East Coast vs. West Coast

I spent last week away from my cozy home in suburban Philadelphia, and was all the way across the country in Olympia, Washington for a conference. Olympia is about an hour south of Seattle and might honestly be one of the most beautiful areas I've ever seen. I couldn't help but notice some major differences between this area and my home back East.

I am a Northerner, a true Jersey girl. With the exception of 2 years in graduate school, I have never lived outside of the New York or Philadelphia metro areas. I loved my time as a graduate student in Virginia, and was happy to get to know another part of the country. Southerners are just so sweet and friendly, but it took some getting used to. Everything is sooooooo slow, and it feels like there's nothing to do. As much as I loved it down there, I was often aching to go back to the craziness and activity of home.

Those who live in the Northeast (which I'm defining as the Boston/New England area down to Washington DC, and about as far west as Pittsburgh) are very different from the rest of the country. Quite frankly, we don't like anybody. We don't trust strangers, we're always stressed out because of traffic and congestion, and we always need to get where we're going a ridiculous hurry. Yet in my limited experience with the rest of the country, it seems that people in the South, Midwest, and West Coast are (gasp!) NICE! It's shocking at first, but I found it to be quite refreshing.

One thing I noticed about Olympia (and possibly Washington State in general) was a strong focus on environmental issues and vegan/organic lifetsyles. Nearly every restaurant we looked at had several vegan options, and even the microbrewery we went to served organic beer. (Wish I could have had some!)

The folks of Olympia also seem to be much more liberal when it comes to, um, chemical enhancement. (Translation - the city is a bunch of stoners.) We passed by a restaurant with a huge sign that read "NO ALCOHOL OR DRUGS". You know you're in a special place when the banning of already illegal substances needs to be clearly spelled out.

The people are interesting too. We were walking towards the microbrewery when this random guy comes up to someone in our group (one of the most unassuming guys you'll ever meet) and says, "Dude, I bet you 5 bucks I can hit you harder than you can hit me!" Yeah, cause that's a bet you want to take. Needless to say, we kept on walking, chuckling to ourselves. I guess he must have been kicked out of the NO ALCOHOL OR DRUGS place.

All in all, it was a great experience, but I must admit I was happy to come back to the humidty, traffic, and general crabbiness of Philadelphia. Welcome home.




The incredible Mt. Rainier, which is simply amazing.