What I discovered living in Los Angeles for a week:
The food is amazing. And you can get just about anything anywhere until 3 am. No joke.
They take their Mexican food VERY seriously. If you give it a "meh, it was good," you WILL submit yourself to public shaming. Being overly enthusiastic about their burritos is the definite way to go. So, for the record, I HEART LA MEXICAN FOOD!
Some coffee shops, you wouldn't wear sweaty gym clothes to. Some coffee shops, you feel okay wearing sweaty gym clothes to.
Succulents are basically the best thing ever (but I already knew this).
The only stars are celebrities.
On the celebrity topic, I'm not good at being on the lookout for them. I probably saw more famous people than I realized, I just didn't recognize them outside of the television screen. So, if you're famous, reading this, and you see me anywhere, don't be offended by my obliviousness!...and holding up a star-shaped sign with your name on it would be nice.
St. Louis loves patios. This may sound absurd, especially for a city that has maybe 30 favorable patio days per calendar year but we love them. They're not a big deal in other cities plus they have cooler things, such as rooftops.
Wearing a crop top and cross-body bag to roam Venice will leave you with incredibly awkward tan lines.
Coyotes run the town. Seriously. One actually ran past me on Avocado Street. First, I thought it was a dog on the loose, then realized it was a wild coyote. A WILD COYOTE! They also sneak in people's doggy doors and steal their cats. FACT (or maybe cats just decide to leave, I'm not really sure).
Public transportation via Subway is much easier and not nearly as scary as it seems. I accidentally screwed up and got on the purple instead of the red line just once, my very first day. The purple line travels all the way to the dead end of the line. Since I couldn't go any further, it was pretty simple to navigate my way back. I did see some weird, slightly frightening stuff, but not enough to scare me. Obviously, I handled that subway like the professional badass I am.
Headphones are a saving grace when you're roaming a city solo. Depending on where or time of day, I wouldn't suggest actually listening to anything. Like, I wouldn't walk in to an alley late at dusk blasting Taylor Swift. But the thing about headphones, music or not, it LOOKS like you're listening to something important so you don't have to acknowledge people you don't feel like talking to. I only got caught off guard one time when I was in DTLA. A guy came up (as I was fidgeting for my phones) and complimented my eyes. Since he t-lined towards me..is that a thing? A t-line? Well anyways, he didn't actually see my eyes, then proceeded to ask if he could get my number to take me to da club. I politely responded, "No, thank you" and hurried on my merry little way.
There's never such a thing as too many palm tree pictures. I repeat: NEVER.
So, I'm not going to leave you with a palm tree photograph, but rather my LA city view on my departure flight back home.
Until next time!
peace, love, sparkles and flamingos,
Allison
