thoughts on New England (Modesto: scorpions, live in, moving to)

[znlwovuhrjw]

Originally Posted by wac_432

It's a nice place to visit for a week or two in the summer. I'd never live there again.

Lived in BOS for 2 years. A miserable frozen wasteland at the end of the world. Had to drive to NYC for fun/flights to anywhere without making a zillion connections.

Go north and it's nothing but rocks and trees with swampy coast. Portland ME is basically a tiny tourist village. It snows (several feet at a go) 9 months out of the year and swelters for 2 of the remaining months. There's a really expensive "high speed" train that gets you to NYC or DC a little slower than the $15 Chinese-run buses.

People are nasty, boring, and poorly traveled. The higher education system is great, but it's mostly used by people who come in, get a degree, and leave. MA taxes are high and favor the very wealthy.

The roads are in terrible shape, and follow cow paths. Work is hard to come by. Houses are ancient, leaky, and built on "fieldstone"--which is apparently just random garbage mortared together.

The surf sucks, and the ocean is frigid most of the year.

Glad to be done with it.

Lol Boston.

In Maine it is 60 degrees right now, misty, and not humid. In the midst of summer, I'll count that an extreme win over 100 degree humid California.

Locals say "6 months out of the year" winter, but I call it 4 months.

The word "drought" and "hot" will never exist here, thus never will there be a high electric bill for AC.

As for jobs, already have two internship options to start out at $12/hr while going to UMO on top of gas priced at $2.48/gal, with plenty of work to be found since just about everyone is hiring and not for the tourist season jobs.

My house was built in 1988, has no leaks, and we get a 70mb/s time warner cable connection for half of what we paid on Comcast in Modesto, CA.

I have yet to see a part of the I-95 that has pot holes, except when you crossover into Massachusetts.

[wac_432]

LOL, only people in BOS even know Maine exists. We pay our illegals better than $12/hour. I guess that's a lot of money in places like ME and Afghanistan, though.

So congrats on your big job offer!

[recycled]

I lived in New Jersey in the early 1990s for 3 years, and took most of my summer & fall vacations in New England. My ancestors arrived in Connecticut & Massachusetts in 1634, so I have 10+ generations of roots in New England.

Coastal New England is a great place to explore - almost endless things to see & do. Down east Maine, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard. New London. I could easily spend the summer in Belfast, ME on Penobscot Bay. I like the motto they have in Maine - "The way life should be".

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by mvpsharky

What do people from Cali thing about New England? just curious .

Had a brief visit recently (Manchester by the Sea/Salem area--not the entire region). It was lovely...very safe, very pretty, quaint, but seemed a tad insular and not particularly diverse, imo.

Food in general wasn't half as good as I could find on the West Coast/Bay Area though (with the exception of the raw oysters---excellent!) Nice place to visit--would love to definitely go back and explore more!

[UB50]

I like New England. It's a lot like California -- land diversity, people diversity, good food, good shopping, close to cultural things, etc.

[owl6969]

can get cold as **** up there

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by mvpsharky

What do people from Cali thing about New England? just curious .

Might want to find the Colombia forum for that.

[opossum_]

Black flies, ticks, gnats and mosquitos. North Maine Woods. "Live free or die"

[blueskywalker]

Originally Posted by opossum_

Black flies, ticks, gnats and mosquitos. North Maine Woods. "Live free or die"

"live free or die" is new hampshire.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by kingdomkz

In Maine it is 60 degrees right now, misty, and not humid. In the midst of summer, I'll count that an extreme win over 100 degree humid California.

The word "drought" and "hot" will never exist here, thus never will there be a high electric bill for AC.

The hottest I have ever been was during a week in June in Lisbon Falls, Maine. It was so hot and so humid in a way that I have never experienced in California. We were there for a wedding, in which my husband was a groomsman. It was so hot and stifling in this tiny old stone church that I was really concerned that some of the guys in their tuxes would pass out. The people there certainly would not have high A/C bills because none of them had A/C, except for a few feeble window units. We couldn't even sleep at night.

A couple of days after the wedding we drove all the way north through Maine to Canada. The heat broke, but only because it rained steadily for 24 hours. I'm sure Maine is beautiful, but all I saw were glimpses of wet trees through the rain.

Now, I haven't been to Maine in the other three seasons, but our summers here are mild compared to what I experienced that time. Today was the first 100 degree day of the summer in my town and it was not humid at all. It's already mid-August, so I consider that a win.