The Spanish Influence

Hola!!
We all know that India is a very diverse country with varied languanges and cultures. So is the USA. There are people from various countries making up the population. But there is one particular chunk of this population which has a great influence in the USA. And they are the Mexicans.

The infuences can be seen in the popularity of their language, cuisine, names of places etc. Almost a large percentage of products have labels in Spanish apart from English. Some of the stores have Entry/Exit signs in Spanish too - Entrada/ Salida. Many Mexican dishes are popular too such as the Tacos, Burritos, Enchiladas, Tortilla(pronounced Tortiya), Quesadilla (pronounced Quesadiya).



It was new to me to accept the Mexican pronunciation. La Jolla was a street name and the right pronounciation is La Hoya. "J" is considered as a "H" and "LL" is replaced with "Y". San Jose is said as San Hose. We can see that many places are named with a prefix of San and Santa.. e.g. Santa Cruz, San Diego. These words mean Saint or Holy in Spanish. Even Los Angeles is a Spanish term with an English meaning of "The Angels".


Los Angeles and Mexico City were declared as Sister Cities in 1969. I got this data from a board in Little Mexico. This place in in LA downtown reflecting the Mexican culture. It has a market, restaurants, music and of course a lot of Mexican crowd.

All the snaps displayed in this blog were taken at Little Mexico.




Hope this article kindled in you a little interest to know more about Mexico and it's culture. Gracias. Buenos Dias!!

Entertainment is Universal!

Let's start with an easy question.. What is the famous entertainment theme park here in the LA area? Yes it is the Universal Studios. On a weekend, we decided to give it a visit. I have been to the campus before as it has the Citywalk and the AMC theatres and is about a ten min drive from home. But to enter the Universal Studios was a first time for me and I was very excited!!!!!!!!!!!



We went to the lowermost level first and took the Jurassic Park ride. The ride is on a boat in an artificial river. First are the Herbivores animals. Then we enter the dangerous carnivores zone where some sudden jerks in the ride happen and big Dinosaurs try to attack us. It's so thrilling for a first time. Some of the creatures are very realistic whereas others look like dolls. We went for a second time too!




Next was the Revenge of the Mummy Ride. My husband warned me saying that this one would be scary ; so much that I literally closed my eyes during the first time. All I could hear was loud voice "Your souls are mine" repeatedly and this was high speed ride with sudden turns and reverses inside total darkness. After the first time, curiosity got the better of me and I went for once more and enjoyed it. You can see more here http://revengeofthemummy.com
There were people dressed up as mummies, pharaohs and scaring away people around. They would pose for a snap if we wished to take one.



Then we saw the demo of how real fires are created for movies. How the fire fighters and artists and all the people on the sets risk themselves. A special short movie is shown about the Backdraft effect and is the name of this demo too. Technical definition of a backdraft "A situation which can occur when a fire is starved of oxygen; consequently combustion ceases but the fuel gases and smoke remain at high temperature. If oxygen is re-introduced to the fire, eg. by opening a door to a closed room, combustion can restart often resulting in an explosive effect as the gases heat and expand."
Some other fire effects demo are shown for real.

The next in this level was the Special effects show. How layering of 2 different scenes are done. For this few volunteers are chosen from the audience. There is a big screen with a background(say showing a Window). The volunteer then waves her hand. It looks like she is really doing it on the big screen. Her movements are mapped with the screen with an existing background/scene on the screen. The other effects were sound effects created with various instruments like moving of a barrel - the rotating motion creates a sound, different sounds created by metal clanks so on. Then they showed a vanishing act of a standing person being tied to a vertical board and an explosion occurs. Even before the smoke vanishes, the vertical board is present but in the place of the person is a skeleton; all this happens within seconds.

We went to the top level and after lunch we continued on. The major attractions here are The Simpsons Ride - Its dark inside, high speed but virtual visual effects are created. It was very good. There was a 4 D Shrek movie - a different story than from the movies. And the detailed studio tour in a moving open vehicle - the cars used for Fast and Furious, the Wisteria Lane - a fictional street appearing in the American television series Desperate Housewives, other buildings and miniature models, how rain and floods are created, cars in action, a plane crash site etc.

The other ones which we did not see are the Water World, UNIVERSAL Animal Actors and Terminator2 - 3 D, Curious George and House of Horrors.


It darkened by 5.30 PM and most of the shows and rides were closed. It was a wonderful experience. You can look up each of the rides and shows in the internet for further information but it would be great if you can personally experience and enjoy the suspenses in the rides!