[QUOTE=fetus]
Compactness, busses, sure–but what about the cyanide-laced tea? :eek:
<snip>
Eh cyanide laced tea. Didn’t hear of that but it may explain my brain rot. Oddly enough the terrahertz physics group used cyanide in the fabrication of some hi tech dowiddys. They kept a fridge full of amy nitrate and a sign on the door saying ‘if you smell almonds leave now or don’t.’
OK, I’ll play.
Johnstown, PA (0-27)
Likes: green hills, cool summers, gorgeous scenery just outside of town, lots of railroading to look at (long-time hobby)
Dislikes: average age 65+, slowly turning into ghost town, winters are horrible
Denver, CO (27-32)
Likes: long views, great drinking establishments, lots of trains (during the period I lived there), Rocky Mountains within easy striking distance
Dislikes: utterly soulless eastern suburbs, had to go to a golf course if you wanted to to see a tree, brownness and biting cold of winters, too many violent yahoos milling around for my taste
Oxnard, CA (32-33)
Likes: perfect weather every day, a one-block walk to the beach, Santa Barbara one hour north, El Lay one hour south, Pedro’s burrito kiosk a half-block away
Dislikes: perfect weather every damn day, a certain lack of emotional depth evident in many residents, expensive, grinding poverty of many
Following the Oxnard stint, I then spent a bit of time in Houston, back to Denver, Johnstown, and lived out of a suitcase for a short time before washing up in:
Paris. France (35-45)
Likes: the usual; the wine, the cheese, the restaurants, the museums, bla bla bla; can walk everywhere, 300 movie choices every day in the theaters, nice parks, art, hanging out with young artists
Dislikes: expensive; noise, dirt, french tight-sphincteredness, depressing endless grey winters, did you know young artists can be rather self-centered?
Pottstown, PA (45-48)
Likes: the absolute best apartment in the entire frickin’ world, I’m not kidding; proximity to Philly, NY and other population centers without actually being in the megaplex; great radio station (WXPN), lots of fun drives to take in every direction
Dislikes: bar none, the dullest town in the northeast corridor
Houston (well, the Woodlands), TX (48-52)
Likes: mild winters; quiet, forested (duh) location, great music, decent bars, relatively good food for the States, hanging out on the Ship Channel watching boats and birds, spectacular, wrath-of-god thunderstorms; for no obvious reason seem to do better with the women here than anyplace else I’ve ever lived
Dislikes: the usual; summer heat/humidity, flatness, bugs the size of Buicks, gotta drive miles to go anywhere and fight traffic to do it, right-wing, fundamentalist cement-heads everywhere you turn, bla bla bla; 300 crappy radio stations.
Rosamond, CA (0-7ish)
**Lancaster, CA **(7-10, 17-Present)
Awesome visibility - amazing sunsets and sunrises
It’s where I was born
It’s an hour from LA (yes, this is a positive for me), an hour from the beach, an hour from a ski resort (throw in a few more for Big Bear) a few hours from Yosemite, and 4-5 hours from Vegas.
Some of the best motorcycling around is close to here - all the canyons, Angeles Crest, etc. There’s Willow Springs nearby too, but We Are Road People.
A little, but not too much, variation in weather.
Tweekers
12 hours from Mom
In the same county as Sperm Donor
Commuter Culture in general.
Too much freakin’ dust.
Durango, CO (10-14)
TREES!
Green!
Always somewhere to go hiking, mountainbiking, horseback riding, camping, &c.
Awesome K-12 education - very important during my formative pre-teen years.
Touristy, therefore expensive
Snow, blech.
Not enough jobs
Too many nutjobs
Grand Junction, CO (14-17)
My Mom and Stepdad, Sister, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle, and Best Friend all live there.
It’s a good jumping-off point to anywhere on the Western Slope of CO.
Houston, TX: 0-2 years or so
During that time, our house was broken into while the neighbors watched while my sister, I think, was in the house. Then, we were packing to move during a tornado or something. Fun!
A town less than an hour south of Pittsburgh, called Bunola, I’ve visited off and on throughout my life enough so that one could say that I have lived there. It’s mostly good for nostalgia reasons and for the culture. It just feels good there.
The problem is that it is a small town too far away from Pittsburgh. Want to go fishing, watch a baseball game, or try to jump on trains? Hey, why not. Want to do anything else? Move north.
