Good To Be Back in Los Angeles

By Jennifer Solis

I've just returned from Europe, where I spent much of the summer doing research on my first book -- a guide to college study abroad -- which I personally experienced last year in Florence, Italy. I went to several other universities this year to interview program administrators and students who are participating in these programs.

Flying into LAX from Paris is always a facinating view, looking down on the light brown haze that covers the Southland most of the year, and especially in the summer months. Passengers who are not accustomed to this view will comment, "You have to breathe that?" My answer is that, "I don't trust air I can't see!"

For those who feel negative occasionally about our City of Angels, I challenge them to live in any other large urban area, in Europe or elsewhere, and compare problems. Think our gas prices are high? We paid over six dollars a gallon on the continent, and seven dollars in the U.K.
A tankful of petrol is more expensive than a moderate hotel room.

You think we have problems with immigration? Our illegals simply hold marches and rallies. In suburban Paris, they torch entire blocks and every car parked on a street -- even those owned by other immigrants. The radical Muslims in the Netherlands are feared by most of the population. A local film producer was murdered because his movie was considered "offensive."

Governments in Europe are afraid to join the United States in clamping down on terrorism, believing that the bombings in London and Madrid might become common events everywhere. If you bury your head in the sand, you don't have to face reality.