After just a week of coming from the paradise world of Utah, I have got the taste of a bitter reality. Part of my internship here in California is meeting and talking with restaurant managers all around the LA. The good part of it is nice restaurants and free food, the bad side is ... well South side of LA.
I am from Kyiv, one of the largest cities in Europe and I have seen dangerous places where people live. But I have never felt that unsafe and that out of place. From the moment me and my coworker got out of the car, we physically felt that we were stared at and definitely did't belong in that place . We stood out in the crowd and people around looked at us with a question " What on earth you are doing here?", well actually more like " What the *** you are doing here?" Every little restaurant had a bullet proof window and we had to talk to most of the managers through the little hole in that window. There were these ugly streets and tall fences everywhere. People looked unhappy and rap was blasting from passing by cars. One lady in the local hamburger place told us that we really should not be there. After seeing this picture in Hollywood movies and MTV music videos, it was kind of strange to see it with my own eyes...definitely a cultural experience of where not to hang out.
I love Los Angeles though, my top favorite things so far are:
-crazy beautiful tropical flowers everywhere
-palm trees
-the smell of the ocean
- homeless people with signs that say " Brad Pitt is not that hot" or something about the war in Iraq
- Mexican districts
- one way streets
- Armenian and Russian stores
