It’s cold here in LA. There is a lot of space. I shiver and wrap myself on Lily’s air mattress in Beverly Hills.

My days usually begin with Starbucks iced coffee sitting at a high top on Olympic Blvd. I need to warm my frosty hands periodically and wear a beanie to retain my head warmth. This isn’t the LA of my mind, but it’s okay to recalibrate to the cold.

Culturally, LA is extremely different from NYC in both good and bad ways. Mostly good. I traveled all around Asia and Europe, and I haven’t felt as much culture shock as I have trying to adjust to life in this city. Some of the good aspects are that people are generally nicer and more supportive. As my friend Nicole (an East Coast transplant) puts it, “You just have fewer or no negative interactions here.” The industry focus is different, resting on entertainment. Many people know what it’s like to struggle in a creative sense, and I feel that there’s a much more supportive community and vibe here. The undercurrent in NYC by contrast is more testing. I’m going to push you. Can you handle it? The other side of being so nice, of course, is that there is sometimes a kind of artifice that I can’t understand. I understand NYC hard-charging fakeness. I don’t really understand LA fakeness yet. It confronts me in voice and intonation, but I don’t really even know how to place it. This isn’t real. Do they actually hate me? Are they going to murder me in my sleep?

Geographically and spatially, the way you move around this city is different. NYC’s neighborhoods each have their own character, but there’s a fair bit of mixing and cross-pollination as people are connected by transit, commerce, and jobs. Sure, the downtown people mostly stay downtown, and the downtown / uptown divide can be strong, but that’s splitting hairs. I have the impression that people here mostly stay where they live and work. Most of my time has been spent in posh Beverly Hills at Starbucks, Whole Foods, and yoga classes. I’ve visited Downtown LA, which is sort of like a bad copy of New York. West Hollywood feels walkable and convenient (maybe like a Murray Hill?). Koreatown is getting so hipster that it was hard (ok, not hard, but harder than I was expecting) for me to actually find Korean food there. I’m living in hipster Silver Lake in February.

Activity-wise, I feel like I’m in middle school. It’s an endless flow of extracurriculars from art class, writing class, songwriting class, guitar lessons, yoga, gym, etc.

I like that people drink less here.

Oh, and I’m vegan.