h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi guys. Boy, am I glad to see this!! I'm a recent transplant to Mass. from Arizona and it feels like I've landed on another planet! When I complain (which I must admit is rather frequently) I get told either "You'll get used to it" or "Hey - this isn't the Wild West. You can't do that here." Maybe I can get some explanations here without all the eye-rolling. Or I just won't be able to see the eye-rolling. Works for me.



P.S. Sign me up please. I need to belong.

Join us, chastitycat ... join us!

I've put you on the list. Welcome!

I'm in Massachusetts these days, have been for some 20 years now, so I can probably help clear up some of your confusion from time to time. And I'm a transplant, so I still have a dim recollection of being a "foreigner" here.

Point one - if you're planning to stick around, get a MA license and get your registration switched over. You'll immediately feel more like you belong here, and you won't run the risk of serious financial penalties if the Registry of Motor Vehicles discovers you're a permanent full-time resident with out-of-state plates...

-Dent

Well, I think I'll be around for a bit. Maybe 5 to 10 years. My AZ license doesn't expire for another 30 years(!!) though and actually has a good photo of me. I figured I should keep it as a curiosity. I hear it's obscenely expenive to register in MA and that lots of people take their cars to NH. Three state residency...hmmm...better stay away from that. I'm kind of hoping to ignore the whole business for a while.

Speaking as an immigrant to Massachusetts from Indiana, I predict at least five years of culture shock for you. I had the disadvantage of coming here straight from college, and finding Massachusetts *expensive*. Parts of the state *are* cheap, but you can't find a job there.

There's a Guide entry on Boston which is a good start towards cultural absorption.

Things are quite a bit more expensive here, but I've got living quarters covered. Everything else I'll just learn to deal with.

"Driving in the Vicinity of Boston" is fabulous. Just what I've been going nuts about! Two additions -

1) Whose idea was it to have one lane roads? I've seen alleyways bigger than Route 20!
2) More than half the streets I've come across are completely unlabeled. If you don't already know where you're going, you're in big trouble. I got lost for an hour and a half one day because I guessed wrong at a fork in the road.

On a non-complaining note, I really dig the weather here. Everyone seems to groan when the clouds start rolling in, but I love the rain! Maybe it's because I'm from the desert. It's still a novelty to be damp so often.

It's odd hearing a make a statement like that!

Besides, I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough!

One of my sits in the bathtub and meows until you turn the shower on for her. Maybe it's all the lead paint. Slow brain damage.

Speaking of lead paint...I'm guessing it's a bad idea to grow root vegetables in the front yard, yes? I don't think I need to get my daily minerals that way.

Are there any good renne fairs in this part of the country?

I don't know about up there, but there's a fabulous one in Tuxedo Park, NY. That's pretty close to the New Jersey border. In fact, it should be starting any time now ...

Hi chastity, welcome to taxachusetts. There is a pretty good renne fair called King Richards it usually comes up around October, out in Carver, MA. Carver is one of those towns where the only thing that ever happens is the fair.

driving in Boston does take some getting use to but if can figure out a rotory then you headed in the right direction.

oh and pissa meand good and wicked pissa is very good. I didn't realise anyone still used that word.

And for you recent migrant laborers in Massachusetts: What we call "rotary" is what everyone else calls "traffic circle".

thats adimin, i forget not many people can speak massachusesst