CURRENT MISSION
Slowly fixing up my 100+ year old house, while researching its former inhabitants (at least 2 notables have Wikipedia pages).

ABOUT ME

I'm an artsy/ science-y type. I love meeting new people and learning things. As for science, I'm fascinated by epigenetics, everything that we're learning about the microbiome, the inspiring/terrifying potential of CRISPR and of course parasite mind control.

I have a background in Photography and a love of fashion which hopefully means that I'm destined to live out my days as an old lady with crazy amazing style.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I haven't been very active on this site lately, but I hope to do more.

I live in a cool old house, very centrally located in Los Angeles, California (where all the metro meets) with an available guest room and a very large and friendly puppy. Looking forward to hosting more couchsurfers!

Interests

Photography, movies, art, people, sillyness, sewing, style, tea, thrift stores, tresspassing

• dogs
• arts
• books
• theater
• performing arts
• architecture
• fashion
• photography
• festivals
• dining
• chinese food
• happy hour
• shopping
• thrifting
• clothing
• technology
• movies
• traveling
• music
• opera
• track and field
• communications
• emergency services
• history
• tours

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once met David Lynch and a cow on a street corner in Hollywood.

Teach, Learn, Share

Leora’s Downtown Los Angeles adventure:
Via Public Transport (http://www.metro.net/index.asp)

Start on the Red line heading into downtown.

Get off at Pershing square, See Angels flight (the shortest railroad in the world-now operating!), Grand central market (www.grandcentralsquare.com (and have an awesome $2 taco or whatever you like from my favorite taco stand) eat fresh baked Mexican sweetbreads baked on the premises

Continue through the market out the other side which is Broadway. Turn Left up Broadway and marvel at the million dollar theater (which unfortunately is not usually open to the public except for tours given by the LA Conservancy http://www.laconservancy.org/ virtually next door you’ll find the Million dollar pharmacy where you can stock up on spells and other Santeria.

Cross the street to the Bradbury building and go inside and marvel at the architecture (famous for being in the movie “Blade runner”) and the face that it’s filled with internal affairs police offices. (Tip, sometimes you can get the security guard to take you up in the awesome old elevators. Sometimes they charge for this)

Walk down Broadway (the old theater district)
*For a surreal Twin Peaks kind of experience visit Clifton’s Cafeteria (648 S. Broadway) www.cliftonscafeteria.com- the Raisin pie is surprisingly tasty!

This is the part that becomes a bit of a walk:

Cut left on 9th and walk through downtown. At Figueroa visit the pantry (http://www.pantrycafe.com/) and have some pancakes, or plan to go back and have pancakes.

To the fashion District and Santee Alley: for clothes and fabric at wholesale prices
Continue East till you get to maple, then go south on maple until you start to see some serious crowds, back track west a few block and look for Santee Street (ask people to point you in the right direction.) Watch for the guy with the hugely deformed feet!

Practice your Spanish.

Buy a Popsicle from a street vendor, (if you’re adventurous I recommend the chili and cucumber, but I tend to like the coconut. Or pineapple (Defiantly buy a corn on a stick if you have a chance) and a bacon wrapped hot dog can be delicious!

There’s also a Dash bus that will take you around downtown including to the fashion district for a quarter. You can find their maps and schedules online or pull a map out of any bus you spot. (Also a very handy map of downtown in general) http://www.ladottransit.com/dash/

Other amazing things to see in downtown:

--Chinatown and Alvera St –conveniently located across the street from Union Station and mere blocks away from each other.
--Little Tokyo-also the home of one of the MOCA museums (http://www.moca.org/)
--The Disney music center-, which is just weird looking
Note: a lot of the plays/music/opera that goes on at the ahmanson and the Dorothy chandler pavilion have special last minute “rush” tickets which can be $20. Call ahead.
--Art Walk- (http://downtownartwalk.com/) one Thursday a month a great way to see local art (the good and the bad) also don’t miss the Edison bar for happy hour and 35 cent martinis- gorgeous place not to be missed-but be aware that it has a dress code

Get out of downtown by the time it gets dark. Many parts become pretty sketchy pretty fast. (This has become less true lately as certain downtown districts have been hip-ified (or gentrified) But there's still the crack whores and the crazies in certain areas so watch out.

Have fun!

Other favorite things in and around LA (not downtown related)
-The Museum of Jurassic Technology (www.mjt.org) possibly the strangest and most wonderful place ever.
- Authentic Chinese food in the San Gabriel Valley and $15 foot massages (try China Islamic)
- LACMA (art museum) and the LA Brea Tar Pits
- Griffith park and the observatory
-The Getty Museum(free except for parking!)
-Melrose Ave for people watching and hipster shopping
-The Watts Towers

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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