HigherEducation, Consumerism

This morning I had jetlag and got up at 4:30. Went to school on the first bus after 6am, and to my utter amazement, the campus was quite full of ppl by 7am. Med students in scrubs getting off their night shift, but also a lot of people who came in early to get a head start on their day.

UCLA is one of the best schools in the country, so I suppose ppl have to be quite disciplined to make it. But this is more than I expected.

Yesterday, I went looking for cell phones, and I had a lot of requirements:

1) The cell phone had to have a built-in organizer

2) Which synchronized with MS Outlook

3) It had to work in Europe (be “quad-band GSM”)

4) It had to come without a subscription

5) It would preferrably have a built-in camera

Despite this heavy series of demands, I found 2-3 satisfactory options in the first phone shop I walked into. Then I went to several others, and was able to find the fancy phone of my dream – again and again. That’s one thing I love about America – being able to walk into a store and immediately find exactly what you want – and for a reasonable price. (OK, the price is a bit high, I’m gonna have to investigate better options)

What else did I notice in LA?

Everyone has blinds and mosquito screens on their windows, ppl use paper towels in the kitchen (instead of toilet paper like in DK). The sun shines all the time, the humidity is generally very low and it rains rarely. The sun sets fairly early – it’s actually dark by 8pm. I think LA is around the 35^th parallel.

Gas prices have gone up significantly since the last time I was there – by about 10%. Driving in LA still sucks, just as I remember it: lots of traffic, and the distances are long to get anywhere. I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but there seems to be more large cars in California, than I remember from last year: Hummers, SUVs, pickup trucks, semis, and other disgustingly huge vehicles with only one person in them. It was probably the same before, it’s just that I was coming from Ohio instead of DK.

The air is not so fresh, a bit opressive actually. It’s harder to run – it could be partly because of the dryness, but I think it’s the general air quality too.