7 things to know before moving to LA : A British perspective

Hello my lovely subscribers, readers and friends, 

So.. I love LA, it's an amazing place and I couldn't be happier to have the opportunity to be living here but coming from Essex in England to the huge City of Los Angeles can be a bit of a shock. I was here for over a year before returning back to England and then coming back for the remainder of my two years out here.

I've put together this little post for you Brits who can't decide if LA is for you or not. I had a friend recently who came to LA to do some applied theatre work and after being here for only a few weeks, she told me she couldn't understand how I could live here and it was nothing like she expected. It's always hard moving to a new place and adapting to a new way of life, I've certainly had difficulty adapting but once you get used to the way, it can be very worth it if you allow it to.

Anyways here's a few things for you to know before making a decision.

1. It's nothing like the movies. So when I arrived I thought Hollywood was this cool glamorous place. Well I'll tell you now I was completely wrong, it is far from the 'glamorous' idea of Hollywood. Definitely no glitz and glamour.. It's actually pretty gross.


2. Nothing is in walking distance from each other. So if you don't have a car your pretty f****ed. Pardon my French (not really sure where that expression came from). Its not like in England where things are either walking distance or a quick bus ride away, nope, for every 10 min drive it's about an hour's walk. When I first got here I assumed Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Malibu were all going to be close from one another...oh how wrong I was.


3. People wear yoga clothes all the time. I'm not sure if they are actually coming from any gym. But in LA I think it's supposed to seem cool if you're wearing yoga clothes to the grocery store or shopping at the Beverly Center. It makes you look like your healthy when in reality you've spent the last half an hour in IHOP ordering everything on the menu.

4. Constant alarms going off all night long. This drives me insane. I even had to buy earplugs because I couldn't deal with the amount of sirens going off all through the day and night. Like seriously?

5. Mind numbing Traffic. If you thought the m25 was bad try spending hours on the freeway which constant beeping and shouting. I mean they have 6 lanes and we have 2 yet the traffic in La is unbearable. Oh and if you thing we have road rage, you have seen nothing till you come to LA.

6. Constant smell of weed. This is a weird one, everywhere I go all I can smell is this potent smell of weed. Ok I get its legal in Cali but really this much? I feel as if this smell if stuck up my nostrils.

7. Hiking. Now this one is my favourite. For someone like me who is not really a gym fanatic I love this one. There are so many places to hike, whether you want a short one or a really long intense one, there's something for everyone. The sites are beautiful and the best thing about it is you can get a tan whilst working out since it's constantly hot here.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to subscribe 👍