<p>whats great about boston? Whats bad about boston?</p>
<p>hey! I lived in Boston for the whole past summer ~2 months!</p>
<p>Well, I got to tell you. Boston is an AWESOME city! There are so much things to see and do that I didn't simply have the time or chance to see. For examples, there are tons of restaurants, events, and shoppings (ie. bookstores) that you could have gone to...and it's much better than living in the middle of nowhere, CT where there isn't much to do. Also, Boston is pretty safe. I felt safe in Boston even I walked on a street at 11 PM on few occasions. The people in Boston are nice and overall, more educated, and you get to meet a lot of other people, especially college students. =)</p>
<p>The downside is that living in Boston is very expensive. The cost of food and everything else is much higher than elsewhere, but if you know where to look, you can find great deals, such as thrift stores to get nearly new clothes.</p>
<p>I love Boston, and I enjoyed living here during college so much that I stayed for grad school. :)</p>
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Whats bad about boston?
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<p>The weather.
The weather.
The weather. I am from the South, can you tell?
In the summer, when I actually like the weather (much milder than what I grew up with) as long as I can escape from it when I want, I <em>can't</em> escape from it, because there's hardly any air conditioning.
Boston drivers.
The lack of street signs and general confusing-ness of the road system.
The cost of living, and especially the cost of housing.
The remnants of the Blue Laws.</p>
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whats great about boston?
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<p>Most other things. It's relatively safe for a major city. It is the only place I've lived with reasonable public transit. It's geographically compressed, so you can walk many places. It's full of history. It's progressive. There are a lot of colleges, and it's an intellectual area without being pretentious. Despite their reputation to the contrary, most people are actually nice if they aren't behind the wheel of a car at the time. There's a lot going on.</p>
<p>jessiehl-funny, I was going to say the weather is one of the great things! You get both a hot summer and a cold, quality winter. Plus, it's New England-if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes, it'll change. </p>
<p>I guess I'm a little biased though. I lived in Boston for most of my life, and then moved to New Hampshire, and I really can't imagine enjoying living anywhere else but New England. But really, Boston is terrific. The driving's not even THAT bad if you've done it for a while and are used to it (of course that pretty much means you have to be a native).</p>
<p>Cost of living is definitely one of the downsides up here. I'm used to Texas, where we can get movie tickets for $7, and all of a sudden I get up here and tickets end up being $10-12? Food feels cheaper down south too, and I always hate trying to buy things for daily use because it feels like I spend way more than I should.</p>
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...all of a sudden I get up here and tickets end up being $10-12?
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<p>While it's not nearly as sleek as the Boston Common AMC theater or other biggies (more quaint and historic), you can get them a lot cheaper (depending on the day of the week and whether it's a matinee, $5-$8) at Somerville Theater in Davis Square. Also, if you are 21+, you can buy beer or wine at the concession stand.</p>
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You get both a hot summer and a cold, quality winter.
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<p>I think you mean a lukewarm summer that's just hot enough to make the lack of air conditioning annoying (the first half of that, I don't actually mind - I grew up with the really hot summers, but don't love that), and a horrible freezing winter of doom that lasts for most of the year, where the snow is nice at first but then sticks around until it has become disgusting and many-times-refrozen and saturated with grime and asphalt. :D</p>
<p>(It is always fun, at a school where people come from pretty much all possible climates, to mock everyone else's complaints about the weather, and take it in good fun when they mock yours.)</p>
<p>I thought this past summer was pretty hot - sitting through Pres. Hockfield's speech was pretty much killer for all of us - I had somehow acquired three programs to fan myself with, and that didn't even help, haha.</p>
<p>aw, come on, Vivi, the summer wasn't so bad!! In fact, I thought it was pretty nice and mild...and you should know that TX's summmer is usually hotter than a Bostonian summer, except the first 3 weeks in July was super hot, but it got a lot better towards August. (yes, I know it too, because I am also from Austin, TX)</p>
<p>I agree with pretty much everything everyone else said (minus the weather... WHY HASN'T IT SNOWED YET), but the whole being-a-big-city thing can be a plus or a minus at first. My house back home is in the woods and we have deer and wild turkey and coyotes and whatnot, so transitioning to having my room 2 floors above Memorial Drive (read: really busy street) was a little rough.</p>
<p>God I sound like a hick.</p>
<p>It's an awesome place to go to college, though! Public transportation is awesome and there's pretty much no excuse for not being able to find something to do on the weekends, and I do get a kick out of telling my friends back home that I can lie in my bed and look out on the Boston skyline. :)</p>
<p>Ducktape, I totally lay awake on the 14th floor of MacGregor my first night at MIT because of the car noise. It's different in the country!</p>
<p>Let's go red sox.</p>
<p>I second that. The sox and four seasons make Boston unbeatable.</p>
<p>Except for the Tampa Bay Rays and nice, relatively warm weather year round</p>
<p>I guess I had come to Massachusetts with the mindset that it would be significantly cooler in the summer than back home in Texas, but I was surprised when it ended up being pretty much just as warm during the afternoons. I do need to learn to adjust to the constantly changing weather, though.. having two days of highs in the 60's and then a suddenly 180 to cold and rainy? Not my cup of tea.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I forgot to mention sports! With the Red Sox in full swing (hey, the Rays only had one good year...), the Celtics playing like the best NBA team they used to and always will be, the Pats doing somewhat decent even with Cassel, and the B's finally getting their act back together, who wouldn't want to be a New England sports fan right now? Yeah some people find us obnoxious, but you can't deny true passion.</p>