First Impressions

Well we've been here exactly one week. I tried to pay extra attention to things around me when I first arrived so I could give an accurate description. But now I try not to notice so much so the reality of living here doesn't settle in. Nevertheless I have some very memorable first impressions:

• When we first opened the door into our new abode I really thought I had walked into a janitor's closet. Yes, that's what it feels like. All industrial and basic and cave-like. But it's a janitor's closet with a very nice table (ours) that barely fits.
• What kind of floor is in our new closet-like kitchen, do you ask? Just look at your neighborhood grocery store or even Target. We must have the same decorator. It's beautiful. You've heard of floors that always look clean? WE have floors that always look dirty -- fabulous!
• Did we move to a foreign country? We go to the park and NO ONE is speaking English. I know I experienced the "melting pot" that is San Diego, but this is 10 times more extreme. The kids have already made friends with some Korean (I think) children who they just chase around and growl at each other. I guess the game of being annoying is the same in any language.
• There are many, many smart people around here -- and I am not one of them. One of our neighbors and Cory's classmate just happens to be a family doctor and a mother of three with incredible ambition. I am feeling only slightly inadequate.
• There is a train that goes right by our apartment. Not a little one, a HUGE train. The first time it went by while we were outside, Claire dropped everything and ran to me in a panic. We have since gotten used to the sound and rarely notice it when it races by, late at night with the horn blaring.
• And it's freakin' cold here! All last week we were bundled up in jackets (if I had a parka I would have used it) and we have turned on the heater in our house -- in the middle of August!
• The ward and fellow families here are great and very supportive. In our one week here we have already been to a barbecue, had 2 playdates, gone to an enrichment night and a girl's night out, and been asked to dinner twice. People really know what it's like to be new and away from anything familiar and they rally around each other. That almost makes up for the cramped space and the terrible linoleum.
  
  

Something is missing -- maybe a cabinet or two. This is right above our sink and somewhere that would be great to have more space to store things. When I asked the maintenance man why they failed to install cabinets there he said, "well, don't you have enough cabinets already?"

And there is something else missing (besides the dishwasher and garbage disposal) -- no cabinet doors under the sinks! Not even in the bathrooms! It's hideous and now I have to really go out of my comfort zone and put up a curtain to hide our trash. I'll let you know how the project goes.

Alex and Claire think that this is our backyard. There is one advantage of living on the bottom floor -- an escape from the cramped quarters.