This Monday marks 2 weeks of living in New Orleans and being back in the South. The one question I keep getting from people here: “How are you handling the heat?”. The thing is, the heat isn’t even on my list of things I’m adjusting to since our move. Surprisingly, it is the little things that I grew up knowing that I’m now making a conscious effort to remember!
Its not weird to say “hi, how are you?” to people you don’t know.
Gone are the days of feeling awkward when I would say “hi, how are you?” to my neighbor we both entered the elevator of our high-rise building just to get an odd look of “why the hell are you talking to me” or no response whatsoever.
Honking your horn requires a pretty major offense.
I think you pretty much have to be running someone off the road to get honked at around here.
Driving 6 miles up the road does not take 45 minutes.
My last week in DC, I drove up to Bethesda to meet some girlfriends for dinner. Exactly 6 miles up the road from my house and it took 45 minutes. Now 6 miles up the road takes about 10 minutes.
Two shopping carts can fit in one aisle at the grocery store.
And I don’t mean two of the little carts at Whole Foods. Two of the big ones!
A shopping cart is sometimes called a “buggy”.
🙂
And the hardest adjustment so far…a later start in the day. Things move at a much slower pace here than in DC. The first several mornings, we were up and ready to go by 7 am just to find out, most businesses were not open for at least another hour or two. So getting an early start to knock out the to-do list doesn’t help much. But we’re slowly adjusting to the lifestyle and enjoying the extra time together as a family of three. Learning day to day to take it a little easier here in the Big Easy.
