VALLEY Abroad: Penn State Hollywood

Two weeks ago, I hopped off a plane at LAX. When you travel, sometimes it feels like seeing the world for the first time. The sky looks bluer, the grass seems greener, the mountains feel taller and you want to check out every shop and cafe you pass by. And, in Los Angeles, the weather is definitely warmer. 

Last spring, the Penn State Hollywood Program accepted me as one of 16 students to intern in Los Angeles for the Spring 2023 semester. We all live in Hollywood and intern at different companies. My internship is at Echo Lake Entertainment, a film production and management company that is located in Beverly Hills, just mere blocks from Rodeo Drive (I know). My office is between Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus which has valet parking. Plastic surgeons are as common as Starbucks. My roommates are three amazing girls who all intern here in Los Angeles, too. 

I spent the better part of 2022 preparing for this trip by serving tables at restaurants to save money, overshopping for clothes and shoes and applying to every internship I could find on LinkedIn, so it felt surreal to arrive. 

As a true East Coast girl who has resided in small-town Pennsylvania all her life, I have no idea what Los Angeles has in store for me. I am a true homebody who struggles with homesickness (and missing my mom more than anything) even in State College, despite it being only three hours away from home. I’m over 2,000 miles away from my home in Villanova, living in a huge, sprawling, crowded city. 

My LA Resolution is to say “yes” more. As a homebody, I’m always saying “no,” going to bed early and protecting my peace. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But, it’s all about balance, and I’m ready to pursue every opportunity I can here in Los Angeles. 

My first day on the job felt straight out of a movie about an intern trying to make it in LA. I woke up at 6 a.m. to get into my business casual (slacks, loafers and a blouse) and drive over an hour in the infamous LA traffic, dodging cars and pedestrians, to my internship in Beverly Hills. After a morning reading a script, my co-intern and I had a deliciously overpriced lunch at what Angelenos call a “deli.” This is not the New York-style delis I had grown up with on the East Coast with the stacked pastrami sandwiches and yelling. While it was packed during lunchtime like East Coast delis, there was no sliced lunch meat or hoagie roll in sight. Just a variety of healthy wraps, salads, smoothies and rice bowls. We kept our eyes peeled for any celebrities, craning our necks and guessing who was just rich, who was rich and famous and who just had Botox. 

Some stuff here you can really only see in LA. 

As we drove to class, we saw a little robot wheeling down the street delivering food. Imagine if your DoorDash driver was Wall-E. That’s just one of many perplexing new sights for me here on the West Coast. There are TikTokers dancing on Melrose Avenue, mansions, and Hailey Bieber’s $18 Erewhon smoothie and I’m here to see it all.

I’ve always read about Los Angeles and seen it in books and movies. To me, California has always been a mystical place so far away that I would never get to visit it. So far, I can tell you: the stereotypes run strong here. I even slept through my first earthquake.

I’m so excited to share my journey with you, VALLEY! Feel free to e-mail me questions to discuss in my next column.

To ask questions, send an e-mail to saugust2002@gmail.com. Follow @VALLEYmag on Instagram for more life and style content!

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