'Home Sweet Home'

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:07 am

Fable's weather thread got me to thinking about the city I live in, and the things I like and dislike about it.
For the most part I really enjoy lving in Vancouver. I can go hiking in breathtaking scenary only a few miles from home in the morning, and then go out and eat an amazing meal or take in the nightlife in the evening, it is hard to find something like this all in one place. I also appreciate that the summers are pleasantly temperate, they don't usually get humid and sticky as happens in other parts of the country.

What I don't like? Primarily the rainy winters. Also, I find Vancouver is not as cosmopolitan or culturally diverse as other cities (Montreal is my favourite city in Canada), and it can be a bit provincial for a city of its size.

So what do you like/dislike about the place you live in?

frogus23 · Post by **frogus23** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:36 am

Oxford, England

I like the Cowley Road, home to innumerable pakistani grocers & restaurants, a few new age healing centres, three sex shops, at least two drug-houses, a 'secret' police surveillance hut covered in multi-coloured hand prints, huge ammounts of anarcho-hippy grafitti, the dodgy deli (Oxford's premier out-of-date & underage liquor store), a lapdancing joint, some deceased but dormant Indymedia activist squats, a couple of second hand & costume stores, the Zodiac (best venue in Oxford), two tattoo parlours, a Polish supermarket and a giant copper-domed mosque, not to mention the 24-hour Turkish kebab houses.

I also like the university & pretty bits, which you have probably heard about.

I like the hordes of beautiful Spanish tourists.

I don't like the lairy drunk ugly poncing student population who dress up as golfers, get drunk, act like rah-rah horsy pricks and make the place look like an off-script Harry Potter set (which it is half the year anyway)

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:52 pm

Cocoa, Florida

Well, that's a bit of a misnomer.. I actually live in an unincorporated area of Brevard County Florida that sits between Cocoa and Titusville called Port St. John. It uses Cocoa's post office though so my address says Cocoa.

What I like:

It's an hour from Orlando or Daytona.. Very nice for going out for fun or if I need to catch a flight or do serious shopping..

It's 10 minutes to Cocoa or Titusville.. a few okay restaurants, small movie theater, normal shopping places..

It's 20 Minutes to World Famous Cocoa Beach.. One of the best beaches in the world.. I don't care much for the beach but my daugher loves it. PLus Ron Jon's Surf Shop is open 24 hours.

It's 30 minutes to Kennedy Space Center.. Lots of fun for Nerds of all ages.. Get to see Space Ships take off all the time..

Way cool.

What I hate:

While it's near everything I could hope to be near in this area, THERE'S NOTHING HERE!!! Especially near my place, the greacery store is overpriced and they closed down the video rental place to put in another stinkin liquor store.. Not that I don't like liquor stores and this one is top notch, but there are like 7 already within 3 or 4 miles of there.. The Chinese place in my area sucks too.. and there are tons of kids walking to school and getting in my way so I have to drive like 10 mph on my way to work for the first 10 minutes..

Also I work in Melbourne and that's 50 miles away.. Fortuanately I-95 is right here near my house.. That is another thing I like..

Oh yeah, and one more gripe.. I got a speeding ticket in this one stretch of road called Pt St John Pkwy.. It's a 4-lane devided highway with no houses, no parked cars, no intersections, no businesses, it's just used to get to the interstate from town.. The speed limit is like 40 mph! How ridiculous..

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 4:23 pm

New Jersey

I loathe it. I've posted enough reasons in other threads to save you all the hazards of hearing 'em again, here.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:35 pm

[QUOTE=fable]I loathe it. I've posted enough reasons in other threads to save you all the hazards of hearing 'em again, here.

[/QUOTE]

That's okay, we all loathe it too..

Gromph · Post by **Gromph** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 7:21 pm

[QUOTE=dragon wench]
For the most part I really enjoy lving in Vancouver.

So what do you like/dislike about the place you live in?[/QUOTE]

YAY!! go Canadian cities, yeah I like Ottawa, its fairly nice and alright for cleansliness(did i spell that right? oh well) plus its the capital of the country, although I do agree with you about Montreal, its a kool place, only problem is all the French, which I am terrible at, plus they just can't drive

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:40 am

[QUOTE=Gromph]YAY!! go Canadian cities, yeah I like Ottawa, its fairly nice and alright for cleansliness(did i spell that right? oh well) plus its the capital of the country, although I do agree with you about Montreal, its a kool place, only problem is all the French, which I am terrible at, plus they just can't drive[/QUOTE]

I bet they drive better in Montreal than they do in ACTUAL Frace.. *shudder*

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:04 pm

[QUOTE=jopperm2]I bet they drive better in Montreal than they do in ACTUAL Frace.. *shudder*[/QUOTE]
Nah. In the province of Quebec, the speeding limit is merely a suggestion...

From what I've seen of Canada, I'm personally fond of Toronto, and I make it up there from time to time (as my father lives on Bloor, 20 minute subway ride downtown. Score!).

I, personally, live in St. Catharines, which is almost right on the Canada-US border, 10 minutes from Niagara Falls. Anyway, one thing that I abhor about where I live. It's a University town. We have Brock University in town, which means we have a slew of students always down at the bars, causing trouble in my beloved downtown, and generally giving all the other downtown scum (which I proudly consider myself) a bad rep. Another beef is the city council and there lack of planning to fix downtown, as well as their belief that all one way is better... Especially when all the one way goes in the same damn direction!

Aside from that, it's not a bad little town. Being in the Niagara fruit belt, we get mild winters (Still hasn't snowed here), good wine, and plenty of cultural things to do.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:34 pm

[QUOTE=Aegis]Nah. In the province of Quebec, the speeding limit is merely a suggestion...

