What up, LA!?

 I know this post is a bit delayed, as I've been in LA since Saturday afternoon; but I've been so busy with production and haven't had the time to find wi-fi!

So what have I been up to?...

Saturday:
I left Ohio at approximately 6:45 AM and then had a 4 hour layover in Minneapolis, MN. From there I flew to LAX and arrived here in LA at about 2 PM. From there I went to my hotel via the worst driver in the world. LA traffic is INSANE. Anyway, after arriving at the hotel, I crashed until my roommate, Micole, arrived and then we went out for pizza.

Sunday:
Production week starts! I am on Team Give Joy so our documentary focuses on how the domestic violence survivors have found joy through over coming what they have gone through. We received our narrators script and it seemed very....oh how do I put this...tampon commercial-ish. It was very happy and fluffy and people aren't going to take that seriously if the documentary is supposed to be about domestic violence. So as a team we spent our day revising the script and envisioning how we want our documentary to look.

For lunch, our team found a cute sushi place in Little Tokyo. I had the beset tempura I have EVER had. After production we also went to find this cute little MacnCheesy restaurant that received rave reviews from a few girls on another team. After walking about a mile on Los Angeles Avenue (which was an interesting experience, see below) we found it. Closed. Gooo team. So we ended up eating at Flames Medditeranian Grill which was DELICIOUS.

What I experienced on Los Angeles Avenue:
-The beginning of a Little Tokyo parade and almost being run over by army trucks in that parade
-Stepping over sleeping homeless people
-The WORST smell. Garbage and urine. *shivers*
-Psychos screaming at my team and I for being "snobby white women."
-People about to get it on at a bus stop (I pretttty sure I saw some money being exchanged also....)
-the end of that Little Tokyo parade....3 hours later. Yes. A THREE HOUR long parade. Imagine sitting through that one!

Monday:
After a quick tech training, we started interviewing a few of our subjects. The first woman we interviewed was  this beautiful, strong woman who radiated this glow about her. During the end of her interview she was talking about the peace she felt when she left the abusive relationship and you could almost feel this sense of peace enter and fill the room. The stories we heard from the women were so inspiring and emotional to hear.

Today:
Currently, I am sitting in a Starbucks stealing their wi-fi. Well, I guess it's not stealing since I did buy a drink and breakfast sandwich. That I stood in line for. I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it to the cashier. I'm not sure what today will hold production wise but I'm very excited for what the rest of this week will hold. I believe this evening a few of my new friends and I will be going to check out Hollywood!

With Love,
Ashliegh