call from one of my friends who was in Texas doing an LED installation and asked him about work and his trip. He was pretty excited about it and since I'm from Texas, I had to make sure he had some authentic Texan food before he came back to MIT. After he promised me that he'd try some chicken fried steak and BBQ, I let him get his much needed rest and went to bed myself.

I Went to Sundance and all I got was a Pair of Underwear. Day 16.

The next morning, I woke up and was a little saddened to realize that this was my last day at Sundance. I packed everything up (including a free pair of underwear we got the night before in a gift basket) and got all the luggage in the car. I then made sure that David had transportation for the rest of the day since we would be taking the rental car back to LA while he would still be in Sundance until tomorrow morning. After we found him a rental car, we headed off.

And by headed off I mean... driving through a huge snow storm. For over two hours we drove through the snow and really tried to avoid all the drivers that had managed to swerve off the road. We had some fun and played a couple of road trip games like 20 Questions and I Spy, until we stopped for lunch at a Wendy's.

We then ate up and then started our drive to Vegas! We ended up at Vegas by dinnertime and walked up and down the Strip admiring all the hotels and casinos until all of my clothes smelled like smoke. I went to MGM and visited the lions, and took a picture with them. Then we went and stuffed out faces at the Bellagio Buffet. We all ate sooooo much food we could hardly make the walk back to our car parked at the Tropicana. Once in the car, we were all in a food coma (except for Arbi who had to drive) and we were all tempted to unbutton our pants to get more stomach room. In the words of Arbi, "The food is so good here, I'm contemplating going to the bathroom to throw up just to come back for more." But Luther's response was, "You know those security cameras they have on the people in the casinos? I'm sure they have them guarding the food too."

We continued driving until we reached Barstow, California and made the final stop there for gas. Afterwards, we kept on driving until we reached LA early in the morning.

Supermodels and Eyeliner. Day 15.

After the exhausting party last night, everyone just needed some time to relax and have some fun. This is why Melanie and I headed down to Main Street to explore a bit and grab a bite to eat. We stopped at a New York Times Party and grabbed some water and listened to a couple of writers and directors talk about their films. One of the guests on the panel was the writer for "Fight Club" and the new Sundance movie "Choke." He made a brief statement about how different people take away different things from each film and how he wanted his movies to stay true to his vision... not what the audience thought what they wanted to see.

Afterwards, we headed off and went to a cutesy little bagel shop and continued to do some people-watching. As Melanie and I munched on our rye sandwiches, we noticed Jared Leto, wearing too much eyeliner walking down the street. A few moments later we saw Adrian Grenier from Entourage with... might I add, his very own entourage walking down Main Street.

When Melanie and I were done with lunch we headed back to our lodge and ran into Naomi Campbell . She was absolutely stunning and she didn't even throw her cell phone at us!

We headed home and took a quick nap before dinner. I realized that I had some work that needed to be done and while the rest of them headed out for the Adventures of Power Party, I stayed in and then, once again, fell asleep in front of the fireplace.

The Wackness? Day 14.

So I woke up at 8 in the morning to check my e-mail only to find out from David that the room we were supposed to have, was double booked again. So we had to go downstairs and work this problem out or else we wouldn't have a place to stay.

That is just one of the problems with Sundance. Everything is already booked and it's super difficult to ensure that your room is truly yours unless you pay everything upfront in cash. Even then, you're paranoid about scammers and other great people just waiting to take advantage of the Hollywood types willing to shell out large sums of money to stay in Park City for the week.

Completely expecting this would happen, David walked downstairs and had this, "I'm so disappointed in your service" look and managed to get us a room even though the lady at the front desk said everything was completely booked. He, as my coworkers and I are fond of saying, went completely British on them.

