Flat Stanley Explores How People Live in LA

Whenever I visit a new place, I think it's always interesting to see how people live. LA is a very unique place, with it's own kind of style. For example, houses seem to have a lot of windows, probably because the weather is so nice all the time and it's nice to have the sunshine come in all year long.



Some houses here are even built of unusual things, like these glass blocks.



And some people build houses in strange places like hill tops, so they have a nice view of everything.



And then there are places like Meg lives, in really tall buildings like the ones in downtown Los Angeles.



Meg's building is 18 stories tall, but it's not even close to being the tallest building in the city. We can even see some that are twice as big right from the courtyard where Meg lives.



Because these buildings are so tall, you have to use elevators a lot. Meg's building has 3 elevators, and this fancy panel that tells you what floor each one is on at any time. Then you know how long you have to wait for the next one! That's a pretty cool system!



Meg lives on the 5th floor, so luckily we don't have very far to go.





There are other things that are special about living in a really tall building and sharing space with lots of other people. One is how you get your mail. Since so many people live here, you can't have a mailbox out on the street like a normal house. Otherwise, the sidewalk would be full of mailboxes and no one could walk anywhere! So Meg gets her mail from this little locked box in the wall down in the lobby. If anything is too big to fit in the box, the people that work at the front door leave her a message so she can come pick it up from them.



And one thing that's really different is doing laundry! All the washers and dryers are in one big room in the basement, so you have to share with everyone else.



And you also have to pay for every load you wash and dry. Each machine has this little card reader attached, and it works like a credit card you recharge with money. That certainly makes things a little more complicated.



The only bad thing about living in such a big place is not having a back yard. It's a shame to have such nice weather, but no grass to play on! Maybe I can talk Meg into moving down to the beach...