A New Yorker in Los Angeles

Sick of my LA blog posts yet? Yes, no, maybe?

I spent a lot of time in LA thinking about whether or not I could see myself living there. My best friend also spent a lot of time trying to convince me to move there, or at the very least consider applying to UCLA for grad school. Not gonna lie, coming back to a very cold New York has me considering LA as more of a possibility.

I did a sort of LA test run after graduating college . It didn’t go so well and when the two months were over I was so ready to come back to NYC. My parents, brother and boyfriend are here. My network is here. My apartment filled to the brim with my crap is here. Broadway is here.

I’ve lived in NYC for almost 8 years now and love NYC to pieces. I think of myself as an ambassador of NYC, spreading my love of this city around to all. I have helped a lot of my friends move here, be it finding a place to stay, finding temporary self-storage units (click here to learn more) or finding work. I genuinely enjoy it all. But, having only experienced Manhattan life and my hometown in Westchester, I do wonder what else is out there. What it would be like to truly inhabit another city. I honestly never thought I would go to college in Manhattan and it just kind of happened after I got accepted to NYU/ Tisch for drama. I couldn’t say no, even though I always thought I’d go to college somewhere warm and then move to NYC.

This isn’t some big dramatic declaration that I’m leaving NYC. I’m not. Spending such a long time in LA though did get me thinking about what it would be like to actually live there and commit to it.

Enough talking about my feelings. Both are amazing cities and I feel lucky that I got to spend a fair amount of time in Los Angeles. For now I’ll conspire and dream up ways I can become bicoastal so I can be greedy and have the best of both worlds. A girl can dream.

Until then, here are my concluding thoughts as a New Yorker on a very long vacation in Los Angeles…

Uber is everything

I took more Ubers in two weeks than I have… ever. I rarely use Uber in NYC and prefer to hail a yellow cab like the stubborn New Yorker that I am. In Los Angeles, though, it’s insanely cheap and often times far more convenient because you don’t have to deal with the headache that is parking.

I considered renting a car for a hot second and am happy I didn’t. It ended up being easy and far more cost efficient to just Uber to and from my fitness classes.

 

Always bring a sweater

How much of a Jewish Mother do I sound like? The climate in LA is just bizarre to me at times, it can be sunny and 85 degrees midday and then 50 degrees at night. Damn that desert. I learned the hard way to always bring a sweater. And when it doubt (and really cold), buy a sweatshirt at Disneyland.

 

LA is an “early city”

I’ve always known that NYC was inherently a “late city”– I can get a vegan pizza delivered at midnight on Saturday night. How amazing is that?

LA is the total opposite, some nights it was difficult to find a decent place open for dinner after 10:00PM. I never eat dinner that late here, but for whatever reason this was a frequent occurrence in LA.

Even crazier to me was the crowd of people at breakfast at 8:30AM on a Saturday. That would never happen in NYC.

 

30 minute fitness classes are the norm

I was shocked at how many 25, 30 and 45 minute classes I saw being offered on ClassPass in LA. Besides spin classes, 45 minute fitness classes are pretty unheard of in NYC. If it’s not an hour, New Yorkers don’t think it’s a worthwhile workout. It seems the LA fitness scene is far more focused on getting you in and out by making the actual work out more efficient in less time.

NYC should take a hint and start offering shorter classes. I personally don’t think I would totally ditch my love of hour long classes, but sometimes that’s just not feasible.

LA is definitely on to something and knows how to make you sweat in half the amount of time.

Check out my reviews for Training Mate, Platefit, Rise Nation, and Supraformer at Studio Lagree

 

The fitness instructors are SO nice

I’m not hating on NYC fitness instructors, I’m obviously friendly with a ton of them, but I will say the LA fitness instructors were insanely friendly 9 out of 10 times. Maybe this was because I always asked them to take an awkward picture of me after class for instagram which opened up the conversation about being an NYC fitness blogger, but I had a few lengthy chats with fitness instructors that I met in LA.

I loved hearing them talk about the fitness scene out there (in case you didn’t know I’m a totally nerd for stuff like that) and comparing notes on classes. The biggest things I learned were:

1. Most studios don’t have showers because people just go home and shower.

2. Unlike NYC, people don’t schlep to other neighborhoods just to get a good workout.

3. Also on the topic of schlepping, having a car means you don’t need to carry a huge gym bag around all day like a nomad. I felt like a weirdo because I often times had my computer with me so I could work at Starbucks afterwards.

4. 30 minute classes are popular because it takes so much longer to get everywhere in LA + deal with parking. People don’t want to waste 2+ hours on both working out and making it to the workout.

 

Question: NYC or LA, lay it on me.