One rock of crack, please

Rebecca made us a wonderful breakfast (mushroom/broccoli scrambled eggs) with avocado, wheat toast, and the best coffee (with almond milk & organic sugar). We then headed straight to San Diego. Things I learned: 1. Always take your brother with you to check out apartments 2. ONLY take the I-5 to San Diego otherwise you have to pay tolls and they don't accept credit/debit cards 3. If it sounds too good to be true - it's a skank house.

So we checked out two hostels for me to stay at and one apartment. Here's how that little excursion went:

First we checked out Lucky D's Hostel - here's the link: Lucky D's Hostel. Pros: Free Internet, free calls in USA, Free Breakfasts (all you can make waffles on the weekend!), free dinners, free pub crawls/walking tours, and computers available. Also very reasonable prices. Cons: 14 day maximum stay, parking sucks (but hey its San Diego), and people are almost too chill there. But I liked it regardless so I put this at the top of my list for places to stay. Here's a review, more pics: Review

Next we checked out a room in a 9 bedroom "house" for $400 plus utilities. I'll let my brothers words explain this: "So a guy from Into The Wild was reading and smoking on the porch and didn't look up to even talk to us, let us walk in this hippy commune. and then the only person living there was some religious Chinese weird talk." So I decided no for this and I also didn't want to have stuff stolen in the middle of the night. I thought to myself, 'If friends came out to visit, would I want them to see this?' Answer was quick and swift.

Next we checked out two other hostels. I didn't much care for the one, but the other was GORGEOUS! There is a cafe attached, the YMCA downstairs, it is in the nicer part of town, and you get a private room with a TV, wireless Internet, and a mini fridge so people don't steal your stuff. Sadly, the price range was a little steeper ($331/week compared to the $258 for 14 days at Lucky D's) but hey, ya get what ya pay for. The parking can run up to $15/day so that was a deciding factor as well.  Also, I was a bit thrown off by the homeless woman screaming in the lobby that they had to call the cops on. I probably didn't help when she angrily looked at my huge saucer eyes staring at her and she yelled, "Yea, I know I'm LOUD!" and I just shook my head yes and stared back.

We checked out one last place which was a hotel at a very low price. We went down many roads and after pulling up near it, I heard myself say, "Maybe this is it, Chris, with the people out front." As soon as we pulled up to the door, I said, "Oh my god, I don't want to get out of the car. Please just pull away. Go!" and he sat there laughing at me, as an older brother would, and said, "Go on, Erika, get out and check it out." If you are wondering what happened, we pulled up to a place that looked like a warehouse with one cracked out woman, two drug dealers, and a buyer. The other side of the street was many grocery shopping carts filled with some of the homeless' belongings and tarps over them.  The homeless weren't the problem, it was the unsavory characters hanging on the stoop of my potential new home. I have posted this picture to give you an idea, but they were a little more salty than this. My brother wanted me to take a picture for my blog, but of course I was too scared.

We hit the traffic, took us about 3.5 hours to get home to LA. Had a delicious dinner and I passed out attempting to watch a movie again. Looks to me that I will be staying in Lucky D's Hostel for at least the first 2 weeks of work.

Today I got to go to my brothers Jui-Jitsu Class and I learned how to stop an attacker by putting him into the guillotine choke hold (pass out in 8-10 seconds) and block hits when someone is on top of you. This is a pretty physical sport. 

We then headed to Porto's Bakery in Burbank for some Cuban pastries! Chris raved about this, so I let him order: Feta Cheese sandwich, apricot cheese danish, and a guava cheese danish. and a small mocha. The line had like 50+ people and they are worth the wait because it is wonderfully insane good food and is very cheap. We basically got an entire meal for like $9-$10. Those guava danishes are $1! I'm glad I don't live here, I don't need that kind of temptation in my life.

We stopped by Mindful Nest to see where Rebecca sells her jewelry. My one pic didn't turn out, so here's her link again: Spina Designs.  This shop is adorable and they even have a mixologist area for perfumes where you can make your own! Here are some pictures of things I love and want in case you are wondering. Love those earrings, love these birds, and love the tree wall hangings for the apartment I don't have. Here's their facebook in case you are interested (plus Amanda the owner is super sweet!): Facebook

I am going to miss Chris, Rebecca, and LA so much when I head down to San Diego. San Diego is a lot slower and laid back than LA. Now off to Trader Joe's for guacamole for Mexican dinner and then possibly some Pink Berry (my like 2nd addiction!) Deuces.