Arriving

Hello All.  

Well, we're in L.A.!!!  Wow!  

(Je veux m'excuser d'avance a toute ma famille et mes amis francophones, mais ce blog sera ecrit en anglais.  Je n'ai pas le temps de tout traduire et la plupart d'entre vous comprenez l'anglais a un certain niveau.  L'oppose n'est pas necessairement vrai pour mes amis et ma famille anglophone.  Merci de votre comprehension.)  

I've been waiting to get settled to tell all of y'all about how things are going down here.  First of all, I would like to thank the Academy...  Ummmmm sorry.  That's in a few years.  First of all I'd like to thank all the people who helped us move down here.  There are many of you and you are all precious to us and we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.  

So, now, onto the exciting stuff.

We arrived here two weeks ago today, on October 4th.  We slept all the way here, then we arrived at our friend Pawel's apartment.  He's studying at the American Film Institute to become a Cinematographer.  He's a great guy and he's allowed us to crash on the futon in the living room for the past 2 weeks.  When we arrived here, we slept all afternoon until 10pm, then we slept all night until the morning.  We soon went right to work looking for an apartment and a car, and at the moment, we are applying to move into the apartment right next door to Pawel's.  It's a great building in a great neighbourhood (a little Canadian spelling there for ya) and the rent is really reasonable.  

The day after we got here, we dove right into the SGI Buddhist community and we are so glad we did.  We met a pioneer member, Ed Clark, who has met Pres. Ikeda on many occasions.  We met a French-speaking producer who lives right around the corner and who plans on shooting a film in Ireland next year.  We've also met many youth division members and attended many tozos (chanting sessions).  I really feel like our buddhist practice is supporting our lives and our dreams.  

Pawel referred me to a production company who needed a gaffer (chief lighting technician) for a music video.  So we've been here 2 weeks and I've worked on a short film and I'm about to work on a music video.  I've met quite a few people and I've attended a couple classes at AFI (thanks to Pawel once again) and am learning a lot.  We have a bank account, new phones (323.821.6712 for Dan and 323.793.5215 for Adrianne), a possible new apartment and are actively looking for a car.  

I'd say we're doin' pretty good.  

Adrianne's doing really well.  She's taking acting class, ballet class, she's chanting a lot and very involved in Buddhist activities and she starred in a short film for the Cannonball 48 hour Film Festival from her acting studio.  I'll let her fill you in on all the details.  She will also be posting on this site.  

So please, feel free to leave comments, ask questions and communicate with us, either through the blog, phone calls or email.  We'll post our mailing address once it becomes official.  

Take care everyone, 

Dan