Not done yet
Fear not, Nielsam.com fans. We haven't completely abandoned the blog. We've been very busy. Being unemployed is a lot of work. We recently spoke to other job hunters and came to the conclusion that when you don't have a job, all the every day chores just take more time. Also, we're still recovering from this culture shock thing. In the VI, we missed stores like Target and Safeway, and we missed restaurants like Rubio's and Chipotle. Now I feel like we're surrounded by these huge national chains and it's impossible to find those little old restaurants with lots of character that were so popular on St. Thomas (part of this is because we're living in one of the newest areas of Sacramento). On the plus side, I haven't yet been served any food with bones in it. In the VI, there are very few places (I can only think of one right now...) where you can get boneless chicken. (Boneless fish is easy to find at the touristy restaurants, but elsewhere, be ready to pick out lots of bones!)
In sum, the choices here are endless, and we're just not used to having a choice. Even driving requires decisions - in the VI, if you want to get somewhere, you take the only road that goes that way. Things that used to take us a minute (deciding what kind of milk to buy: the only kind on the shelves!) take us awhile. But things that used to take days (getting a prescription refilled) take minutes instead. I suppose it all balances out in the end.
In other news.. for some reason, the sun no longer dictates our sleeping habits. I don't really understand why, but in the VI, we always woke up around 6am with the sun and went to bed by 10pm. Here, we stay up until midnight! and sleep until 9am... Each week, the sun sets noticeably earlier. In the VI it wasn't so obvious when the days started getting shorter. An entire month would pass and sunset would only be 20 minutes later.
This weekend marked the beginning of autumn. We've both been to our parents' houses to pick up the winter clothes we left there two years ago before heading to the tropics. We've been wearing the winter clothes wondering what we will do when winter really gets here. Hopefully our blood will have thickened by then.
Our posts about Dominica and Anegada are still coming. We've already written the Dominica one, so don't worry about our memories fading. Just some finishing touches....
In sum, the choices here are endless, and we're just not used to having a choice. Even driving requires decisions - in the VI, if you want to get somewhere, you take the only road that goes that way. Things that used to take us a minute (deciding what kind of milk to buy: the only kind on the shelves!) take us awhile. But things that used to take days (getting a prescription refilled) take minutes instead. I suppose it all balances out in the end.
In other news.. for some reason, the sun no longer dictates our sleeping habits. I don't really understand why, but in the VI, we always woke up around 6am with the sun and went to bed by 10pm. Here, we stay up until midnight! and sleep until 9am... Each week, the sun sets noticeably earlier. In the VI it wasn't so obvious when the days started getting shorter. An entire month would pass and sunset would only be 20 minutes later.
This weekend marked the beginning of autumn. We've both been to our parents' houses to pick up the winter clothes we left there two years ago before heading to the tropics. We've been wearing the winter clothes wondering what we will do when winter really gets here. Hopefully our blood will have thickened by then.
Our posts about Dominica and Anegada are still coming. We've already written the Dominica one, so don't worry about our memories fading. Just some finishing touches....
posted by Kendra at 12:10 AM
1 comments
