2023 USA Trip Notes – Los Angeles (Oct 3 – 5)

It’s LA!

Santa Monica Beach

Everyone knows LA, as it’s a massive city with rich history of Film industry, Hollywood, and the luxurious lifestyle (and inequalities). For me, I chose LA for destination for 3 reasons:

1. Falcon Heavy Psyche mission was delayed by a week (was supposed to be Oct 5, but now Oct 12)
2. Korean Air has direct flight to LA (hence cheaper and no need for layover)
3. I had few friends to meet

So here I was, on the morning of October 3rd, in LA after more than a year, heading out and calling Ji, a drone engineer I’ve known for a while.

Lyft rides

Gosh LA is big! And the public transportation isn’t so easy / safe to use, as in Switzerland or South Korea. I can’t even board the bus if I don’t have the ‘oyster card’, which can only be bought in Metro stations, so I had to let go of the first bus.

Soon after, I just realized that Uber/Lyft are just so much easier to use (but way more expensive: $16 instead of $1 bus ride for example), and it is highly encouraged even from Google Maps interface, so I just took it and went to Venice beach where I was planning to stay.

After that I took another lyft ride on the 5th (Thursday) as I was late to going to the Space Shuttle Endeavour. So, in US you will be using Lyfts a lot! (Unless you are meticulously punctual & are willing to take the risk from certain users of the public transportation system)

Casual Encounters

Since now I am in Las Vegas, the encounter from last night is the most memorable to me. A girl in a same bus ride I assume, at the truck stop shop was shopping cheetos and asked me: “Have you tried these?”, since it was a new flavour. And that came as a bit of a surprise, as in South Korea, even in Switzerland, do people randomly ask questions like that!

And I felt like this is such an American culture to easily talk with strangers (although it is debatable how much they actually ‘mean it’) and express yourselves, it’s a country of freedom!

College Frat Parties & Bar

While waiting for the bus to Las Vegas, I had a chance to visit the bar near UCLA (turns out, it’s the weekly Karaoke night!) and passed by some student frats where they were hosting big parties.

The bar was interesting as it had motorcycle on display & so many american license plates, etc. Giving so much american vibes, and also perhaps it is very similar to the bars in Switzerland (people wise), but it was just really cool!

Then I was walking past some frats near the UCLA campus, and they had HUGE banners hanging from the houses (where I assume probably 5~6 people live together, which is common in the US) and almost all of the houses on the street side were full of people going in and out & hanging out at the porch, etc.

It was EXACTLY like how it is depicted in movies, lots of girls and music, smoke, lights! It just makes sense and I am really doubting why Korea doesn’t have a similar culture (even in Switzerland I think parties are smaller than the US). I think you probably meet really cool people in parties, and having them weekly is so awesome (although I may not like loud music), and I think it allows people to really connect with people in real life (whereas in Korea, people mostly meet for short time & interact online & suffer from loneliness more, I think).

Homelessness

Literally every single place I’ve been in the US had at least one homeless person. And it’s such a sad sight, with people dressed up so nicely, and just next to them, totally ignored, lies a homeless man with dirty clothes & boxes.

And quite a number of them were shouting things, throwing trash onto the ground, talking to themselves. It is just a crazy sight and thus people fear homeless people (as some of them could be harmful), and tries to ignore them as much as possible.

I talked briefly with Aiden, but for me it really seemed like those people were not getting any kind of help, at all. And supposedly California is putting funding into solving homelessness issue? I am just wondering where all that fund is going & whether we can come up with a better solution.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/11/us/california-homeless-spending/index.html

It is just very sad that you have to think about your security when outside, as there is this huge inequality that everyeone is trying to ignore and brush it off under the carpet 😦

Guns?

I’ve never had any direct contact with the Guns in the US, but while I was enjoying the Karaoke at a bar near the Venice beach hostel, a sudden thought came to me: “A person could walk in and shoot everyone dancing”. And it happened before, so it’s such a freaky thought that I can’t get used to (One of the biggest reasons I wouldn’t want to live in the US).

Restaurant & Tipping

In the US, there’s an interesting sequence of paying the bill at a restaurant:

1. First they give a single bill, where you need to put a card or cash into the slot, and hand back to the server.
2. Then, they will process the card information (for cash I guess they just give the remainder back), and give another bill of 2 copies (one for customer, and another for the server)
3. Then you are supposed to write the tip amount and then the total amount you want to pay.
4. Then, the server takes that after we leave to process it and charges the card with final total amount.

This was totally bizzare to me, as in Europe you just:

1. Ask for a bill
2. Pay it directly to the server’s card terminal machine

I am now used to this, but it’s really bizzare that you are ‘expected’ to tip 18% (instead of tipping when you really like the service), and you get 3 different papers most of which goes to waste, and you get charged after you leave.

Booking last minute

As my specialty, I have been booking the bus, plane, etc all last minute (day before, or more commonly on the day). And yesterday it finally got me.

As I was trying to book the flixbus to Las Vegas, then a flight from Vegas to San Francisco, I noticed purchasing was not getting completed. And after buying Skype credits to call VISA Card, then the bank operator, I was surprised to learn that it wasn’t the fault of the card!

That Flixbus error

In fact, the flixbus website had this error for ages and I ended up fixing it by using the browser on my phone instead of the app to book the ticket. And in that meantime, because I was trying to book the bus so much (at least 5 times), the price increased from $52 to $59! (Price throttling is real!!)

And also the flight increased from $50 ish to $100 suddenly. I was frustrated that I got a sub-optimal deal, but it was because I was in a rush & doing things last minute. It was a good learning opportunity and I definitely appreciated booking & planning a bit earlier.

So now I have a rule of 5 days before the travel to book all the tickets. As the tickets ‘tend’ to get really expensive after that 5 days buffer. And gambling whether the price will decrease in the meantime isn’t worth it.

Just for example, I just bit the bullet and booked a $100+ flight ticket (if bought week prior, it’s $50) from Vegas to San Jose on Saturday (7th), and now I searched and found the flight doesn’t show up (indicating it’s fully booked).

This subtle art of booking tickets is a tricky game, but not to be underestimated. So I will defintely from now on be more timely in the bookings!

Racism and Violence

I randomly was talking with a guy from Florida at a bar near UCLA, and he told me he was beaten up in Florida for no reason (‘random’ inspection) and was getting 2 charges against him. It was truly shocking to hear that and it was a wake-up call for me to understand how serious the racism in the US is.