Public Transportation in LA

During a few trips to LA before we were married I had stayed in Pasadena and almost daily taken the metro to Sherman Oaks. I was told the system was quite new so I didn’t expect any difficulties. Well, the first thing that struck me was that weekly or monthly passes could not be purchased at the stations. The machines only let you buy day passes to use the whole metro net for $ 3 (which I thought was quite affordable compared to Germany). So where do you buy a weekly pass? You look up online which super market chains sell those passes. Great, there was one that I would pass on my foot walk to the station anyways. Turned out this particular store didn’t sell the passes but on “just up the street” does sell them. No problem, I’m used to walking so I walk, and walk and walk and after at one or two miles of walking uphill the same street I give up because I start to notice that I seem to be the only white person in this area, there are homeless people on every corner and all the public phones I try to call my hubby-to-be don’t work. Fast forward, after wasting more time in a super market that was out of the passes or didn’t sell them after 6PM, I forgot which on it was, we are in another market to finally buy that pass. We learn that a 2-week-pass only starts at a certain random day, so basically for the next 3 days I would have to purchase the pass that includes those days and pay for the week already passed. At that point I started to understand why most people in LA prefer taking the car in spite of the crazy traffic. Alright, I just stick with the daily ticket. I arrive at the station and look for the time table. Em, there is not time table displayed on the station. Interesting. As I find out later foldable time tables are available IN the train which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me but at least it’s a time table. All together I have to say they metro is not the worst experience as long as it is available in an area you want to go. And you always meet interesting people of all colors and races. I like this strange awareness that I’m part of God’s diverse creation which reminds to the old Sunday school song “Ja, Gott hat alle Kinder lieb, jedes Kind in jedem Land…”. The songs talks about how God loves every child in every nation and goes on introducing children of different races etc. One particular encounter on my way back from checking out Chinatown with a friend made me realize that a live in LA now. I was waiting for the train to start moving when suddenly a guy came running in. His behavior was strange, he was all sweaty and out of breath, looking around very paranoid, sitting down for a few seconds on different spots in the train and trying to open the door to the cockpit. Seconds later two cops entered the scene and handcuffed him. They looked under the seats as if looking for something and took off. Once the train was moving another passenger said “OMG, no I know what they were looking for!” and picked up a small plastic tube with some kind of pills in it. I found another one under my seat. Well, just a normal afternoon on the metro and another arrested drug dealer. Often there are also people who seem to be mentally not quite there (usually homeless) who try to sell some (Christian!) books and curse at the whole department when nobody buys anything.

The really interesting part of the journey however is the connecting bus ride. Buses are not really scheduled; they just arrive whenever they do. The time table says “ every 20 min between 2PM - 4PM”. One day I have waited 45 min! The bus was packed already when a person in some kind of a wheel chair which looked more like a full length hospital bed to me decided he wanted to get on this very bus although everybody else has been there before him. So half the people had to get out to make space for him and wait for the next bus. Once you’re on the bus you notice that you are surrounded by teenagers, senior citizens, homeless people and hardly white people. I found it shocking to realize that using the bus is seems to be a sign of social class in the US or at least in LA.

This was so obvious to me at one particular ride. The bus driver must have had a really bad day. It was pouring, winter in LA, and a guy entered the bus via the back door because he had a big sack with a down comforter or something that he didn’t want to get wet. Then he walked to the front to pay for his ticket. Well, the bus driver told him to get out of the bus and enter the proper way which is through the front. He said something about security measures and a bomb or something. The guy refused to do that so the end of the story was that the bus stopped and the bus driver called the police. I thought I was part of a movie, seriously. So we were stopped and everybody started talking about missing appointments. There was no one without an accent and the only other white person was from Italy. Well, I was in good company, haha, and finally we all had to get out and wait for the next bus of this line.

Another day I was waiting at the bus stop when a guy with long grey hair approached me and said something about the peaceful aura that surrounded me. Must have been some kind of newagy person that could feel that I am a Christian. I don’t know why I even bothered talking to him but he wanted me to call the number of his agency for modeling or something and insisted I talk to a German girl who worked for him as a make-up artist. Weird. In Germany I had used the train quite a bit to get around before I was allowed to drive with 18, to get to work and to visit my parents during semester breaks. But I never had an experience that came close to the “high lights” I just described which all took place during the day. I mean I don’t know what happens on Berlin trains or busses but for me it was definitely a new experience (which most people I know in LA have never had!). Now that we have two cars the metro adventures are replaced by traffic adventures on which I will elaborate another time…