My DCP Journey: Goodbye Riverside.....

Well everyone, I am writing to you from the bus that’s driving us to the airport. I am currently jamming to a playlist and recalling the events of the last few days. A lot has happened since my last post so you will be in for a treat today. Thursday was our last day of classes. The class was all about event management. Throughout the whole class our instructor had us complete different components to an event. We had to do a public event so my group chose a movie premiere. Who knew we had to budget for so many different costs. I didn't realize large-scale events have so many layers to them. I learned that a venue should have 1 washroom for every 75 people. I also didn't realize that you should have more than one first aid area in some venues, which is also dependent on the amount of people at your event. I quite enjoyed this class and it has opened my eyes to event planning.

Friday, we had our final exam and presentation for our Intro to Tourism class. I was very nervous for my presentation, as I was the only non-ESL student in my group. I wasn’t 100% confident on the content we had in our PowerPoint, which also contributed to my nervousness. I also had to help my group members with their presentation skills as most of them have never done a formal presentation before. After practicing many times, we were first up and my group hit it out of the park. I was so happy that we all came together and had, in my opinion, a flawless presentation. After all the groups went we had a beak and then attended our wrap up meeting. We were done our first class and boy did it feel good.

Yesterday was a jam packed day. My friends (8 of them) and I went to Warner Brother’s studios and went on a tour of the grounds. We decided to rent some cars to get us into the city. As AVIS car rentals was close by and was recommend by the university as they give students good discounts, we booked with them. After the experience we had yesterday I would not recommend AVIS to anyone. The service was terrible and the workers are as slow as snails. We had our cars ready for pickup at 9 am, yet we didn't leave the place until 10:30am. To make matters worse, as we were driving to Burbank, a crazy COP had traffic stopped in the middle of the highway. His actions were so dangerous and it freaked us out. After that incident it as smooth sailing to the studios.

The Warner Bro’s tour was fantastic. Our tour guides name was Shant. He was awesome. He began his tour by asking everyone what shows interested us so he could tailor the tour to our likes. We first went and checked out the famous “Chicago Street” and we saw the house they used to film Phoebe’s dad and the Geller’s house in the sitcom Friends. We also saw the outside of the high school that was used when they filmed Grease Live. Shant then took us to the Harry Potter and Batman archives. After that we drove around and we got to visit Stage 1, which is where Ellen films. We got to go inside and we sat in her audience. Unfortunately no photography is allowed on her stage so I couldn’t take any pictures. We then drove by the Fuller House and Pretty Little Liars sets. Last up was Stage 48 where we got to sit on the Friends couch. (see pictures below from the tour)

After we finished up at Warner brothers, we headed to Melrose Ave. where we met some of our other friends and we had dinner at Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant called SUR. It was ok food and I wouldn’t go back again. After dinner a couple of us decided we wanted to go to the beach so we drove to Santa Monica. We walked along the pier and I finally got to put my feet into sand. There were so many people there for 9pm at night. A very lively place although it was a bit chilly. People were still in the water at this time. I thought they were crazy. After walking around a bit, we got in our car and began our 2-hour drive back to Riverside, which was nice and relaxing. I had a blast and it was nice to have one more outing with all these people I am proud to call friends.

Today was a chill day, as we had to check out by 10:15am, we had a lot of time to kill until our bus pickup. A group of 15 students (including myself) went to see Mike and Dave need wedding dates. It was an awesome movie and I would recommend everyone to go and see it if you want a good laugh. Please note there is a lot of profanity language throughout the movie, which is why it is rated R.

I cannot believe 2 weeks has passed by so quickly. I am very happy my fears of meeting new people was gone within the first day of being here. I had a lot of fun these last 2 weeks and I learned a lot about the tourism industry. It has got me thinking that I may want to seek out a job in this industry once I graduate next year.

For all my DCP friends that are reading my blog, thank you for everything. I know that this journey is just the beginning but remember we have these fond memories at UCR to reflect on and remind us that we have friends out there. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to hang out with each and every one of you. I don’t think I have laughed so much in my life and I don't think this experience would have been the same without all of you.

To those at home who are reading, the next part of this chapter is here and I hope you have enjoyed my blogs thus far. I have not forgotten about you and I hope to talk to you all soon. Lastly to all my Portuguese Family, Viva Portugal!!I have to catch my flight shortly so I will leave it here for now.

Xoxo

Michelle

Warner Brother's Tour