Morgantown, WV: 2ish to 6ish
From what I remember, it was like living in Bunola without actually living in Bunola. But I was a kid, so it was awesome just having friends to eat dirt and attempt to pave driveways with.
And then, from 6ish to 18ish I moved to three different places around Greensboro, so I’ll just talk about Greensboro.
I love it here, it’s probably the first place that feels like home. It’s a large enough city to have something to do, but it isn’t so large that you never lose the feeling of knowing that you could be friends with every single person if you wanted to. It is also extremely safe, clean, and free of almost any homeless people.
The problem is that it has no culture, no identity, and a complete dearth of anything worth doing. No good music comes through, we barely have Thai or Indian places to eat, and the place just shuts down at night.
Finally, I’ll be moving to Atlanta in the fall, to Gatech. Every indication is that I’ll love Atlanta, but Gatech is a different matter. We’ll see how it goes.
Forgot to add, Sublight - a good friend from college worked in Hamamatsu for a long time. An American woman who relished having salarymen not know quite how to pigeonhole her as a Japanese-fluent but very American, very smart businesswoman. She loved the town, too.
A not-quite complete list in random order of places I’ve lived:
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Weather, architecture, atmosphere
Trams (Can we not get a decent public transportation system in what used to be the “world’s most liveable city”?)
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Natural surroundings, multiculturalism, food, rain (believe it or not!)
Some disconcerting attitudes towards immigrants (atypical yet disturbing)
Kangnung, Korea
The people, food, tranquility
Tiny fishing town, nothing to do, fish smell permeated the air
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Shrimp fishing, ease of travel to other countries, friends I made
Scooters, pollution, food
Ulsan, Korea
Not much unfortunately, food I guess
Crazy drivers, weather, Hyundai Kingdom
Tokyo, Japan
The trains, safety, sheer number of things to see and do, food
The trains, endless 12 hour work days
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Weather, sense of history in the city, La Cancha, cacho
Manipulative bitch of a boss
Peterborough, ON, Canada
City layout, trees in autumn
Weather (too bloody cold)
Next? Who knows, but I’m off to London the first two weeks of September so maybe there.
I also wanted to use up my year’s supply of smilies in one post. I’m now good until 2007.
Anyone get my reference? Anyone?
Er, what?
Er, what? Salarymen?
:eek: Really? Do tell. I always thought Vancouver was a hippie paradise with a bleeding heart. What’s the Straight Dope?
The donator of half of my genetics. My father, to use the genteel term.
Oh. I thought I had missed some pop culture reference, and you were talking about a baseball star who had infamously spooged on a mascot during the seventh-inning stretch or something.
A Small Town in the Middle Of Farm Country, Southern Ontario, Canada, 0-3
Like: It had a fairground with a fall fair every year. We always went, for years. In the winter, the river froze solid enough for everyone to go skating on it. There are pictures of me at age 3, in my snowsuit and mittens and skates, being held up by my mom, on the river. The town had its own newspaper, and for a spell, I used to visit their plant and watch the pages being manually typeset, with backward letters they made from boiled lead (I think).
Dislike: Nothing in particular. Very provincial. The population was mainly farmers and gypsum miners. Used to living a very old way of life.
Another Even Smaller Town, details as above, 3-16
Like: It was idyllic small-town life for awhile when I was growing up. It was a town with one stoplight, and more of farmers and gypsum miners and limestone quarrymen. They built a grain elevator at the end of my street, on the railroad tracks. Very isolated from the world.
Dislike: It was very isolated, as I mentioned. And insular. As I got older, I became aware of a bunch of things going on that were not pretty, and it got to where I had to leave. I had had a taste of large cities, and it only reinforced how isolated I was in this town, and how backward the people seemed to be, and contented to be that way. There was nothing for them to do but get drunk to some gawdawful country band at one of the three hotels, or the Legion. I wanted something else.
Hamilton, Ontario, 16-38 for various stretches
Like: This is where I was born. I consider it to be my hometown. I like how it’s laid out. I like the view from Mountain Brow. I always liked how there was so much going on, in so many places. You could go so many places that interested you, you could never be bored. It was where I played in my first group. I knew a lot of characters and had some wild times in that town. My grandparents lived there, and some of my relatives on their side of the family, and Christmases were always at their house, with dozens of people. There is a good support network for people down on their luck there (there are an abundance of such people). Or at least there was.
