City of Angel-a-s

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Los Angeles, California

I noticed that I've pretty much only talked about food. Don't get me wrong. I love food and food loves me! We get along great and our relationship is pretty strong. (Recently not so much, but we're only on a break. Nothing to worry about, hopefully!) BUT, I entirely forgot the purpose of this blog. Love Stuffed? Well, it's about everything I love! All the things that fill me to the core with happiness and satisfaction. The tagline of this blog is "To live, love, and eat." I haven't even talked about the 'live' part yet. So, here we go. I'm going to take this time (in which I should be studying for my midterm) to convince you that Los Angeles may just be one of the greatest locations on Earth. Caution: Biased views due to author's subjective love for home sweet home.

If there's anything I hate more than skipping a meal, it would probably be people who don't live in Los Angeles claiming it to be their city. I know. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Right? I sound like some high and mighty, aloof "repper" of a city that I haven't entirely explored. You call me hypocrite. Well, maybe you're right. But this is my blog, so suck it! What really bugs me is when someone tells me they're from Los Angeles, but they actually live two hours away from it. At least live in Los Angeles County! That would be me. I live in the Los Angeles County and I have lived in it all my life. From Hancock Park to SGV to the Foothills, I have been a migrater within this diverse city. But diversity, I don't know much about. I've generally lived with an Asian population for the past 20 years, so I can't talk much about the diversity of Los Angeles. I can reiterate what a brochure tells you but I'm sure you could read that for yourself. What I CAN tell you from my personal experience .. well, you're going to have to keep reading.

So, what is it about LA that makes me love it so much? It's ridiculously hot in the summer and we don't have real winter holidays. People think we're bad drivers; we only care about the materialistic goods in store windows; we have a lot of poor areas; awful, awful traffic. All these things may be true! But there's so much to Los Angeles than the green and grey sky, the illegal immigrants, and ridiculous amount of shopping centers and areas. There's a culture in this little spot of the world, just as there is in any other little spot in the world. It's unique to the area, but what's even more special ... is that the even smaller areas within this spot have their own unique cultures. Hollywood, San Gabriel Valley, Sillicon Valley, the Foothills, Burbank. Where ever, you name it! Largely affected by the population within the area, each neighborhood boasts its own contributions to the City of Angels. So maybe a large portion of the contribution is the different styles of food, but I argue that inhabitants of LA can feel the noticeable difference within the atmosphere. It's hard to describe, but Pasadena feels a lot different from KTown, which is very different from Arcadia.

But I haven't really explained exactly why I love Los Angeles. What makes me drive home twice a month ($150!) from homesickness? Other than the fact that I currently detest my academic situation, my homesickness is due to the fact that my familiars are located there. I guess this is true for anyone who really loves going home then. But my social life at home is a lot more vibrant than the one I have here and I dare say than the ones a lot of other people have at their homes in North-north California. I don't want to give a detailed explanation of each love so I'll just make a comprehensive list of reasons. Less is more, right?

1. Mountains outside my door.
2. Church on Sundays
3. My family.
4. My boyfriend.
5. My friends.
6. KTown & Little Tokyo.
7. Valley Blvd.
8. Adventures with my boyfriends and friends.
9. Eating real food.
10. Making real food in a real kitchen.
11. Nightlife in 6 and on 7.
12. Tea places open past 11 pm.
13. Museums (California Science Center & Natural History Museum)
14. Fashion District
15. Freeways that have multiple connecting points.
    
16. Boyfriend's little brother. Cute as a button and sweet as a sugar cube.
    
17. Fashion21, except it closed down. BOO.
18. My house fridge, big screen T.V., and air condition. Summers are hot? Nah.
    
19. Fresh&Easy, Subway, Wing Stop, Mall within 5 minutes from house.
20. Huntington Drive.
21. Griffith Observatory
22. La Cienega
23. Broadway/Theater
24. Hollywood eats.
    

I'm sure there are more, but these are the things that come to mind first. This is a pretty stupid post, I know. It doesn't even review or say much about the city itself. But that's the thing about reviews anyway. You don't know until you've tried. And with a city? You don't really know until you've lived there (for a period of time)! So no matter how much I try to explain to a person from Nor.Cal how amazing Los Angeles is, they just shrug and say "nah, NorCal is hella coo. Bay Areaaa!" But I digress. If you want to experience the culture of anything, you have to fully submerge yourself into it. Eating Mexican food doesn't make you knowledgable about Mexican culture. Eating Chinese food doesn't make you in touch with the Chinese realm. You have to live it to know it. I have lived Los Angeles for twenty years and you know what? I'm still a newb.