Relocating is something that most people will have to do at least once in their lives, be it for school, work or countless other reasons,However, I will submit that there are certain places so specific in their culture that moving away from them will yield a set of culture shocks far more numerous that you might expect. One such place is Los Angeles, California. About a year and a half ago I left my home in Chatsworth, a suburb just outside the glittering glory of Los Angeles, for Shenandoah University and the quaint little town of Winchester, Virginia. Needless to say, it was one of the most major life changes I have ever experienced. The other day, I found myself in the passenger seat of a friend’s car in unusually agreeable weather, windows rolled down and singing along to “LA Devotee” by Panic! At the Disco, and I felt myself longing for my desert home.
1. Smoking
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In all my 18 years of living in Los Angeles County, I met maybe 5 people who were regular smokers. Southern California, as a region, is notoriously health-conscious. We are the yoga and juice cleanse culture. Our bodies are temples and we abhor all forms of temple desecration…except maybe tanning, but I digress. In Winchester, it almost seems like everyone and their mother is a regular smoker, and even at a conservatory full of singers, you can’t walk past the front of a building without having to avoid an all-enveloping cloud of carcinogenic death.
2. Cultural and Racial Diversity
The greatest culture shock I experienced moving to Virginia was the apparent lack of cultural and racial diversity. It became a fairly rare occurrence to meet a person of Asian, Latino, or Middle Eastern descent, while back at home, I had gone to a high school where these racial demographics made up a massive portion of the student body. Besides English, there are 224 other languages spoken in LA county, and more than half of Los Angeles residents speak a language other than English at home. When I moved to Virginia, I was fluent in Spanish. Now, for lack of practice and Spanish speakers with whom to converse, I have lost the majority of my second language, and that was one of the more unfortunate effects of my relocation.
3. Food
Yes, this could have gone under the topic of cultural diversity, but food is so personally important to me that I absolutely had to make it it’s own topic. I don’t even bother trying to find real Mexican food in Winchester (and yes, I have tried El Ranchero), and the Hibachi Grill and Buffet in town is a woeful excuse for Japanese cuisine. Los Angeles, on the other hand, being the cultural mosaic that it is, boasts a more authentic and ethnically diverse array of eatery options than you could ever imagine. From Indian to Greek to Italian to Peruvian, you can find any culturally specific food you want, including the most culturally specific of all: In-N-Out.
4. Freeway Titles
It is said that the best way to determine whether you are in NorCal or SoCal is to ask someone what the nearest freeway is, not because the identity of the actual freeway will help you, but because what they call it will. If you are in Southern California, you can be assured that the answer will begin with the word “the”: the 405, the 101, the 5. This habit of titling our freeways comes from the deep and abiding respect we have for our gargantuan freeways system, a respect equaled only by our disdain. Here in the Cha, I tend to get funny looks when I refer to the 81.
5. “Traffic”
To this day, if I am in the car with a friend and we are driving through town, and they start to complain about the “traffic”, I laugh. I laugh because, I have seen the horrors of the 405 South between five and six in the evening, and if you are moving faster than 5 miles an hour and you can see the back wheels of the car in front of you, you are not in traffic.
6. Plant Life
Now, while this particular change was not necessarily a culture shock, per se, it was certainly a welcome surprise. Back home, I lived in a desert. We have palm trees and cactus, and sometimes, if we are not in a drought, we may even be lucky enough to have front lawns. Although, due to the current water crisis it has become far less expensive and far more fashionable to have a lawn of decorative rocks…yes, rocks. But here, in Virginia, everything is painted a lush and alien green, especially in the spring and summer. The Shenandoah Valley is one of the most fertile regions of Virginia, and the scenery is undeniable evidence of that fact. I remember my very first drive from Dulles International into Winchester and being entranced by the deep forests and rolling emerald meadows that lined the highway. I had never seen such vivid natural life, and it is something I still appreciate a year and a half later.
7. Fashion
Before leaving Los Angeles, I had never realized just how much fashion is informed by weather. Thinking about it now, I feel rather silly saying that. Of course, environmental practicality will have a major effect on what is popular to wear, but it was not until I left the year-round crop tops, short shorts, sandals, and maxi dresses of my homeland for the combat boots, beanies, flannels, and knit sweaters of this snowy-wintered, east coast world that I realized…I needed to get a nice looking coat.
