While on my way to Central America, I had a stopover in Los Angeles for 18 hours. During these 18 hours, I managed to get myself on a train and get myself to Hollywood (Read about this here!). Although I had done some research about the US and Hollywood before arriving, I had many surprises along the way!
For starters, I forgot that California was a desert. I don’t even know why I didn’t think this but I remember standing on the platform and seeing orange dust in the air with palm trees and cacti and being very surprised. The green line train I had caught, went through suburbs which were abandoned and graffiti’d, but would have a baseball field in the middle, where kids were playing. This contrast, to me was a huge culture shock, and to this day probably the worst culture shock I have ever experienced.
Not only this, but I was very aware that I was the only Caucasian person on the train-with passengers mostly being from African-American or Hispanic backgrounds. I know that in America’s past there has been huge social class divides between different races, where Caucasian people generally are in the upper class, however I did not realise that it extended so far that white people did not catch trains often. The gravity of this situation was brought to my attention by an African-American man on the train on my way back to the airport. At the platform I had asked him if I was getting on the right train when I was changing trains and he told me later that he was surprised I had spoken to him. He warned me about catching trains in Los Angeles on my own and stated that it was not safe. Right after he finished saying this, two other men walked into the carriage and looked at me, laughed and made their way towards me. My new friend shoo’d them away and asked me if I now understood why I shouldn’t be on my own. Now, I did not feel unsafe at any point in my journey through LA (all of 18 hours!), but it was interesting to hear this from someone who lived there, and I’m scared to think what may have happened, had my new friend not intervened.
One house really stuck with me on this journey. It was a yellow wooden house with barbed wire around the roof and top of its wire fence. The paint on the outside of the house was chipped and peeling away. The front yard was a mix of dead grass and plants, a rusted car and broken children’s outdoor toys. On the side of the fence, there were bolt cutters on one side, where someone had cut a hole in the fence to get in or out. All of the windows were boarded up with wood. There were holes in the roof. Immediately I thought it was abandoned, until I noticed there were shoes at the front door.
Being in the community services field of employment at home, this really struck a chord with me and reminded me that although certain perceptions exist about places, these are not always true. It also is a huge reminder that in the US today, there is still a huge social class gap, which for such a developed country is not expected.
Happy Travels!
Have you totally got it wrong about a place before? Where was it?
