Rick in the USA.

[TaliaNCo]

It's ok. No one else in cali knows how to drive either so you'll fit right in there. =D

LOL I say that every time I see a CA license plate here.

Anywho, enjoy your stay here Rick. I hope it's a great experience for you.

As many have stated so far, buying a hair dryer and such at Walmart or Target is your best/cheapest bet. They also have cell phone chargers that should fit your Razor. The generic ones are less than $20 USD. Your prepaid Visa is definitely the best idea. If you're interested in having a temp bank account while you're here I would go with a credit union since their fees and such are generally cheaper than the larger banks. I'm sure once you meet a few folks at UCSD they can point you in the right direction as far as things to do/see. Lots of food to try as others have mentioned. Try everything that looks good that you can afford. The locals at the school could offer a lot of local places, I'm sure. Always be aware of people and your surroundings. Just like anywhere else there are scam artists and not so good people.

Most of all.......HAVE FUN!!!

[Rick]

So upon arriving at the airport I get a lovely surprise in the form of a 5 hour flight delay. Wonderful start and it puts in doubt my making my train in LA on time. The flight was 11 hours and very boring but free food and stuff so hey whatever. When I finally touched down it was 2, and my train left at 5. Cool, I'll have plenty of time I thought. TSA SAYS NO! Everyone who landed had to go through some retarded "processing" which consisted of nothing but looking at my passport, taking fingerprints (which they already took at my visa interview) and stamping far too much. This happened after I had to wait in that line for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes. They had 4 people doing the processing. They have two Boeing 747s worth of people land, and they assign FOUR people? Over half the stations were unmanned. So I finally finished with about an hour until my train, and luckily the bus to the station came just as I got to the pick up point. Arrived at the station 15 minutes before departure, no ticket printed and no idea where I was going. I ended up getting on the train minutes before it left. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room wondering what I'm gonna eat.

Impressions of LA were oh my god it's so huge (saw a lot from the plane). When I touched down I was disappointed. LA looks like a lot of ghetto and lots of highways. Also I'm not sure if it was just low cloud or LA has a lot of smog over it. And I thought that, being an international travel hub, LAX would have looked a lot more flash. Well, off to San Diego tomorrow!

[WillDaSnail]

So upon arriving at the airport I get a lovely surprise in the form of a 5 hour flight delay. Wonderful start and it puts in doubt my making my train in LA on time. The flight was 11 hours and very boring but free food and stuff so hey whatever. When I finally touched down it was 2, and my train left at 5. Cool, I'll have plenty of time I thought. TSA SAYS NO! Everyone who landed had to go through some retarded "processing" which consisted of nothing but looking at my passport, taking fingerprints (which they already took at my visa interview) and stamping far too much. This happened after I had to wait in that line for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes. They had 4 people doing the processing. They have two Boeing 747s worth of people land, and they assign FOUR people? Over half the stations were unmanned. So I finally finished with about an hour until my train, and luckily the bus to the station came just as I got to the pick up point. Arrived at the station 15 minutes before departure, no ticket printed and no idea where I was going. I ended up getting on the train minutes before it left. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room wondering what I'm gonna eat.

Impressions of LA were oh my god it's so huge (saw a lot from the plane). When I touched down I was disappointed. LA looks like a lot of ghetto and lots of highways. Also I'm not sure if it was just low cloud or LA has a lot of smog over it. And I thought that, being an international travel hub, LAX would have looked a lot more flash. Well, off to San Diego tomorrow!

Well first of all.....welcome to the United States Rick!

Second, this is something you should know, even though I do have reservations about it: Upon arriving in the United States, the U.S. Immigration and Customs will have to process every person coming into the country for security reasons, which means taking down every bit of info about them and spending a lot of time in the process (and I should've warned you about that ahead of time ). Its tedious, its bureaucracy BS (IMO), and such, but such is the way of documenting everyone who's coming into the United States legally. /not implying immigration debates here, tyvm

You probably saw a lot of smog (LA has quite a bit of it too) upon arriving; LA's notorious for it in the past, and even today (but it isn't as bad as it used to be). Then again, it was quite foggy earlier this morning, soooo.

Also do note: LAX is about 15-18 miles (? kilometers) from downtown LA. You haven't seen all of LA yet

Just curious: Are you in Oceanside or Carlsbad atm? If not in either of those cities, where are you staying?

[Eos]

LA looks like a lot of ghetto and lots of highways.

Yep.

LA has a lot of smog over it

This.

Swing on by larchmont and firebomb Nexon HQ while you're in the area.

[Sn1perJohnE]

So upon arriving at the airport I get a lovely surprise in the form of a 5 hour flight delay. Wonderful start and it puts in doubt my making my train in LA on time. The flight was 11 hours and very boring but free food and stuff so hey whatever. When I finally touched down it was 2, and my train left at 5. Cool, I'll have plenty of time I thought. TSA SAYS NO! Everyone who landed had to go through some retarded "processing" which consisted of nothing but looking at my passport, taking fingerprints (which they already took at my visa interview) and stamping far too much. This happened after I had to wait in that line for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes. They had 4 people doing the processing. They have two Boeing 747s worth of people land, and they assign FOUR people? Over half the stations were unmanned. So I finally finished with about an hour until my train, and luckily the bus to the station came just as I got to the pick up point. Arrived at the station 15 minutes before departure, no ticket printed and no idea where I was going. I ended up getting on the train minutes before it left. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room wondering what I'm gonna eat.

