Girls

[Kullervo]

But I mean, you're saying you want to move out of Florida, right? What city would you want to live in?

Boston. I lived there for a while a few years ago and fell in love with the city.

[Sarastro]

There's only work and school, every single day- maybe with a day off every month or two, and 5 days to relax from Winter Break.

Well, as I have already written, this might be taken as an advantage as well - read book, listen to music, learn... and then you'll have plenty of time to use such "luggage of knowledge" in your life. I personally must study languages as well and listen to more music, but I post here and couple other forums and collect units for transfer.

Exactly the problem. People here don't care at all about anything outside of their deed-restricted community. The same is, of course, roughly true for city dwellers, but at least the higher concentration of people makes it more likely one will find someone on their wavelength.

As for me, I'm getting out as soon as I can, and I'm not going to let mediocre community college classes delay me. A friend of mine said to me, "safety is an illusion and one can find it just about anywhere."

Well, the attitude towards life and your neighbours is entirely different in Europe, especially in homogenous communities - they know their neighbours, make friends with them, sometimes make quarrels   but they live in community. I was shocked when I came to the US by such isolation and indifference. I wouldn't touch the Welfare system in other countries which has its roots in the way they treat each other.

I certainly wouldn't call community college classes mediocre (though...), at least for my major - mathematics has not changed that much, unlike medicine - and two times two is still four. Moreover, I communicate with people and learn new things there. If not for the first semester of English, my GPA would have been impeccable, but somehow I am happy with what I have and plan to go to a good university. And again, the time at university may be used to learn many things about life and people, and after you are in a "free flight" - go wherever you want. I certainly cannot go anywhere now. But that's an inevitable stage of my life.

[greg]

I personally must study languages

what languages are you learning?

[Sarastro]

what languages are you learning?

At the moment - none (except English, of course!). But I should study Italian and German...can't decide which one first. Anyway, I have taken my load of classes for the spring semester.

[greg]

hmmm... Italian might be easier, though German might be more rewarding- well, at least for me it would be.

[Haffner]

But I should study Italian and German...can't decide which one first. 

Those are the languages I studied (am still learning!). They are very rewarding languages to learn. Italian is the real lingue d'amore.

[Bulldog]

I think the problem is that 78 (or more? don't remember) % of the American population resides in Suburban Hell. It actually has its pluses for people who do not care at all and want just to work, get home, and relax; however, if you need theatres and museums, it becomes quite a problem.

If you live in suburbia and need theatres/museums, all you have to do is drive into the big city.  Is that a problem?

[Sarastro]

Is that a problem?

If you have to drive three or four hours in one direction - that is a problem.

[Bulldog]

If you have to drive three or four hours in one direction - that is a problem.

I don't know about a suburban area being a few hours removed from the city - too distant.

[DavidW]

I don't know about a suburban area being a few hours removed from the city - too distant.

Yeah he must have meant rural instead of suburban.  And he also has his statistics flipped around.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0884086.html

[Sarastro]

Yeah he must have meant rural instead of suburban. And he also has his statistics flipped around.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0884086.html

No, I meant suburban. If you had ever lived in Los Angeles, you would know that sometimes it might take up to four hours to cover the distance that should usually take an hour - due to the constant traffic and jam on the freeway. I didn't say a word about the situation of the area.

"Metropolitan area" in your link accounts for suburban areas as well; the percentage is virtually the same I gave. I took it from my Political Science text book.

And this is from your link:

In 2000, 80.3% of Americans (226 million people) lived in metropolitan areas, up slightly from 79.8% (198.4 million people) in 1990. (A metropolitan area is a city plus the adjacent communities to which it is linked economically.)

"adjacent communities" means suburban area, I assume.

Another quote:

Western and southern cities grew the fastest, while urban industrial centers in the Midwest and Northeast declined in population.

What is "flipped around"?

[DavidW]

No, I meant suburban. If you had ever lived in Los Angeles, you would know that sometimes it might take up to four hours to cover the distance that should usually take an hour - due to the constant traffic and jam on the freeway. I didn't say a word about the situation of the area.

Even LA has mass transit, there is no excuse for coming up with such a peculiar example!  And Southern California > LA.  Many people from that area have a bad habit of identifying the entire region as LA.  It's not.  If you really live in the LA area, I bet you really live in one of the large neighboring cities, which really shouldn't really be classified as suburban.

