OR/NY differences

I've lived in Portland for over 1 year, and in Oregon for more than 4. How crazy is that to think about?? The questions I get asked the most are "why did you move here from NEW YORK?!?!" "what do you miss?" and "what are the big differences between Oregon and New York?" Here, I'd like to address some of the big differences between Oregon and UPSTATE New York!

One thing I think is genius is how Oregon deals with their highways. In NY, all the highway exits are in completely numerical order. No matter how far apart the exits are, exit 15 will always be followed by exit 16, 17, 18, etc. In Oregon, the exits are marked by miles. Exit 15 will be at mile 15 of that highway, and if the next exit is 5 miles away, it will be exit 20 NOT exit 16. I like it because you know how far you are away from where you need to be. I know I have 5 miles to go between exits 15 and 20, I don't have to wonder "Ok so Exit 15... I wonder how far til exit 16..." like I do on the Thruway in New York, and you don't have to worry about thinking "Oh man did I miss it?!' cuz you can just look at the mile markers and see what mile you're at. Another thing I really like is light-staggered merging lanes. This kind of freaked me out at first, but now I love it. Basically, the really busy entrances to highways are 2 lanes, with a red/green light above each lane. Each lane gets 1 car to go per green light in their lane, and it switches back and forth between lanes with a brief pause in between, so you don't have 2 lanes trying to randomly merge while getting on the highway, and then that whole mess trying to merge INTO the highway. Traffic still sucks, but it just seems organized so much better than the massive free for all that it is sometimes on 481 or 81 or anywhere else I've gotten stuck in crappy traffic in New York.

When I first moved here, I listened hard to try and see if I could hear an accent from Oregonians. When I was in Roseburg, I definitely could hear some southern twang from people who lived way out in the woods, but for the most part nobody seemed to have much of an accent. However, there are some different word people use instead of ones I'm used to. Instead of asking if you want a bag for your purchase, people often ask if you want a "sack." There was a huge "are you saying PEN or PIN?!" debacle with a co-worker once, which I think is a problem I've had with a few people here. And it took me MONTHS to realize that this weird word "awnry" that everybody was saying was actually ORNERY. What the heck?! How is it possible everybody thinks that word is pronounced that ridiculously? I DID have a few people approach me and ask if I was from somewhere else, which I found weird because I feel like I couldn't hear an accent from people, so they'd shouldn't be able to hear an accent on me, right? Wrong. A lot of people asked if I was from Minnesota, but the vast majority of people said I sounded like I was from Wisconsin or Chicago. Chicago, really!? I asked what it was about me that sounded weird, and a lot of people said "Something about your A's. You didn't sound like you had an accent until you said the actual word 'accent' and the A is just weird sounding. Definitely Wisconsin." Since when were Oregonians experts on Wisconsin accents, anyway?! I say no, I'm from New York and nobody believes me. I say "No, no, upstate New York" and they still don't believe me. I usually have to get to the "I'm closer to Canada than NYC, dangit!" stage before they understand.

Another huge difference is the WEATHER!!! Summers get up to the same temperatures as they do back home, but they are so dry compared to the gross humid summers we get in upstate! I've had a few people from places like Utah comment that it is so muggy here, and I always laugh at them and said uh no, this is the driest heat I've ever experienced, please visit Syracuse in August and get back to me. But they're from the desert so I guess I can understand. I think because of this change, my allergies have been completely different than they used to be. Back home, I'd have a few completely miserable weeks of allergies that consisted of sneezing constantly, runny/stuffy nose, and itchy/watery eyes. Here, I get just insane sinus headaches. I don't sneeze much, my eyes don't bug me, it's just crazy pressure in my sinuses. And of course, Sudafed is prescription only here (there's another big difference!). I think it has to do with me not being used to the dry heat and probably just a different set of allergens. Also, I remember so many summers where the high was, say, 85, and the low during the night was, say, 79. It just never cooled off (remember, this is also like, 90% humidity so it's just GROSS) at night. You couldn't open windows, go for a walk, enjoy a cool night on the porch. It cools off significantly just about every night here. You can always have the windows open at night and enjoy a nice breeze or cool air. Winters are long and rainy, but I am completely OK with that. I feel like we get rain like NY gets snow, and you don't have to shovel rain so I feel like we come out ahead. It's dark and dreary but I do not mind at all. You're still able to go out and enjoy the outdoors and not need to defrost your car every morning. However when we DO get snow, everything shuts down, which is kinda nice...

Speaking of cars... I don't really enjoy this difference because it makes me feel like New Jersey and that just makes me feel gross, but we can't pump our own gas. There are signs telling you it's illegal, too. A highlight of every road trip to California or Washington, or trip home, is pumping my own gas! Especially in Washington: I enjoy getting looks from people at gas stations because of my license plate. I feel like I've caught them watching me, wondering if an Oregonian is going to be able to figure out this strange and foreign contraption. I wanna be like "New York born and raised, I GOT THIS!"

Dunkin Donuts does NOT exist out here, which my family has gotten used to because sometimes I make multiple trips a day there when I go back east. There really are Starbucks everywhere, but another thing there is a ton of are drive through coffee places. Like it's just a tiny building that is ONLY drive-through, usually on both sides, that have coffee and sometimes smoothies and tea and stuff. And they all try to have catchier names than the rest. I feel like Dutch Brothers is the original though and there are very die-hard Dutch Bros fans here.

Do you feel like these differences are weird? What would you like to know about living in Oregon or New York?