In other news, after moving all of things into a different cabin, my coworkers ended up going snowboarding, while David and I went to grab some food at the Myspace Cafe on Main Street. This is where all the celebrities eat their free food that is prepared for them. We also made a quick trip to Fred Segals to see the different swag they had there and saw crowds of people and paparazzi standing outside hoping to get a quick glimpse of celebrities leaving the place. Sadly for us, while we were inside, we didn't see any celebrities, but apparently just the day before, both Audrina Partridge of "The Hills" fame and Paris Hilton... of... ummm... HAS she done anything lately? Okay, okay, Paris Hilton: The Jailbird, who recently accepted an award from Harvard University, was there too.

Afterwards, I went back to the lodge to meet our new roommates. The three of them did production design at RISD and now worked to Ari Gold's new film, Adventures of Power, which is one of the hottest movies at Sundance this year. They unpacked and told us about their drive to Sundance. Just then, we got a call from Luther from the hospital, and found out that he managed to take quite a topple while snowboarding. He was sedated and at the small infirmary at Park City. We headed over to pick him up and bring him back home and make sure he was okay.

As soon we got Luther settled back in, we went out to the American Teen Premiere Party in the most ridiculous costumes we could find! There are a couple of pictures of us all dressed up and partying it up on the American Teen Facebook Page that I'll post up later. We even picked up a really cute A&E jacket, a notebook and some killer sunglasses as we were walking out the door. Just as we left the party, a young boy walked up to our group and asked to take pictures with one of the girls. She took a picture with him, prompting one of the girls waiting outside the club to ask the people next to them.... "Who are they and where do we know them from?"

We grabbed a really late dinner and went back to the lodge when we received a call from one of the producers of the movie "The Wackness." Apparently, along with the weird laws that Utah has on alcoholic beverages that are served in bars, they also don't sell alcohol in supermarkets. Since we had more alcohol that we brought with us from LA than a herd of crazy LA party girls could drink, we were asked to sponsor "The Wackness" Party.

So we arrived and mingled a little bit and started a game of pool. Downstairs in the lodge, we saw Olivia Thirlby of Juno getting cozy with someone and introduced ourselves to a couple of the producers of "The Wackness" by playing a game of pool with them.

After the game, we walked upstairs only to find that Mary-Kate Olsen was also at the party. She grabbed a bottle of Bud Light and headed downstairs and sat down on the carpet in front of the fireplace and just talked to people, which prompted the comment... "Mary Kate is drinking OUR booze!"

After hanging out at the party for a while, we walked out of the lodge and saw the coolest sight: a late night karaoke taxi complete with a disco ball and microphone. We sang a couple of Michael Jackson songs with the driver, and headed home.

Half Baked? Or Four Hours Over-baked? Day 13.

I got a great night's sleep and woke up in the morning and got ready to go and see a couple of short films with Melanie. The films were divided up the night before, since there were two films showing at the same time. Arbi and Luther fought hard to get the tickets to Kirsten Dunst's directorial debut, "Welcome."

As I was drying my hair, Arbi walked in and informed Melanie and I that we should leave right now if we didn't want to miss the movie. So we got dressed quickly, grabbed some breakfast, and we made the really short walk in the crazy snow and arrived just in time for the movie.

The shorts were really great, but I would have to say that my favorite movie was called, "A Relationship in Four Days" by directed and written by Peter Glanz. It was an adorable short about a man who was idealistic with grand expectations for himself but has never lived up to any of them.

After the movie, Melanie, Luther, Arbi and I went to the Albertson's to purchase some food to make lunch and dinner for the night. During this trip, Luther and Arbi let slip that they actually arrived late to the movie and couldn't get in! Melanie and I thought it was too ironic that we managed to take our time and we managed to make it to our movie, but they had left early and still managed to miss it. I bought some gloves and some soup and as we were putting things into the car, we turned around and saw Quentin Tarantino loading groceries into his car.

I came back to the lodge and took a nap. When I woke up, the rest of the gang decided that they were going to go snowboarding, so they had to purchase gloves, hats, and snowboarding pants. Since I was still a little sick, I realized the last thing I needed was to hang out outside in the snow all day snowboarding. So I sat in front of the fireplace and watched "Bring It On" and ate the wonderful jambalaya that Luther had made for everyone.

