Meeting people in LA

If you have recently moved to Los Angeles, I would like to give you some ice breaker advice. The one question that will ultimately start a conversation here is:

Where are you from?
The truth is that the vast majority of people in Los Angeles are not from Los Angeles. There are tons of people from the midwest, east coast and recently I have met a bunch of people from Michigan. Neighborhood bars here take on a whole new meaning because here you can find places populated by your old neighborhood.

For example take a concentrated population like the people I work with. (The only time I will mention work in my blog) 6 people out of 21 are actually from Los Angeles and one of those lived in Colombia for the majority of her life. The others are:

Idaho, Nebraska, Orange County (people assure me that this is very different from Los Angeles), South Africa, Wisconsin, Minnesota (someone other than myself), Hawaii, Michigan, Viet Nam, Brooklyn and Ohio.

The fact is that I have met very few people who are native to this huge city.

So if you are at a party or a bar and you find your self alone, forced to mingle just ask:

"Where are you from?"

Because that will lead you to a whole host of other questions that will occupy you for at least 10 minutes. Like:

Why did you move to L.A.?
How long have you been here?
I am new here where are some decent places to hear local music? or go have sushi?

Another thing that shocked me about asking this one questions is that here people actually elaborate. (Shocker)

If I asked this question in Minnesota:

Oh, where are you from? Eden Prairie
Originally? yes
What do you do? I work at General Mills.

This usually ends our conversation because a) what I am supposed to do with one word answers and b) No one from Minnesota will actually ask you those same questions back.

If I ask this question here, I goes a lot different.

Where are you from? I am from Kentucky.
How long have you been here? Well I came out here in 98 for college and never really left.
What are you doing out here? Right now I am trying to act but I also nanny for this rich family in Bel Air. They let me go out on auditions whenever I want and it is really great.

Then you can ask them, if you have seen them in anything.....

Are you new you L.A.? Where are you from and what are you doing here? Do you know of any good sushi places?