By Juan Florido ’29
Always, and I mean always, check the Metrolink train schedules. It was during one of my first weeks on campus that I got stuck in Koreatown with some friends I had just made.
As a first-year student, a newfound sense of freedom and exploration hit me like a train. I wanted to do everything and anything, which included taking advantage of my new access to LA. Labor Day was the perfect time to explore. The night before, with very little planning and a lack of logistics overview, my friends and I decided to spend the day in Koreatown. To get there, the plan was simply “wake up early enough to catch the train”. Living on South Campus made this incredibly easy, since the train station is a simple five-minute walk away.
I believe that part of Metrolink’s mission is to help college students explore and make memories because of how cheap their train tickets are. They offer a SoCal Day Pass, which lets you ride on the train and on any rail an unlimited number of times for one day with just one ticket. Being a student gives you an even greater discount: $7.50 on weekdays and $5 on weekends. On Labor Day, the trains were running on the weekend schedule, meaning I only had to spend a crisp Lincoln to have access to all of LA.
Metrolink trips to LA can be decently long. During the hour-long ride, I remember talking with my friends and finally planning the day out. Since it was everyone’s first time in Koreatown, we mainly tried to plan the day out with just vibes.
When we arrived at LA Union Station, the same ticket we purchased earlier gave us access to the available rail lines. Union Station is ginormous, and there are people coming and going at all times. There were couples, families, men in suits, workers, people trying to get to LAX, and others making their morning commute scurrying around to not miss their train.
I remember briefly reading about needing to take the Purple Line to make it to our destination, so we headed there and prayed that we were getting on the correct line. We made it to the line and got on the rail hoping we were right. Thankfully, my memory served me right and the Purple Line wasn’t going to leave us in a completely different location.
When we touched down in Koreatown, I immediately felt that I was officially in Downtown LA. The city had immensely tall buildings, busy roads, crazy drivers, and people walking up and down the street. We first made it to the Koreatown Plaza and we checked out the several different little shops they had, window shopping for the most part. There were clothing shops, music album stores, Pokemon card stores, and several different food shops. The long trip to LA made us hungry, so when we arrived the first thing we did was eat. Sharing these experiences with new friends definitely helped us become closer. It was a great opportunity to bond and share memories that would last throughout our time here at Pomona.
After spending a couple of hours looking around the different shops, we decided that we wanted to start heading back before sunset. I remember checking the train schedule and seeing that there would be a train heading back to Claremont at 5pm so we took our time heading back. Taking the rail back to Union Station was a breeze. Once we got there, it hit me: the trains were running on a weekend schedule and I had checked the weekday schedule. When I saw we had missed our train and the next one wasn’t coming until three hours from then, I lost my marbles.
I apologized a million times to my friends. Luckily, we were able to find a bus that took us from Union Station all the way back to Claremont. Pomona so graciously gave us free bus passes that we put to use. We hopped on the bus and rode the two-hour-long ride back, fighting the sleepiness that came from a long day of exploring.
I almost kissed the ground as soon as I arrived back at Claremont. It was certainly a wild ride. Despite the mishaps, that day now serves as a memory my friends love to think back on and laugh at. Next time I go to LA, I’ll make sure to check the correct train schedule.