By the end of the movie, I get a panicked phone call from Melanie. She said, "Katharine, we're heading back right now, but can you please turn off the oven. We left the pot roast in the oven for over 4 hours now. I don't want the entire lodge to burn down." I ran to the oven and opened it up and looked inside. It smelled a little burnt, but amazingly enough, it was just fine. As a matter of fact... even edible. So we had pot roast for dinner.

Later that night, Melanie, Luther and I went to go and meet one of Arbi's friends. We went to a small pub and while we were there, we met a couple of USC film students. We had an interesting discussion with one of them named Johnny about microloans, which somehow developed into a heated debate about capitalism and natural selection. I guess this happens when you put two intelligent boys together, give them beer, and expect them to impress some girls.

Nonetheless, phone numbers were exchanged as all of us headed home.

Road Trip. Day 12.

I woke up from a phone call from David at 3:40am saying that he would come and pick me up at 4:00 to head off to Sundance. I made one last sweep through my room to make sure I had everything and waited for David to show up.

After he arrived, we went to pick up all of my coworkers and by 4:40 we were all packed up in the car with everyone's luggage and ready to head off. I took some cold medicine and managed to sleep until we had reached Primm, Nevada.

Primm, Nevada. There's nothing proper about it.

When we reached Primm, Arbi woke up and said, "Primm, Nevada, where all the degenerates head because they can't drive another hour to get to Vegas." We stopped to get some gas and drove on down to Vegas.

If you've never been to Vegas at 8 in the morning it's quite a sight. Whether you're on the strip or off the strip. We decided that a great place to go to, would be the old downtown part of Vegas. We stopped at the Golden Nugget where we all decided to get some breakfast and continue our trip. But it was a great thing that we did stop at the Golden Nugget and nowhere else, because we managed to see a little bit of rock history.

Sitting in the restaurant and eating my omelet, I managed to see Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones walk in and order breakfast. There might have been a joke or two about how he can only afford to play the penny slots nowadays.

We back into the car and started driving through Nevada. The drive managed to extremely long and I managed to sleep through part of it. We stopped on the Utah/ Nevada border at a small Starbucks and got our morning coffee.

When we walked in, the lady behind the desk said, "Smile, you're in Utah! People are always upset that they're in Utah. But, you should get your coffee and cheer up!" To which we all responded, "Oh, we went through a lot of trouble to get to Utah. We're happy we're here."

With that, we started driving past several hours worth of red hills and into the snow of Park City, Utah. Man, was it cold. After a while, we arrived in the lodge and took a quick look around. There were two huge bedrooms, living area, kitchen complete with a gorgeous fireplace. We settled in and headed out for dinner at a place called Nacho Mamas. After dinner, we went to a couple of parties and got to experience the "underground" Sundance.

One of the weird things about Utah is that you have to be members to get into bars/pubs that serve alcohol. Therefore, David became members of several bars for the cheap cheap price of $4. We even met a couple of people from LA that were from the same neighborhood as our office in one of the bars. We had a pretty exciting talk.

We got a cup of coffee on our walk back to the lodge. There were also a couple of impromptu snow fights with the clean and soft snow. Then, on our way back, we managed to go past an Albertsons store, where we found an empty shopping cart. We put Arbi in the cart and David pushed him into a huge embankment of snow. Arbi gradually shifted up and limped back to the lodge with us.

We watched an episode of the X-files but half way through the episode I ended up falling asleep on the couch in front of the fireplace.

Half a Day of Work. Day 11.

I woke up this morning a little sick, and when I checked my e-mail, I realized that my coworker, Arbi, had sent out an e-mail with bad news that basically said that our hotel was actually double booked and we wouldn't get another place to stay. I was incredibly worried and headed off to work to see if we could solve this problem.

I went to work and as David searched through his medicine cabinet to find me cold medicine, I went through all the listings again to find a place to stay. After I collected all the information, I gave it to David so he could make a few calls and choose one of them.

