BACK IN THE USSA!

Wonder of wonders, now that I'm back stateside, the blog login info, etc, is back in English.
The return flight was not nearly as brutal as the outgoing one, tho it was just as long, and preceeded by a flight from Shanghai to Beijing.
Arrived in LA, got through customs without a search (good thing, because my new suitcase full of souveniers was tied shut, thanks to Air China and a broken latch), grabbed a taxi and made it to my hotel by 8:15 PM, checked in grabbed another cab and made Disney Concert hall by 8:20, only to find sales had stopped for that eve's performance by Philadelphia Orchestra. I hung around long enough to try to sneek in for the second half, but no seats were available in the balcony section I tried, so I didn't hear them play Tchiakovsky's 5th. No loss, I did see the inside of the hall, and will go back for 2 things, Thur and Fri night.
Had difficulty getting started today, but did get out and found my way to Chinatown on the LA Metro. Bought a $3 day pass, and never figured out where/how to use it! but there seemed to be now way to check if passengers had tickets or not.
"Chinatown" seems to be largely "Vietnam Town", but I did order supper in a chinese restaurant, a talapia hot pot with braised bean curd, and found their hot pot to be completely different from the hot pot in china, which was individual pots of boiling water, in which diners place their own choice of raw ingredients. In Chinatown, I was served a ceramic bowl with all ingredients still boiling rapidly in a thick brown sauce. It was still pretty good, just different.