[Sarastro]

Even LA has mass transit, there is no excuse for coming up with such a peculiar example! 

I came with my personal experience example. Last I time I experienced it was last Tuesday. My friend now lives in Orange county and attends USC, but he was literally forced to re-make his schedule so that he would visit the university two times per week because it takes him a considerable amount of time to go there and be in traffic, though it's not too distant from his house.

Yes, LA has mass transit... ... and from my personal experience I understand why people avoid using it. Of course, the first reason is they have cars, but more than that there are two more: you need to have plenty of time to use the mass transit system in LA, say, you are retired and do not have to be at work at certain time, or at school, etc., and second - which sometimes causes the first - buses are terrible in their run and corresponding to the schedule. Maybe I am just so unlucky, but couple of times I had to wait for three hours for the bus which didn't even bother to come. Some people even left the stop and went away. That applies only to neighbouring cities, as you mentioned. The downtown LA itself is not bad with mass transit at all. But who wants to live in downtown LA? It is dirty and not safe.

If you really live in the LA area, I bet you really live in one of the large neighboring cities, which really shouldn't really be classified as suburban.

Thank God I don't live there anymore, but I did, you are right. I lived close to North Hollywood.

I have been to San Francisco and New York and must say the style there is entirely different. I bet Corey would add Boston. Most of the LA area itself is a big village. With all my respect, I think it is utter suburbia: shopping malls, schools, and residential areas. The only positive side of such a huge monster is that it attracts somewhat good exhibitions, and some of the leading opera singers of the world, if they come to the US, sometimes sing in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I had a chance to hear Domingo, Furlanetto, Villazon, Schrott, Kampe, Mattila, Pons, and even the loathsome Netrebko.
What about museums, the permanent exhibitions in LA and in San Francisco suck, though occasionally the museums have good exhibitions brought from other places. But in Europe even in small towns' museums you can see paintings and sculptures of great masters of the past.

Let's ask Corey, anyway, how much of art he gets in Florida.

[DavidW]

Yeah Boston is very different from LA!  I'd take the train in to go visit the MFA and it was very convenient and easy going.  The subways ran like clockwork and I never had problems going from A to B to C.  No experience with the bus system though.

Three hour waits for the bus sounds awful!

[Kullervo]

Let's ask Corey, anyway, how much of art he gets in Florida.

I don't know about the larger cities like Jacksonville or Miami, but I'm willing to bet that their museums pale beside ones in cities elsewhere with a similar population. Those are hours away from where I live, anyway.

[greg]

I don't know about the larger cities like Jacksonville or Miami, but I'm willing to bet that their museums pale beside ones in cities elsewhere with a similar population. Those are hours away from where I live, anyway.

I spent the first 6 or so years in my life in Jacksonville, and used to go up there with my parents all the time when my grandma was alive (up to only about 3 years ago), and what I have is that most of it is a pretty trashy city. That's all I know , at least- I couldn't imagine them having any good museums. Never been to Miami, although I'm seriously considering moving there in a year or two, but based on impressions, I couldn't imagine there being any good museums or concert halls there.

I have to say Orlando isn't so bad, but that's the only real city I've actually been to, and it's still small. I've been to some of the museums, but only so long ago I can't remember what it was like.  The concert hall is okay... I wonder how the new conductor is doing. Programming doesn't look too exciting, again..

[Kullervo]

Orlando is like one big suburb with terrible traffic and nothing interesting. Same thing everywhere: Wal-Mart, strip malls, hotels, banks. I would hate to live there.

[greg]

There's a couple interesting thing there, like the Science center and the TD Waterhouse center to watch Magic games, although sadly I still haven't  . The library kicks ass, too. I've been inside the top secret behind the scenes areas of it that only employees could access. It felt like being a spy. 


The city is pretty trashy, though.... I wonder what Miami is like. Never been there or Jacksonville, huh?

[Kullervo]

I've been to Miami once, it seemed okay, but it had the same "plasticky" feel that most places in Florida have. I guess it would be fun if you like to shop for ridiculously expensive clothes. 

[Sarastro]

I guess it would be fun if you like to shop for ridiculously expensive clothes. 

When humans have money, they also have an urge to show it.

Good luck with Boston, Corey!