Impressions of LA were oh my god it's so huge (saw a lot from the plane). When I touched down I was disappointed. LA looks like a lot of ghetto and lots of highways. Also I'm not sure if it was just low cloud or LA has a lot of smog over it. And I thought that, being an international travel hub, LAX would have looked a lot more flash. Well, off to San Diego tomorrow!

Interesting. I was at Anime LA today which is just down the road from LAX.

I can tell you first hand, LA kind of sucks, but there are a lot of parts of it that shine better than most cities Ive visited.

Im also curious as to where you are staying tonight.

This.

Swing on by larchmont and firebomb Nexon HQ while you're in the area.

For the love of god do this!!

[Eos]

Im also curious as to where you are staying tonight.

Look at you, trying to score with Rick his first night in the U.S.
Tramp.

[Sn1perJohnE]

Look at you, trying to score with Rick his first night in the U.S.
Tramp.

Only on the weekends.

[Five Second Pose]

TSA SAYS NO! Everyone who landed had to go through some retarded "processing" which consisted of nothing but looking at my passport, taking fingerprints (which they already took at my visa interview) and stamping far too much. This happened after I had to wait in that line for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes. They had 4 people doing the processing. They have two Boeing 747s worth of people land, and they assign FOUR people? Over half the stations were unmanned.

I'm not even kidding when I say "be happy your last name doesn't sound Muslim". I had a plane switch in Boston two years ago when I was on my way back from Dallas and our baggage was lost. We got it back three days later and one of the locks was damaged and they cracked a tupperware box of food almost in half. It wasn't the baggage handlers either, Homelands Security was nice enough to leave a card with their logo inside our suitcase to make sure we knew they searched our pomegranate.

My dad was pulled out of a line once in 2009 for fingerprinting, processing, and questioning also because of his last name. What you went through was nowhere near as bad as it could be.

also because airports are busy suspecting at least half the brown people that pass through everyone else has to sit through longer lines.

[Fiel]

Yeah, TSA isn't well-liked. LA does have smog problems and ghettos. Life in America is far less pomp and circumstance than international people believe.

[Rob]

Yeah, TSA isn't well-liked. LA does have smog problems and ghettos. Life in America is far less pomp and circumstance than international people believe.

It really depends on the city though. DC for example is somewhat the places you see pictured in movies, and apart from Southeast DC, it doesn't have ''ghettos''. LA has the problem every huge city has, you have everything you can think of.

[ImagineAll]

LA is like any major city. If you go to Seattle you'll get the same feel.

Westwood over by my campus is really a nicer side of LA in my opinion. If time allows for it you should go to Santa Monica and just walk around the pier and all of the shops over there. It's really nice.

[MasPan]

Yep.



This.

Swing on by larchmont and firebomb Nexon HQ while you're in the area.

This is why Nexon hates SP...

This and the extractions. Lol.

And yeah, as others noted America has its share of ugly in its cities just like anywhere else. We have slums, we have smog and pollution and litter, we have homeless.

[Derosis]

Rick if you want to know some good food. Come east to Mississippi. Can get you fed pretty damn well here.

[ShinkuDragon]

Rick if you want to know some good food. Come east to Mississippi. Can get you fed pretty damn well here.

psh, nearest mcdonalds should do the trick.

upsize ERRYTHING!

[Rick]

After a long bus ride I've arrived at the University of California, San Diego. Got my room, found my apartment, and moved in. This place is AMAZING. I'm going to love it here.

As an aside, after speaking to someone about my annoyance with the TSA I learned that wasn't TSA at all, just customs. Apparently the TSA are much worse, and I will meet them when flying -out-. Oh boy.

[Fiel]

It's all right, Rick. Before you go to the airport to fly out you'll have gained a few pounds. Wear a New York Yankees baseball cap and speak with a californian accent and you should have no problems.

[Sn1perJohnE]

After a long bus ride I've arrived at the University of California, San Diego. Got my room, found my apartment, and moved in. This place is AMAZING. I'm going to love it here.

As an aside, after speaking to someone about my annoyance with the TSA I learned that wasn't TSA at all, just customs. Apparently the TSA are much worse, and I will meet them when flying -out-. Oh boy.

Hope you enjoy Californias school system. Though, at the university level, its easier to deal with (mostly).

[Silvercrystal]

Don't forget Black's Beach!

[DeanNim]

I'm not even kidding when I say "be happy your last name doesn't sound Muslim". I had a plane switch in Boston two years ago when I was on my way back from Dallas and our baggage was lost. We got it back three days later and one of the locks was damaged and they cracked a tupperware box of food almost in half. It wasn't the baggage handlers either, Homelands Security was nice enough to leave a card with their logo inside our suitcase to make sure we knew they searched our pomegranate.

My dad was pulled out of a line once in 2009 for fingerprinting, processing, and questioning also because of his last name. What you went through was nowhere near as bad as it could be.

also because airports are busy suspecting at least half the brown people that pass through everyone else has to sit through longer lines.

And now im glad im a singaporean. Muslims from here dont get suspected for terrorism that easily. :P