Last Day...

Today Brian made Jaime and me breakfast - homemade Eggs Benedict, Snider Style. It was fantastic! We then got ready to start the day. We took a tour of Pasadena where we went to a fro yo shop called 21 Choices where I had the Mayan Chocolate Fro Yo with bananas and raspberries mixed in. Afterward we went over to the NoHo arts district, which is starting to take shape - but right now, it's pretty boring, because there's not really anything there. Then we went down to The Grove/Farmer's Market where we had lunch/dinner at a greek restaurant where I tried, for the first time, whipped salmon caviar - DELICIOUS! Then we headed over to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where we explored the Asian Art building, the LaBrea Tar Pits and the Modern Art Museum. If you're down in LA right now please see the YOUR FUTURE IS BRIGHT exhibit in the Modern Art Building. It is really quite breath taking. One installation that I thought was very provocative was by a Korean artist who shot video of herself standing with her back to the camera in different locations all over the world (Yemen, Rio Dejaniero, Israel). There were people passing by at these different locations and you can see their reactions to her. She's staying perfectly still. People wonder if she's real, or what the camera is doing... it's very interesting. But the most staggering part was watching the men of Yemen react to this woman, face and hair exposed. Some stare, some verbally confront her, at one point a man takes out a knife and begins to dance in front of the camera - then the screen goes black. Please see it, if you have the chance.

Then we went over to Joel and Annika's for a delicious Lasagna dinner that Annika cooked up - complete with a little side salad and olives imported from Israel. To top it all off, we had root beer floats and played another game of Balderdash!

This is my last day in LA - not forever, but for a while (at least). This trip has been everything I wanted and more, from great friends to museums to Disneyland - it really has been awesome.
Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, especially Brian and Jaime for being so accommodating and wonderful - what gracious hosts! Now we play the waiting game, to see what lies ahead for me this coming year ;-)

Good Night and I'll see you tomorrow.