We're in Los Angeles!

Hi everyone, we’re now in Los Angeles!! That is after some 13 hours of flying, and with jetlag that makes you wake up at 6am in the morning, but we’re here! The journey was smooth, no stress, and no lost baggage this time (great!), so we don’t have to run around in a hurry buying clothes like on previous trips. And it’s actually much better to fly direct from Europe to the West coast- you arrive in daylight in Los Angeles, and can enjoy at least part of the day. The flight was good, passing over Greenland and Northern Canada- its amazing to think you can travel so far across the globe in just a few hours. I’m sure it goes without saying that the views were spectacular- great expanses of snow- so many thousands of kilometers of it that its hard to comprehend that global warming is actually a reality.

Today we have been relaxing, doing a bit of shopping. The dollar is really cheap against the Euro (1.5 dollars to the Euro) and so it goes a long way, although the bad thing is that you end up spending more because of this. And of course we are suffering the same problem we always have - the food. It’s impossible to eat small amounts here! Every dish is gigantic and even the salads have thousands of calories, but well, what can you do? It’s very difficult for a Spaniard who is accustomed to potato “tortilla” and “jamon” to get used to this kind of food. With regards to the weather, the wind is cold and when the sun comes out its bearable, but when it doesn’t it feels pretty chilly. People often think that LA is like the Caribbean, but its nothing like that- it’s freezing!

Los Angeles, for those that don’t know it, is not so much a city, more a city of cities. Its like if you imagine Madrid and all of it’s surrounding towns all joined together- from Madrid to Villalba. Going from one place to another involves a car journey of anything form 10 to 50 kilometers. It’s difficult to be in Los Angeles more than a couple of days without having to hire a car (yes there is a metro and a few buses but only symbolic really). And in two taxi journeys you’ve already paid the same as it would cost to hire a car.

Tomorrow we have another flight, this time domestic, for a technical meeting. We’ll be back in LA on Thursday. Thursday and Friday we have reserved for meetings with other people in the LA area, and then Friday night is the reception at the Spanish Consulate, and Saturday…. The big day!

Until the next report.