By Irene
California is far, far away from Indianapolis, which is where the Greening of the Campus VIII conference took place this year. Indianapolis is actually the 14th largest city by population in the United States. The city has a beautiful state capitol building, a large memorial building to American veterans/soldiers with a mausoleum and everything (it was actually a little bit frightening), there’s a monument circle commemorating soldiers and veterans all the way back from the Mexican American war.
There are striking differences between Berkeley and Indianapolis. I think the differences might have seemed smaller had I come directly from the San Fernando Valley, without ever having lived in Berkeley. Of course, I had very little time there, I spent most of it actually with people very similar to me (sustainability folks on campuses across the united states) and generalizations are often blind to specificities (by the nature of them being generalizations) but clichés and stereotypes are such for a reason after all.
There are more obese people in the mid-west than there are in Berkeley. Hearing statistics about the percentage of obese Americans, while sitting in a café in Berkeley, made me think the news was exaggerated. It’s not. A good 70% of people, it seemed, really are obese over there.
Stuff is cheaper and bigger: food proportions are bigger, refills are expected, drink sizes are humongous, cars are big, parking lots are endless, air conditioning is non-stop.
Life is slower.
People are friendlier, but first they are more suspicious. So they actually seem less fake than we Californians are…more down to earth.
Sports. Fox News. Republicans. Soldiers.
No Asians, brown people, Mexicans, black people – or at least VERY few. And the black people are usually servers/waiters/custodians.
EVERYTHING is fried. Less fresh vegetables/fruit.
Didn’t see cute independent coffee shops I’m used to.
Indianapolis is not meant to be walked. There are few cross walks, sidewalks end mysteriously, there is nothing cool to look at while you’re walking down the street. It’s meant t o be driven through.
And, on the flip side, I got a taste of what folks at the conference think of when they hear California or Berkeley.
- Forefront of the environmental movement – they look at us as leaders, inspirational, and forward thinking. When I said I was from UCB I felt I automatically had people’s attention and interest without even saying what we’ve done or are doing.
- Hippie and liberal
- Perfect weather
really really far away!
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