<p>Re: carpets in BART trains</p>
<p>They are slowly replacing the (always dirty) carpets with easy-to-clean floors.</p>
<p>Thanks early_college, really enjoyed your post. Yep, come to the mw for college. We are very friendly. We wave at everyone, look them in the eye, and talk to them. </p>
<p>Come to Indiana if you want long daylight. No one in the rest of the country knows what time it is here, but except for the area right next to Chicago, it gets dark very late all year–sunset 5:31 today, still light until 6–10 in the summertime 
Same time as the east coast, but 1000 miles west.</p>
<p>I actually applied to Earlham :)</p>
<p>I use to want to go to college in Southern California, but it seemed way too materialistic. When my mom went to LA, all she saw was smog. </p>
<p>BTW, I’ve been to Colorado/Wyoming/Montana/South Dakota and would never in a million years go to college or move there. We visited in July. I hated the altitude. It was hard to breathe for my whole family. My mom has asthma, and she felt like someone was sitting on her. I just didn’t like that whole region. In Colorado, there was an overcast every single day. I never got to see the sun.</p>
<p>bopampa, I actually had to go job hunting from Pasadena without a car. It was doable, though I did make my boyfriend (now husband) get a car that summer. Everyone goes on and on about how LA is a car city and it’s true to some extent, but the same can be said for the NY suburbs. If you want to go into the city you’re fine, but otherwise you still need a car. NY obviously has taller buildings and that density leads to more nightlife. But I was constantly surprised by how vibrant the different LA neighborhoods were and how much it had to offer. I went to LA expecting to be disappointed and ended up loving it.</p>
<p>BTW sunset here in NY was at 4:45, not so different from San Francisco. I went for a walk starting at 4:30 and packed it in at 5:15 on the grounds that it was getting dark. It was balmy - I just wore a turtleneck and a sweater. Far warmer than it was in Berkeley last summer at 7:00 am in July!</p>
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<p>One would think that in 2012 people would know that that joke isn’t the least bit funny. Of course, I knew better 40 years ago than to call gay people “fruits.” And don’t tell me that isn’t what he meant. I just hope it isn’t what you meant.</p>
<p>West coast people eat egg, ham, fruit, and variety of other foods for breakfast.
East coast people only eat Dunkin donut for breakfast.</p>
<p>One of my high school teachers was from MA (teaching in northern Ca). He taught us how to say everybody’s name with a Boston accent, it was so funny! He did’t let his accent out too often but he did like using the word “folks” a lot. Anyway we asked him about the east coast /west coast thing as he had lived in both places for a while and he told us about the sunscreen song and said the guy nailed it with the line
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<p>It seems to reflect what a lot of people have been saying.</p>
<p>And I agree that the comment about SF being full of nuts,fruits and flakes was pretty tasteless:(</p>
<p>There are intra-coastal differences too. When I moved from Seattle to Northern California, I noticed the people are a little more standoff-ish down here. Not rude in the stereotypical East coast mode, but less friendly at first, as if you’re imposing just a little.</p>
<p>D went from NorCal to the Midwest and what she’s noticed most is the plethora of cigarette smokers at college – although part of that may just be that they’re more visible since all smoking must be done outside. She didn’t have any trouble adjusting to the colder winters. The small rural town is very very white, which she finds jarring, but the college is just as diverse as what she’s used to in California.</p>
<p>When I’ve been in her college town, what I’ve noticed (besides the blessed lack of traffic) is how darn NICE the townpeople are. Every store I walked into, they acted like I was their long-lost best friend.</p>
<p>Number of clams,
More washlet bidets
Mountains, ocean, desert, high plateaus.
Number of people.</p>
<p>Living in the PNW, it sometimes initially surprises me how brusque and aggressive people are in the east. After I get used to it, I enjoy that I can be very direct, and crack an off-color joke that people will laugh like crazy at, and not look at me askance. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the drivers are so nice out here that if you put on your blinker on a crowded freeway, the cars will part to let you through. It’s almost too much. It’s surprising when you find a jerk driving behind you.</p>
<p>But the best thing is that you can go to the store or a restaurant in your sweat pants, tennis shoes, uncombed hair, no makeup…and nobody cares. They’ll be just as nice to you as if you were all dressed up. That old guy standing on the corner? You don’t know if he’s homeless or a billionaire.</p>
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<p>This is similar to what I observed this past summer in the Seattle area and is comparable to how most Oberlin students tended to dress/regard fashion when I was there in the '90s. </p>
<p>Loved it…especially since it not only meant that no one will care much about my wearing hand-me-downs…most students will also angrily dress down anyone who’d think its ok to critique/judge others on their casual/unconventional clothing choices and regard them as petty close-minded jackasses. Not sure about now…but back then…it wasn’t cool to be a fashionista…especially a judgmental one.</p>
<p>I think, cobrat, that perhaps it has to do with the thought that people are always going to/coming from exercise, whether it’s hiking, skiing, running or biking. Or in my case, just pretending or hoping I’m going to do so. If I wear my running outfit, I’ll go running, right?
