First Impressions
A day of preparation and surrendering
Today was my first real day in Los Angeles. Despite the extra day that the time difference had given me, I mostly spent those extra hours desperately fighting off my fatigue. This fight lasted until 6.30 PM. As a result, I felt amazing today. Or at least, I felt amazing after a twenty-dollar lunch at a Thai restaurant. Nothing wakes you up like a spicy meal and a vietnamese coffee.
The day passed by smoothly, mostly thanks to the extensive research I'd performed after waking up at 3.30 AM. Still traumatized by my arrival, I felt pressured to survive this city. My first encounter with LA had been colored with junkies, meth heads and hazardous subway trains. I felt terribly alone, eleven hours away from my hometown, in a city that doesn't tolerate pedestrians. And I'm very fond of walking, like Elizabeth Bennett would say. I hardly even use a bicycle in Utrecht. So yeah, it is safe to say that I was stressed out.
Three podcasts, five vlogs and ten travel websites later, I left the hostel confidently. During my walk to the Best Buy, I came across two giant movie studio's who are unfortunately closed for visitors. It was surreal. This is where the magic happens, the location of my dream job, my vocation. Simultaneously it was a dream killer. It hardly looks glamorous on the outside - I barely even registered the buildings at first. The streets are pretty mucdestroyed. When you take the bus, you better pray you don't tip over on those crooked streets. There is no cute coffee place in the area, or any other fun place to sit and have a drink.
It took me no more than a half a day to realize that the magic doesn't happen on the curb It's only when you look up to the blue sky, that you find yourself in heaven. You don't want to have your feet on the ground here - you want to be in a car that protects you from the scary outside world and only releases you at your destination.
When you transfer from oasis to oasis, the city might be the shit. But when you only find yourself behind walls, is it really the city that you like so much?
