Monday, April 12, 2010

Bienvenidos a Los Angeles! and fly away from crazy cabbies

My sister and I just got back to LA after spending our Spring Breaks in NYC.  It was odd because we came to 60 degree weather, and it's colder here than in NYC. 
I'll post some more pictures of my last days in a later pst... but I can tell you that a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge was involved.

Two days before I was supposed to leave for LA, I sprained or did something to my left ankle/foot because after a day of walking around my foot started hurting and when I got home my whole foot/ankle was swollen.  It looked even more like a bear paw (and my cousin was a bit horrified... she was like omg even your toes are swollen).  So I bought a tube of Arnica cream (I originally thought it was used for bruises but it works really well on sprains and swelling).  And the swelling came down a bit.

Unfortunately I had all these plans on meeting friends and having dinner, but had to cancel because of my foot... and being handicapped in a pedestrian city sucks.

So stayed home and rested while watching episodes of random reality tv, Kendra, CSI NY, and Dogs 101.  These of course are show that I never watch but somehow get addicted to every time I go visit my sisters.

I pretty much just stayed at the apartment before leaving NYC.  But I had to go pick up my sister from a hotel last night and had a horrible incident with a cab driver.  There was a queue of taxis outside the hotel, so naturally my sister and I got into the first taxi at the head of the line.  While getting into the taxi I told him the direction we were headed towards and two blocks down the line he asked where we're going.  I told him the directions on how to get to the apartment, 5 times and he still didn't understand!!!
I asked him to pull over to the side a couple of times and he refused saying that he knew where he was going and then asked again where we were going.  So I finally started yelling at him to pull over saying that we're getting out.  He refused to let us out before paying the 5 dollars to go down four blocks. I was screaming "You don't know where you're going so pull over and let us out!"
Because we were in a van taxi, this one didn't have manual door locks and my sister and I were both stuck in the van.  The taxi driver refused to let us out of the van unless we paid... so while all this chaos is going on Iscenes from the movie "The Bone Collector" runs through my head.  I feared for both my life and my sister's and was freaking out while yelling at the cab driver.


I lived in NYC for four years and never had an incident like this ever happen to me.  I was so shocked and paralyzed by what was going on that I didn't even get his badge number or name:(.
But going back to the Bone Collector, that movie was about a taxi driver that was a serial killer that found his future victims simply by picking them up (almost me and my little sister.. jk.. but seriously)... almost like the HW Jamba Juice story (but that's another post in itself).  And in the end it's Angelina and Denzel that catch the serial killer cab driver and save the day.  I wouldn't mind having Angelina and Denzel saving my life... but yeah.

I have no clue how someone that is seriously deaf and cannot understand or speak English could be a cab driver in a city full of tourists (not to discriminate against anyone).  Thank god the next cab we got into was legit and decent.  That taxi driver wanted to talk and have a conversation, but I was too shaken up to talk.


Next morning after sleeping at 4AM woke up at 7AM  and went to the airport and passed out!  And arrived to freezing LA, where they were shooting a reality tv show at the baggage claim and getting in everyone's way.

But other than foot and crazy cabbie.  I had a wonderful time in NYC eating yummy food and meeting up with friends.  I had never been to Central Park this many times in one visit and look forward to another NYC adventure soon.

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