Truly getting away from it all

You know how, sometimes, you just wanna get away? Like the Southwest commercials, but for real, and completely, not some weekend-trip-to-Philadelphia-get-away, but 3,000-miles-and-a-different-language-get-away.

Well, I love romanticizing this feeling. Which is one of the reasons I choose to study abroad; so I could be away. But, of course, in this modern age of Teh Interwebs, you are never truly away, especially when you bring your laptop with you.

Even so, it's surprising how much you stop paying attention when you get away. I could, of course, read several news websites several times a day to keep up with the things I would hear on TV or the radio or see in the headlines or have people tell me in the course of a normal day while living in Los Angeles. And that would be without even actually reading the copy of The Los Angeles Times that gets delivered to my parents house every morning. But I don't bother. Because that would be a lot of work, and I'd rather spend my time and energy on Facebook.

Of course, they have news here, but it's all in reallyfuckingfastImeanunbelievablyfastlikeatenyearoldboywithADDoncrack Spanish, so I usually try and listen for a few minutes then give up, space out, and congratulate myself when I hear a word I understand. And the other day, the word I heard was Los Ángeles.

So I looked up.

Now, just before the story about Los Angeles, there had been one about floods in Mexico City, was a bit easier to follow because there are very obvious, illuminating pictures of cars with water up to the windows and people standing on rooftops as the waterline creeps up their walls. And then a few minutes later then mention Los Angeles and the word inudación (which means 'flood') and I'm all Huh? Did I just hear that correctly?

I asked my host mom if I heard it correctly, and she said, Yeah, there are floods in Los Angeles. And I'm thinking, um, no, it's September; Los Angeles southern California is being reduced to smoldering rubble, but it is not raining. That does not start until November or December, when all the fires have burnt up all their tinder and there is nothing left to stop the inevitable mudslides. That is how southern California works.

No, she said, the story said there are floods.

I went to latimes.com and searched for 'flood'.


It turns out two water mains broke, flooding Studio City and Valley Village.

I knew it wasn't raining in September.