Dislike: I also had some fairly hellacious times in that town, too. It’s very hard to get work in, and keep, because there are so many applicants, they can pick and choose at will. Many times I was hired for a probationary period of 60 days, and on day 59 they’d lay you off indefinitely. That way, you couldn’t get Unemployment Insurance. Several times I tried to make a go of it in Hamilton, but it didn’t work out so well. So I moved to…
Toronto, Ontario, various stretches 18-31
Like: Everything, all the time. Whatever you are looking for, it’s there, in abundance. It’s my favorite place. I had some extremely cool times in that town. I met low people in high places, and high people in low places. I could write a book about my experiences in Toronto, but I won’t.
Dislike: It’s the place where everybody goes to try and eke out a living. But it’s so hard. Everybody wants the same thing you want. All the scam artists and criminals go there to prey on people. Being poor in Toronto is, well I don’t want to bring you down. As I got older, I really grew to dislike winter in Ontario. I dreaded it coming more every year. I really hate being frozen. So I just happened to get the opportunity to move to:
Tallahassee, Florida, USA, 38-47 (present)
Like: Everything so far. It’s a small city, but it has about everything we need now. The rest, we can get on the internet. It takes about 20 minutes to get across town to where you’re going. It’s a beautiful city, carved out of the forest, rather than the way they do in Canada, raze an area, build a development and plant new trees. It is incredibly lush and green here, and there are lots of flowering trees and plants. The people seem friendly. I found work twice here, without problem. My second job is my dream gig - I’m back working in radio, which I did many years ago.
Dislike: I can’t complain. What? It’s freakin’ hot? That’s not news. It’s the price I pay for it not being cold in the winter, at least by the previous standard. I haven’t really encountered much unpleasantness here. I can see myself staying, since my wife has a good job with the state. I have, too, but I need an upgrade in status to get the job for life. When I get that, we’ll be all set, and buy a house.
Ah, yes. It’s one of the many English loanwords in Japanese that don’t exist in English. (other examples: Y-shirts, dead balls and pocket bells). It doesn’t take long for them to creep into your vocabulary.
A ‘Salaryman’ is just a general term for men (and only men, the term hasn’t really evolved to fit women’s lib) who have full-time office jobs, as opposed to factory or service-sector jobs. It’s not derogatory, but it does conjure up an image of faceless trudging masses in slightly unkempt suits and ties, wrapped in a soft haze of alcohol breath and cigarette smoke.
*Y-shirt: long-sleeve shirt (no connection to T-shirt, it’s a contraction of “white shirt” from back when western clothes first arrived). Dead ball: (baseball) batter hit by a pitch. Pocket bell: pager.
Birth to 12
Four different towns in Germany - my Dad was a teacher for the British Forces schools there.
Liked: Germany! It was wonderful, and for me, home. Watching the poor German kids slogging to school on Saturday mornings.
Disliked: Not being able to speak the language properly, not being fully integrated with our neighbours (we always lived in town but of course the other kids were German and on a German timetable, so it got lonely sometimes.)
12 - 16ish(though my parents lived there till I was in my early 20s so I had to go back occasionally)
A small island off the coast of England, population 120 or so.
Likes: It was very beautiful.
Dislikes: Can be summed up in one word - incestuous. Possibly literally and certainly socially. I was a “furriner” and we were never, ever accepted. Because the island was so small after elementary the kids had to board weekly on the main island, where I was miserable and bullied by kids and staff alike.
16-18
Penzance, Cornwall, England
I lived with a seaside landlady as a source of year round income so that I could go to high school.
Likes: The area was beautiful and I walked and walked and walked till I knew the surrounding area intimately. Sun, sea, sand… In the winter big storms. The house I lived in was about 100 yards from the beach. Very dramatic!
Dislikes: I was very lonely. If I was sick or worried about exams or study there was no-one to turn to. My brother was also in the same town and college but we only saw each other in passing. We were at a very low ebb in our relationship and he could hardly bear to acknowledge that we were even related. I also had no-one to answer to so I led a very free and easy life in terms of not studying enough and too many boys… (Well, it eased the loneliness.)
18-22 Manchester England
College time.
Likes: It is a GREAT city, very young and vibrant yet old and traditional too (from the industrial revolution). The town centre was great for shopping, clubbing, culture, arts, theatre, museums, you name it. The surrounding Peak District was easy to get to and beautiful for hiking (except that I couldn’t afford the bus tickets most times!)
