I’ll be blogging about the USA and my trip in the “promised land” for the next 100 days! I’ll write a post every day for 15 minutes, and try to summarize a few of main points from the day, feelings and experiences.

#Day1 – ENTERING THE USA (Jan 11, 2023).

This was a cool day. Main points: LA made an impression, flight and customs went smoothly, even if no digital smoothness the same way as China has.

First impressions:

1 ) COOL. California, LA and USA are really cool, industrious and open places. 

2 ) EASY CUSTOMS. Coming to China, I’ve thought it’s always challenging in the border. But we got everything super smoothly fixed. One guy spent 15 min with us to check our address and asked a couple of questions. Our Chinese friends or other travelers of the flight from Xiamen to LA had to spend though longer time. My wife’s hypothesis: You’re Lauri coming from FINLAND, you’re “white” and you got much more privileges than us. 

I agreed that it may influence, but also considered that a mother with a big stomach and 2.5 year-old little girl, might be a more important reason for that. 

Aurora wrote a post in her WeChat telling that she prepared 2.5 months to get everything by the book for the customs. In the end they didn’t ask us almost anything and trusted us – and said: “Welcome to the US.” 

3 ) LA IS HUGE! Distances are vast, and you won’t walk from one place to another – or take an underground, tram or bus. You gotta have a car. Renting would be best. I’m a bicycle and public transportation – or didi – guy. Aurora picked us a Chinese recommendation to the Asian hub at XX. Hotel is nice, but it’s far from downtown. Nor from St. Monica, or Hollywood…

Anyway, a nice start for the journey! Happy that things went relatively  smoothly! Flight was also smooth in 12.5 hours, Lumi slept almost the whole journey and Xiamen airlines had cozy and friendly service. 

What are your experiences when traveling in LA or in California? 

Three pictures from today: 

1 ) In-and-out local LA hamburger restaurant. Latinos, white, Asians… One guy with NHL LA Kings jacket, and the other one NFL, and third NBA… “Hey take the big box with you, that’ll help!” Two double-double hamburgers, hand-made potatoes, two cups of milk and a lemonade cost 18.5$. Not bad. I’m not a fan of fast-food, but this felt like a cultural experience. The guy behind the desk was super friendly and everything went smooth. But when I give him 100$ note to pay he went out-of-bounce. “What should I do…?” After couple of minutes he came back with 5$ notes – and counted them 3 times to make sure he got it right. 

2 ) No Didi, no Alipay, no digital society conveniences. I felt like I went back to the 1990s, when I was kid: lemonade vending machines with 1$ coins, taxes who need you to call for them – and you have to wait 15 minutes before they come. Friendly driver, but 40 min trip took over 120$ (with the drive-in waiting). Going-through downtown. Of course Uber will be available in the upcoming days too. 🙂

3 ) Our family. How lovely and wonderful to travel with Aurora and Lumi! Our family got off from China after a while – and we felt very natural, good, and happy to be together as a family abroad. Interesting… Maybe it’s just a first-date illusion for us all, or then it’s a broader pattern, that we  are discovering here. While waiting at the airport and customs, you needed to get creative. We made some funny things and stuff with Lumi and she was smiling and laughing at many times. “Father, we’re going to the US – like Peppa Pig too! Do the face thing now again!” And we both laugh… Aurora did the flight also well, we helped each other and got still a modest ok sleep during it. 

It’s good to start from here!

Tomorrow online work – and possibly visiting in some places downtown. Day after probably Hollywood. Then we plan a stop-over, possibly in Las Vegas, before going to Salt Lake City. 

Let’s keep it up!

#EnterAmerica #HitTheRoad