The Alligator Family is Moving!

Be wary of the Amish. I know they seem all quaint and wholesome, but all too often they are... not. One of the big things the Amish in that area are known for is running horrifically inhuman puppy mills, for example.

Things to try:
1. Pork Roll, aka Taylor Ham, aka the best breakfast sandwich meat in the country (used in the Jersey Breakfast - pork roll, egg, and cheese, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a dollop of ketchup, on a bagel).
2. Yuengling Lager. I miss Yuengling.

I don't know if Lancaster has the weird-ass Philly accents, though. If they do, expect to hear words/phrases/pronunciations like:
- "wooder" for "water"
- "boh-oht" for "boat"
- "wooder ice" for "Italian ice"

Just weird.

He's not kidding about that, and I'm not kidding about everyone and their mother in the area being a home brewer. Yuengling sucks though, don't drink it. It's not bud bad, but it's bad.

Basically the local beer is the thing I look forward to when visiting. I assume they've gotten so good at it because there is literally nothing to do in PA but brew beer, eat and kill the latest herd of animals to encroach on your territory.

Again, the pies are huge. You devour one for a few months, it becomes a member of the family and eventually you feed it to the roving wildlife. Your mind will be blown by these fucking pies.

The second is incredibly true. Seriously how the fuck does PA get so hot?! Also full of bugs. Wawa is quite nice but definitely not THAT exciting. On the other hand my brother practically shits his pants with joy at the sight of a Wawa so maybe I lack the gene that makes people do that.

In any event it's far and away superior to your average "someone shat on the toilet, rolled in it and then smeared themselves on the walls" gas station.

That's awful. Good thing we don't ever want dogs?

My aunt HATES the Amish. She raises cattle and I guess when they go to the auction or wherever you buy/sell cattle, there's always a ton of Amish there. Apparently they have no problems using technology they're not supposed to have. Her gripe was that they'd borrow cell phones and use them for HOURS while at the auction house. And bum rides from people with cars. I'm not sure if there's any meaningful differences between MO Amish and PA Amish but she views them as tech moochers.

My great uncle is an Amish.

His wife's sister's (my two crazy awesome drunken great aunts, who WILL be getting presents) adopted daughter is a bohemian textile artist in Philly, and she spent time living with an Amish family that's friends with said great uncle to learn their tricksy ways.

She threw an ultra hippy costume wedding (and didn't tell us it was costume as a joke so my family showed up in fancy attire) and invited the Amish family she stayed with.

They were at the same table as my family and had the creepiest fucking ice cold death eyes I've ever seen. They were freaked the fuck out by the whole thing. Apparently they were driven there by my great uncle in a black car so as to appease their sensibilities, and played super sedate classical music to keep them from pissing their pants.

They were weird but nice. We didn't talk much because HOLY FUCK THOSE EYES.

Also their buggies basically gobble the highway that runs east towards KoP from Lancaster (100? IDK).

I have nothing useful to add, but to reiterate: what they said about the Amish (some of them), and you will be sorry some day if you don't have air conditioning.

Preach it, brother.

My grandma was from Lititz, my dad grew up in Wyomissing and went to F&M like my grandpa and his cousins and uncles did, and my grandpa was from Altoona and they retired and lived out their days near Oley so I love this part of PA. I think there's a lot to love about it.

Get ready for awesomeness:



It's called cup cheese because it comes in a cup. I used to dip Martin's Pretzels (New Yorker suckers pay $10 for like six of these wonderful good snacks) in this stuff. It's amazing. Also: Wilbur's chocolate!

I mean, here's the thing about rural Pennsylvania. Yes, it is the sticks, yes it is conservative. But it's also beautiful countryside and you are NOT that far from civilization. Lancaster is also a college town thanks to F&M, so there is some civilization there.

It's also really stinkin' cheap. I think there's something to be said for that. And you're an hour and change from Philly, where you will not be murdered if you come visit and go to the Barnes or a restaurant. Welcome to the neighborhood.

STFU! Pork roll / Taylor ham is great! I might have to invade you now for this insolence.

Lancaster is already a bigger town than the one we're in (and bigger than San Luis Obispo, which is the closest "big" town to us, and is also a college town for the most part). It seems to have a lot in common with St. Charles county, which is a half-suburban/half-rural county outside of St. Louis (parts of that county helped elect and keep Todd Akin in Congress for 12 years, if that gives you an idea). And considering that the closest urban area to us currently is 4 hours away, it'll definitely be a step up for me. I hate being so far from a city.

Anywho, the fact that the area is much more filled with people (and with industries I can actually work in) was a factor we considered when deciding whether or not to move. And that HOLY CRAP RENT IS SO CHEEEAAAPPPP. We get to upgrade to a two-bedroom apartment WITH A DISHWASHER AND MAYBE EVEN A BATHROOM BIGGER THAN A CLOSET! And hopefully a place that isn't 92 years old! WOOO!

Wait we all forgot the most important part of PA.

You get to shop at a place called Sheetz!

Oh my fuck I can't stop cackling at that name.

Sheetz is basically like Wawa.

I like how their website has a definition page.

They wrote a book you know.

It's called

Errybody Sheetz!

Unless you're an android.

Do androids dream of electric Sheetz?

We're currently planning a trip to the Bay Area the weekend of the 29th/30th. I have no details just yet about where I'll be or what we're doing, but I'd like to see some of my peeps before I go!

Damn, we won't be back from NJ until the 29th, and we have a thing on the 30th. :<

Booo! This weekend we're busy, next weekend my dad is visiting with his girlfriend and my brother, the following weekend is the company Christmas party, and we're departing Jan 1 or 2. So that's the only weekend we could possibly go :C

Providing I'm still mobile, I assume the three of us you met in Palo Alto would be very happy to meet up, if you'd like. :)

I will show up at your place if you aren't mobile :P

And bring you baked goods.

