Welcome to the most populated and third largest state in USA (1: Alaska, 2: Texas).
You can find more about the state in the sections about Geography, History, and Biology. I have divided descriptions of "living experiences" between the California and the Silicon Valley locations, not to claim that all of California resemble where we live. The state covers 400.000 square km and has almost 38 mill inhabitants where only 1 of 3 are born in the state. The rest have come from somewhere else in USA or, like my family, from even further away. Our former governor, the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, claimed in an interview that 96 different languages are spoken in California - 97 if his version of English is also counted.
You can find more information about the state on its official website www.ca.gov. (I can't help pointing to the chapter "What to bring" where the first keyword is "firearms". OK, perhaps it is not what you should bring but what you should take care of bringing because the list also contains the very dangerous "fruits and vegetables" 1.)