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Another thing that surprises East Coasters from more "mouthy" areas -- Mainers don't feel the need to fill the air with sound. The loud music is not Mainer, as you mentioned, nor the beeping. The loud talking either, or talking at all. If they don't talk much to you, don't take it personally.
When I'm in NY, where I unfortunately live part-time, after I've been in Maine I feel like the volume and quantity of talking on the street, subway, restaurants, everywhere is just maddening and crazy-making.
Birdy, the best skill to learn in NYC is the ability to mentally screen out frequencies of the human voice. I am very happy to have mastered this. I'll be on the subway or elevator and my wife will say "Do you believe that person just said???!" And I have no idea what she is referring to, b/c I didn't hear it. Obviously this doesn't work with screaming and fighting people, but you can manage to block out most of it...
I'm new to Maine and still working on exactly how I feel about it. But I realize that if I have to live on the east coast, I might as well give myself a break and live in Maine where frankly there are less people! If you're from a sizable city you can probably relate, so here's some random comments-
Community: I am not much of a people-person -- that said, however, I am still more of one than the average Mainer. Today the bus driver got out for his break after me and we introduced ourselves. I tried to start up a conversation but when I looked back he said "ok have a good one" and that was that. Still getting used to the Mainers' art of conversation! But it sure is nice to feel comfortable with people in general, even just to introduce yourself, whereas back in NYC I would just try my darnedest to ignore the skeezy dudes on the street and in passing cars trying to weasel their way into my life/pants. None of that in Maine at all, even the construction workers! -- love. it.
Crime: I hear tons about the bath salts here, yadda yadda, but just as anywhere, you have to find your niche. Just don't hang out in the bad part of town with the druggies, and you'll probably be just fine. Nothing terrible ever happened to me in NY, and nothing here in Maine either because I know what to avoid.
Work: ...
Culture-shock for city-folk: To be honest, I had a few strange experiences all in my first month here that scared me in that guess-I-picked-the-wrong-place-to-live-after-all type of way, including some road rage from Maine drivers, a couple of attempted break-ins, welfare-y neighbors, drinking/smoking, and real tough time finding work. But once I got past that hurdle where I expected life to be easier than in the big city (life ain't easy in Maine, for sure!), I settled in a bit more.
So yep, all this in the Bangor area, and I bet it only gets better from here on out.
Eh...the road rage...that could have been me. Were you driving really slow?
Or me....gulp....or maybe you were texting/talking on your phone.
Maybe it's a good time to say that Maine has a law against this, but it's called the "Distracted Driving" Law. Like the driver that smacked into Stephen King while distracted by his dogs, that would fall under the same law as text-driving.
Or me....gulp....or maybe you were texting/talking on your phone.
Maybe it's a good time to say that Maine has a law against this, but it's called the "Distracted Driving" Law. Like the driver that smacked into Stephen King while distracted by his dogs, that would fall under the same law as text-driving.
Didn't need a 'new' law, old one still worked- it's called 'negligent operation', covers everything from drinking your coffee to fiddling with the radio to fiddling with...er, nevermind...right on up to texting and anything else. If you ain't paying attention to the road, you're wrong.
Eh...the road rage...that could have been me. Were you driving really slow?
Actually I was stopped at a red-arrow light, so I could not turn right however my biggest fan behind me tended to disagree and leaned on her horn gesticulating for a good 2 minutes.
birdinmigration, I'm glad you brought that up about the driving with cellphones. I'm against this and where I'm from this is illegal, so I only assumed it was also illegal in Maine. Is that covered under "Distracted Driving"? Because I see almost every single driver yapping on their phone.
Actually I was stopped at a red-arrow light, so I could not turn right however my biggest fan behind me tended to disagree and leaned on her horn gesticulating for a good 2 minutes.
That's when you look in the rear-view and let them know they're "number 1"
Actually I was stopped at a red-arrow light, so I could not turn right however my biggest fan behind me tended to disagree and leaned on her horn gesticulating for a good 2 minutes. ...
On occasion I have used I-95 exit 186 [the off-ramp puts you onto Stillwater], where they have one straight or left-turn lane and two right-turn lanes. It is all controlled by traffic lights; one light for straight or left over the left lane, and two separate right-turn lights [one over the center lane and one over the right lane].
Twice I have seen folks parking in one of the right-turn only lanes with the right-turn light green but they wait until the right-turn only light turns red and then they go through the intersection straight.
That makes for lots of horn beeping and friendly waving of fingers.
Well. I had written up a great reply to the OP in that thread up there I edited and then, because I have been stressed and beyond tired lately, my mind is apparently gone and I, for some reason, looked at the date of 06/2012 and my mind said, "that was last year".
Ugh! Sleep is very important for people, keep that in mind.
OP, here's basically what I said in reply to you:
I moved from Miami to Maine last May.
Yes, Miami has a lot of culture. Miami is also loud, obnoxious, rude, arrogant, snotty, pretentious and people just plain old don't care much about other people. Some do, most don't. It is also boiling hot 345 days out of the year.
Maine? Not so much. In fact, last year during summer, people here were complaining about the humidity. Prepare to be confused at first, ("What humidity?" I honestly asked), and then amused because, seriously, WHAT humidity?! (But they will get their turn in the winter time to make fun of us because we will be shivering and saying how damn cold that wind is and they'll say, "What cold?" It wasn't that cold this winter but some days that wind was just biting.) And don't be surprised if people ask you if you're hot when you are wearing a sweatshirt on a 70 degree day. Uh, no. I'm not...it's not that warm!
