Highlights of Life

Is it just me, or are Californians (in particular LA residents) extremely happy, smiley, friendly and upbeat?  It’s like being in the twillight zone…

I guess I would be happy too if I had that heavy duty amount of sunshine bearing down on me all day for 365 days of the year…

But seriously, other than perhaps the Hispanics and the African Americans, everyone seems extremely perky.

 LA is a strange place.  It’s incredibly large as a city, and very diverse.  Traffic is horrible and you can potentially spend hours on the highway, being stuck in traffic.  That is of course, unless you have a Toyota Prius.  Apparently a few years ago, California state allowed Prius owners to drive in the car pool lane (without having to “car pool”).  Thus you can literally drive along the highway, and see a Prius zipping down the car pool lane with only a single driver in the car.  They have this special sticker on their bumper.

Unfortuantely, after a certain amount of time (a few months ago?), California decided that they would no longer dole out special treatment for Prius owners.  So, only the lucky few who happened to get that special bumper sticker before the bylaw was cancelled, can drive in the car pool lane (up until year 2010).  Almost makes you want to own a Prius, doesn’t it?

LA is the land of the diverse.  The extremely wealthy (i.e. multi, multi millionares), to the extremely improvished (homeless street kids who hang out at Venice beach).  The dichotomy in lifestyles is shocking really.  A drive through Beverly Hills neighbourhoods is breathtaking, where you see rather grand homes in beautifully landscaped roads.  You can see rows upon rows of majestic palm trees lining the neighbourhoods.  Nowhere in the US nor in Canada have I seen such unified beauty in landscaping a neighbourhood (except perhaps in Hawaii, in the 5 star hotel district).  Then you drive through the industrial part of town, where you are afraid to stop your car, and pray you don’t run out of gas, for fear of being a target of the crime in the area.  Incredible really…

Food in LA is a treat.  Everywhere you go, the prices are relatively cheap to moderately priced, and in general… very well made.  There is something to be said about immigration and the mixing of cultures in regards to cuisine.  And as I mentioned before, what is with all the very cheerful, helpful, friendly people?  Just a few days ago, I was standing in an Asian grocery store in LA wondering what brand of an item I should buy.  Being rather white washed, I was a little clueless, like a fish out of water.  Then up comes this middle aged Asian gentleman who says, “may I help you?”.  When I say I don’t know which brand is the most delicious one to buy, he then goes into a rather long but detailed explanation of each type of brand.  Very very nice, but I still ended up gussing anyways.

 And then, I was wondering around with my hands full, when this sales lady comes up to me, saying, “do you need a bag for that?”, and then puts my items in a bag for me to carry around.  Astounding behavior for Asian service people really.  Perhaps it’s the laid back atitude of Californians… but the contrast from grouchy sales service to Californian sales service is shocking.  No where did I see a person taking a temper tantrum on a sales person.

California beaches:
Wow.  Enough said.  Given the weather, the beaches, and the beauty of nature everywhere, it’s little wonder Southern California is bustling full of people, even with the nataural disasters that occur (fires, earth quakes etc).

How is it that one city can have so much industry?  There are multiple different types of industries in LA that make up their extremely robust economy.  It’s crazy really.

One really sad thing though, is that in LA’s history, there is a lot of racial tension that is ingrained into their past.  It has affected the development of various ethnic communities, and their city… and segregation seems to occur on so many different levels.  It’s quite sad really.  One thing that is not so prominent in other North America cities.