Hey there! Hope you’re having a great week!

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite parts of LA: Downtown. I think downtown LA, or “DTLA” as it’s colloquially described, sometimes gets overlooked simply because LA has so much to offer. However, it’s one of my favorite places in the city, and certainly one of the places I’ve explored the most.

One of the many great things about USC is that we are so close to downtown. Seriously: we are so close, we’re basically part of downtown. Look I even made you a map:USC

Being so close to downtown is awesome. You can take the F Dash bus from USC straight downtown for $0.50 almost all the time and it only takes about 15 minutes. Or, you can take the Metro train three stops from the USC campus to the Figueroa and 7th Street Metro station in about 15 minutes for $2.25. If you don’t have a car and you’re really pressed for time, you can always Uber from campus to downtown for about $5. It takes less than 10 minutes. So in case you didn’t get the idea, I will summarize: DTLA is super accessible.

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Once you make it downtown, there is a lot to do and see! I’m pretty much crazy for skyscrapers (which is probably why downtown is one of my favorite parts of LA) so I find myself taking photos of them a lot. Here is the LA office of the company I interned with this summer in San Francisco. 

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One of my favorite things to do downtown is go out to eat. I have a pretty much endless list of restaurant recommendations. There are also tons of popular restaurants downtown that I have been wanting to try recently. Some examples are Church & State, Bestia, Cicada, Water Grill, Sugarfish, Pie Hole, Bottega Louie, Baco Mercat, Umami Burger, Guisados DTLA, and The Stocking Frame.

I also really, really, really like studying downtown. A few of my favorite downtown study spots include Urth Caffe, Caffe Primo, Syrup, and The Classic Coffee. These places have great study vibes: relaxed, calm, and with lots of available caffeine.

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Downtown is also fun because there are so many events, performances, games, and concerts. You can catch a movie at LA Live, or watch the LA Kings, Clippers, or Lakers play. You can hear the LA Philharmonic perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall or do some shopping at FIGat7th.

Basically LA is awesome, and I definitely have enjoyed the opportunity to live here for four years. Though I’ll be heading up to San Francisco for my full-time job next year, I know LA will always be a second home to me, I’ll always be happy to return as an alumni!

Until next time,

Juliana

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juliana-2016

juliana-2016

Industrial & Systems Engineering, Class of 2016, Learn more on her profile here!