After the first call, he looked up and said, "Okay gang. We're back in business."

With that, the entire office took the rest of the day off to start packing and to get some rest before Sundance.

I came back to the Larry's packed my bag with all sorts of goodies, took some cold medicine, and got some rest before I would be going on a long road trip.

Looking up. Day 10.

Things are certainly looking up. I rented a rental car the seats 7 people after I received an e-mail from David saying that he had found housing for the entire office. Therefore, THE ENTIRE OFFICE WOULD BE GOING TO SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL! So after making a quick budget, we started getting ready for Sundance.

We started making lists of everything we would need to bring to Sundance. Sleeping bags, tents, hiking boots, heavy duty jackets, scarves, thermals... all the other goodies that would have to come along with a trip down to a cold place like Park City, Utah.

We also took a very quick look at all the movies and parties that we would be going to at Sundance. There were several movies that looked interesting and others we had special invitations for... and we planned to make an appearance at all of them. Then I planned an itinerary of all the places that we would have to be. Then David and I purchased all the tickets online and we were ready to go.

Meanwhile, Arbi, who has never been to colder climates could not get over how cold Park City was, especially with the wind chill. He repeatedly said "-5 degrees? That's just crazy!" Being in LA, I guess none of us had the proper equipment for such cold weather. Therefore, we all piled into Luther's car and headed to Big 5 to buy thermals, boots, jackets... and everything we would need to keep us warm in the cold Utah night. Included in those supplies may have been a flask.

I headed home excited and told everyone that I would be heading out to SUNDANCE!

Do Much Traveling Lately? Day 9.

Sundance Festival is in a couple of days, and there has been a lot of hubbub around the office cooler about a couple of representatives going to try and make some connections to further the Fox project. This would be a great opportunity to really get out into the industry and make some friends and assess the competition.

Earlier in my externship I had compiled a list of the most important people in each of the largest videosharing websites. Now it was a great chance for everyone to get to meet those people.

The goal was to get as many people to the festival as possible in the most cost effective way. So on Monday morning, I started looking for housing at Park City.

The best strategy at this point, because most of the hotels are booked, is to find places on Craig's List and try to sublet from locals in Salt Lake City. After an entire morning of fruitless searching, I moved onto trying to finding the cheapest rental car to drive everyone down there if we were all going. I also spent the morning looking at airfare to see the best way to get down there.

The two possibilities of going down to Sundance were: my boss David goes by himself or the entire group goes down to the film festival with him. But even after an entire day of searching, it seemed difficult to actually plan out what was going to happen. I went home feeling a little defeated but ready to continue making travel plans tomorrow.

Oh my. She is just toooooooo cute. Day 7 and 8.

This was my first whole weekend up in LA. I was pretty excited because my cousin, Amanda, her husband Leslie and her daughter, Emily all came to pick me up for the weekend. We started off roaming around Santa Monica and looking at all the ivy clad brass dinosaurs.

For lunch, we stopped at a cutesy little Italian restaurant where you could eat outside and watch the people walking by. I ordered a mushroom pizza and watched Emily make a mess as she tried to feed herself pasta. Even though her mom has to slice the pasta into little pieces and Emily manages to drop food everywhere... the path from her bowl to her mouth is really the road less travelled (most of it ends up on the table or on the floor), she is adamant about feeding herself. She always blows on cooked food before she puts it into her mouth and always stirs her orange juice with a straw before she takes a sip. She even went and played basketball with an adorable little boy in the street.

We took a walk down to the beach and saw the "Bubba and Gump Shrimp House" and several street vendors selling art, food, and other goodies. There was also a small amusement park, but since we were scared that Emily would be scared of the rides, so we decided to pass.

Later, we went to Diamond Bar, which is where my cousin lives, and had Chinese food for dinner. Then we went shopping for food, so I wouldn't starve. I bought some ramen and other goodies to make sure that I would make it through the next week or two.