Dislikes: I lived in a dangerous area and I can honestly say that while it didn’t stop me going out, I was constantly frightened. In the end I was only robbed once.
22-24 Witney, Oxfordshire, England
Likes: A beautiful little town, VERY friendly people, a beautiful old house to live in with only one roomie who were both (one one year, one the next) really nice people. I loved my life there. Oxford was 40 minutes on the bus and offered all that you can imagine Oxford would.
Dislikes: Didn’t like the job I was doing. Well, I liked the job, but hated my direct supervisor, who could have done, in the words of my mother, “With a good bonk on the National Health”. Frustrated spinster, she was… Spilled over into all aspects of her life. Put up with her for two years then escaped, seeing as she was going nowhere.
25 - 28 Asahikawa Japan
Liked: The mountains, the cold and snow (a great novelty for any Brit!), the short hot summers, a good bunch of friends, met my future husband there so there are lots of nice memories.
Disliked: The messy streets with wires everywhere, the steel roofs all painted bright blue, wildly coloured and then faded advertising hoardings everywhere (these have begun to reduce in recent years) and my job, after the first couple of years.
28-30 Matsumoto Japan
Liked: The mountains, the plains, the views, the traditions but yet it was a modern thriving small city, - everything. I LOVED my job, and my friends. It was the best time of my life.
Disliked: That I had to leave, but my husband got transferred and I was very pregnant anyway, and didn’t want to work for a while. So it was good timing really, I got the most out of my two years there.
30-33 Gotemba Japan
Liked: Living literally on the slopes of Mt Fuji (we lived about 10 minutes from the point at which you start climbing the mountain, which is actually about half way up if you are being picky.) The tea fields, the greenery, the views.
Disliked: Desperately lonely. Thanks to moving when I was about to produce, but then actually going to stay with MIL in Hokkaido for two months for the birth, and then heading into winter with a newborn, I didn’t go out much and there was little chance to meet people. I only made one friend in the entire three years. It also suffered from the “Umbrella effect” of being too near Tokyo with the result that shopping and hospitals were absolute crap.
33-34 Back to Matsumoto - woop de doo!! Oh frabjous day!!!
A year and a half of bliss. (Give or take!)
35-37 A very tiny town, so tiny that if I say it would identify me, in the far north east of Hokkaido
Liked; The greenery, mountains, BEARS!! and a relaxed lifestyle for the kids. Friendly people, nice schools.
Disliked: Getting snowed in. My friend’s single storey house was literally buried one winter. We spent a miserable three weeks digging snow almost constantly so that our stove outlets wouldn’t clog and gas us. We being the women in our apartments because the men were all out digging out the town.
38- now A small town near Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido
Likes: LOVE our house, which is ours. Live near inlaws so that we see them often but not for very long at a time! We can go home (or they can) when we get fed up with each other. Like the sense of family as this is hubs hometown and his family are well known in this tiny area. I have my own business which is going well (a small English school) and the kids are settled and happy in excellent school/kindy.
Dislike: It’s a bit too urban. Though we have a big house and a HUGE garden by Japanese standards, it is small for me as a Brit. (Well, our land is average to good for an English town but our street is narrow) I don’t like looking out of my kitchen window onto our neighbour’s house. The three years we have lived separate from my husband, who was waiting to be transferred. He’s moving here next week - yeah! (eek - it’s like being newly wed again, and this is MY house. I hope he doesn’t expect to put HIS junk everywhere… There’s going to be some adjusting on all our parts.)
The place sucked, although I met a friend there who was like a brother. Crickets by the billions, black widow spiders, hotter than hades, fertilizer hanging in the air. It was like RVN without the humidity and bullets. The height of ‘woohoo’ was to go to a restaurant in Hanford (motto: cough) that served Chinese food in half the place and American in the other. The place literally had zero going for it, and we escaped at every opportunity.
Why yes. . .I am. For I am. . .Everyman.
I’ve been to Tel Aviv, and was always happy to go back up to Jerusalem at the end of the day. T-A is, imho, an ugly city, with all those concrete bunker-style buildings. And it is SO HOT and HUMID, blech.
Not to mention, a trip to Tel Aviv usually requires a journey through the central bus station, one of hell’s outposts on earth.