Walking down from the dorms to go to places like Starbucks and
Diddy Riese was considered a big Friday night excursion when I
first came to UCLA. I would walk down with a big herd of freshmen
and we felt as though we had really gone out and done something
exciting ““ but maybe that was just because we were all ready
to pass out as if we’d spent all night dancing on Sunset by
the time we finished the hike back up to Hedrick Hall.
After standing in line with high school kids for one too many
Friday nights for cheap, not-so-fresh cookies, realizing that the
chairs packed into Ackerman Grand Ballroom made me consider typical
movie theater seats to be in the same realm as luxury leather
armchairs, and resorting to buying yet another UCLA sweatshirt
because my shopping was limited to what was within walking
distance, it shouldn’t be surprising that I began to feel as
discontented with my social life as I was with E! when the network
made Kathy Griffin part of the new fashion police. After all,
hadn’t the fact that UCLA was in a major city been one of the
reasons I decided to attend? There was an exciting world beyond
Hedrick Hall and the Ackerman Student Union, and I wanted to
explore it.
I found a fellow East Coaster in my building who shared an
interest in Los Angeles tourist attractions, and together
“K.” and I eagerly compiled a list of all the places we
wanted to go: Venice Beach, the Getty, the Grove, LACMA. But then
reality hit us. We didn’t have a car. All of our friends were
freshmen and they didn’t have cars. There wasn’t a West
Los Angeles subway. And there would be no point in going shopping
if I was going to spend all of my money on cab fares.
Then we realized there was one form of transportation we had
overlooked ““ the bus.
We decided to start with an easy destination for our first bus
trip ““ Third Street Promenade. The person at the front desk
of Hedrick gave us a map and even told us what bus number to take
and where to find the stop. After our mile-long hike down from the
dorms, I had the humbling experience of taking public
transportation to get around a city where a car is the most
important accessory to someone’s outfit.
And that’s when I realized, taking the bus wasn’t
too bad. K. and I became experts at the bus ““ we expanded our
destinations beyond those which the Big Blue Bus could take us to
and began to learn which bus lines were fastest (the Metro Rapid)
and their time schedules. We felt as if there was nothing that
could stop us from being able to write the newest “Frommers
Guide to Los Angeles.”
But that’s not to say we didn’t have our moments
when we vowed never to take the bus again ““ like when we got
on a bus going in the wrong direction, or made the mistake of
sitting down on the seats that faced a creepy man with a camera who
wouldn’t stop taking our picture, or the time we got on the
wrong bus and the bus driver kindly and somewhat frighteningly
floored it and weaved around traffic to catch up to the bus we
should have been on ““ I swear the last one happened.
In fact, I would venture to say that the worst bus-related
experiences I’ve had were the times that I was too impatient
or stubborn to ride it. Like when I was tired of waiting for the
bus home from the Getty and decided the walk really wasn’t
that far, only to realize after I came panting into my dorm room
and passed out on my bed that my ability to estimate distances was
more than a little off. Or the time K. and I took the bus to the
good Penguins at Westwood and Olympic and were too embarrassed to
let the upper-classmen whom we ran into know that we had taken the
bus there. So, we waved goodbye and started walking down the street
looking for a place to hide until we knew for sure that they had
left and we could go back to wait for the bus. The result of that
decision was freezing outside of a pizza shop for an hour.
I’m not saying that the bus is the fastest or most stylish
way to get somewhere, or that I don’t appreciate having my
car now, but it is reliable and you definitely won’t go broke
riding it. Plus, I’m proud to say that K. and I often
discovered in conversation that we had been to more places and were
more knowledgeable about the city than most of our friends who were
California natives.
So, make a list of the places you want to see in Los Angeles. Go
online and look up the city’s bus routes and schedules, and
head out there to explore the city. When you’re coming back
from a museum or a movie in Santa Monica and see people in the
dorms crowded around someone’s laptop watching a movie from
someone’s already-exploited DVD collection, you’ll be
glad you didn’t spend the evening on a bunk bed in a cinder
block room. You may even earn some admiration from people when you
tell them where you spent the evening and fearlessly explain that
you took the bus to get there.
Have a fun bus story to share with Rodgers? E-mail her at
jrodgers@media.ucla.edu.