The next day we decided to go to Newport Beach. It was a small beach with really clean water, no cars, no boats, and no people (except for us). It was a little chilly so I waded in the water and collected a bunch of shells and pieces of broken coral. I almost stepped on a sea anemone but then I stopped myself. Emily, however, didn't quite understand the concept of cold water, so in an attempt to follow me out there ended up getting soaked from head to toe when a huge wave came in. She just giggled and laughed...while everyone else was oh so panicked.

We later went on a trip to Balboa Island and went shopping for Emily since she did get all of her clothes wet. We walked into a small baby boutique and bought her some new clothes so she could wear them and not catch a cold. We strolled around the island a little, had a great strawberry shake, and then made our way back to Diamond Bar.

For dinner we met up with my other's cousin's husband who was in town for a CS convention in Vegas. He stopped by and we talked a little and he set off for Anaheim. After dinner, we made a quick trip to Rite Aid, and Emily was intent on dragging around a basket twice the size as her around the store, which prompted the store manager to say, "Ohhhhh, she's just tooooooo cute."

After picking up some water and snacks from Rite Aid, I made it back to the Larry's and got ready for another week at Rotten!

Finito! Day 6.

Today completes my first week at Rotten Inc. How fantastically exciting! Oh how I thought this day will never come!

I talked to David in the morning and said that he might be looking for some course 6 programmers to help put together the new website that we would be working on for 20th Century Fox. He mentioned how there was such a creative energy from MIT and that he would love to forge a better relationship with the institute. I suggested that he send an e-mail to Anne Hunter and have her distribute the information around the department... under one condition... I would be the best MIT student hire. I do believe I might have added on the word "ever" in there too.

We also did some research about the Sundance Film Festival and whether or not a trip would be possible. I continued compiling my celebrity list and by the end of the day, was almost done with all the actors. But this wasn't the exciting part. The exciting part was that Arbi and Luther finished up the cartoon and posted the final Juno promotional cartoons on all the videosharing sites.

As the night wore on, the number of views climbed, and they were excited to see the response the audience would have to their creative work. From looking at different comments on different videosharing sites to looking at posts on boards and blogs, they were getting a good idea of what the public thought of their work.

The real question is... what do you think?

Juntoons

Oh and here's another major question that's still up in the air... I'm meeting up with my cousin Amanda and her kid Emily, who is 1. I got her a set of books that can also be doubled as building blocks for the budding architect. I really hope she likes it!

Where should the fetus explode? Day 5.

I continued to work on my list of celebrities. Although there was so much information that had to go on each page and so many celebrities, I realized that I would be working on this project for a long time. Nonetheless, I used imdb Pro and started gathering the information I needed.

My coworkers have been doing a lot of promotional work for the movie "Juno," although most of the promoting was done before I came to LA. So when we found out that Juno was the highest grossing movie in the United States for the past couple of days and would most likely outgross "Little Miss Sunshine," the entire office was ecstatic. Luther and Arbi should have put their finishing touches on the entire promotional project for Juno by the end of this week. While we were all working on different projects... I hear, "Where should the fetus explode?"

The entire office is stunned into silence and then starts to laugh. If this is the huge project Luther and Arbi have been working on for the past couple of days... I don't know whether or not to dread or to anxiously await the unveiling of this project.

Rebecca came in the office today and gave me some direction on the wiki. She's a new mother and showed me the most adorable picture of her baby.

Then for lunch, we ordered from the Avocado Grill. I did the ordering and really tried to ensure that everyone got enough food.

I spent the rest of the day sorting out celebrities and ways to get a hold of them. One of the more pressing issues is the upcoming merger of 20th Century Fox and Rotten Inc. There are contracts to sign, lawyers to deal with, people to talk to, and divisions to invoice. The plan is that everything is done by next week and so hopefully, I'll be able to see the large corporation side of this industry too!

Koo-Koo Day 4.

So today I started off going through different local and international artists and creating profiles for each one of them, showcasing their work, contact information, and their contact status. I spent most of the day transferring files and information from the Filemaker Pro Program onto the wiki.

