I visited LA in early July--not only my first trip to the city I'm going to call home for the next two years, but my first trip to my new state and time zone ever. Here are some of the things I learned in my whirlwind 36-hour tour.
1. LA is really big. Perhaps this fact should have been made obvious to me through my aforementioned NFT LA, but I really just didn't get it until I was on the ground there. Flying into LAX, the city seemed to stretch forever. It's also incredibly flat, and other than downtown, the buildings are pretty low, making it's landscape the opposite of New York in pretty much every way. "It's like someone took New York and spread it out with a butter knife," one of my friends said. Maps are cruelly deceptive. A room for rent that's only five blocks from campus didn't seem very far away to me. Little did I know that every block is the length of a New York avenue block, so five blocks from campus can easily be a fifteen-minute walk. I had brought what I considered to be adequate walking shoes, but I still hobbled off the plane like an octegenarian at the end of the trip. This leads me to point #2.
2. No one walks in LA. Again, I had been told this before, but I really just didn't get it until I was there. When I told one landlord I had walked the mile from where I was staying (in campus housing--a great find with affordable nightly rates in the summer) he genuinely looked at me like I had two heads. In another incident, a broker drove me around to a bunch of (unfortunately crappy) places to rent near campus, then offered to drop me off back at the dorm. We were stopped at a red light literally across the street from my building; he would have had to make a left turn to get to the place so I offered to get out there. He apparently found this very odd. I was like, Dude, I'm just crossing the street. Weird.
3. Public transportation, not so great akshully... but not as terrible as I had imagined. I was prepared for this one, and I must say the situation was not nearly as dire as some people described to me. There are plenty of bus routes; the buses are generally clean and have functional A/C, the fare is reasonable and deeply discounted for students, the stops are clearly marked and the riders are not scary. Once you are on the bus, they're pretty fast. Carefully note the beginning of that sentence, however. Once you are on the bus.
I must say I have developed no love for the 38 line, which runs along the north side of campus, closer to where my classes will be. I waited for that shit forever--twice. Once I gave up and got back on a different bus to go a few blocks further south. The other time my feet were about to fall off, so I just sucked it up and waited 30 minutes for that sucker. This would not fly in New York.
The 550 is my new BFF, as it goes right from the edge of campus to within a couple short blocks of my house. But, it only runs once an hour after 8pm. I've become acquainted with the 204 and 757 as well. I'll probably end up taking a bus to the south end of campus, because the east-west routes seem more plentiful and frequent there, and I also have the option of the DASH--which, completely illogically, is a whole separate system which requires a separate fare.
4. USC: also really big. The campus is HUGE. It's got to be a mile across. I walked around for several hours one day, and the next day I was still like, "Holy shit, what part of campus is this??"
5. Everything at USC is named after someone. Not just every building--that's only the beginning. The walkways are named after someone. This bench is named after someone. Even the bookstore (which looks like the Ministry of Truth from 1984) is named after someone. The brick path leading up to the baseball stadium is Mark McGwire way. I'm surprised they haven't started naming the trees.
At the film school, there's Speilberg and Zemeckis buildings. George Lucas is financing a huge new pale yellow monstrosity that will probably be completed around the time I graduate. In the shadow of this new Death Star sits the current film school main building...also named after George Lucas.
I guess the upshot of this is that USC has tons of rich alumni, which I guess can only be good for me. But apparently it also has tons of alumni who want us all to know just exactly how rich they are, which is a bit like walking through a giant pissing contest every day. Which leads me to...
6. Tommy Trojan. Reeeeaaallly? Hi, I go to a school whose mascot is a contraceptive! Insert any number of a practically endless array of jokes here.
Not helping things at all is the giant statue of Tommy Trojan in the center of campus, holding an unsheathed sword at what I can only assume is an intentional height.
7. Luckily, Angelenos are really nice. Or, they are at least less aggressive than New Yorkers. This was probably the pleasantest thing I learned. Overall, I found people to be incredibly friendly. On all the buses I traveled on, not one homeless/crazy/obnoxious person harrassed me. The work-study student who checked me into my room was super nice and helpful, and let me keep my stuff there all day on Friday even though I had only paid for Thursday night.
I must share a little anecdote. On Friday morning, I waited half an hour for a landlord who didn't show up at a place near campus. One of the people who lived there let me in to see the room for rent. It was pretty skeezy and overpriced; I was sure I didn't want to rent it. I was only waiting for this dude out of pure courtesy because he had arranged to drive over to meet me. He must not be that good with appointments in general, because there was also a painter waiting with me who was supposed to meet this guy to give him an estimate. It's really hot out, I can feel myself getting sunburnt, and this guy is not showing up. I start making small talk with the painter about what I'm doing here, where I'm from, etc. How the conversation got around to Jesus, I'm not quite sure, but he was like "You believe in Jesus?" Oh, crap, I thought. Here we go. Pause. "No, I don't," I said, bracing for the inevitable Jesus spiel.
"That's cool. Everyone should believe what they want."
Wait, someone's talking to me and they don't have an agenda? I don't think my little East Coast brain can handle it!
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