I spent two months in Los Angeles on the All Hands & Hearts wildfire response project. And while I was there I got to enjoy weekends, evenings, breaks in LA. And I got to live with a bunch of lovely Americans (and some lovely non-Americans too). And since LA is very much not the UK, I revelled in a lot of the interesting cultural experiences that happen when one travels.
Here are some of the foods I got to try: pumpkin spice latte; toaster strudel; half and half; tacos from a taco truck; PB&J sandwich; mac and cheese (which has basically an entire aisle in the supermarket devoted to it); guava and cheese pastry; grits; Junior Mints; Payday (a peanut and caramel bar); Whoppers (the terrible US version of Maltesers); breakfast burrito; bagel and cream cheese; donuts (doughnuts) from a donut shop, including the Donut Hole which is a drive through donut place built like a donut, you actually do drive through the hole in the centre of the donut. Many of these are foods I’ve eaten before, but they’re not the same outside of the US. I also had a milkshake in a diner on Sunset Boulevard (tick, tick, tick). This was after a drag brunch at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood (drag isn’t exclusively an American thing, and one of the stars of the show is a Brit who has been living in the US for a long time, but a drag brunch at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood very much is). I went to Chilli’s and spent very little money (comparatively) on all the food in the world. The portion sizes were hilarious! I went to a sports bar. Twice. Once for dinner. The second time to actually watch sports – more on that later.
Sports. Yep. Sports. I’m not really fan a sport (other than snooker and cycling, which caused at least one person I spoke to to nearly choke on his water – snorting derisively doesn’t go well with hydration). I got to go to see the LA Dodgers play baseball at Dodger stadium. I watched American Football in a sports bar whilst a very, very kind person attempted to explain at least some of what was going on to me. I managed to cross roads whilst being a pedestrian – while this isn’t technically a sport it does have a lot of the hallmarks of one: some physical peril; technical skill; bravery in the face of danger; physical exertion; having a game plan in advance is helpful; it feels like a competition; there is definitely a winner (and fortunately, each time I did it, it was me).
On the topic of traffic – I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Americans complain about how bad LA traffic is (it’s not great, but it really isn’t that bad). I almost worked out how a Four Way Stop works (it’s like a roundabout but instead of encouraging everyone to continue moving, everyone has to stop and remember who was there first and then start again in order). I laughed at the stupidly massive vehicles (and why on earth everyone needs a truck is beyond me, I can understand why some people need a truck, just not this many people). I got used to turning right on a red light. I became used to Cyber Trucks though I still find them alien and ugly. I sort of got used to driving on the other side of the road. I listened to horrendous morning talk radio and afternoon country music in the truck on the way to / from site.
I got a ride in a Waymo. These are self-driving taxis that pootle around downtown LA – you order them like an Uber and use the app to unlock them and sit (not in the driver’s seat) and buckle up and enjoy the ride. The central console has a live map showing the road layout and where you are and where all the other things around you are. Waymos have hundreds of cameras on them. We took a short trip, only a few minutes. But it was great. I understand that there are a lot of issues around how rapidly technology is advancing and fail-safes around algorithms that can potentially make the wrong choice. But I would prefer code that has been written and tested and checked by lots of people than to rely on the decision-making abilities of the average human with a driving licence! Should they be regulated and controlled? Absolutely. Should they be held to exceedingly high safety standards? Without doubt. Should we be worried about big corporations having the ability to write code that can have life and death implications in society? Definitely. Do I still think the average human driver probably isn’t a good enough driver enough of the time? Yep. Do I think we, as a society, have an incredibly high risk-appetite for road deaths? Demonstrably so. Do I think that people in San Francisco sending their pets in Waymos (apparently it is quite common to see a Waymo with a dog in the back seat, so no human involved at all) around town is hilariously odd. Yep, I’m still giggling after hearing that story.
I went to 7 Eleven. I went to malls. I went to plazas. I went to food courts. I went to Walmart. I went to Target. I made friends with drunk men at a bus stop who gave me good advice about tourist attractions in LA.
I went Contra dancing. I danced Lindy Hop with the woman who partnered Frankie Manning in some Lindy instruction videos from the 90s.
I got confused by the disposal unit in the sink (I think they were nearly popular in Australia in the 80s). I giggled at the fridge that had two doors (close the left one before the right one). And an automatic ice machine inside that just drops ice into one of the freezer drawers every so often (I hope it’s the penguin that turns the light on who makes the ice and I hope he got a pay rise).
I walked along the Santa Monica pier. I went to the Huntington Gardens. I went to a planetarium show at the Griffith Observatory. I saw the Hollywood sign in the distance a few times.
And one evening, while sitting outside we saw something moving across the sky which turned out to be a Space X rocket launch.
I rolled through all sorts of words in my head related to clothing when I tried to ask someone a question about a jumper (sweater was what I was looking for). I said restroom, and grocery store and we put gas in the truck and I walked on sidewalks. Two nations divided by a common language!
I was a little surprised by just how much it reminded me of Australia. Suburban Melbourne is a little like suburban LA (though everything about LA is bigger). There are far more similarities between the US and Australia than between the US and the UK or even Australia and the UK. And I wasn’t expecting that.
I met some wonderful people and enjoyed LA so much more than I thought I would. A massive thank you to all the wonderful people who showed me around, educated me, shared their culture with me.
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