By Jennifer Nelson and Glenn Yoder

When it came time for David Brodsky-Porges to choose a college, he knew Boston was where he wanted to be.

“My sister is a senior at Simmons College,” the communications major said. “I guess I kind of followed her out here, but I bet she’ll show me around a little bit.”

A Seattle native, Brodsky-Porges is one of the many Northeastern freshmen moving thousands of miles away for college.

But one thing separates David from most Northeastern students: his fraternal twin brother Jason is also beginning his freshman year at Northeastern.

“We’re pretty close,” he said. “Going to orientation together has kind of made us closer, too.”

Their first night on campus, Jason slept over in his brother’s room after the two voluntarily received separate housing. Although they are used to being apart, Jason said he is more comfortable with having his brother within reach.

“We wanted to go to the same place or at least a relatively close place … and so far it’s been good to have him around since he has a cell phone he lets me use and we’re pretty close,” the undecided major said. “It’s good security.”

After being labeled twins in middle school, the brothers went to different high schools in Seattle, enabling them to make separate groups of friends and establish their own independence, David said.

“It was fun at football games and things like that,” he said. “Our high school bands were rivals and everything. It was nice to get a little break and go out on our own for a little bit.”

Now that the brothers are attending Northeastern together, David said, they have had a chance to make mutual friends.

“Right now we’re hanging out with each other a lot,” he said.

Adjusting to the city has not been too difficult, David said, mostly because he has found new friends and has family nearby.

“Having a sister and a brother so close has made the transition a lot easier,” David said.

In addition to familiar faces, Boston has much in common with their hometown, Jason said.

“It’s kind of like Seattle in a lot of ways – the people are pretty nice and people like to read everywhere,” he said. “The tough thing is all the slang like ‘wicked.’ It might be a little hard to adjust to that.”

Although the cities may share some similarities, David said he notices small things about the East Coast that separates it from Seattle.

“The other day I was down by the aquarium with some friends and I noticed that the sun sets over the land instead of the water,” he said. “It’s interesting.”

A big part of Boston David said he has discovered is the passion expressed by the city’s fervent Red Sox fans.

“Well, at least I don’t like the Yankees,” the Seattle Mariners’ fan said with a smile. “I was really excited to see Fenway Park. I took a tour during the off-season once when I was in town looking at schools. It was a lot of fun, there’s so much history there.”

With classes about to begin, David said he is getting out and exploring Boston while he can.

“Campus is great,” he said, “but I’m going to be here for five years, so I’m excited to get out and see Boston. I’ve only been here a couple of days, but it seems like such a great place, the atmosphere is just great.”

When asked if he sees himself becoming closer with his brother or moving onto a diverging path, Jason is rather enigmatic.

“We’re going to see what happens,” he said. “I’m not going to try to have classes with him, but we might. I guess we’ll see.”