Free events, field trips, and the start of SPRING BREAK! February-mid-March, 2012

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Well the good news is that I'm done with classes! And the exciting news is that I'm going to China this summer!! But I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to get the rest of this semester up here before I depart for Beijing.

Today's pictures take us on two field trips, through MANY free events (most of which were part of grad student appreciation week) and into Spring Break. My next post will be the main event of my spring break - a trip to Utah! But for now enjoy these great photos and memories.

-Dafne

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Photos

Downtown LA from the LA Civic Center
We went on a field trip to downtown LA. Stop 1 was the Civic Center which has fantastic views of downtown. And it was a super clear day!

Looking over East LA
You can see the bridge over the river

The Bradbury
it's in the movie blade runner

View of downtown from Hollywood
So then we went on a different field trip to Hollywood where we got to go on the roof of the exclusive W Hotel

Pure LA
Loungin on the rooftop pool

On the bus!
One of the great things about USC is all the free crap we get. This was a free trip to a winery in downtown LA. It included free lunch and free wine. Lena, Dafne and Kiera are clearly all excited.

Super expensive wine
HOLY @#()$%^(*@#$

At the wine tasting
With our new friends at the wine tasting counter

Tommy and Traveler
I don't know why, but our official mascot (Traveler the horse) and our unofficial mascot (Tommy Trojan) were out and about this one Saturday morning

Historic Broadway Tour
Yet another free USC event - a tour of downtown's historic Broadway. Beautiful architecture and strange new uses are definitely the mark of this street!

A lady awaits
She lives in one of the theatres

Depressing...
So this is an interesting story. Broadway was at its peak during the early days of movies. The street was jam packed with these glamorous theatres. However, with time, less and less people went to the theares and, since they were designed for movies, they didn't have a stage and couldn't be used for anything else. So what's happened is stores have been built in the former lobbies and the former theatre areas are now for storage. This was really depressing to see.