Los Angeles Postcard - 1st October
Today started off badly - at about 12.30am this morning I woke up to discover that a) there were bedbugs biting my legs and b) I had diarrhoea. So much for Indonesia being a dirty, unhygienic place! Feeling slightly nauseous I caught the bus out to UCLA, where I visited Sheila and read (some of!) my mail, and then wandered around the uni, which is quite attractive, visiting the Fowler museum. Oddly enough, it had displays of art from the Indonesian outer islands and textiles from Flores! Feeling a bit better when I got back to the hostel, I've arranged a train trip to San Francisco tomorrow and checked out a hotel recommended in the guide book.
Oddly enough, I'm suffering worse culture shock now than I did in Indonesia - partly because I'd been to Indonesia before and partly because things are just a lot more complicated here. Paying extra for a bus trip because you don't know the right price is annoying, but getting on a bus and discovering you can't pay because it only accepts quarters is *embarassing*. What else? The traffic drives on the wrong side of the road, so I keep colliding with people on the stairs. Phones can be used to do all sorts of things (though it would be much easier with a full keyboard and a real net connection) with coded dialing. People are friendly but in a different sort of way to Indonesians. There are all sorts of minor differences between Australia and the US - trademarks, street signs, and so on. But I'll get used to it fast enough.
Next: San Francisco - arrival