And oogle at your offensive door decoration.

As the motto of my home state, Delaware, goes...Delaware: Close To Where You Want To Be

Then hire Sones to build you a house.

On the upside, we do go to NJ a couple of times a year, so WHO KNOWS, perhaps one day we will still run into you guys. <3

Since you are looking for BF Pennsylvania residents, I should say that secretary and I moved into southern PA from the DC area last year about this time, so we aren't too far away. Perhaps we need to resurrect the DC area get together thread and see if we can put it somewhere the DC and PA people can get together.

In fact, we were in Lancaster two weeks ago, doing some Christmas shopping at the most awesome tractor themed toy store in the world, Outback Toys

As other people have mentioned, Gettysburg is nearby, and also Hershey Park is not too far from where you are.

In addition, how could this thread have gone so far without mentioning that you will be living near Intercourse, PA, which as a resident you are required to make some type of joke about every 6 months or so.

Finally, to enter the great scrapple debate with shift6 and OZ 4.0,scrapple is AMAZING. A scrapple, egg, and cheese sandwich is the best breakfast sandwich, and scrapple topped with maple syrup is just as good. If that was the only culinary innovation the PA Dutch had brought us, it would be enough, but they also created whoopie pies, shoo-fly pie, and a host of other amazing foods.

Don't listen to the scrapple haters. If you were moving to France, you'd try snails, wouldn't you? Eat the scrapple, eat the chow chow, eat the pickled watermelon rind. Take seconds of the shoo-fly pie. Enjoy the experience.

One important difference: escargot is delicious, scrapple is disgusting.

I haven't tried scrapple, but escargot is definitely delicious.

I'm not sure if you are a native west coaster or not, but the best advice I've heard given to west coasters moving to the east coast is 'learn to appreciate sarcasm'. Tri-staters, hell even NYC people are extremely friendly, but you will be shocked by their in your face bluntness. 'They are not racists' but be prepared to hear every derogitory thing that can be said about their own and every other ethnic group. However, they would do anything to help their neighbor, no matter what.

Also, I think you mentioned that you are an IE / process engineer. I think there is a lot of 'traditional'* industry in the area, so you should be able to find a position relatively easy. It may be contract at first, because industry is in this 'we have no idea what's going on' mode. But, if any of those places are like where I work, they have more project demand than people to fill the roles.

Also the engineering* work environment tends to be a little different on the east coast vs. west coast. People get into work insanely early (9 am is late) and tend to leave to go home to their outside life anytime between 4 and 6. Every now and people work overtime, but there is definitely more of a separation between work and personal time.

*By traditional Industry I am referring to places that process chemicals, do huge industrial processes, make auto parts/ glass/ military equipment. Yes there is still a lot of manufacturing in the states. By engineering I am refering to Industrial (process), mechanical, aerospace, electrical, and embedded software (computer) engineering. Even on the east coast programmers (applications sw guys) tend to have different hours.

No, but more because we get a zillion snails during the rainy season and I think they're cute but not something I'd want to eat.

Karen, no I'm not native to West Coast, I'm originally from the St. Louis area. I've only been living here for a year or so.

I'm sortof an IE. It was my degree emphasis, but I have more management background than an IE, and a little bit less engineering (but enough to pass the FE exam apparently). I really want to go into project management, so I'm looking for entry level project coordinator or project assistant type positions. I'd also be okay with QA or Safety/OSHA positions. The industries prevalent in the area were a HUGE factor in us deciding to move, since there's very little of that out here (it's mostly tourism and viticulture, and a few things related to the college).

Scrapple is good! Also, try the shoofly pie (there are no actual flies in it). And apple dumplings. And whoopie pies (there is no actual whoopie in it). Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is great.

My grandpa was from Altoona, too! My dad's family had the only telephone in Altoona waaay back in the day, so I bet your grandpa used my grandpa's phone! We are probably related.

Says you.

Basically, it can be summed up as: lard + some other ingredients = pretty good!

I would say it's not that West Coasters need to learn sarcasm (they're plenty good at it), it's that they need to learn the difference between empty "just making conversation" complaining and actual complaints. People from NYC in particular pretty much only communicate through complaining about shit.

Departure day has been narrowed down to January 1st or 2nd. I'm not sure if I mentioned that already, but eh.

We're looking at finally arriving at our final destination on the 8th or 9th, with hubby starting ASAP since I don't have a jorb and get to do the brunt of packing/unpacking (which I am okay with). Hoping to be able to secure an apartment within a few days but my list is 11 complexes long so I feel like I have a lot to choose from (and that's down from the original 30+ locations before we narrowed down based on number of bedrooms).

Next week I get to start hunting for wild cardboard boxes. I saw one dumpster today for cardboard recycling, but I've never noticed them before so I'm hoping there's more around. We'll probably wind up buying a few anyway, but cardboard is one of those things I just don't feel is worth paying much for, if anything at all.

And yet Speak With Bread, who's from the East Coast, doesn't get it when I do the whole "making conversation via kvetching" thing.

She's from Baltimore, right? Or thereabouts? I dunno if they're really in on that (although you'd think they would be). My experience is mostly NJ/NY/PA. Which is the "tri-stater" area I was assuming Karen meant!

How are you shipping your stuff? If you have stuff that you aren't going to need in your first week or so of being on the East Coast, I highly recommend using an LTL shipping company. Access America treated me wonderfully, but there are others.

You do have to handle getting a pallet, loading it up that morning, and wrapping it, but those aren't exactly hard, and it's cheaper than gas money even without considering the added risks of worse handling due to increased trailer weight.

I am not from New York. My parents are Pennsyltuckians. :) Also, tbh, I thought that was a Jewish thing.