I'm going to go ahead and just say it. Texas is different than Iowa. There. It's out in the open now.
Okay, so I knew it'd be a little different when I moved, and to be honest, the only differences are little. They just aren't the ones I expected.
1) Fresh, local ingredients is not a thing here. My request for fresh chicken makes people look at me like I'm a circus act. Every meat counter in Iowa comes with a place where you can get thighs, fresh whole chickens, breasts, etc. wrapped individually or in custom packages. Along with various beef products and pork products. In Texas... no. Unless it's beef. And then maybe some. I'm still trying to find a local butcher, apparently they're the only ones that would even conceive of such a thing. And groceries are more expensive here. Not by a lot, but they are. A grocery cart that would cost me 80 dollars at Fareway will cost me just over 100 here. And while Austin has some amazing farmer's markets come summer, the city in which I live does not. The main grocery store just sticks 'organic' on the plastic labels and charges an arm and a leg for them. Which reminds me: There are two grocery stores here. HEB and Walmart. HEB is a smaller, more grocery driven Walmart. There is an 'entertainment' section in the bigger HEBs. They sell flat screens. Oh, and even the small ones have entire aisles dedicated to toys. Let's just say it's not my favorite place. And I refuse to go into Walmart so I'm still figuring out what to do. Luckily, today I found an Aldi. I'm pretty excited, except that apparently people shop there in secret because around here, you only shop there if you're really poor. And I'm all like - why do I need to be poor to love reasonable food prices?
2) If you are a female, married, and love Jesus than you should love kids. I mean LOVE them. You should want to surround yourself with them all the time. Because kids are blessings from Jesus ya'll. All of them.
3) The younger generation, my generation or any beneath it, are not the focus. The generation above us, or even my parents generation is. They control things, and things are marketed to them. Which isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, just a little weird.
4) I have been complimented on my hair three times, all by women older than my mother. They just love it here. It is not weird at all. The standards of beauty are really, really different here. My tattoos are not strange, they're lovely. Which is awesome.
That's about it so far. If you could, please say a prayer that I can find a job. I really don't like being idle, and would love to be able to contribute more than cooking meals and balancing the check book.
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