Interview with blogger East Village Idiot (Part 4 of many)

[To read Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3 of this interview. ]


Quest: So why were you an idiot for moving to Vermont from New York City? It sounds like you had a lot of fun in Vermont.

Chris: Okay, I had fun there, but I came right back to the city. I had to ask myself, "Why did I do this?" And here's why I'm an idiot: I wasted so much money moving up there. I had to buy a car. And then I had to sell the car and take the loss on it. I took a salary cut to move up there to take the job. Because then cost of living is less. "Oh wait! But I have to have a car which will basically reduce my cost of living." So then it ended up being the exactly the same.

Living up there I was pretty much the only person who was 24 years old and single and employed. Cause everyone else moving up there was as a hippie--OMG, The damn dirty hippies-- or a hick.

I think the funniest thing was that I moved to Vermont being a dyed-in-the-wool New England liberal, and left Vermont so frustrated by the crazy hippies there that I definitely became a lot more conservative than I was before I moved up there.

The Hippies were like, "No we don't want this drug store here because drug stores are bad."

I say, "You medicate yourself your way. Let me medicate myself my way."

It was absolutely absurd. It was just bizarre. I rolled my eyes so much there.
And Oh my god everyone drives so slowly up there. On a road where the speed limit's like 55 and they'll travel at 35. It'll be on a two lane road and you're stuck behind them for 20 miles without a passing zone. "OMG I just want to get home!"

Quest: But where are they going? Not everyone is driving to work. There shouldn't be any rush hour traffic.

Chris: Burlington is a pretty condensed city, but the State of Vermont is incredibly rural. Basically, outside of Burlington vermont, it's pretty much like Alabama--in so many ways. Outside of burlington, Vermont is pretty much like alabama only much, much, whiter.

Burlington is frigid. It was so cold during the winter. I used to walk to work because I lived downtown and worked downtown. (It was my small attempt at bringing a piece of New York City with me to Vermont.) So one week we had a string of ridiculously cold days. The high temperature was below zero--the high was below zero.

And then one day, I stepped outside my door and it was sunny and it was clear and there was no wind. It was absolutely beautiful outside. The sun was shining. You could see across the lake--the mountains on the Adirondacks are on the other side. I unzipped coat. I took off my hat. I took off my scarf. I was like, "Oh, this is so great!!"

And so I walk into our office and the receptionist is there. And I turn to her and say, "It's a beautiful day out there today."

She responds cheery, "Yeah, it's 5!"

And she was right. It was five degrees. When it's minus 15 degrees every morning for a week straight, 5 feels warm. It's like it being 20 degrees for a week and then it's 40.

Quest: Wow, that's Canadian weather!

Chris: We were practically in Canada. There are parts of Canada that are further south than Burlington, VT.

Quest: Isn't Montreal nearby?

Chris: Uh huh.

Quest: How close is Montreal?

Chris: About an hour and 15 mins away. It was nice. I used to go up there a lot. Actually I used to shop at IKEA. Here's the problem with going to IKEA in Quebec, specifically.

You see like a little gadget. It's a Swedish name and there's no real description of what it is. Or there's a description, but it's not really clear what you can actually do with this thing. Imagine having all those descriptions in french.

Quest: It's supposed to be bilingual. The national languages are french and english.

Chris: Oh, no! It's barely bilingual. Honestly, if you were driving through some parts of Quebec and your car broke down and you had to pull over and need help. You might not find someone who speaks english. There are certain enclaves in Quebec that are strictly french speaking.

I went to a French-Canadian McDonald's inside a French-Canadian Walmart. It was the two most American things you could ever do in Québec. It was so weird. It was like walking into this alternate dimension, where everything looks the same except it's in French.

As you cross the border, if you have Vermont plates on your car, they're pretty lenient. Occasionally, you have to pop your trunk on the way back.


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