I'd never been to California, and my friend did a great job of showing me the sights. She lives in El Centro, which I found out is basically on the border of Mexico. The weather was amazing. It was awesome to wear flip-flops and enjoy the sunny 80-degree, humidity – free weather.

It was bizarre; at night when I fell asleep ... I kept the window open for the night air to cool my stuffy room. I just couldn't get over the fact that it was the middle of November and I wasn't wearing a coat.

We drove two hours to Joshua Tree National Park. For some reason, my friend had it as a destination on her list of things she wanted to do/visit in California.

There wasn't much there, but I can't complain. I've never seen the desert before, and I felt as though I was living out my own version of "The Lion King." Any landscape was a sight for me, growing up in flat Iowa my entire life.

I think a lot of times, since we grow up in the "sticks," we believe we're cut off from culture or real society. I found this wasn't necessarily the case. I thought I'd see different stores or restaurants, but they pretty much had the same things we have here in good old Cedar Falls.

I had the privilidge of spending Black Friday at Disneyland. I'm not so sure if it's really the happiest place on Earth. After standing in line for the Mad Hatter's teacups with screaming kids and the same annoying piping song playing over and over I was already experiencing something other than happiness--with a huge headache. But a huge corndog at the stifling price of $6 made me feel a little better and I was ready to see if I could seek this happiest feeling through the Disneyland experience.

I observed people in the lines we waited in--and I realized a shocking phenomena. I saw with my very own eyes the separation and alienation technology has created in our society. Fathers, daughters, sons and mothers stood in line and instead of talking with each other kids would listen to their iPods and parents would chat on their cell phones.

This really irritated my friend and I, and sharing sociological backgrounds, we discussed the irony. Here, families save hundreds of dollars to take this magical trip with their loved ones only to ignore each other by enjoying their gadgets they saved other monies for.

It's no wonder many Americans don't know who their next-door neighbors are.

Anyway, as I digress...

I also noticed a serious class difference. I've spent many a summer days waiting in the scorching heat at Valleyfair for the Wild Thing. The people waiting in lines at Valleyfair and the people waiting in lines for rides at Disneyland were completely different. It makes sense. People travel across the country to go to Disneyland, people drive a matter of hours for Valleyfair or Adventureland.

I almost felt underdressed as I saw nicely dressed women, men and children sport their personalized mouse ears. My jeans and worn-out chucks didn't especially stick out, but didn't really fit in either.

The whole park is based on our love for consumption and celebrity. Of course, all the rides are based on Disney movies and cartoon characters. My favorite had to be the Indiana Jones ride, personally.

Park-goers were faced with sodas, fries and any other highly priced junk food one could think of throughout the whole park. On the way to the park--a mall-like street featured full up-scale stores and restaurants not affiliated specifically with Disney.

The souvenir stores were chock-full of just about anything a Disney-lover or child could dream of. I opted for a Tinkerbelle keychain for my sister and a charm bracelet for my mom. I kept my purchases to the bare minimum.

All in all, I wouldn't say Disneyland is a bad place just trying to make as much money as possible off of their merchandise and movies. That would be pointless considering this happens all the time on different scales.

I think it's important to be observant and to not buy in to the ever-growing consumption machine completely. I'm glad I got to go to Disneyland, I always wanted to when I was younger...it's something everyone should be able to experience.

Sadly, this isn't the case because not everyone has the expendable income to do this, so I consider myself lucky, even at the ripe age of 24.

Plus, the tickets were free from my friends' workplace...a justification I thought I would just add.

The money I saved from not going to crazy in the souvenir shops was justly saved and then spent the next night in downtown San Diego on overpriced drinks. What can I say, I have priorities. To save a little of my money, we did pregame with a group of friends in the hotel room with homemade drinks Iowa-style.

With the alienation I saw in the lines at the consumption-gala that is Disneyland...I've learned to appreciate conversing with my friends and loved-ones and not let my little gadgets tear me away from meaningful human contact.

Those drinks in downtown San Diego were way worth it though, trust me.