is it as bad as they say?

not by a longshot.

having never visited la before moving here (except for an afternoon when i was 10), i had almost no idea what life here would be like. my view of la was constructed mostly from movie and tv depictions, but tempered with word from friends who had spent significant amounts of time here.

so i was expecting a slick yet gritty petri dish teeming with millions of urbanites who were either pretentious sophisticates or dangerous lowlifes. driving was supposed to be constantly hellish. prices were to be higher.

now that i'm here, my experience of the city obviously is different from what i expected. granted, i've spent almost all my time in nice parts of the city (i live in westwood and have spent most of my time there and in santa monica), but i got a taste of real la when driving my dad to the train station downtown. even so, i haven't seen a ghetto yet, so my observations should be taken with a shakerful of salt.

la is a fairly socially open place. while lacking genuine midwestern-style friendliness, most people exhibit a laid-back cordiality: the standard response to any interaction between strangers seems to be politeness. even the honking is of the "pardon me!" tap-tap variety, as opposed to the "fuck off!" laying-on (which is what i expected).

actually, living here is not very different from living in iowa city. there's more people, traffic, and commerce, but otherwise it's pretty much normal. the biggest change in my way of life is that driving somewhere is no longer something you do without thinking. it's not that driving sucks so bad in la, it's just that it's enough of a headache (not to mention parking!) to make me think twice about driving down to target to pick up some lightbulbs. now, i walk most places and plan car trips extensively (making a to-do list, writing out directions from one place to another, accounting for traffic and rush hour, etc.).

so la is much better than i expected. there's a tendency among some here to bash middle america (midwesterners: think of the way some of us malign the deep south), but it's born of ignorance rather than genuine dislike. plus, there are enough transplanted middle americans here that coastal provincialism is pretty limited and generally greeted with disgust.

i'm staying, at least until my degree is finished.