Detroit, MI

It was a beautiful day in June when we moved to this new place. The weather was so awesome, that one might be belied into thinking that this is the norm throughout the year! One could freely travel anywhere outside without the traditional layering of clothes. All outdoor places were buzzing with activity. Parks and fairs saw life.  So, what was this awesome place? This was the ‘Motor city’ or Detroit, USA.

Where is Detroit located and why is it called as the ‘Motor city’ of USA?
Detroit is situated in the south east corner of the state of Michigan. Detroit is an ideal place for Indians thinking of studying/visiting/working in the USA. In contrast to the much hyped places in the US such as New York and California, the suburbs of Detroit maintain a low profile but is equally good. It is home to the Big 3 of the automobile industry – GM, Ford and Chrysler and this gives it the name ‘Motor city’.

Here are the  wonderful points about Detroit that we liked as we stayed there for 7 years:

1. Awesome weather in the summer – while the southern US sizzles and is in eye of hurricanes, Detroit enjoys spectacular summer weather.
2. The cost of living when compared to the east and west coast is much lower.
3. The suburbs of Detroit have a good population of Indian Americans and this also enables good Indian American activity(from Bala vihar classes, Bharatnatyam classes, Kathak classes, to fantastic Indian grocery shops, theatres playing Indian movies to religious places)
4. Good school districts in the suburbs 
5. Detroit is home to renowned universities and colleges such as the ‘University of Michigan’, ‘Michigan state University’ and my very own alma mater ‘Walsh college’!! 🙂 
6. Detroit also might be one of the few places where we see Indians in a non-computer field and it might also be one of the places where we see Indians driving American made cars!! 🙂

Winter in Detroit, MI:
No discussion about Detroit will be complete without mentioning its winter. Remember, in the first paragraph I had written about the “spectacular” summer weather? Well, it stays “spectacular” only for 3-4 months!! 🙁 Summer unofficially begins during Memorial day(late May) and ends by Labor day(beginning of September) After that Fall arrives which is still good with falling temperatures. Fall colors are beautiful and if we are lucky, winter might arrive once it see Dec 22nd on the calendar. But mostly, old man winter never sees the calendar and he is always early!! 🙁 So, we are bundling up by October and we might stay bundled till April!!
For some of us, 50 deg F or 10 deg C might be super cold but if you are in Detroit, by the end of winter you will feel 32 deg F or 0 deg C as warm!! 😉 (feeling cold is actually relative) Temperatures plummet nastily and January is brutally cold and temperatures will normally hover at 1 deg F.
 
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Finally, by the end of March and beginning of April, Spring is in the air and the weather improves gradually. 
In spite of all its weather shortcomings, Detroit is still one of most sought after travel destinations for students pursuing higher studies or professionals looking to start/continue their career.
This post is for the alphabet ‘D’ for the Blogchatter A to Z challenge.. read my previous post for alphabet ‘C’ here.