Something Flows Freely in LA, and I Don't Just Mean Opportunity

*****WARNING: SOME 4-CHARACTER WORDS MAY FOLLOW**************

So, culture shock is a real thing. Share with me some of the often crazy differences between this world and the one I left in Georgia.

-Motorcycles can apparently legally ride between lanes. Like when traffic is moving slowly, they can zip between cars. I thought at first I was witnessing some rogue riders doing this, but it happens a lot, so I assume it's legal. This is strange, and increases the potential of swiping one of them with my car.

-Pedestrians are everywhere and I am having to try to be diligent to watch out for them, and the bicycles all over the place.

-The grocery stores sell liquor- not just wine and beer, but liquor.

-The apartments do not generally come supplied with refridgerators. Thankfully my roommate had one.

-People "curse", or as we call it back home, "cuss", in the course of a normal conversation just like they might be discussing a vegetable garden. I noticed the word s%!# being thrown about by a few people shortly after I got here. I did not see this as a big deal, though- I just thought maybe these people had a saltier vocabulary than most people. Then, however, my boss used it when we were talking about pigeons, and a massage material supplier whose store I was in used another expletive while on the phone with someone. It was a small store, but she did not seem the least bit concerned about my hearing her. This was a surprise. Certainly in Georgia, I know a lot of people who use strong language on a regular basis, but in the South, most people will get to know you before breaking it out. In a business setting, it would be considered, in most places, highly unprofessional to speak like that. But I'm not in Kansas- or Georgia- anymore.

-The parking is amazingly complicated here. I would say the majority of parking is done on the street in the LA and Santa Monica areas. But there are problems. Some of it is free, and some is metered, but even the metered parking is usually only for a max of two hours. Street cleaning is a common interference, in addition to busy times of day when parking is forbidden. So, you may come upon a sign that says: "NO PARKING EXCEPT 2-HOUR PARKING MON-FRI BETWEEN 8AM AND 6PM AND NO PARKING MONDAY BETWEEN 10AM AND 12PM." I need a mathemetician to decipher these instructions- they are word problems. "If you can park here between 8 and 6, but cannot between 2 and 4 on Thurs, and 9 and 12 on Mon, Wed, and Fri, what is the likelihood that you will escape without a ticket?" I'm thinking, not good. Although, amazingly, I have not gotten one yet. Let's see how long that lasts!