Yesterday early morning, as the sun was rising, I went to LAX to pick my mom. I’ve been living in LA for the past four years for college, but this is my mom’s first visit to LA.

In fact, it was her very first time ever going out of China! And she speaks zero English! I truly cannot imagine how nerve-wracking this trip has been – the flight was delayed for eight hours, she was missing an online document in English, she couldn’t pull out her return flight ticket to show the US Custom officer, etc. Yet, she made it all the way to here for my graduation! Although my mom doesn’t speak any English and has never been to LA, she had shown me how wonderful and different LA is in just one day!

You know how sometimes when you live a certain way for too long, you forget to appreciate the things around you? That’s how I am with living in LA. Yes, I know LA is the city of fame and glory, sunshine and beaches, fruits and palm trees. However, sometime in the past four years, I lost the wide-eyed wonder I once had and stopped seeing the beauty (or funny quirks) of LA/the US. Upon her first day of arrival, my mom had reopened my eyes.

Is there toilet paper in the bathroom?

The first thing to do upon arriving is, of course, a bathroom break! As soon as she walked out to meet me on the arrival floor, my mom asked for the bathroom. When I led her to the nearest bathroom, my mom handed me her backpack and started rummaging for tissue paper.

In China, most public bathrooms do not provide toilet paper. Most people would carry a small pocket of tissue paper with them at all times. I quickly stopped my mom and told her there is toilet paper in the stall. LA people, consider yourself fortunate to have toilet paper in public bathroom! Because you don’t want to know how horrible it feels when you’re done in the bathroom but have no toilet paper, or when you finally find a bathroom but realize you don’t have tissue paper on you!

Why does everyone stop when there’s no traffic light?

I’ve never driven in China before, so I didn’t even know this different exist! I recently became a proud licensed LA driver. Of course, I had to show off my driving skills to my mom. On our way back to USC campus, we took some street roads, where there are quite a few of stop signs. If you drive in LA, you know stopping properly at stop signs are one of the essential components to pass the driving test.

In China, however, there is only traffic lights and no stop signs. When I made frequent stops without traffic lights in front of me, my mom asked, “why is everyone stopping when there’s no traffic light?” All of a sudden, I realized that even though we always complain about how aggressive LA drivers are, for the most part, most people still follow rules! For example, stopping when there’s only a stop sign!

Why is there no utensil?

When we get back to campus, I took my mom to the USC village for breakfast. Of course, we (aka. I did on behalf of my mom) ordered breakfast burritos for us. When the waitress arrived with two plates of cut-in-half burritos and napkins, my mom looked confused and asked me, “What? No utensils? Are we… are we supposed to eat with our hands?”

I was first surprised that my mom was this surprised at the thought of eating burritos with hands. Upon second thought, I recognized that in China, we almost always use utensils (aka. Chopsticks or spoons) when eating a sit-down meal. Only when eating finger foods or snacks would people use their hands without utensils. And, most people don’t eat snacks for meals. That means donuts, protein bars, and chips would never be eaten as a meal. No wonder my mom was surprised to find herself eating breakfast without utensils.

Squirrels! Squirrels! Squirrels!

I still remember the first time I spotted a squirrel on campus back in Freshman year. I took a ton of pictures of that stealthy squirrel stealing a bag of nuts from someone’s bicycle basket. Squirrels were like fairytale magical creatures to me at the time. I had never seen a real squirrel in my life and had only heard of them in storybooks.

Then, four years of living in LA made me so used to seeing squirrels around that I don’t see magic in them anymore. When my mom spotted a squirrel on campus, she was so excited and immediately walked over wanting to get a closer look. But, I was on a mission to get my cap and gown from the bookstore. When I found my mom stopped to admire a squirrel, I yelled, “It’s just a squirrel! They’re everywhere! What’s there to see?!”

Another pair of Chinese parents nearby who were taking pictures of the squirrel also heard my complaint and turned around. I blushed so hard, and the memory of myself yelling at the sight of squirrels came back. I felt very embarrassed – when did I stop seeing the magic of this city?

Thanks, mom.

Please, restore the wide-eyed me who doesn’t fail at wondering at how magical the City of Angeles is.