Culture shock (first post of many)...

I'm copying this from another place I've posted things, so if friends think it sounds familiar, well, that's why...  this is a fairly free-form, written-late-at-night ramblings about things I've noticed since I moved to CA from WA state...

I've lived in CA for over 3.5 years now, and I keep meaning to make a written list of all the things that have been culture shock since I moved to CA from Washington state. When I moved here, the native Californians I brought this up to seemed surprised that I would have culture shock from moving 2 states away, but L.A. county and Southern California is a culture all its own, nevermind all the things that are state-wide different...

So anyways. Here's the ongoing list of things that caused at least a moment of culture shock, or even a mild "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore" shock. :) In no particular order, and soon to be added to:


- People asking me if we "have Starbucks up in Seattle". The first person who asked, I thought they were kidding, so I giggled... then got the what's-so-funny look. ;-) I didn't realize that Seattle's reputation for coffee-guzzling hadn't reached L.A.... OK actually, to be honest, I was surprised no one knew Starbucks was a Seattle institution, but I guess that's not surprising... Starbucks doesn't tie itself to Seattle at all, and they're EVERYwhere.

- Related to that, almost no Starbucks have drive-throughs, and there are none of those ubiquitous parking lot drive-through coffee "kiosks" or huts that are in every grocery store parking lot in Seattle... I've seen maybe a total of perhaps a dozen drive-through Starbucks after driving all over the area with friends. People here apparently want to get their coffee and sit inside and drink it, from what my local friends tell me... I told them that in Seattle, coffee is something you get on your way to something else, hence the drive-through. ;) When I tell people here that nearly every coffee place I know of in Seattle (besides the very small places) has a drive-through, including most of the Starbucks, they are seriously shocked.

- Also related: Californians seem to like bad coffee. Seriously. My last boss tried to get various imported good-quality coffee at Costco, but the overwhelming response was that most of my coworkers preffered Folgers! FOLGERS! Not even over-burnt Starbucks or Costco's Kirkland brand coffee, but Folgers, and even that was made much too weak.  Coworkers seemed to have a disconnect about weak coffee:  they would see me make coffee using twice as much grounds as they did, and they would MARVEL at how much "better" the coffee was when I made it.  I would try to explain WHY, and was met with skepticism.

- They sell hard liquor right next to the beer and wine in every place from 7-11 to Albertson's grocery store. I've commented to some people that all hard liquor is sold only at state-run liquor stores in Washington state, and they are dumbfounded at the very idea. :) It's just weird for me to see it at a regular store. :)

- The freeway exits aren't numbered... I saw in some travel guide that they're starting to do that, but I haven't seen it on any freeway except I think I-5. Makes it quite a spirited driving adventure when your exit comes up on you suddenly because you don't necessarily get any warning until it's on a list of exits coming up, and oftentimes that's when it's less than a mile away. Also, the radio traffic reports often call the freeways by their local names or old names, not their numbers, ie "The Glendale Freeway" not the 134 freeway. I'm trying to learn the names so I don't spend the rest of the drive wondering "where IS that??"... I rarely change my route, but I want to know so I can anticipate traffic...

- The freeways have a tendency to exit themselves, which still frustrates me. If you're in the wrong lane (like, the supposedly-safe left lane), suddenly you see a sign that the freeway you're ON is exiting via the two right-most lanes, and the lane you're actually IN will become yet a different freeway. Driving west on the 210, if you want to stay on the 210, you have to exit the 210 before it becomes the 134. Same with the 57 becoming the 60. Confusing? Well, the other night, coming home late from a conference in Anaheim, I was thinking about the conference and was five miles out of my way on the 60 before I realized that I was no longer on the 57, because the 57 had exited itself. Lovely.

- Hollywood-related traffic jams, which are actually kind of entertaining... like when the Grammys or Oscars are on, and the traffic reports had to include how to get around the resulting traffic jam of limos and press and fans, and like when a cop friend of mine tells me he plans to be out of town every winter the week of the Oscars, so he doesn't have to work the actual show or the after-parties! Somewhat related: Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) is a morning DJ here in L.A., and talks about behind-the-scenes American Idol stuff on his AM show... it's WEIRD to have someone I know from TV, be on the radio every morning.

- Disneyland is just 30 miles away from me... I still marvel at this. :) We go there and I see and meet people who came half-way around the globe: Europe, Asia, the middle East, Australia. They ask where we're from, and my friends and I all live within minutes. The tourists are universally jealous because many people never get to visit Disneyland, ever, and we're right in its backyard. That never fails to be a cool feeling. :)


OK, that's all for now, but I'm SURE there are more coming... ;-)