Boston vs Rochester

I would never have expected Rochester to have things that Boston doesn't have, but it does!

Here are just a few things that Rochester seems to have that Boston doesn't:

- Wegmans

- A dedicated jazz radio station (Boston just has NPR and Emerson College)

- Coffee shops everywhere

- weekly contra dancing

Boston has some really great things though. For example:

- bike lanes and "sharrows" that show motorists that bikes belong in the road with them (I haven't gotten beeped or sworn at yet in Boston!)

- thousands of externally beautiful apartment buildings.

- the churches that we are considering are very focused on outreach.

- playgrounds and spraygrounds every 2-4 blocks.

Boston also has some things I didn't expect as much. For example:

- The T (aka the metro) is really slow on off-hours. I can walk 2.5 miles faster than I can go someplace making one connection.

- There are a decent number of homeless people who work the streets.

- The traffic is unlike other cities. Until you know all the unwritten rules of Boston driving you aren't that safe on the road.

Boston!

It's been about one week since I officially moved to Boston and Salim and I have had lots of interesting adventures.

First of all, we have visited almost 20 different apartments looking for "the one." Our current favorite is in Jamaica Plain near one of Beth's favorite restaurants - Sorella's. The neighborhood is a lot like the Park Ave/University Ave neighborhood in Rochester, only there are lots of hispanic families mixed in with the trendy young professionals. You can see some pictures of the apartment that we are considering here: PICASA

In true scientific form, we developed a form for marking down elements of apartments that are important to us. This included things as basic as "space for a dining room table," and as fundamental as "good cell reception." We then decided how much each of these elements was worth to us (aka "laundry in building" was valued at $50/month). Some elements were show stoppers... apartments without bicycle storage, or apartments that needed bars on the windows were simply thrown out. Any apartment that was priced more cheaply than our piece-by-piece analysis became a final contender.

On Thursday, we sat inside a little falafel shop and listed out our three final contenders, and decided that 69 Mozart Street came out on top. Yesterday, however, I had cold feet. We decided to walk around the neighborhood at night, and I wanted to walk alone to see how people would treat a decently dressed woman alone on the street.

I walked past three single-looking men sitting on a porch. In Rochester, I would have expected a comment or a whistle in that situation. But the men respectfully said "hullo, miss" as I walked by. Good signs all around.