A Week in the Books

It has been just over a week that we have been in Houston, in short we have been busy, overwhelmed at times and quite tired.  Of course we have had some laughs.

So far we have managed to stock our fridge and cabinets, buy a car, set up internet and home security, had pest control perform quarterly service, purchase a phone, set up two phone plans, purchase a computer, get the dog her vaccinations, get library cards, work on paperwork for our son's school, update addresses and phone numbers, receive our air shipment and have some friends over for dinner.

Everything is big...cars are big, roads are big, parking spots are big, stores are big.  The smallest bag of sugar we could get in the grocery store is the largest size we could get in Europe (true for many grocery items).  How many types of orange juice, kinds of dog shampoo and school glue do you need?  There are as many pet meds as there are for people.  One of my complaints moving overseas was the lack of variety.  I sense one of my new complaints will be too much variety (at least too much "junk").  Big can be a good thing, North America has the best toilet paper and you can buy it in jumbo packs!

??????

Our tiredness can be partially attributed to jet lag and being busy.  My wise wife proposed the idea that on previous trips to the US we have had "fun" for a week running on adrenaline and then got on an airplane.  Now we are here for good and for "work" so not as much adrenaline and no return trip.

One of the things that entertained me in Europe was the "American style" items, usually in the grocery store.  For example American style pizza, Chicago style hamburger buns and American sauce for hamburgers (I have never seen anything like this in the US).  The Europeans do not have a monopoly of this promotional tactic.  On our first morning back we ran across "European Style Whipped Butter Blend Margarine."  I do not recall any margarine in Europe and all the butter they had was real and most certainly not whipped.  My son and I ran across some "French Brioche" made by a French baker who knows brioche.  The baker may be French and may know what brioche is but what he made was not brioche, to me it resembled "Texas toast" (i.e. white bread cut in thick slices).

The to-do list is getting shorter.  We will continue to adjust and acclimate (sounds strange coming back to a place you have lived before).  Tiredness is slowly fading.  Eventually we will establish what is to be normal.  We will continue to laugh and make the most of our adventure as a family.