For lunch, we had Koo-Koo Roo, which is a fast food rotisserie chicken sort of place. The chicken was truly amazing and that being said... I ended up not ordering enough for the entire office.

During lunch, I was given a few pointers so I would never get lost in LA. Here are some of the highlights:

1) You know you're in Silver Lake if all the teenagers are wearing this weird polyester-like clothing. 2) You know you're on Rodeo Drive when everyone around you is wearing big glasses. The bigger the sunglasses, the bigger the hipster they are. 3) You know you're in Santa Monica when you're not sure about the gender of the people surrounding you. And finally, 4) You know you're at Rotten Inc., when you see Luther, so desperate for attention, doing a jig every time you don't laugh at one of his jokes.

Actually, that last one isn't really one of the tips they gave me. I just gathered that one from personal experience.

After I was done transferring all the files and information onto the wiki, I started a database for celebrities, musicians, and directors. The list I was given was huge, and I would slowly start to build up the database with their managers, agents, publicists, and legal representatives. This would definitely be an interesting experience.

It had been a really long day and the entire office was extremely tired, not to mention starving, so several of my coworkers broke out the beer, wine and pretzels, and made a time of it. Noticing that I could not yet drink, David got an apple from his studio, that had apparently been blessed by Buddha at the altar and gave it to me as a reward for a hard day's work.

I came back home and like any MIT student that gets the chance, fell asleep at 8.

Being a Hope-monger Day 3.

I started the day off by finding information on videosharing employees in all sorts of fun and fascinating ways and adding it into the wiki. After a couple of hours I had compiled a list of all the largest videosharing companies and their employees. The running joke is that if I cared this much about tracking down information for the boys I date, I would never date the wrong boy ever again!

For lunch, all five of us: David, Melanie, Arbi, Luther and I got into David's PT Cruiser and went to Cafe 101, but not before making a pit stop. This is where I met McClain, a really sweet actress with a great sense of humor.

Then, we drove by Paramount Studios and saw several writers striking. I think I've always had this romanticized view of Hollywood writers as really intelligent people decked out in business casual throwing around ideas over round table discussions and then going home and typing up scripts on a little typewriter by the fireplace. When we drove by, I was almost shocked to realize that writers were as different as the shows on television. As we stopped at the stoplight, we tried guessing which show each writer wrote for...

We saw: 1) a portly lady in her 60s wearing a white t-shirt, fanny pack, and khaki shorts 2) a guy in his 30s wearing a Star Wars shirt with a bright red mullet 3) a skinny Asian couple wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a camera 4) a guy in his 30s wearing a dress shirt and slacks

What shows/movies do YOU think they write for?

Then at Cafe 101, a small diner, I had a great hamburger and ended up seeing Ryan Gosling there too. I tried to get a picture, but I think he was done taking pictures with fans for the day.

Afterwards, we went to go and meet Yosi, who is a very great publicist that we might be working on future projects with, who was throwing a Barack Obama Party. We arrived just as the votes came in from New Hampshire and the atmosphere was pretty uncheerful. I had never been to campaign headquarters before, so it was quite a sight... 80 people jammed up in a office space as stressed out as can be, with cameras, reporters, microphones...

With that being said, I have newfound respect for those that care enough to put that sort of time and effort into any campaign. It's sweatshop labor. Not unlike MIT.

Woah, there. That isn't going on the Blog... Is it? Day 2.

First day at work.

I left the Larry's house an hour early because being late to my first day of work wouldn't impress anyone very much. Plus, with my horrid history with directions, I needed all the help I could get. I had a cup of coffee to wake me up and jumped right into researching different media outlets to get a feel for some of the ongoing viral media projects the organization was working on.

As I met each of my coworkers that I would be spending the next month with, I became more and more excited about the month I would be spending in LA. I found out today these, creative-types, as David calls them, mean business and are so hard-core, they take their coffee black, with none of that funny business. They forgo the stuffy corporate office and instead pursue round table discussions and a constant flow of ideas, whether it's sharing youtube videos or watching South Park episodes, almost bringing me back to MIT. A pset PAR-TAY for the working boys and girls!

