I’ve been living in Los Angeles for a little over a year now. You can read a bit more about my exodus from South Carolina out here in this post, but here are 8 things that I’ve come to understand since I arrived:
- A single day of rainfall in Los Angeles is the equivalent to a single day of snow in the South. The city comes to a crushing halt. The sewers overflow with excess water, traffic lights will go out, freeway on-ramps will close due to “flooding” and a normal 7 minute commute becomes 45 minutes. The natives understand and accept this, mostly because a day of rain is an extremely rare occurrence, much like a sighting of a Los Angeles based Wal-Mart.
- People debate endlessly about the best hamburgers in Los Angeles. Outsiders might peg Los Angeles as a city for silly health food nuts, but there is a seriously burger cult in this town. There are cheap burgers (Hamburger Habit, Fatburger), there are custom burgers (The Counter), there are upscale burgers (Father’s Office), there are delivery service burgers (Hawkins House), there are secret ordering techniques for burgers (In-N-Out). I’ve probably eaten more hamburgers in this town in a year than I have in the 10 years previous.
- Professional sporting teams are King, College sports are a distant second. I hear people buzzing about the Lakers and the Dodgers on a daily basis. People in Los Angeles take pride in their teams, the professional ones anyway. Don’t get me wrong, USC is also very popular, but only due to the success of their football program. I would equate the level of excitement for professional sports to the level of excitement a Southerner has for SEC football.
- For a city that is 500 square miles in size, parking is still a nightmare. Everything you read about parking in Los Angeles is true. I feel like I’m channeling Robert Langdon when trying to decipher the sign that dictates the rules for parking on any particular street. If you have discovered a street without any signs dictating parking rules, consider that an oasis in the middle of a desert. And if you cannot parallel park, don’t bother living in this town.
- Causal dating is easy; serious relationships are dictated by distance. If you want to have hook up night after night, this is the town for it. There is no shortage of women in Los Angeles. Serious relationships, while already facing the traditional challenges of any relationship, get the added bonus of distance being a factor. If you live in Manhattan Beach and the girl of your dreams lives in Pasadena, don’t even bother. The freeway commute would rip the relationship apart in a matter of weeks.
- The “I’ve come to Los Angeles to be an actor / actress” people exist (and they run L.A.’s food service industry). That stereotype is completely true. These people are real and there will be a couple of them floating around any party. I don’t work in the entertainment industry and likely never will, so it’s always comical to hear people talk about it; even though they have been working at Coffee Bean for the past 5 years.
- When you live 8 minutes away from the beach, going isn’t that exciting. I can count on 1 hand the number of times that I have been to the beach since living on the west side of Los Angeles. I love that it’s there if I want to go, but I never get the itch. It is nearly always perfect weather for going though.
- If you are coming out to Los Angeles, learn how to cook. Don’t get me wrong, there is no shortage of excellent restaurants to eat at. It’s the exorbitant cost involved to do it. Food expenses are easily 30% higher than on the east coast, including the grocery store. Don’t buy into the natural foods b.s. either. Just go to Ralphs. It’s the equivalent of Bi-Lo on the east coast. Anything else is overkill.
Despite any of my complaints, I do enjoy living here. Mostly because I have a job that’s 7 minutes away, I have a serious girlfriend that’s 8 minutes away, I know how to cook and I love hamburgers. 
