I certainly don't live in Seattle anymore. Boston (and Eastern Massachusetts) is an entirely different animal.

The Good

• More rural than I thought - more Farms than were expected, not as urban
• Groovy new animals I see fairly often Turkeys! Beavers! Black Squirrels!
• Extra thunderstorms. Seattle has maybe one thunderstorm per year. We've had about 20 in just the past few months
• Actual variable weather. It's warm one day, cool the next. A week can get you snow, hail, warm sun and a windstorm - in that order
• Actual variable landscape. Watching the trees filling in from winter to spring has been great. Can't wait for Fall
• Family nearby, makes a lot of difference

The Bad

• Rudeness - people are initially gruff, then after a few minutes, can become warm and neighborly
• No sense of customer service. Have never been treated so poorly by people in stores and on the phone
• No sense of what a place looks like "from a distance". Out west, most towns or neighborhoods can be seen from a nearby hill, or across the water. Out here, you are either "in a town" or not
• No interesting horizons, No mountains. That lump in the distance is always just a cloud, never a mountain
• Not nearly as health/eco-friendly as Seattle. (Health Food stores are novelties)
• Mosquitos! Ack! They seem to love my West-Coast blood. I'm doomed
• Humidity. Doomed again
• "Taxachussetts" indeed, we're taxed separately on many many things, lots of paperwork and beauracracy.

The Different

• No "unincorporated" areas, all towns abut each other, like a big jigsaw puzzle. Counties seem like meaningless entities here
• My sense of "place" has changed, for example, thinking of Washington DC as "just down there" on a map, rather than "way over there", and "The Ocean" is to the East, not to the West
• No "grids", nothing is laid out evenly, or North-South, or straight (streets, towns, developments, neighborhoods)

The insane (Driving in Eastern Mass)

• Fast! In Seattle, if I drove at 75mph, I'd be flying past everyone, and would get pulled over for sure. Here, if you're going 75mph, you better stay in the right lane - most people will be angrily passing you at 80-95mph!
• Dangerous - always expect the other guy to do the wrong thing, because when they do (and eventually they will), you're prepared
• Left turn aggressiveness. Need to make a left turn across traffic on a two-lane road? Hug close to the double-yellow line, and when you're nearly stopped, dip your front-left tire about 2 feet into the oncoming lane, to show them you are serious about wanting to turn left. Sit and glare and wait for your opening
• Idiots on motorcycles. Have seen many candidates for Darwin awards. Example: Two motorcycles, side-by-side, 100mph doing wheelies on I-495 for about 1/2 mile or more
• Hilarious and non-standard signage. Favorite: Warning sign that says "Bad Intersection", Runner up: "Enter here" sign right above the "No Entry" signs at a "T" station
• Cowpath highways - barns and telephone poles encroach into the damn road (don't think I'm exaggerating either), forget about sidewalks or shoulders
• Roads breed aggressiveness (rotaries, long uncontrolled 2-lane highways, too-brief on and off-ramps)
• Auto Insurance - state-controlled, complicated, varies depending on which town you live in (where you "garage" your car)

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