LA v LONDON
Being a foreigner makes me realise my identity as a Brit more than ever before. I have been living in “Lala Land” since October 2014 and I absolutely love it! I love the sunshine and more relaxed pace of life. I do miss home and more than anything my friends and family. I’ve made some brilliant friends here and haven’t experienced the LA ‘flakiness’ and ‘fakeness’ that I was consistently warned about.
Because we share the same language, it feels mistaken that we share the same culture.. Actually, there are words you have to say differently. In restaurants I have to ask for ‘warderr’ if I’d like any chance of getting a glass of water. Electric kettles are somewhat of a euphemism. Yep, that’s right, tea is not the commonly offered drink when you enter someone’s house – iced tea is. ‘Hen’ parties are ‘Bachelorette’ parties. ‘Fancy Dress’ is ‘Black Tie’ and there is no such thing as ‘Boxing Day.’
Driving in LA is terrifying and it seems like there are no rules. People don’t flash their lights to let you in front of them, there are very little thank you hand signals and you can over take in any lane on the free way. And roads are longggg! I thought, oh I must be close because I’m on Wilshire, WRONG. These roads run the length of the city. This takes some getting used to when we are used to windy narrow little streets. Fancy a coffee Parisian style on the pavement? Be prepared to sit on the side of what feels like a dual carriageway.
LA is not a pretty city…
But you can go for ‘hikes’ (which we call ‘walks’) in the beautiful countryside close to the city. You can pop down to the beach – if you get the time of day right or you could be in traffic for half a day! And my favourite, ofcourse, is that you can generally be outside 100% of the time in guaranteed sunshine. Which lets face it, happens rarely in London, which is why we love cosy pubs and drinking our sorrows and smoking fags.Smoking nicotine is like the work of the devil in LA, much more acceptable to smoke cannabis here. God forbid you pass a joint with nicotine in it though, totes unacceptable :-
Customer service in here is king! Shop assistants swarm to you and can’t wait to be of service. You can pretty much return anything at anytime. So much nicer than stuffy service in London.
But you don’t need many fancy outfits in LA, because there’s not that many days where you can wear boots and coats. You’ll mainly be in a sundress and flip flops or your latest active wear ensemble!
Something that remains a mystery to me is why us Londoners love to write kisses at the end of our text messages and emails, but would rarely say ‘love you’ which is the total reverse in LA. They never write kisses, I find it weird and frosty.
Perhaps us Londoners are sweeter on the inside than our reputation prevails.
Lots of Love and Kisses 😉 xxx
The Chic Seeker 
Leave a Reply