Flying is fantasy, a journey through blue realms and unfathomable heights. Hyped up by another airplane coffee (my third or fourth, I can’t remember) and the pure wonder of air travel, I’m already the most excited passenger to take a window seat on flight AA0139.

And then a wing dips over the California coastline, and my nose bumps obtrusively into the window. Of course I can’t spot my new home from up here. But there’s the beach that’s so wide and endless, we wonder aloud if it’s man-made. There are the silhouetted letters of ‘Hollywood’, spelling out hope to the desperate. And behind all the sprawl that anyone else would classify as ‘just city,’ those protective curves of the Santa Monica Mountains.

L.A. is a city built by magic, and calling it home (for now) feels like moving to Wonderland.

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