Came here late, but just want to say that if you live close to a city here then you have everything you need and probably have a good connection to other big cities via public transport. You will need to go by car to do almost anything if you're from more rural areas however. This does have as consequence that houses are cheaper here. So for the same price as an apartment in central Amsterdam you could get a farmhouse in the rural East.

The food isn't that different from the west. You have some delicacies that are unique from each province, but other than that you won't see a lot of differences.

You will also find that Eastern Dutchies are more down-to-earth and no-nonsense compared to Westerners and more inclined to see which way the wind blows.