And we 're finally here! I'm writing my first blog from the US sitting here in Simon's apartment, its a sweltering 29 degrees out there, the sun is shining, nearly everyone out there is exactly the cliche I imagined, toned and siliconed to the max, and there's lots of kale and avacado in every menu! So yeah, so far so awesome I guess!
Anyway, so I landed in LA actually on thursday, but flew to Chicago that night for a day full of interviews etc, and generally checking out Chicago to see if that'd be a fun place to live! The first thing that was obvious was that the americans I've met so far have been super friendly, and not to say they are friendlier than Brits, but people definitely talk to randoms more than I'm used to in London. I'm definitely the kind of person that doesn't mind a bit of idle chit chat, but I understand, it's not for everyone, and sometimes you just want to be left alone. But in London, its almost weird saying hello to anyone, people just plug in to their ipods, or hide behind a Metro, and I can only speculate as I've never seen it happen, but I imagine the person saying anything to a stranger on the tube is either having a stroke and needs help, or looked at as if he just wet himself.
Aside from friendly, I noticed people were very polite, and going back to my previous example of people getting off planes, people literally waited their turn when getting their bags from overhead compartments and leaving the plane. It was almost weird, but NO ONE broke the order, one by one getting off the plane as if it was just the right thing to do. I had to reign in my inner indian spirit, and resist the urge to barge through these polite people and scream 'SUCKEERRRRS" as I made my way off the plane. I almost wanted to just give ourselves a little round of applause, but no one else seemed to realise how this level of organisation was such an amazing feat, so I left it alone. One other thing that made me chuckle on my flight over was this:
Silly, I know, I'm sure that warning is probably aimed for parents with babies, but still, the thought of a health warning about earplugs focussing on the risk of putting said earplugs in your mouth made me laugh. It was then that I knew I really was heading to America, the land of the free-to-sue-anyone-for-anything.
Another thing that was strange about the journey from London to LA was that we were constantly going back in time for 12 hours, and having got a midday flight, it was sunny outside the whole time. Kind of annoying when you're trying to get a bit of a snooze given the schedule the next day, and you're sat next to the woman who seems to be playing 'Are we there yet?' with herself, and keeps opening the window shutter every five minutes to see, well, I don't know what really. It's clouds and sunshine, and will continue to look like that for ages - stop it.
So, after a day of interviews and crappy Chicago weather, and various rip off taxi journeys, I finally headed to LA, and have been catching up with our lovely friends Simon and Marissa, who have kindly put up us alien immigrants into their lovely home while we try and find a place of our own. One boozy night, and a day of hangovering was pretty much the weekend, and today is the first day where I have been fully transformed into house husband as I waved off the other three as they left for school/work. I thought I'd give one of my bucket list items a go, and I started with one of the more difficult ones; getting in shape. It's truly demoralising for body image being in LA, everyone seems to be super fit, and healthy, and tall.. Anyway, can't do much about the tall, my parents are both about 5ft 2, so I have already over-achieved in that department. So, I went for a run, and as demoralisingly slow as my run was in the sweltering heat (note to self, 11am is way too hot to go for a run), it was nice to get that whole thing started.
Now to find an apartment:
Anyway, so I landed in LA actually on thursday, but flew to Chicago that night for a day full of interviews etc, and generally checking out Chicago to see if that'd be a fun place to live! The first thing that was obvious was that the americans I've met so far have been super friendly, and not to say they are friendlier than Brits, but people definitely talk to randoms more than I'm used to in London. I'm definitely the kind of person that doesn't mind a bit of idle chit chat, but I understand, it's not for everyone, and sometimes you just want to be left alone. But in London, its almost weird saying hello to anyone, people just plug in to their ipods, or hide behind a Metro, and I can only speculate as I've never seen it happen, but I imagine the person saying anything to a stranger on the tube is either having a stroke and needs help, or looked at as if he just wet himself.
Aside from friendly, I noticed people were very polite, and going back to my previous example of people getting off planes, people literally waited their turn when getting their bags from overhead compartments and leaving the plane. It was almost weird, but NO ONE broke the order, one by one getting off the plane as if it was just the right thing to do. I had to reign in my inner indian spirit, and resist the urge to barge through these polite people and scream 'SUCKEERRRRS" as I made my way off the plane. I almost wanted to just give ourselves a little round of applause, but no one else seemed to realise how this level of organisation was such an amazing feat, so I left it alone. One other thing that made me chuckle on my flight over was this:
Another thing that was strange about the journey from London to LA was that we were constantly going back in time for 12 hours, and having got a midday flight, it was sunny outside the whole time. Kind of annoying when you're trying to get a bit of a snooze given the schedule the next day, and you're sat next to the woman who seems to be playing 'Are we there yet?' with herself, and keeps opening the window shutter every five minutes to see, well, I don't know what really. It's clouds and sunshine, and will continue to look like that for ages - stop it.
So, after a day of interviews and crappy Chicago weather, and various rip off taxi journeys, I finally headed to LA, and have been catching up with our lovely friends Simon and Marissa, who have kindly put up us alien immigrants into their lovely home while we try and find a place of our own. One boozy night, and a day of hangovering was pretty much the weekend, and today is the first day where I have been fully transformed into house husband as I waved off the other three as they left for school/work. I thought I'd give one of my bucket list items a go, and I started with one of the more difficult ones; getting in shape. It's truly demoralising for body image being in LA, everyone seems to be super fit, and healthy, and tall.. Anyway, can't do much about the tall, my parents are both about 5ft 2, so I have already over-achieved in that department. So, I went for a run, and as demoralisingly slow as my run was in the sweltering heat (note to self, 11am is way too hot to go for a run), it was nice to get that whole thing started.
Now to find an apartment:
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