We made it to Charleston!

After one long car ride and a wonderful stop in D.C. we made it to Charleston! I know we only drove 16 hours to get here but I feel worlds away from Cambridge, MA. We are very excited to be here but we are really missing Cambridge which we felt like was finally home. Although we're excited to embrace the southern life down here in the South there are a few things in Cambridge that we will miss and I don't want to forget what life was like there. Here are a few key differences we have noticed.

1. Public Transportation: Charleston has NO public transportation. We are staying out in a suburb of Charleston while we find an apt and the first day Jason asks me how I feel and I say very ironically that I feel claustrophobic. Sure the houses are big and spaced out, etc but I don't feel like there's anywhere to go and certainly not anywhere to walk to which after being in a place where you hardly ever used your car and yet there were also places to go makes this seem very small.

2. Families, particularly kids ages 8-15: There are a good amount of families here with more than one or two children and there are actually kids between 8-15, who knew? It's totally catching me off guard. We were in a restauraunt yesterday and this guy walks up the stairs and behind him were trailing about 4 girls and I thought it was a soccer team or something. No, the wife came up the stairs last and I then noticed that all the girls were different ages, just a family. That will take some getting used to.

3. Pace of Life: Okay so everyone in Cambridge moved really fast and there were massive amounts of people always going places or doing things. Here everything is slowed down. Most of all the people talk really slow and it takes about twice the time to have a conversation. Along with this, everyone in Cambridge felt like they had something they invested themselves into whether it was school, church, work, escaping global poverty, etc. You don't get that sense here and we really miss that. I hope that's something we can continue.

4. Friendliness: So people in MA and people here are very friendly. However, the friendliness here totally throws me off. Random people will just have a conversation with you and say hi when you cross them on the street. One of the first lessons I learned in Cambridge was put your head down and just keep walking.

5. Welcome to Consumerville: It is amazingly easy to get to stores and fast food here! And they have about every store you could want. I thought that would be really nice for a change but this is actually one of the things I'm really sad about. In Cambridge it was really hard to get to stores so you usually figured out how to do without things because it was too much hassle to go to the store. Our fast food eating was pretty much nonexistent and grocery shopping, or any shopping for that matter felt like a huge accomplishment. Because of these things we lived on a lot less and spent our money towards going into the city to see something new or rather we became consumers of culture. I realize now that I prefer life that way. I'm afraid of buying too much here and forgetting that I can actually live on a lot less and still be very happy. Also where's the challenge? I'm sure I'll find it no worries (like bugs, snakes, humidity)

In short although I am very excited to be in Charleston I also really miss Cambridge and sometimes I'm really curious as to why we need to be out here. Anyway I'm sure I'll learn more on that later. Here are a couple pictures from our town home that we found which we are definitely warming up to and our excursion into downtown Charleston.