(click on map for larger version)                                               U.S. & CA flags (photo: Ron Niebrugge)

Buenos dias GBD!  Today you’ll be reading about El Segundo, California, where our very own Taylor Nikole hails from.  But before we get to that, I’m not sure if you’re all aware of this…probably not since you’re all way younger than I am…but one of my favorite rap groups, A Tribe Called Quest, made a song called I Left My Wallet in El Segundo.  It’s not one of my favorites from them, but how many songs are about El Segundo, right?  So here…a musical intro to Taylor Nikole’s intro.  And if you don’t like it, tough. 

I Left My Wallet in El Segundo (sample) by A Tribe Called Quest

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Okay, so my little town is El Segundo, CA…A little off the map and about a 2 mile radius.

Yes, I drew you a diagriam-ish thingy. The red circle is basically El Segundo (I live in there) and the green circle is where places like Downtown El Segundo are…we don’t really consider them a part of our ‘community’…and the blue circle is the factories which take up a lot of El Segundo (its ridiculous…all oil refineries etc) and also in the blue circle is the beach that we usually go to.

I’ve moved around a lot to tell you the truth.  I started off in El Segundo though, and then moved from town to town

That is in front of my grandparents’ house when I was in about 3rd grade with one of my best friends Rachel…a couple years after that picture I moved.

As you can see…we are still friends (and hellz yeah that is a Polaroid).

This is now (ish) and again I live here.. I moved back to El Segundo for 9th grade and I’m so glad I did. At times this town may be annoying… it is, after all, known for its rumors (aka we are Rumorville) and everyone knows everyone (which means their business too), but I feel safe here.

Anyways, for fun we go to the park or go to the beach since we are less than a mile away from the beach.

This is the park right outside of my house.  I love to swing and just go there to think, read, and take pictures.  There really isn’t a lot to do in El Segundo besides hanging out with friends and socializing.  If you want to do something spectacular, you usually have to go out of town.

And I know all anyone cares about is the food…so here it is:

Yep, during lunch (even though we aren’t supposed to) we go off campus and get curly fries from this amazing place called Fantastic Café.  (They have the BEST curly fries ever!) 

Annnnd attitudes towards women…Well, I think we are treated pretty fairly here…and almost every guy here loves a surfer girl (which I’m really not…I’m not that coordinated).  I really don’t know what else to say.  Everyone has the same attitude about everyone…No sexism…I don’t think haha (or that I’ve seen).

Oh and another thing about my town…everyone is WHITE!  Oh my gosh!  If you want to go somewhere diverse, don’t go to El Segundo…not that it’s a bad thing, but still.  The overwhelming population of whiteys is the first thing anyone tends to notice when visiting.  People also tend to notice that our town is pretty themed depending on the holidays.  If it’s Christmas, the town gets decked out in Christmas decorations and we have a huge parade.  Same for Thanksgiving and Halloween (etc etc).

Anyways, yep that is my small town of El Segundo.  Woot woot!

<3

Taylor Nikole

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Alright!  Go El Segundo!  You know which photo was my favorite?  The one of the curly fries.  Taylor Nikole thought it should’ve been the one of her when she was little, but you know what I say?  Fried beats cute any day. 

Thanks Taylor!  And tune in next week when our very own Mari (as in “Amazing Mari” – as you can see, she has her own category at the top of the GBD category list)  will tell us all about Rio, Brazil.  Now, I’m not 100% sure that it’s going to be Mari because we never really 100% decided when her post will go up.  But I’m thinking that this public declaration will commit her to that date.  lol.