City of night, city of night, city of night, woo, cmon

"[Los Angeles] is Big. Really big. It may seem like a long way to the corner chemist, but compared to [Los Angeles], that’s peanuts." -Douglas Adams.

Everything in America is bigger and louder than we're are used to. The people, the cars, the food, the cities. For your convenience here's a picture of LA next to Wellington at the same scale. The red X is my cousin Mike's apartment, and the Mickey silhouette is Disneyland.
This means from Mike's to Disneyland was like going from Wellington to Featherston, except, all the way to Featherston, there are a whole lot of people in your way (13 million).

Due to Mike being such an excellent host we ended up staying for an entire week (coincidentally Mike's job is being a 'host' at LA clubs). Mike is half American and half Canadian, and I think shows the positive traits that one associates with each country (confidence and friendliness). All Americans seemed to speak loudly and often, and I have found myself speaking quietly and infrequently to try and compensate.

Mike's apartment was in West Hollywood, right next to Santa Monica Boulevard. Here is a picture of Mike and Alana:
The last time I was in LA I was 13 and I remember Disneyland being lame and Universal Studios being cool. I'm not sure who's done the changing, but this time around it was the complete opposite. Universal Studios seems to be struggling (for the price of 1 ticket, you get a year long pass), and Disneyland was great.

One of the worthwhile moments at Universal Studios was seeing a set from War of the Worlds. Alana has a fear of flying, and if you watch closely, you can actually see Alana's soul quiver with fear:


Disneyland was great.
Pictures: