How New York is Different

The things you notice when you leave home and then go back for visits.

1. New York is darker than Utah. This may surprise you, as you would think a place with many many more people than Utah would be much more lit up with cities, but because of the big trees you can't see further than 5 feet around you most of the time, so you can't see house lights. Therefore, sometimes you are driving on roads that you know your ancestors rode their horses on, and you know it doesn't look all that differently from the 17th century.
2. New York has a lot more green. The trees here are bigger, fuller, and much greener. Kermit would love it in New York while feel totally out of place in Utah. Every window you look out of is green. As you fly in, all you see is green.
3. New York is damp. When children spit up formula on themselves and you rinse it out with cold water, 3 days later it is still damp.
4. New York is full of pushy people from downstate. As they can travel here easily, they come upstate and push you around. While standing in line at the grocery store you can have your bum pushed by the old woman from Long Island's cart who has decided that your personal space really ought not to be respected at all. But now that you live in a friendly place, you don't tell her off.
5. New York smells better. There are no bizarre odors wafting around. Maybe it's because the factories are all better behaved because we actually have government here. Or maybe it's because the factory smells are more contained because of all the trees we have here, but it smells better...

Ah wait, I slipped into the first person pronoun. I've been here too long. Now this is home and Utah is Utah...I wonder how many years it will take before that doesn't happen when I visit...