Having lived in the Valley for a couple of months, and since I will be moving OUT of the Valley (sort of) at the end of this week, I’d love to share some of the culture shocks that occurred for this transplanted OC Girl!

• On the totally cool side, I LOVE the Targets here!  Why?  Well, it’s not that they offer different products or that the prices are better.  It’s because every store I’ve been to out here has 3 levels.  Why is that a big deal?  They have these totally cool things for your carts!  So you need to go upstairs?  Push your cart into the feed for it’s ride, and then hop on the escalator!  It’s SO COOL I feel like a kid!
• I have eluded to the drivers out here in previous posts.  Well, I have to say they ARE different!  While OC drivers are not angels, boy…..LA/Valley drivers are even more aggressive…..or at least sure of themselves.  The difference, for sure, is that they break laws left and right and don’t even blink, but still get pissed off if you are in their way.  But, I am getting used to it!
• The higher sales tax rate really sucks.
• It really surprises me that houses around where I live are so expensive!  I mean, I am used to older homes in OC, but it’s different.  The homes in OC don’t look ANCIENT many times, and in fact many are “new” (built within the last 20 years).  Many of the homes here were built pre-40’s, have 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, don’t look at all appealing, and yet are getting over $600,000.  Weird.  I won’t even mention the houses with THREE bedrooms and TWO bathrooms!
• There are tons more pedestrians around where I work and live.
• There are traffic cops at many of the intersections.  At first, they really intimidated me.  Now, I am becoming a valley girl I guess, because I can almost ignore them like everyone else around me.  I think they are there because, around here anyway, a yellow light (especially if you’re turning left) means to follow the car in front of you really closely and quickly.  You should watch it!  The light turns yellow and about 30 cars turn left…….
• I think it’s totally awesome, at least near my work, that there seems to be some sort of movie production going on at least every other week.  They might not all be “big Hollywood productions”, but cool nonetheless.
• Street sweeping tickets are EXPENSIVE!

And that’s my list!