Culture and Life in Cascadia

Cascadia. When you hear that, what comes to mind? It's probably rain, mountains, clouds, snow, or trees. Maybe even our rocky coasts or the Space Needle. But, we're here to tell you what it's really like here. 


Language

First, the language. Here in Cascadia, the top three most popular languages are Pacific Esperanto, Pacific Northwest English, and Deseretan. Pacific Esperanto is just Esperanto written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which is much different from Puntan Esperanto, also known simply as Latin Esperanto, as it utilizes the latin alphabet. Note that Pacific Esperanto is not phonetic. Pacific Esperanto is also written in Russian style Cyrillic, which is different from Ukrainian, Serbian, Tajik, and Kazakh style Cyrillic. 

Cyrillic Alphabet

Pacific Northwest English is a certain dialect of english, often described as a mix between American and Canadian english. You can learn more about it here

Deseretan is a language mostly spoken in the Cascadian state of Deseret. Spoken Deseretan sounds similar to English and uses a unique alphabet created by George D. Watt, known as the "Deseret Alphabet". About 1/4th, or 25.4% of the Cascadian population is fluent in Deseretan, which is about 11.2 million people, 6.8 million of those live in the State of Deseret, the rest being Desereti diaspora in other states. 

Deseretan Alphabet

Finally, Hush. Hush is the fourth most popular language in Cascadia, being spoken by about 15% of the population. Hush is mostly spoken by the Hush ethnic group, who are mostly present and native to the states of Oregon and Washington. Hush is a very unique language that uses a series of whistles and aspirating sounds to vocally communicate. 

Hush Alphabet

Now, despite the gloomy weather we get from March-May and from September-November, most Cascadians are actually very happy, with Cascadia's great education, clean environment, and expansive public transit that connect the suburbs to the city, there isn't much to be upset about here, leading to Cascadia's low suicide and depression rate, with both being under 1.0%. You'd like it here unless you really don't like rain... or sports and heavy patriotism.

Sport Culture

Yes, Cascadia is a very sport heavy nation, especially in the footballs, both Association and Gridiron Football are very popular sports here, with Association Football (or Soccer) being the most popular, while Gridiron Football (or American Football, or what we call here "Ironball" or "Gridiron") being our second most popular. In third would be Baseball, and a very close fourth is Ice Hockey.

And the patriotism part? In most international sport events you'll see people flying flags of Cascadia, and in regional events you'll see state or team flags. 

School Life

Compulsory education in Cascadia consists of four levels, Pre-Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle School, and High School. 

Pre-Kindergarten, or Pre-K for short is to teach young toddlers the most basic of things in life to prepare them for childhood and later their teenage years. Elementary School spans from Kindergarten-Grade 5, with the purpose to teach the basic formalities of math, science, english, cyrillic esperanto, and history while also providing sport and fine arts options to the older kids in grades 4 and 5. Middle School spans from grades 6-8 and teaches students semi-advanced levels of what is taught in Elementary while also providing sport and fine arts options for kids of all grades. High School spans from grades 9-12 and prepares students for adulthood and college (if the student so chooses) and provides all sorts of courses and classes for students. To put it in short- the Cascadian education system is modeled almost completely off of the old American education system, utilized in the United States before the Great Balkanization. 

Here in Cascadia, we take school sports and bands seriously. High Schools have insanely large marching bands, with most here being over 150 members, and most Middle and High Schools here have stadiums to host their sports. Most middle schools here have stadiums with a capacity ranging from 500-1k, with the largest having a capacity of 4,000. High schools have an average capacity of around 10k, with the largest being 18,000. Elementary schools also have sports teams, although only being available to 4th and 5th graders. Basketball, soccer, and volleyball is what they have. Elementary stands have an average capacity of around 200-400, with the largest being 510. 

Weekends don't exist in Cascadia, but that doesn't mean off-days don't exist. Sundays and Wednesdays are off-days for all school children and most employees/ers. This is to ensure the most productivity and rest occurs compared to the traditional Saturday-Sunday weekend. Summer breaks for students have a legal minimum of 76 days, or 2.5 months, with a legal maximum of 91 days, or 3 months. The law requires at least one break for each season, with Winter Breaks being 2 weeks long, extending into the next year from December. Spring Breaks must be one week long and in the months of either March or April. Fall Breaks take place in November on the week of Thanksgiving, which is still celebrated here in Cascadia as a symbol of unity between non-natives and natives.  


Cuisine

Pacific Northwestern cuisine includes ingredients such as salmon, shellfish, moose, elk, caribou (raindeer), mushrooms, berries, fruit, kale, and potatoes. Foods such as ceviche, seattle dogs, and seattle rolls. One cooking technique commonly used here in Cascadia is smoking fish or grilling seafood on cedar planks. Locally produced craft wine and beer is also commonly used in and out of foods here. Caffeine based drinks such as frappuccinos are also popular. Kumbucha is also a common beverage in Cascadia.