Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1988 and 1995 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

Sep. 16, 1988

The Land of Opportunities

First Impressions of an Immigrant to the USA

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: USA, California, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

I am here in California for 3 weeks and one day. You might be interested in my first impressions. Well, here we go:

When I was leaving my home town Linz in Austria I had planned to take an early train to Vienna. However, it was delayed for 40 minutes and I got nervous due to the possibility of missing the plane. That's a real 'good' start for my first journey across the big pond. Uschi, a study colleague, picked me up at the train station and because the traffic was not too jammed it took us only 3 quarters of an hour to get to the airport. 10 minutes search for a parking spot. There was no more need to hurry. I easily got the plane. The brunch they served was terrible. No surprise. At least they had a great choice of international newspapers. The 2 hour flight passed by quickly. Then I had to wait about 4 and a half hour for the connecting flight to LA. I was cold. I was wearing only shorts and a T-shirt. It was quite boring. On the flight to LAX the service was much better - two meals (lunch at start and breakfast at the end). The movies they showed were all outdated. After arrival I had to proceed thru a lot of formalities. Immigration paperwork and customs. Walter (a student working in the same lab as I do) picked me up behind the customs barrier. When we left the building I experienced LA smog for the first time.

The first problem to solve was: housing. Walter invited me to stay with him for the first weeks. Housing offer can be split into two possibilities: on-campus and off-campus. The campus is about 3 times 3 miles and offers all kinds of services: tennis courts, 50 meter pool, football and baseball field (home of the UCI Anteaters), university police, transportation service, shops, cafeterias, and housing. The DREAM-lab (Distributed Real-time Ever Available Microcomputing) where I am working is about 10 minutes from most on-campus housing possibilities (by feet!, when distances are measured in time you usually have to assume that it takes you that long to get there by car) and another 15 to 25 minutes from UCI facilities such as tennis courts, ... Supermarket and bank is about 10 minutes in the other direction. If one wants to go out for lunch or dinner he actually needs a car. To get to the beach takes 20 min by car what surprised me since the sea is real close. There are public buses but till now I never took a ride. These was some information about on-campus housing.

Off-campus housing is easy to find (if you are not too picky). It takes less than or about one week like. All rooms ranging from $210 to $300 are to share! So, for the same money as on-campus-housing you've got to share your bedroom. In the off-campus housing office several lists are available (rooms to rent with other students, family housing,...). Prices are going up to $500 and more. Rooms can be rents near by (1-2 miles from campus) but also near the beach (Newport Beach). I tried about 20 phone numbers; 10 rooms were already taken and two looked promising. By accident I met an black woman. We started chattering and as it turned out she was renting a room. She took me to her apartment and showed me the room. I could convince her that $300 is to much for me so she offered it for $250 and the deal was OK. I could have moved in immediately but I preferred to stay with Walter and Ann for another 4 days till 9/1. But a lot happened in between.

I never moved to the Jamaican-American family. The day before I promised to move in I tried to convince the exception committee that I need on-campus housing immediately. It seems that I have been successful because on the next day a received a phone call from a nice lady telling me that I got top priority and may move in next week. So I stood another week with Ann and Walter. I am a lucky guy that I obtained on-campus housing so fast (It usually takes 8 - 12 months.). It is a - 1 living room, 2 bedrooms, 1 kitchen (oven and fridge are at our disposal), 1 toilet, 2 bathrooms and a tiny veranda - apartment. I share the apartment with a graduate student in math named Donald Jones. The rent is $274 a month. It is nice though one improvement could be done. My room is on the side of the parking lot. My roommate Don is a sports-buff. Works out each day (jogging, biking,..). His other hobby is his telescope. Sometimes he spent the whole night in the desert watching the stars with a huge telescope of his own.

I could finish all the other necessary paperwork (obtaining driver's license, registering for classes, applying for social security number, getting an savings and a checking account, an Anytime ATM card, ...) fast. This kept my busy for only 1/2 a week.

During daytime I have a full work load (at the lab). Also on Saturday. Every Saturday there is a lab meeting. During the first week we have been out for dinner each day. We had Japanese food ($10), Italian food ($10), Mexican food (Fast food, Pollo Loco (= Crazy Chicken)) ($7), American Fast Food ($5). In fast food chains you usually pay one drink and are than allowed to drink as much as you like. Most of all I like Japanese food and salad bars ($3 for one walk or $6 for 'as-much-as-you-can').