We may not look so great without nice clothes and makeup, but we’re pretty fit. Or maybe it’s just that people are very non-judgmental. It’s kind of weird going to places where people make a big deal about who you are related to, what kind of house you live in or car you drive, what race you are, or if you’re gay or whatever. Around here, who cares? Are you a considerate, pleasant person or not? That’s all that matters, not the peripheral stuff.</p>
<p>When I lived in the mid-south, people at stores wouldn’t even speak to me unless I was dressed well (which was painful—the dressing up, not the getting ignored).</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that, although my California girl hasn’t complained much about Midwest winters, she really hates the first part of fall semester, late August/early September. She’s not used to the humidity, nor the idea that central air conditioning is optional. :eek:</p>
<p>Do any of you post on city-data forum? On any of the state bulletin boards you’ll find discussions about the vast differences of the North/South, Upper/Lower, East/West part of every single state. I grew up in Delaware, a tiny little state, and you’ll find people on that forum talking how different Northern (urban) Delaware is from slower-lower Delaware. When my husband and I moved to upstate NY, we heard all about the dislike for NYC. </p>
<p>My husband and I have lived in five different states, including SW Virginia, and hands down, the friendliest place we ever lived in was right here in Pennsylvania. When we moved to this house our neighbors came to greet us with food in hand and family in tow. We watch each others houses when someone is on vacation and routinely borrow odds and ends. Part of the initial friendliness was probably due to having children of just the right age to fit into the neighborhood. We became friends when our kids played together. It was much harder making friends as newlyweds in upstate NY in a small town. The people were friendly enough to talk too, but it was a real effort to find people to do things with. </p>
<p>I’ve found that in general, if you’re friendly and outgoing, people will respond in kind.</p>
<p>My limited observations…I lived in LA for a few months, I am from Ohio and have east coast and southern friends. </p>
<p>LA, a little into themselves…I lived in Hollywood so…
East Coast: Fast, assertive, offer their opinions a lot.
Midwest: Eager to please
Southern: the friendliest people in the world. Makes me smile.</p>
<p>So, that is how this Ohioan views the world, Lol. :)</p>
<p>I lived around NYC area for 35+ years, it is the pace I am most comfortable with. I like the fact that I do not need to chit chat with people when I go about doing my daily errands. I do not like having strangers chating up a storm with me as if we were best friends because I know he/she really doesn’t give a hoot about me or my family. It does drive me crazy when I go to San Fran (not LAX) area, going through the grocery check out line is like going to a party’s reception line. “How are you? Did you find everything you need? This fruit (or whatever) is great. Are you visiting (how could you tell?)…” All I wanted is for them to ring up my stuff and left me out of there. It is even more frustrating when you are standing behind someone who is engaged in a friendly conversation with the cashier, and the cashier is trying very hard to find the item the customer couldn’t find on his own (no, you should have done that before you got to the check out line).</p>
<p>We had to drive to Detroit to pick up D2 one time. I noticed once I got past Penn people were a lot friendlier on the road. When I signaled to change lane, people actually slowed down to let me move over. People didn’t ride my tail in trying to get me to speed up or move over. It was rather nice.</p>
<p>H and I have a muti-racial marriage. Back 30 years ago, it wasn’t very common. In New York, people minded their own business, their attitude was more of live and let live. They didn’t stare or point. Whereas when we travelled to other parts of the country, people would openly stare or ask. I forgot where it was, but at a restaurant, a waitress thought she was just being friendly asked if my husband met me in home country (as in he was a military person stationed in my country) and brought me to the States.</p>
<p>hard to generalize east coast, west coast. Most people just think NY or Boston for East Coast, but the differences in people from other smaller towns is great. I’m from small town in RI and had Jersey roommates at college in midwest. Jersey friends were nothing like the people I knew… Midwest people were nice, but didn’t stand a chance from the jerseyites.</p>
<p>This topic tends to come around every year or so. There seem to be a lot of stereotypes that remain in some people’s belief systems. Even within a metropolitan area there can be significant cultural and political differences.</p>
<p>One of my first forays east of the Sierras was a business trip fresh out of college. Spent 2 weeks in D.C. Now, I’ve always loved crab … so one evening I walked into one of the many crab shacks and placed my order. When the plate arrived I was very confused. It was not clear how one was supposed to peel the shells off of these very small, skinny looking crablike creatures. I slyly looked around to see what the other patrons were doing and was flabbergasted that they were eating the WHOLE DARN thing! </p>
<p>Up until that day I had only encountered dungeness crab, which one takes great care to shell…never the soft shell variety.</p>
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<p>Amen, sister. I find nothing friendly about the fakey-fake chitchat when we all know darn well that the cashier doesn’t really give a darn about me and my family, but just wants to ring me up and move on. I find it far more considerate just to ring me up quickly and efficiently so you can move to the next customer and so I can move back to my day.</p>