I would say its just an overall feeling. I am from California and I was born in 1971. I have seen things change so much since childhood and growing up. If feel like a lot of the negative changes that have occurred here have not happened there. It feels more free and people are not so up into each others business. The people seem more genuine to me there. But mostly it a vibe, family values are better. The don't have more middle of the road politics, there weren't homeless people everything. seems like people have more fun with family and friends there and not so wrapped up. All the restrictions we have here are nuts. I used to drive little taco mini bikes around my neighborhood as a kid, no helmet, no license just having fun and nobody really cared. This type of thing doesn't happen anymore, but there it still happens, kids are playing outside everywhere near my house in vladivostok and it feels more like when I was growing up there. it's hard to just say one thing, but there are a bunch of things that add up to make me like it a lot more, the women are stunning too :)