Be still my heart O Megalopolis

For my blog readers out there in cyperspace, I have just returned from a business trip to Tucson, Arizona and have realized here and now two things - A.) I am definitely an east coast person and b.) there are definite differences between regional personalities within in the U.S. and even other countries in the world.

Many times people focus on differences in habits when people are from different countries but in reality the more tangible differences come in comparing common geographical pairings - i.e. East Coast vs. West Coast, Chicago vs. Detroit, Rio vs. Sao Paulo, Toronto vs. Vancouver, Regina vs. Moose Jaw, Champaign vs. Urbana, etc.

The one I want to focus on is East Coast vs. West Coast in this blog entry. BTW, when I say Coast I mean coastal areas therefore adding in places such as Tucson or Atlanta. One thing I noticed upon arrival in Tucson is the physical beauty and the grandeur of the mountains and landscape - don't really have that in the east to a scale as say Seattle, Portland - or even the Wasatch Range in Salt Lake City. I am a true lover of mountain scenery and have to say the west has us beat. But the world is so spread out there and maybe that affects the way people communicate. Perhaps this means that nature plays more of a role in their lives out west? Perhaps people are used to driving long distances in their car because it could take you 10 hours just to get to a new state? Perhaps they can deal with the summer temperature of 108 degrees in Arizona? Even though its a dry heat, trust me, its still unbearable!

In the East we have congestion, threats of terrorism, bad baseballs teams (well just in our area), overcrowded airports with no expandable capacity (except for you my Dulles) - BUT, we do have many other things, cosmopolitan cities with rich history, subway systems for tourists, and a geographical closeness that helps move people to Philadelphia and New York in a heartbeat. The term Megalopolis refers the large urban area that spans between Boston and Washington, DC. The mood of the east coast just fits me better - not to say I haven't had incredible times in West Coast destinations. And yes, there is rich history in the west, but as Americans we tend to feel closer to East Coast history as it was born out of Britain and not from Native American or Mexican history (now Santa Fe, stop your blubbering, you know I love you and your green chile!)

Now whenever I am in the west, I always act appropriately. I spend times outdoors hiking, eat my fill of Western Cuisine, take pictures of the spectacular scenery but in the end, I enjoy coming home to see my Washington Monument, Annapolis, Manhattan, Boston, etc.

Maybe I am just an urbanophile... There have been conversations that have discussed if I am rural racist and just have no ability to fully immerse myself in non-urban situations? Perhaps....but for this argument, I am going to pin it to East Coast vs. West Coast.

Now, what to do about Middle America? That is a whole other blog.

2 Side Notes: 1.) My cousin Rachel who is in med school in SF just left for a month to Uganda to work in a clinic - follow her on her blog at The Last Queen of Scotland and 2.) per a previous blog entry, Elliott Yamin played Tuesday night in Tucson and I missed it! Argh!