Joshua van Aalst’s blog

Well, well, well!

I’ve spent the last couple of days hanging out in Los Angeles with Donna and boy what a different place it is from Sydney. Check this out:

1) BIG city (120 miles in diameter)

Los Angeles is by far the biggest city I have ever been too. It feels far bigger than New York, Sydney, London and Tokyo. The locals actually say it’s made up of 5 major (and different) cities including… Hollywood, Santa Monica, Downtown, Belvue Hills (I can’t rember the other one).

Not only is it several different cities but the roads go on for miles and miles. It is totally un walkable. The city is so big that the tourist maps only list 1 in about every 10 streets. So beware if something says 3 blocks on the tourist map. It’s actually more like 30 blocks! - and that is no exageration!

2) Almost no cabs!

Thats right Los Angeles is a city of cars and almost no cabs and very few buses.

In Sydney the government gives special privalledges to Taxis and Busses i.e. Bus lanes. This encourages the use of public transport and makes it less friendly to drive. In Los Angeles it’s totally different. Almost every single road (even suburban) are 6 lanes! … and their is no such thing as a bus lane. People drive everywhere!

3) BIG BIG BIG cars

No words can do justice to how big the cars are here. In Sydney a big car would be a Pajero or perhaps a Land Rover. A medium car would be a Holden sedan or a Jeep Wrangler.

This is TOTALLY different here. A Land Rover or a Pajero are actually small cars. A Jeep Wrangler is a mini car. The cars they have a massive chevys and Hum Vees. When I say massive I mean absolutely crazy. I’ll have some pictures up. We saw the smart car company (same as in Aus) show off a smart car here. The truck they pulled up in was the biggest juice guzzler i’ve ever seen in my life. So much for saving petrol

In fact everything here seems to be in total abundance. It’s like the world wide environmental concern totally does not exist here.

4) Govenor ARNOLD ‘The Terminator’ Shwartzneger
What an absolute champion? It’s Memorial Day here (Don’t know what that actually means) but anyway I heard Arnold on the radio giving his address which went a little like: - in a terminator voice

“This is Arnold Shwartzeneger your Governator. Happy Memorial Day Los Angeles. Remember if you are going to party to drink Tequila. I would recommend setting it alight but if you do stand back as it may explode and remember I’ll be back!”

^^
Could you even imagine one of our politicans in a public address telling us to dring Tequila and set it alight! wtf! Awesome effort.

5) Muli culltural city to the max!

In Sydney we have always been inundated with media saying that we are a multi-cultural city. That is the biggest load of rubbish i have ever heard.

In Sydney their appear to be 2 to 3 overwhelming demographics but that is really it. Anglo, Asian and Lebanesse.

Los Angeles craps on that effort with Anglo, Black, Asian, Hispanic (which is huge@!) plus a heap of other cultures all living together. It is really amazing in this way.

6) Open minded

In Sydney we visually seem quite straight down the line in terms of relationships (this is a big generalisation). On average you see tall people together, same demographic people together, thin people together, fat people together e.t.c. e.t.c.

That is totally not the norm in Los Angeles. Here you find that short white guys with big black girls. Thin white girls with larger black guys. Tall girls with short guys. Absolutely anything goes and I totally wanted to mention this as

I really applaud the open mindedness of the city.

People do not “appears” to judge other people on their looks.

7) Fashion

LA is definately one of the most well dressed cities I have every been to. It is crazy. Almost everyone (from the younger generations) that i’ve seen is in hot designer clothes that are near new. In Sydney people seem to be alot more relaxed in what they wear. Probably because we’re a bit of a beach town. - Oh and yes I did not just go to tourist areas