The west coast

¿Por qué en inglés de nuevo? Creo que de los pocos lectores que aún miran esto, son más lo que no entienden cuando escribo en español que quienes no lo hacen cuando escribo en inglés.

While in Cambridge most of the people that went to school with me came from places other than the Boston. A good number of them came from somewhere in the other side of the country, the other coast. Those from Los Angeles, San Francisco and thereabouts kept complaining about the weather, the fruit, the vegetables... people's moods. Mainly they kept saying the west coast was nicer than the east. Better places to live in, I guess. I just didn't care much; after all, Boston was all I knew of the U. S. Now, after having been in Portland and Ashland in Oregon, and The San Francisco Bay area for a few days at a time, I can only say they are... different, the east and west coasts.
I'd rather have the Ashland or San Francisco summers, that the ones in Boston and New York. I just don't like a pig all day long there even though it is pretty hot. Hot and dry. I even enjoyed the hot weather. Well, that's easy. The weather.
That was not the only big difference. The general feeling of the area was somewhat different. It seemed more relaxed. It might also have been that I was there on vacation, though. But it did somehow feel more relaxed. I went to the Standfor ed school, and people around were nice. Not that in HGSE they weren't, especially in the admissions office where I went. It looked like a place I could spend 5 years in, at first look. HGSE definitely does too. Now it's all about finding a school that takes me, hopefully one of those two.
The Spanish speaking population was, doh, sort of a shock. It had already been in New York and somehow in Boston, where the T has signs in Spanish. But in San Francisco tons of people spoke or understook Spanish. Arwen's family didn't officially speak Spanish, in Ashland, but when they did, they used perfect grammar. I think this is an exception, a "family-fluke". When I first met her she spoke little Spanish, but also did with perfect grammar most of the time, and understood non-idiomatic language pretty well.
Ashland was, certainly, a surprise. I had really imagined a different town. It's cultural life amazed me. I'd read a review of the Shakespeare Festival, but I guess it is just bigger than it looks online ;-). I think I would rather live closer to a bigger city, but it was friendly, warm, laid-back.