From what I've seen of Canada, I'm personally fond of Toronto, and I make it up there from time to time (as my father lives on Bloor, 20 minute subway ride downtown. Score!).

I, personally, live in St. Catharines, which is almost right on the Canada-US border, 10 minutes from Niagara Falls. Anyway, one thing that I abhor about where I live. It's a University town. We have Brock University in town, which means we have a slew of students always down at the bars, causing trouble in my beloved downtown, and generally giving all the other downtown scum (which I proudly consider myself) a bad rep. Another beef is the city council and there lack of planning to fix downtown, as well as their belief that all one way is better... Especially when all the one way goes in the same damn direction!

Aside from that, it's not a bad little town. Being in the Niagara fruit belt, we get mild winters (Still hasn't snowed here), good wine, and plenty of cultural things to do.[/QUOTE]

In France, especially Paris, LANES are a suggestion!, especially on Champs-Elysees where it goes ina circle around L'Arc de Triumph.. There are like 6 lanes in each direction and everyone just goes wherever.. it's terrible.. They had to put barracades and stone blocks on the curbs to stop people from driving on the sidewalk.

And about the whole university toen thing.. I'm originally from the Ames, Iowa, US area and it has Iowa State University.. I pretty big school. I loved it, but I think the problem is that Ames has a neighborhood called Campustown with lots of its own shops, bars, restaurants, hotels, apartments, cheap rental houses.. Everything.. You hardly see a student in the rest of town.. And espescially not in the bars.. They stick to Campustown.. Sounds like you could use something like that..

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:35 pm

lol! I have a story about Montreal that tangentially relates to its drivers

About 12 years back, in the Fall, my partner and I drove across the country. We spent a few days around Ottawa before heading to Montreal... When we set off it was raining very hard, and it was early evening. By the time we reached the outskirts of Montreal, it was raining even harder, and it was thoroughly dark. As luck would have it, the city had decided that Fall was the perfect time to upgrade the major arteries leading into the city. This meant that the highway was ridged instead of smooth, and that handy yellow line in the middle was not visible...

It was also our first time in Montreal, so we did not exactly know where we were going, all we knew is that we wanted to find a place to sleep. Simple you would think...
Well.. the drivers were unlike anything we had ever seen before. There seems to be one speed in Montreal: suicidal. I mean, we thought drivers in BC were bad... but this was an entirely new experience.
Added to that... the rain made visibility very difficult... and the lack of road markings added just that little bit extra excitement..

After much cursing, and at least one near-death encounter we finally made it into the city proper. At this point we thought it might be a plan to stop at a gas station for directions to a decent, but reasonably-priced hotel.
So, since I speak French, out of the car I hopped. The guys inside were suspiciously obliging and helpfully suggested we head along "Rue St.Jacques...." Thus we did..

The road seemed to head away from town and the area had a suburban look to it, but we were not overly concerned (perhaps had it been daylight we'd have felt differently

), and eventually we came to a place that looked okay. Now, the bullet-proof glass between us and the motel clerk *should* have been an indication that maybe we ought to try something else. But by that time it was midnight, and we were less observant than we might have been. So off we went to our room, which was a standard hotel room, and the first thing we did was shower. While preparing for sleep, we noticed that there appeared to be an unusual amount of traffic outside, with cars pulling in and out at frequent and regular intervals.... not to mention more than a bit of throttle from bikes...

This caused a little unease, but by this point exhaustion had really kicked in... so we pulled back the bed covers.... Upon the sheets... lay a variety of short and curly hairs of differing hues...

That did it.. we left and found an old and wonderful B&B type of place right downtown. Needless to say, our initial impression of Montreal was not a positive one

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:26 pm

I've had some similar experiences in New Orleans and Nashville.. Brings back memories.. BTW DW did you get my PM?

Galuf the Dwarf · Post by **Galuf the Dwarf** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:44 pm

60 Degrees Fairenheit... unbearable for November. All the snow has melted, and with it has much of my excitement of the outdoors.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:58 pm

Where are you located Galuf?

Galuf the Dwarf · Post by **Galuf the Dwarf** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 2:00 pm

[QUOTE=jopperm2]Where are you located Galuf?[/QUOTE]

Connecticut (northern United States/America)

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 2:30 pm

Poor thing..

Gromph · Post by **Gromph** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:56 pm

[QUOTE=jopperm2]Poor thing..

[/QUOTE]

Yes poor him, living in the grand old US of A, poor him, he will never know the joy of being a Canadian citizen, WOO go Canada

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:41 am

[QUOTE=Gromph]Yes poor him, living in the grand old US of A, poor him, he will never know the joy of being a Canadian citizen, WOO go Canada[/QUOTE]

*gag* No thanks..

Gromph · Post by **Gromph** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:00 pm

What? you got something against Canada?

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:34 am

Not really, I just don't see anything spectacular about it.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:51 am

Like any other country, Canada has its flaws and attractive features, IMO

If we compare/contrast it to the US, well I tend to appreciate the fact that the Puritan influence is considerably less, and that we have a far better social safety net. Scenically, I think both nations have some truly breathtaking areas.
From a social standpoint... I find that Canada can be a bit bland and boring. Hell, after all of this time Canadians are *still* unsure of their identity..

And artists often have to discover acclaim overseas before being recognised within the nation's borders.

Also, I often find that US cities have more dynamism to them, this is quite apparent to me when I head down to Seattle for the day. In many regards, Vancouver and Seattle are culturally very similar, but Seattle has far more of a pulse.

Just some thoughts anyway