As a matter of fact, my roommate, Julia, IMed me and said, "Are you IMing during work?" To which I responded casually, "Why yes, as a matter of fact, I just added my boss as my buddy and he just IMed me my assignment for the day."

We ordered in Pho and watched an episode of South Park during our lunch break and had a riveting discussion about the latest Hollywood gossip and how one of my coworkers was hit on by one of the biggest up-and-coming actors in Hollywood in the parking lot of Target.

I later started compiling a list contacts and information on the top ten most competitive video sharing sites when David asked, "So, how's that blog going? Have you posted anything yet?" To which I responded, "I've written a few things here and there, but I haven't posted anything yet." Then, to my surprise, the entire office swivels around in their chairs to face me. "Everything I said earlier... that's not going on the blog is it?"

Later that night, Arbi and David took me out to a comedy club in Silver Lake called Tiger Lilly. From what I've heard here, Silver Lake is apparently where the hipsters are. We sat through about three sets and then I went home and got ready for another day of my externship.

Getting Oriented. Day 1.

I decided to arrive an entire day early so I could get oriented and settle in before work started. This worked out famously because I got to get to know my host family, the Larrys, a little better. They're great and took me out to see all the important landmarks that I would need to know to get by in LA.

The entire family is extremely nice and interesting. Sheldon Larry is a director of tv shows like Doogie Howser, MD. When I told my mother of this fact, she extremely cute and said, "Oh, I remember really enjoying that show! I would pretend that you would grow up and be just like Doogie. I was only slightly disappointed." Although, I'm the only child, so there's no question that a) there's no one else to compare me to and b) she loves me the most.

I settled in and unpacked and then headed over to Larchmont where there is a fabulous farmer's market. Only in California would you get a farmer's market in the dead of winter. I bought a head of lettuce, some strawberries, and ingredients to make an awesome salad. I've never been much of a cook, so the fact that I haven't gone straight for the take-out menu or mac and cheese... marks extreme improvement. I'm an okay baker when it comes to cakes and brownies, but I was always told that bad things happen to kids that only eat chocolate and nothing else. I've lived 20 years without testing that theory, and I certainly don't intend to now.

I grabbed a quick lunch at Sam's Bagels, which makes a fantastic BLT and continued exploring. I was stopped by a quirky guy who tried to make me sample some vinegar at the farmer's market. I've never been a fan of vinegar so I pressed on until I reached Peet's, a coffee shop.

There, I also met up with David Brooks the alum that I'm supposed to be working with over IAP for a coffee and a quick orientation. Then I explored Rotten Inc. Headquarters got a brief introduction to one of the ongoing projects and then made my way back.

Ready, Let's Go! Day 0

Ever since I found out in December that I had been matched with Rotten Inc., I've been preparing myself for the ultimate externship experience. My friends even helped me prep by giving this wonderful book to me.

Barbie Loves L.A.

If "Barbie Loves LA," who am I to complain?

One of the main obstacles that I would face, however, would be finding housing that would be close to the place where I would be working. Thankfully, after I shared my concerns with the MIT Alumni office, they were extremely helpful and sent out many requests for housing. I was shocked at the number of MIT alumni that offered their homes, information, mapquest skills, and advice on how I could find housing in LA. There are moments when all those caffeine-filled late nights and crazy hard psets pay off, and this was truly one of them.

So before I got on my red-eye for LA, I spent considerable time packing. While I've been well-known for my exceptional grab and bag skills that I have been able to hone when running late to classes, I planned ahead for this trip and actually made an all-comprehensive list of things I would need. Four hours, 1 suitcase, 1 duffel bag, 1 carry-on, and 1 personal item later, I managed to load my entire life in my car and decided to get some shut-eye heading out to the airport... but not before getting the 5 day forecast for LA.

Rain today, rain tomorrow, and rain the day after that? Not what I had expected. But at least it's rain... and not snow.