Unfamiliar Views

After spending two days in Beaumont with Jason's parents and Dopler we headed to Houston to check into the new apartment and get settled before Dopler joined us. The apartment is in the Medical Center part of town and is in a really great location - only about 20 minutes from downtown for Jason. The apartment is fully furnished and very nice but it will be an adjustment for us to go from 1900 square feet to 750 square feet. After checking out the apartment we headed down the street to one of my favorite things about the new area:

The next day we headed out to look at homes in Houston with our realtor. We were pleased to see there are some nice options in some decent areas within our price range. We also spent part of Thursday with our realtor and feel pretty good about our options if we stay in Houston. Then we did what I was excited about and dreading at the same time- the grocery store! It was as overwhelming as I expected. So many choices! I had a hard time remembering what we used to eat, plus there are so many new options and of course so many more choices then Norway! At one point I had 5 different boxes of cereal in my hand, trying to read the labels with Jason laughing at me!

On two different evenings we were able to catch up with our good friends Natalie and Gavin and Phil and Crystal (and ate some good food!). On Friday went to Rudy's BBQ which was amazing- we haven't had Texas BBQ for over 2 years. We forgot how good it was and were surprised how good potato salad was! Then Jason's parents arrived with Dopler- he was very excited and he got to ride in the elevator. We had a quiet weekend trying to give Dopler some stability since he has had a lot of change recently. But alas he is not interested in food and struggling to eat so we are off to the vet first thing this morning.

So here are my initial observations about living here again:

• My workout view has changed from the Trondheim fjord to the Astrodome (which is the 8th wonder of the world)
• There are a LOT of obese people (so much more then I remember)
• People talk to you randomly - which kind of scares me each time
• Things are really inexpensive but many things are not as cheap as I remember (like cases of soda!)
• The roads and traffic are slightly overwhelming- 5 lanes in one directions is crazy
• It is SO diverse here- standing in the US Citizen line at immigration in Newark I must have heard 6 different languages
• Many things are exactly as I remember them in Houston but it is taking awhile to remember all the details of places, food and roads. We drive along like tourists!