In Maine, people drive slower. If you are used to Miami traffic, this may be difficult to get used to. (I'm still working on my road rage. It still hasn't sunk in that I do NOT have to fight for everything...I'm getting there.) The good news is, most people on the freeway stay to the right so you can actually get around! In town...well...I've seen more older people in Maine than I ever did in "retirement haven" Florida. And they drive slow. And they LOVE to make a career out of turning their cars. So...be patient if you are used to impatient driving in Miami.
I can't remember the last time I heard someone lay on their horn, most especially the millisecond the light turned green. That doesn't happen here and I can't even begin to describe how refreshing that is. You might hear a slight, short, "beep", if the light is green and you're off in La La Land but no one LAYS on their horn the INSTANT the light turns green.
OH and you don't have people flipping you off left and right, either! I have yet to see anyone here, (unlike Miami), getting dressed while they drive, putting on make up while they drive, reading a book on their steering wheel while they drive, turning left from the right lane four lanes over cutting everyone off and then blaring their horn and flipping off everyone. I have seen three people, in total, in an entire year, run a red light. They were not all at the same red light, either. Unlike Miami where you have six more cars go through the red light. So, even though they drive slow, they don't act like they went from donkey and cart to behind the wheel like they do in Miami. If you hate Miami traffic, this will be a wonderful experience for you.
The people...first of all, they speak English! And you don't get an attitude for speaking English! And people don't grunt at you and walk away when you ask a question, such as in a store, for help. They actually HELP! In fact, they approach you and ask you if you need help.
(I know, I should have warned you to be sitting down for this post.)
Kids of all ages, people in general, they say things like, "Excuse me" and "Thank you" and "You're welcome" and...THEY MEAN IT! It's almost too shocking, I know.
The entire dang state is just one big pile of beauty. There's tons to do here if you like nature and outdoor activities. There's lakes and other bodies of water and NO gators! You can actually swim or take your dog for a swim and not worry about walking home with only a half eaten leash left in your hand.
(Course, there's the moose to learn about and they are huge and frankly their hooves and horns scare the crap out of me but thus far, I have not seen a moose. Course, I haven't exactly been out in the woods just yet so there's still time.)
People do not care what you drive. They do not care where you live. They do not care what clothes you wear or where you got them...unless you are telling them how cheap you got them. Bragging about how much money you spend in this area just makes you look like a damn fool, not cool. They don't care about those things because those things are not important.
When people say cliche things like, "down to earth", they probably got that by looking at the people in Maine. Down to earth, in the true sense, is how I would describe most of them.
One thing that you do need to know, however, is something you may not be used to because of being in Miami. Miami is huge, people come from all over, no one cares. We make friends, we work, we have fun, we learn different cultures and that's just how it is. Well, New England in general is known for being...aloof, so to speak, to those "from away". It does happen. It can be frustrating at times. I see that a bit when I'm out and about and I don't know if I'll ever get used to that.
But, not everyone is from Maine and what's interesting to me is that those who are not from Maine still act just like what everyone says Maine is: friendly. Not everyone who is native acts wary of "strangers", it seems to be certain age groups, but just know, it is there. It's not to the point you can't function and plenty of natives are very friendly and don't give a rat's patookis where you come from, they'll just plain old be friendly to you for no dang reason. But, there are some.
Maine vs Miami, Pros and Cons:
Pros: It's not boiling hot 99% of the year. The traffic is way, way, way, way less. It IS cheaper to live here even when you factor in heating oil costs. People are nicer. Every where is gorgeous but apparently, you aren't allowed to just pull over on the side of the freeway and snap photos, like I wanted to do...I guess that's frowned upon. Well then stop being so beautiful, Maine! New and exciting wildlife. You still have the ocean! And you also have forest and!!!!! A mountain! A real mountain! (I miss mountains...FL is just so damn flat!) No gators...I mean, I think they're cute and I miss them but I don't miss them being in the water where I want to swim with my dogs. No loud, bass thumping music booming out of every 3rd car. No horn blaring at every fricken intersection in the entire city. They actually follow the rule, "Stay to the right except to pass". It's more laid back, it's more relaxing, it's more chill, people are not impressed with your "stuff". It's NOT Miami!
Cons: Until I am over it, people drive too slow. And....hmmm. Yah, ok, that's pretty much the cons list.
OH! I almost forgot! When you order Chinese food up here? You don't get BEANS AND RICE in your fricken meal! You get actual fried rice and actual Chinese food...at least what this nation understands to be Chinese food....which we all know black beans and rice is not Chinese food.
Things I miss about Miami: The ocean is absolutely stunning. The colors I have seen in that ocean when the sun hits it just right is indescribable because "beautiful" is too lame a word for it. We have ocean here, it's still wonderful but those colors don't happen here. I miss that. I also miss Cuban sandwiches from Publix. Man those were good. And tres leches. Oh Lord help me, tres leches. Never in my life have I tasted a more perfect dessert. I miss the Everglades and the wildlife...mainly because that was my job and I miss my "regulars" on my tour, (the animals, that is). And while I don't miss hurricanes, I do miss how that did manage to bring such an unruly, angry, bitter, selfish city together.
That's it. I don't miss a thing else. Maine has a lot to offer and if you aren't one of those who has to be around loud, who IS loud, who cares far too much on what you're wearing or driving and you don't need to "go out" every single weekend, Maine has a lot to offer.
It's a breath of fresh air after living in a toxic environment.
Also, finally, something to keep in mind that I have noticed: Mainers, in general, have a very sarcastic sense of humor. If you get offended easily, you should probably just get over it because it's humor. It's my kind of humor so I appreciate it because FINALLY! At LONG last! Someone understands my humor!
I am happy that a year later you are still happy and remain 3 Wolves and have not returned top Gator Mama.
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