Random Scrap:
On a Sunday morning Akira and I were driving up the the Monterey Avenue towards Freeway 10. Soon we would turn west and pass a sign "Los Angeles 109 miles". We were going to see Brenda - one of the friends I made online before my arrival. I had promised her that I would come down to visit Santa Monica where she was attending a junior college. We parked near Third Street Promenade - a long shopping street. With a cool breeze coming from the ocean it seemed like a perfect morning. It looked just was one of the dream places I had spent so much time learning about. It had a wide sandy beach with houses lined up opposite the ocean, a pier with a small theme park and wheel on it. Just like in movies, it was a place with palm trees, bicycle lanes and the volleyball nets. But among them it was also difficult not to notice a homeless person lying on grass or sitting on a bench asking for a 'spare change'. This place seemed to perfectly represent some of the social imbalances I had already been learning about at Dr Rios' class.