Already after being one single week at Irvine I felt like being at home. This is mainly because of Walter and Ann's open-heartedness. I am definitely not homesick. I dislike only two things. When I arrived at LAX I was shocked by the smog; especially since everybody tells you that the situation has improved over the last years. But here in UCI the air is clean; maybe a little bit dusty which is no surprise because we are living within a big desert. It looks like in central Spain: Brown dusty hills with no vegetation surround the cities. If you go down the Pacific Coast Highway also well known as Highway No. 1 you have beaches on your right hand and desert on your left. In the cities there are lots of green spots because of the use of an expanded system of water sprinklers. The second thing I dislike is the fact that the only possibility to have lunch on campus is to eat fast-food. There is a cafeteria and a Carl's Jr. (junk food chain) trailer. If you want eat something else than Hamburgers and French fries you need a car to get to a restaurant.

The first rule I learned here is to smile all the time. It doesn't matter in what mood or spirit you are in, you have to smile. I suppose that I have to learn a few additional rules. Times are changing: you don't have to be brown like chocolate anymore. A little bit of suntan is enough to be accepted by the society. (But anyhow I don't have to worry about that since I will never be accepted by the society without at least one car.) Another rule is to put all stuff into the refrigerator, or even better is to put it into the freezer. If you get yourself a drink: Open the freezer and take out an empty glass, put in lots of ice, open the fridge and pure in Dr.Pepper's or whatever you want. Never have a drink that is warmer that 33. I don't want to bore you any longer with stuff you already know. From time to time I have to make lousy jokes about the California lifestyle.

I changed my mind on one item. I delayed buying a car because everybody told me to do so. Doesn't seem typical for California. Meanwhile I am riding a bike. I will try living without a car for the next months. If it is too troublesome I will change my mind again. The only problem currently is: How to get to the beach with a boogie board without a car? BJ Min is the only guy in the Computer Engineering Program heading for Ph.D except me. Walter hasn't taken the decision yet. In addition 2 or 3 MS students are DREAM lab members. Dr. Kim (my Ph.D. adviser) gives us a lot of junk work to do (formatting papers, sketches, installing new soft- and hardware (he loves to buy all kind of gadgets, not only the lab but also his house is full of electrical toys), ...). We call it 'washing dirty dishes'. Dr. Kim says that the Ph.D. can be done in 3 years though the opinion of Walter and BJ is that it will take 5 years. Since they don't want to scare me they keep telling me that for ME it is no problem to make it in 3 years. Let's see who is right.

Unfortunately according to some university laws I am not allowed to do 100 % of Research Assistant Work. This fact decreases my monthly income by about $150. However, it should still be enough to survive.

Two weeks ago it really got hot (110 during daytime and 80 during night). Maybe connected with this weather it was getting a little bit smoggy. Everybody was astonished that it was raining for 10 minutes last weekend. Currently it is just fine. But no matter how hot it is outdoors the room temperature is always the same. All rooms are air conditioned (usually set to 60 or 70). I spent all Sundays at the beach. So far I have been at all beaches near by (45 min by bike) like Balboa Island, Huntington Beach, Laguna Bay Main Beach, .... The temperature of the water is fine (approximately 74 ). But going to the beach can (sometimes) be different from the advertisement spots: dirty beach (full of sea wheat), lots of people, a traffic jam, ... As expected those California girls - known from all kinds of magazines - are rare. But I will not give up looking for them.

The supermarkets always confuse me. The choice is so enormous (20 kind of cokes, 6 kinds of milk, 50 kinds of cereals, I guess 100 kinds of juices,...). I never know what I should take. Water is quite expensive. Good bread is rare. On the other hand I already got used to American bread - may it be healthy or not. There has been a festival in Santa Ana. I have been there with friends. European and South American States were represented and so was Austria. The choice of meals was enormous: Greek souflaci (note the American spelling), Mexican tacos and burritos, Thai-food, Italian pizzas. At the Austrian stand Bratwurst (this is already an American expression) and beer was offered. The picture of Austria here in America is: Drinking Loewenbraeu and Coors (an US brand) and having Strawberry cake as dessert. A band dressed in 'Lederhosen' played Beach Boys on e-guitars. After 9 p.m. no more beer is served to keep people from driving after alcohol consumption. When we left at 10 p.m. we met several drunken teens. Unexpectedly they still behaved well. They removed there car so that we could back out ours without complaining. If the same situation occurred in Austria the drunken would probably not react in such a 'polite' manner. People have much more respect for police men. The only thing I wanted to express is that this is a safe place as long as you avoid some areas and behave properly though European magazines try to describe a different picture of crime, drugs and bloodshed. So far no drugs were offered to me or to one of my friends jet. Californians try to stay healthy. They do a lot of work-out, eat frozen yoghurt instead of ice cream (too much calories), keep sun bathing at a minimum since they are afraid of melodroms and skin cancer. What surprises me most is the fact that I have seen about 10 smoking persons since I am here in California. I saw more smokers in Vienna in one single day. Californians really try hard to stay healthy. I appreciate this attitude.

As they say "First Impressions go a long way".