mike k in l.a.

As for an actual status update…

I’m in a great mood tonight because I finally have furniture! Aside from the general convenience of having all my stuff slightly elevated off the floor, I guess you could say furniture is making me feel empowered and motivated (hence, finally posting). I’m feeling organized and more clear-headed. YES.

I’d like to get this out of the way quickly: In many ways, LA is exactly how you imagine it. How could it not be? It appears in just…so much media, so people already know what it looks and feels like. Yes the traffic is bad. Yes everybody has a car. The weather and the people are beautiful. The city is enormous and extremely decentralized. You probably don’t have to ever have been here to know at least that. But you know what? These stereotypes are so ingrained in the collective conscience that miraculously, I was already past all of it when I got here and ready to search around for what I like.

It seems to me that the great thing is, because LA is so huge, you can basically live here without having to deal with many of the things that suck about it. You make some friends. You find where you want to go and what you want to do. You go there and do it. And there is a TON of stuff to do everywhere. So it’s actually quite nice here. The only downside is the obvious car situation; places are all kind of far away and you need cars more often than you’d like. So there you have it: LA demystified.

So here are some things I really like about my new city: The weather is consistently excellent, which puts everybody at ease and generally in good spirits. There’s an almost unfathomable amount of art galleries and museums here. The food everywhere is excellent and there’s a huge variety of it. There’s great architecture everywhere that interweaves indoor and outdoor space. Most museums are now having fun summertime concerts and film screenings. So uh, basically, LA is kind of like this video.

There IS a public transportation system here and it isn’t all that bad. You just need to learn a lot about what companies service what area. There’s the Big Blue Bus that goes from Westwood to Santa Monica/Venice. There’s the Culver City Bus. And there’s the Metro system that has buses and a small subway system around downtown (from my understanding).

I’m really surprised at how busy I’ve been able to keep myself despite having borderline too much free time. On a day where i’m not dealing with moving-related business (opening a bank account, shopping for things I need, handling UCLA stuff) I’ve been picking places to go visit and seeing where I can get on the bus. I’ve explored Santa Monica and some of the beach area there. I spent nearly a whole day at the Getty Center, which is a lot like going to the acropolis (it’s way up in a mountain). I’ve been making efforts to meet the students in my department who seem to be a very kind and fun bunch. I’ve been touching base with friends that live around the area. I saw the LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits (CAMPY!).

So to sum up, I feel really fortunate thanks largely to the few people I know around here, to have already had such a broad and thorough introduction to Los Angeles. From gallery going, to outdoor movies; from midnight bike rides to coasting on Ventura drinking shakes from in-and-out burger; I must say I’ve really been enjoying myself here, despite the obvious difficulties and occasional annoyances that can’t be avoided when moving to a new city (especially one so far away).