Weather

Everyone talks about the weather, but no one ever does a thing about it.

Well, here no one talks about the weather. At all. During the traffic and weather report on KIIS FM yesterday, there was plenty of traffic but the girl actually just said "Weather - not much to say." That was the entire weather report. Linda thinks Jill and I are so weird that we actually check the weather or ask people about it.

Of course, I guess that's the luxury of living every day in sunny and warm conditions. I'm told it rains "a lot" in February (apparently for about 15 minutes each day for a few weeks straight) and there's this thing called the June Gloom, that actually happens in May, which just results in overcast skies.

No one here ever has to check the weather at night to know whether to set the alarm clock 30 minutes early to shovel out their car and still get to work on time.

I expect that a lot of it is the driving-centric culture as well. Walking a mile to the T stop every day means that there's a big difference between 72 and 82 F, but it's all just "sunny and pleasant" from the inside of a climate controlled car.

Driving

So, I've done a fair amount of driving in LA before I moved here, but it still is quite a shock to my system. First of all, it's more traffic than I've ever seen outside of India. The other big difference is the number of motorcycles, and the fact that they are going so much faster than the stop-and-go traffic. It freaks me out.

But, really, it's the little things - left turns, for examples. In Boston and RI, the first left turn in line gets to jump the gun and make the turn before oncoming traffic starts moving forward. Not so in LA. Here, you have to wait until it's really your turn, but then even after the light turns red about three more cars make the left and everyone just waits for them.

Then there's the freeway meters. Apparently, they are quite useful on the choked up freeways here, but it's a huge shock to be accelerating down the on ramp and suddenly come upon a red light!

Pedestrians and their relationship to cars are also quite different. Surprisingly, pedestrians totally respect the lights and crosswalks - no jaywalking here. But, as a result, they take their sweet time crossing, even when you are waiting to make a left or right turn.

So, not very amusing, but this is the big culture shock of my first few days.

T-1 Days

In less than 24 hours, I'll be heading out to LA. The movers have packed up my stuff and I've consolidated down to two suitcases (and a couple more FedEx boxes).

I'm really excited to move to LA. It feels right. As Jay said during the holiday party, it was inevitable. But I do have a few misgivings. From the brief amount of time I've spent in and around Los Angeles over the past few years, I know there are parts of the city's personality that just don't jive with me.. though there's a lot that does.

Every bad thing they say about New Englanders and Bostonians are true - we're stuffy, puritanical, gruff, overly aggressive drivers. And I like it that way. I don't have to be overly friendly in the elevator or at Starbucks, I grumble at the club closing at 2 am but really how much later would I stay?, and people tend to actually know where Smith College is and be impressed by it.

But I'm very excited to live somewhere new again and get to know it, so away I go...