Eastern sense of direction

I have been on the East Coast this week. One thing I've noticed about people on the East is that everyone seems to have a great sense of direction. They always know where North, South, East, West are. When giving directions, they'd say to head east...or west...or whichever way and everyone seemed to understand this. To get my bearings on how to get around town, I went to hopstop.com and got directions on how to use the subway and to walk to my destination from there. I was doing great until I got out of the subway station and was told to head West. I had no idea what to do and looked all over trying to get my bearings...but no luck. Most of this week, I would just pick one direction and walk until I knew for sure I was lost or hit the wrong street, then turn around and try again. Us west coasters...or at least I...do not understand the concept of north or south, east or west. I had no idea I was supposed to bring a compass with me.

Left or right people....left or right....