Moving here has been quite the culture shock for us. We were signing our lease and then they were finishing up installing the new carpet in our apartment so we went around town for a bit.
As we were unloading the trailer, well as David unloaded the trailer, I went to play with Katelyn at the playground. There were some kids playing and they loved little Katelyn. They loved my "super blonde hair" and thought I looked like a Barbie model...they are so close! The girls wanted to have hair like mine when they got older. Who knew?!
Almost all of our boxes we packed were McDonald's boxes that were all the same size. There were a couple bigger ones and David asked for my help. I had Katelyn on my back in a carrier and so I got on one side and David was on the other and we just about started to haul that box up the stairs when a neighbor and his wife told us to stop and insisted that he help. He and David worked together and moved in the rest of the stuff and David loved having a helper that could do a lot more than I could. I enjoyed chatting with his wife and loved that there were nice people around that will go out of their way to help.
Driving around here is the complete opposite. I think a lot of people around here drive with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn. People honk way too often and are really aggressive with lane changes and everyone speeds like 10-15 over. Some people walking across crazy busy streets and play "Frogger" and go one lane at a time on a five lane road are also insane. If we take half a second to get going at a fresh green light, we get honked at. If everyone is stuck in traffic, people honk...it does not help. It was funny to us when someone ahead of us was busy in their car and really didn't notice the green light for a while, we got really excited and wanted to honk, but we couldn't remember if the horn was in the middle or on the sides of the steering wheel and we missed our honking opportunity. I had my first honk last week when there was a lady in my lane at night (not enough street lights) dressed in black (so I could barely see her) and she was arguing with a husband/boyfriend/man who was in the turn lane. I hit the brakes hard and gave her a solid honk and David was so proud of me :) I am officially a Baltimore-an...that sounds too close to Balti-moron...I don't know what they call them but I guess I am officially a natural.
David's job is going pretty good. He likes it a ton more than his old job but he is worried that since they hired him as a Level 2, he doesn't want them to think that his old job gave him that much experience so they shouldn't expect him to be able to do everything that employees that have been there for two years can do. Otherwise they have treated him wonderfully and they even gave him plenty of time off for Christmas to join the family at the cabin! We were nervous about that since he was a new hire, but we'll take it!
Our apartment is okay. We signed a short term lease thinking that we wanted to see if we liked it or if we didn't like it and wanted to move somewhere else, we could. It isn't terrible, but I don't love it. So we will be moving to a new place that we heard of from people in our ward. A lot of the young families from the ward live in that area, and none of the ward lives near us so for my sanity's sake we will be moving there in a couple months.
We absolutely LOVE our ward out here. I have never felt so welcomed, had so many people go out of their way to introduce themselves to me and want to know about us. We sold one of our cars before we moved and David needs a car for work so I am stuck at home...well I do have a bike so I am just without a car during the day. Multiple people from the ward come and visit for lunch or come pick Katelyn and I up to go play. The ward has a website where they keep in contact with everyone about everything (stuff they have to share, doctors they like, places they like to visit, places to eat, sewing groups, exercise groups, play groups, kids games to swap, all sorts of stuff!) and we were able to borrow a bike for a bike tour we went on. Another family in our ward offered us their old couches. Another family invited us and anyone else that wants to come, to have Thanksgiving with them...they host about 60 people every year for Thanksgiving and put on quite the party! I am excited! Everyone in the ward lives so far away and the ward boundaries are about 25-30 miles across, yet I have never seen a ward so close and friendly. I was seriously amazed the first two weeks in this ward. The immediate love they had for me and my family was overwhelming and they pulled us in and have made sure we love it. I don't know if all the wards in this area are like this, but I am making sure we stay in this ward when we move.
There are endless lists of things to do and see here and we can't wait to get out and explore this part of the country. We don't know how long we will be here, so we have to get going on our site seeing!
As we were unloading the trailer, well as David unloaded the trailer, I went to play with Katelyn at the playground. There were some kids playing and they loved little Katelyn. They loved my "super blonde hair" and thought I looked like a Barbie model...they are so close! The girls wanted to have hair like mine when they got older. Who knew?!
Almost all of our boxes we packed were McDonald's boxes that were all the same size. There were a couple bigger ones and David asked for my help. I had Katelyn on my back in a carrier and so I got on one side and David was on the other and we just about started to haul that box up the stairs when a neighbor and his wife told us to stop and insisted that he help. He and David worked together and moved in the rest of the stuff and David loved having a helper that could do a lot more than I could. I enjoyed chatting with his wife and loved that there were nice people around that will go out of their way to help.
Driving around here is the complete opposite. I think a lot of people around here drive with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn. People honk way too often and are really aggressive with lane changes and everyone speeds like 10-15 over. Some people walking across crazy busy streets and play "Frogger" and go one lane at a time on a five lane road are also insane. If we take half a second to get going at a fresh green light, we get honked at. If everyone is stuck in traffic, people honk...it does not help. It was funny to us when someone ahead of us was busy in their car and really didn't notice the green light for a while, we got really excited and wanted to honk, but we couldn't remember if the horn was in the middle or on the sides of the steering wheel and we missed our honking opportunity. I had my first honk last week when there was a lady in my lane at night (not enough street lights) dressed in black (so I could barely see her) and she was arguing with a husband/boyfriend/man who was in the turn lane. I hit the brakes hard and gave her a solid honk and David was so proud of me :) I am officially a Baltimore-an...that sounds too close to Balti-moron...I don't know what they call them but I guess I am officially a natural.
David's job is going pretty good. He likes it a ton more than his old job but he is worried that since they hired him as a Level 2, he doesn't want them to think that his old job gave him that much experience so they shouldn't expect him to be able to do everything that employees that have been there for two years can do. Otherwise they have treated him wonderfully and they even gave him plenty of time off for Christmas to join the family at the cabin! We were nervous about that since he was a new hire, but we'll take it!
Our apartment is okay. We signed a short term lease thinking that we wanted to see if we liked it or if we didn't like it and wanted to move somewhere else, we could. It isn't terrible, but I don't love it. So we will be moving to a new place that we heard of from people in our ward. A lot of the young families from the ward live in that area, and none of the ward lives near us so for my sanity's sake we will be moving there in a couple months.
We absolutely LOVE our ward out here. I have never felt so welcomed, had so many people go out of their way to introduce themselves to me and want to know about us. We sold one of our cars before we moved and David needs a car for work so I am stuck at home...well I do have a bike so I am just without a car during the day. Multiple people from the ward come and visit for lunch or come pick Katelyn and I up to go play. The ward has a website where they keep in contact with everyone about everything (stuff they have to share, doctors they like, places they like to visit, places to eat, sewing groups, exercise groups, play groups, kids games to swap, all sorts of stuff!) and we were able to borrow a bike for a bike tour we went on. Another family in our ward offered us their old couches. Another family invited us and anyone else that wants to come, to have Thanksgiving with them...they host about 60 people every year for Thanksgiving and put on quite the party! I am excited! Everyone in the ward lives so far away and the ward boundaries are about 25-30 miles across, yet I have never seen a ward so close and friendly. I was seriously amazed the first two weeks in this ward. The immediate love they had for me and my family was overwhelming and they pulled us in and have made sure we love it. I don't know if all the wards in this area are like this, but I am making sure we stay in this ward when we move.
There are endless lists of things to do and see here and we can't wait to get out and explore this part of the country. We don't know how long we will be here, so we have to get going on our site seeing!
1 comment:
So glad you have such a great ward! What town and ward are you in? I'm curious if my brother will know about it. Have fun!
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