First Impressions

It's taken me two days to work through culture shock. Los Angeles has more sun than my pale skin has ever seen, more hills than my feet have ever walked and by goodness more cars that my pedestrian self feels safe with. I've been having constant bouts of panic during the last 48 hours, but they seem to be decreasing in intensity and frequency - I'm going to take this as a good sign.

Midwest living looks nothing like LA. NADDA. Ease dropping is tougher with all the Spanish swirling around. (I took French in school. I am useless here.) Walking isn't, "oh I'm going to walk around this nice grid-planned, even-terrained city," it's more like, "shit! I'm climbing a hill that twists and turns and gets me no where. Fuck, I'm sweating!" I realize downtown and central LA are a bit different (read: more intuitive to traverse), but trying to get to the Starbucks in my "neighborhood"...well lets just say, this town isn't exactly pedestrian friendly. Often times streets will run out of side walk at random points. This means that you either have to backtrack to the stoplight that's 100 ft behind you and in direct sunlight or risk crossing the four laned, two way street. It's a real dilemma.

One thing that genuinely concerns me about this town is that everyone seems to be distracted ALL THE TIME, especially in cars. Seriously, the amount of "almost accidents" I've been witness to since my arrival is astonishing. (The count is up to six after two and a half days.) People are constantly talking and texting on their phones (which I found out is illegal). I guess they get bored of driving around all day long and just stop paying attention to the road.

On this note - cars - I do not own one. All my internet research told me that I should have one, that it was absolutely necessary to get one. I dunno, I'm on the fence about it. I've been traveling around via public transportation and it hasn't been terrible. I guess it takes longer to get to where you're going, but the buses are clean and relatively efficient. (More on this at a later date.)

Other impressions, not everyone's as heroine chic as I expected. Maybe it has to do with the part of town I'm in, but I imagined swarms of blond haired, orange tinged, plastic boobed ladies. I mean, yes, I've seen them, but I can't say that I've been overwhelmed by their presence.

What else...coffee shops are everywhere. Me likey. I live by a Trader Joe's. My bank account is breathing a sigh of relief at their inexpensive products. Buildings outside of central or downtown LA never exceed two stories.

But I think that's it for now, more on the practicalities of acting once I figure out what it is that I'm supposed to be doing.

Until we meet again...