My best friend and my boyfriend, both NorCal natives, visited me in LA this past week. For clarification, since LA is about as big as Kanye West’s ego, I live in Santa Monica. I decided to show them LA from a local’s perspective; no Star Tours, no Hollywood and Highland ugliness. While touring them around, however, I had some realizations of my own about my native SoCal. These realizations might seem obvious, but living in the area my entire life blinded me to them until now.

*Warning: some generalizations follow, and they are not meant to be spiteful.*

Realization #1 – Stereotypes about people in LA are actually quite true, especially on the Westside.

I probably couldn’t count the amount of times that we encountered people that so embodied the well-known Los Angeleno archetype of a skinny girl wearing yoga pants, drinking green juice/sludge of some sort, and wearing sunglasses the size of her head. I suppose that living with that has made me immune to even noticing it, but after spending a semester at Berkeley and weaning myself off of this ubiquitous SoCal sight, I forgot just how much the stereotype rings true. I almost felt embarrassed that so many of the people walking down Montana Avenue or Main Street aligned with NorCal natives’ expectations of SoCal people. This, however, isn’t necessarily a bad thing; while LA is home to the biggest dumb b**** population in California, it is also home to many relaxed, healthy people and some really great juice bars.

OMG which juice cleanse are you on?!

Realization #2 – Car culture is very real, and the SNL skit “The Californians” was right on the dot.

So much of life in LA revolves around driving: how’s the traffic? Should I take the freeway or surface streets? Should I try my luck with the meters or just suck it up and pay $8 to park in that lot? Why is gas so expensive and why do I run out of it so quickly? Will I ever have parking karma again? These are the questions…

My boyfriend mentioned to me that one of his observations was that there were many nice cars, and I replied, “Well, people here spend most of their time in the car so they might as well drive a nice one.” I didn’t realize how true that was until it came out of my mouth; much of your time is spent getting places, paying to get places, and thinking about getting places. No restaurant reservation is made without checking SigAlert, and no parking spot is too small. I always knew this was true, I just didn’t realize how different this made SoCal from other places in the US and in California. Even though car culture makes living here a hassle, it all somehow seems worth it when you roll down your windows and drive down PCH with the sun shining like it’s July and not January.

The 405 AKA hell on earth

Realization #3 – In lieu of real historical landmarks, we settle for restaurant, hotel, and shopping landmarks.

Most of the locations I took them to involved either food, a location that was seen in a movie, or something that is famous for really no apparent reason at all. Tito’s Tacos, Urth Caffe, Bay Cities, Katsuya, Sprinkles Cupcakes and Umami were only some of the places on the list; apart from car culture, LA participates heavily in foodie culture. From delectable Mexican to the healthiest “superfood” salads, much of SoCal’s appeal is the food.

When trying to find landmarks to show them, I ended up taking them out to eat, to look at a random hotel (Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills Hotel), or to a general street (Melrose, Montana, Main, Ocean). I still prefer this to the Hollywood fare, but I realized more and more that lacking a historical center, LA has made do with other types of sites of interest.

Realization #4 – With its vast size, two tourists can experience LA in completely different ways and not even cross paths once.

Urban sprawl is the best way to describe this gargantuan city; each neighborhood is mostly residential, with several small centers within it. Santa Monica is all houses and apartment buildings, except for certain areas that are shopping or restaurant districts, like Main Street, 3^rd Street Promenade, and Montana Avenue. The entire city is laid out this way, in single-story spread across more than 4,000 square miles.

The areas that I showed them included Santa Monica, West LA, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Brentwood, and the Palisades, but someone else could have taken them to completely different areas and still filled up 4 days worth of time. There are parts of this city that I have never even driven through, let alone explored. For some comparison, Manhattan is 23 square miles, and if you visit it you will most likely be exploring the same parts of it as everyone else.

Before I came to Berkeley, I wanted to get out of LA desperately. I was sick of the traffic and the tan, beautiful people. Coming back home for break has definitely helped me appreciate it much more; how can you not appreciate 80 degree weather, sunny skies, and gorgeous beaches in December and January? I even learned to laugh at the fact that I was stuck in traffic on the 405 at 5:30 a.m.

SoCal is its own paradise, but I was definitely ready to go back to Berkeley and rejoin the real world.

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