California Living?

[NicolaB]

It is looking odds on for us for a move from the UK to LA, California.

Are any of you from CA? If so, it would be great to see some of your images of California living

[veritasimagery]

If you're talking LA living, then most would look like smog.

[Doug Pardee]

Unless you're near the coast, there's nothing really special about living here. The weather is a lot more stable and drier than you're accustomed to in the UK. On the other hand, prices of everything tend to be rather high. Gasoline (petrol to you) prices right now are painful for us but will be a joy for you — it's running just about $4.00 US per US gallon here for the cheap stuff, which comes out to ... lemme see... about 65p/liter.

Mass transit is generally poor, although there are exceptions. Traffic can be horrendous, especially during rush hour, but some areas are a lot worse than others. With the heavy traffic and the expansive area of the LA metroplex, it can take hours just to get out of "the city", again depending on where you live.

LA is basically a doo-doo-hole.

Don't get me wrong, the Beverly HillBilly's made it look great... but it just isn't.

[NicolaB]

Guys - you are supposed to be giving me something to look forward to lol

[BuddhaPi]

Originally Posted by NicolaB

Guys - you are supposed to be giving me something to look forward to lol

well I'm not from Cali, but gang wars, random shootings and earthquakes come to mind...oh and thos ehellacious wildfires!!

Just kidding! I'm sure there are good things too look here just down the road a stretch

[mosgood]

Originally Posted by NicolaB

It is looking odds on for us for a move from the UK to LA, California.

Are any of you from CA? If so, it would be great to see some of your images of California living

Where are you planning to live? California is a pretty big state. Some places are definitely nicer than others.

[velvet4269]

And "LA" is pretty broad. Most people don't actually live in LA, they live in one of the suburbs. It's spendy, but can be well worth it. You won't lack for things to do, that's for certain. Earthquakes can be a little frightening if you've never been through one before; there's a tendency for heavy rain at the end of January/beginning of February that can bring floods to some parts of SoCal (generally along the coast), but your trade off is having to blast your A/C in November, cus it's still 80*F outside.

And the smog makes for some spectacular sunsets over the ocean.

.oO(so says the girl who grew up in NoCal, and spent 6 yrs living in SoCal )

[veritasimagery]

Originally Posted by velvet4269

And the smog makes for some spectacular sunsets over the ocean.

And just think, you can get all your minerals in one breath.

[inkista]

The most typical Southern Californian picture I have in my Flickr stream.



Welcome to freeway-ville.

You will learn that we Southern Californians a) drive on the other side of the road, b) live in our cars, and c) give all distances in terms of the-time-it-takes-to-drive there, vs. miles. Also, we are distinct from our Northern Californian counterparts in typically giving our freeways the honorific article (i.e., "take the I-5", vs. "take I-5").

The main cultural difference you will have to accustom yourself to is that in the US a hundred years is a long time; in the UK a hundred miles is a long distance.

BTW, few Southern Californians are "natives" (i.e., born here). The majority of us are transplants from somewhere else.

Southern California (mostly LA-centric) is more the lower third of the state. Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area-centric, but also Sacramento), paradoxically, is mostly the middle of the state.