Well, I guess I've had a gradual "descent" with 8 years in Massachusetts then 6 years in Pennsylvania before moving to Virginia and that should help. I suppose that were we to move further South (Atlanta), one year here would probably be helpful too. ;-)
I guess that in a way, moving this time means "reliving" (in a much smaller degree), "the mother of all moves" -- when we left Brazil to come to the U.S. (I've got to try to post about that, I'll try to make it on or around our "expatriate anniversary" on June 20).
This country really is the United States of America -- when you cross state lines you can feel the difference already on the highway, the signs, existence or absence of billboards, etc. Things look and feel different. This is still fascinating to me all these years after moving to this country.
I didn't arrive here until 5:30 p.m. (K left PA at 6 am so he could be here for the cable guy at 11) and I had a most disastrous welcome! There was a cop on our new street, just one block from our townhome and I wasn't thinking about my speed -- I got distracted when I saw the truck trailer parked in front of the house (I was so glad to be finally "home" again, after 24h+ of homelessness) -- but she caught me.
It turns out the limit on this street is 25 and I was going 41 (I truly didn't know the limit and wasn't paying attention to the signs). Now I have a court date and I'm guessing that won't get points, but I'll still have to pay (that's what happened when I got my one and only speeding ticket back in PA years ago -- the cop literally told me to go to court for that 'cause they were there doing a "drive" or something to make some money).
I was so upset when I was prevented from getting to my new house and had to wait for a long time for the cop to fill the huge form! I called K and he came to get the boys. By the time the lady came, I had calmed down and wasn't so angry. Sigh. She was nicer too. So, yeah... I'm glad the street has such a low limit b/c it'll be good for the boys (riding their bikes on the parking lot, etc) and I'll be careful from now on.
We had no idea, but we live only a few hundred yards from the elementary school (our kids are going to go to a private school 10 minutes away). It's just around the corner, across the street, and it has a really nice playground. I'm so thrilled we found this house and aren't going to live in the other neighborhood!!
I don't know yet how the radical downsizing (2500 sq. ft. to around 1100) is going to go, but I think we'll live ;-).
More later because I really, really need to sleep. I'm glad to be home, though. With our stuff waiting on the parking lot to be unloaded (friends are coming from PA tomorrow to help). Thinks are falling into place... what a relief!
I don't know exactly where you are, but I grew up below the M-D line and there are definitely pluses and minuses. In the larger cities, you can find the same diversity and tolerance one might expect in Northern cities. College towns especially tend to be quite pleasant places to live in that respect.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya on the downsizing. We downsized to an apartment when we moved up here. It was depressing. But it was temporary, so that was a good thing.
I'm glad you're finally home and settling in!
ReplyDeleteBeware of impending culture shock! Not to alarm you, but the South is DIFFERENT. It has taken us a few years to get over it and, in fact, just the other day at the pool we were joking about it with neighbors (many of whom are born and bred southerners). One of the more difficult things to get past is the facade so many southerners put on--and they self-confess about this. Everyone is very polite and friendly and nice, but you never can know exactly what they think about you because they won't tell you. I'm used to a much more "transparent" culture, both as a northerner and as someone who is part-Greek (and boy are the Greeks transparent!). For me it's been difficult to navigate the social pleasantries--I've had friends who have been 100% cheerful and pleasant and then I find out later that they were living through some of the worst times of their lives but they just felt the need to hide it all.
Anyway, it's been interesting. I love the humor in the South, and much more about it, but it is a different culture, and hard to avoid a certain amount of culture shock.
Of course these are generalizations, but I think most people do pick up on this big difference between the North and the South.