Life in the big city

Here we are back in Solvang with Josh and Sam. Not much happening, just relaxing. I upgraded the memory in an old iMac Josh acquired then upgraded the OS to El Capitan, the highest it can go. For a machine 12 years old, it runs surprisingly well. Ros has been helping out in the garden with Josh and Sam. As you may know, I'd rather have a tick on my eyeball than garden, I just caught up on reading, something I rarely get to do in my busy life back home.

21 floors straight down

Life in a big city like Los Angeles is different to Perth back home. Luke and Khristina live on the 26th floor of their apartment building, but actually it is really the 21st floor. How come you ask? Well for starters, buildings in LA don't have a ground floor as we would call it, they call the ground floor the first floor. The first floor in this particular building is called the ground floor, even though it is the first floor. Confused yet? That's because there is no first floor in the elevator. In deference to other visitors, this building has actually labelled the first floor as ground floor. It then jumps to the 2nd floor. So that accounts for one floor missing, what about the other four? Well there is no 13th floor, which is commonly omitted because of triskadekaphobia, which is Latin for "fear of the number 13". But the 4th, 14th and 24th floors are also missing. Why you ask? Because in certain Asian languages, the number 4 sounds like the word for death, so they are omitted as well.

Nighttime view of LA

The view from the apartment at night is phenomenal, with floor to ceiling windows giving a view like this. A million dollar view if you ask me.

The Grace Building, which is what Luke and Khristina's building is called, is like most high-rises downtown, a secure building. You can't get in without a security dongle to open the front door, you can't go up the elevator without the dongle, and even the apartment has no keyhole, the dongle unlocks the door. The garage doors scan your car for a parking permit and open automatically when you drive up to it, going in and going out. You can't even get to other floors with the dongle, except for the communal 6th floor and the parking garage on the 2nd floor. Not sure if you make friends on another floor how you would get down to visit them or vice versa. (Edit: Khristina informs me that the other floors are accessible with the dongle).

Homeless camp

Another thing that is visible in a big city like Los Angeles is homelessness. I know we have that problem in Perth, but it is not as visible as it is here due to the larger population. Sights like this one are common around L.A., some whole streets are lined with camps like these. This homeless person has camped out opposite the Grace Building. It's more of a problem here as unemployment benefits are not the same as back in Australia. It's a lot harder to apply for it here, and a lot of homeless people have little to no education, have mental issues or PTSD and are simply incapable of navigating the minefield to gain access to benefits. We also see lots of beggars, many of them handicapped in some way, and often hanging around busy intersections holding up cardboard signs describing their plight. It's heartbreaking to see and even more heartbreaking to realise there is no easy solution to this problem. The next day I saw two police officers moving this black gentleman on. He started to pack up while they were watching him, but when they finally left, he just climbed back into his makeshift shelter and went to sleep.

Driving in L.A. is an experience compared to Perth. We have nothing to compare to the big interstate highways. Our freeways pale in comparison to them. I've mentioned before that some may be 8 lanes wide at some points, especially where two interstates intersect. Exits are not always on the right hand side (remember cars drive on the right hand side over here). When we are returning to Luke & Khristina's place from Luke's work, we have to take the middle lane to exit to downtown, and there are three lanes to the left and three lanes to the right of the middle lane!

Speed limits, as I have mentioned before, are only a suggestion. I have found myself doing 10 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the interstates. If you don't do this, you risk being rear-ended by other traffic that is going that fast - and remember 15 mph is 25 kph. Do that in Perth and you risk a large fine or worse, getting your car impounded. Just as quickly though, you can stop dead on the interstates, especially during peak hour.

One thing I do like here about driving is the "turn right on red" rule, which I wish they would implement back home (only it would be "turn left on red" there). If you are turning right at a red light and it is clear and safe to do so, you may proceed through the red light. In fact, if you don't, you will be quickly reminded of the rule by the horn of the car behind you! It really does help the flow of traffic and I can remember many instances back home waiting to turn left at a red light with no traffic that would impede such a turn. Sigh!

Another peculiarity is the 4-way stop. Unlike WA where one road will have right of way and the intersecting road will have stop signs, in L.A. (and the rest of the U.S. I imagine), some uncontrolled intersections have stop signs on all four roads. Which car goes first, you ask? Who ever gets to the intersection first. If two vehicles arrive at the intersection simultaneously, the car on the left has to yield to the car on the right (that's another thing that's different over here, you don't "give way", you "yield"). What happens if four vehicles arrive simultaneously at such an intersection? I honestly don't know and I have yet to see it happen, thank goodness.

Roundabouts are rare. I have only seen them in two places, one at Ikea the other day, and in Michelle's gated community, Park La Brea. Luke tells me Americans do not understand roundabouts at all, which is why they are so rare, probably. Because they drive on the right here, you go around the roundabout anticlockwise. Takes some getting used to, I can tell you.