Five things I learned about Indiana

[tsaiko]

1) The state flower is the dandelion. People don't have lawns. They just have dandelion fields mown down to the correct height.

2) Lines on the road are optional. Lines at intersections telling you where to stop are optional too.

3) You can be going down the highway and at any moment, without warning, you can find yourself on an off ramp going somewhere else.

4) There are no signs warning you that a lane is about to end or which side of the four lane road you need to be on to get onto the highway. That's okay because everyone in Indiana is use to that and understands if you suddenly need to cut across four lanes of traffic. They won't even honk at you for it.

5) The DOT for Indiana has no idea how to do road construction of any sort without shutting down the highway. No seriously.

I'm going to make an entry about my graduate program and how everything went, but my brain is crispy. I will say that the meeting with my boss went well. Yeah!

Comments

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

Do your roads have lines on them? All of them, not just highways n'stuff? Huh.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

Your roads don't? o_O Is this like common to not have lines? How do you know where the lanes are?

*boggles*

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

Well, you stick to the right side of the road, whichever direction you are going. The left side is for the people going the other direction. And at the stop signs, you stop before you get into the path of oncoming traffic. *nods wisely*

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

I... I'm sorry I just can't wrap my head around roads with no lines (and not "lines with no roads" like I almost typed. It's going to be a dyslexic day.). How do you know where the turn lanes are? If I think about it, it makes sense if you get a lot of snow but... how do you live like that? o_O

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

Hee-hee, you'll get the hang of it, I'm sure. Plus, it could be that some of the more complicated roads will get paint in the next few weeks. The plowing and stuff does have a way of making all of last year's paint go away. Everyone else just remembers where they paint used to be. And you learn the norms the same way as always, watch what others do and do the same.

It's a delicate balance of chaos and order. ^_^

[tygati.livejournal.com]

I'm with Mechante. Only Big Roads have lines on them. o.o If you're lucky anyway. >.> Lines are kind of frivolous when you can't see the roads due to snow for 6 months out of a year anyway. ^__^

Loved the crack about the dandelions though. ^.^ And the road crews. *snicker* Go to Montana sometime in the summer when they do their construction. That's hillarious. My favorite sign of theirs was 'Bump' ^.^ Translated into layman terms, it means "End of Pavement" ^.~

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

My favorite sign of theirs was 'Bump' ^.^ Translated into layman terms, it means "End of Pavement" ^.~

*rofl*

In NC instead of shutting down the road when they are getting ready to repave it, they'll just scrape off the top layer of pavement (most roads here have several layers). No warning. You'll be driving along and WHAM!, you are suddenly three inches lower than you were.

[touma-karamochi.livejournal.com]

Personally I think once the snow melts, there is perpetual construction on Indiana's highways all through the year. But then once they complete all that, it's time to go back and redo everything again. I've traveled up and down the state so much, and I think it's still all weird. And I'm wanting to move there... :/

But yeah, thanks for the advice, I think I'll call closer to the end of May and check with the company. Untiol then, I have packing of my own to deal with.

[fennin.livejournal.com]

i am sorry i missed your birthday. ;_; happy belated, tsai!!! ♥ i am glad it went well.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

It is fine! No worries. I take birthday wishes up to six months before and after the date. XD

[zombiebanana.livejournal.com]

The roads in our neighborhood don't have lines. xD Only the highway and the interstate and major major roads seem to around here. :3 Or roads with curves, so they can tell you when you're not allowed to pass. But that's about it.

And lol at the dandelions. xD I noticed that last time I was in Ohio! There's people that have yards FULL of them. Here, you're lucky if you find a few. D: At least, in our yard. Yet I still find plenty of white puffballs...

[kiyoshi-chan.livejournal.com]

...I think I should be (very quietly) happy about the state of roads here.

Yay, glad your meeting with your boss went well! ^_^

[achika-chan.livejournal.com]

That's so true that I almost snorted up my Poptart. Youreally got the hang of the place for only being here a short time.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it takes someone who is not from a place to really capture the spirit of it. XD

[mashiroikaze.livejournal.com]

Back in PA, lines on the roads were considered a luxury. Here in DC, only the smallest side streets are without them - like, the side streets where they don't matter because two cars can't pass each other anyway without ducking into the parking lane.

One word of warning from my own (very brief) experience with driving in Indiana - it seems their state troopers like to play a game of tailgating unsuspecting people to try to get them to speed. I saw it about three times on my drive across the state about two years ago - I don't know if that behavior is reserved for out-of-state license plates or not, but I thought you might want to be aware. (My apologies to anyone in Indiana who feels slighted by this generalization)

[velithya]

2)Are we talking major roads and intersections? Because, you know, small roads and stuff I can understand, but major roads is just asking for an accident! Especially if each side has more than one lane! :O

Glad to hear the meeting went well! :)