Last year at my club volleyball banquet, I received the “most likely to find a five-star ice cream place anywhere” award. A running joke with my coaches and teammates is that no matter where we travel to for our tournaments, whether it’s Louisville, Kentucky or Kansas City, Missouri, I’m in charge of Yelping and finding the best restaurants for dinner and dessert. I pride myself on this skill and am particularly confident in my ability to choose the best places to satisfy a person’s sweet tooth. My personal favorites in Los Angeles include:
Magpies Softserve
Silver Lake
Photo is author’s own
I first tried their soft serve with some of my teammates, who also have a sweet tooth, after our annual club volleyball holiday party. What impressed me the most was actually not the soft serve itself, but the chocolate honeycomb I chose as a topping. The honeycomb added a perfect “crunch” to already decadent soft serve. Fun fact: all their soft serve flavors and toppings are made in-house.
When students put down their pencils, return their rented textbooks, and submit their final papers on December 14, they breathe a sigh of relief. It’s finally winter break – no more tests and no more work. For those staying around USC over winter break, the time off from school is the perfect opportunity to explore Los Angeles. While LA isn’t typically thought of as a “winter destination,” this is all the more reason to see all the city has to offer – areas that may be packed during peak tourism season in the summer are equally as great in the winter, but with less crowds. If you’re looking for some things to cross off your LA bucket list this winter, check out some of my favorite destinations below.
LA Live Ice Skating Rink
Ice skating is a great winter activity, perfect for an evening out with friends. The ice skating rinks at LA Live and Pershing Square are decorated enough to make you feel like it’s the dead of winter, but you never need to wear more than a coat to feel warm enough. LA Live is just a few minutes away by public transportation or Uber, and there’s plenty to do when you hang up your skates. Grab some friends, get some dinner and watch a movie after! Continue reading What to do in Los Angeles Over Winter Break→
As they roar around the track, the roller derby skaters jostle for position at the front of the pack, trying to stay ahead of their rivals from the opposing team. The Varsity Brawlers are trying to unseat the Tough Cookies for this year’s championship. Around the Los Angeles Derby Dolls arena, fans clap and scream their favorite players’ names while munching on food truck fare. The energy is high as the jam comes to a close, with the scoreboard showing the teams nearly neck and neck.
The sport of roller derby dates back to the mid-1930s when Leo Seltzer formed a touring company of teams playing an early form of the high contact sport on roller skates. Throughout most of the 20th century it was a predominantly male sport, but in the early 2000s several all-female, local leagues began to develop in different parts of the U.S. These leagues often had a strong punk or rockabilly aesthetic both in the rink and in the stands, and emphasized a feminist, queer, empowering atmosphere. Enthusiasm for the sport increased rapidly, with 2,000 leagues sprouting up worldwide. The sport gained popularity with the 2009 release of Whip It!, starring Ellen Page as a gifted skater new to the sport.
