The other day I remember how a friend of mine, who has lived in Los Angeles her entire adult life- while I although moved with her at the same time to L.A., did not stay.
On a trip, back to L.A. from the Northwest, while I was talking about my love of the area, she got very snappish about my comments. I wasn't trying to detract from the charms of L.A., but I had definitely changed - personally- I had given a larger part of myself over to a state that was not California.
This in a way, is like defecting to another country.
Now, around ten years after I did actually leave the country, I think I have again changed in some integral way - moved not just physically but mentally away from the place of my origins.
I feel parts of myself that will always be rooted in some of the customs, and I feel different from the people I meet that have only ever visited the U.S. but at the same time I feel separate from not one of the natives.
I feel as if I better understand the concept of simply 'growing apart' from people, or from a place. There is a real outsider feeling to revisiting a place that has undergone a huge formative change- some friends and I went to a show in downtown Los Angeles, where the changes are still happening. I heard people talking about living there, and walking to the show and how great the area is.
This is a complete change from the 1980s.
Being able to just walk around downtown, and have time to look at the beautiful buildings- this was just not really possible twenty years ago.
We had a really good meal, followed by ice-cream at a place where the power to make the ice-cream is created from bike power.
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