Sunday, May 5, 2013

A few things I've noticed Lately.

After being here for nearly 3 weeks, here are a few things I have noticed and or experienced:


  •  The hot water is to the right and the cold water is to the left with the faucets.
  • The leaves here are THICK and HUGE!
  • Almost everyone lives in apartments, and its not until your older that you own a home.
  • Apartment living is certainly NOT looked down upon here, like it is in Utah.
  • In our area there are a lot of software engineers and computer geeks. Its just how it goes here.
  • Almost everyone is bi-lingual I dont have to use lotion as much....my skin is smooth and silky with the humidity.
  • The teachers are free to dress however, but still with in a range of modesty. (they wear tank tops)
  • California drivers are fast.
  • Their stop and go lights are different, they only have ONE for all 3 lanes to watch, instead of a light for every lane to watch.
  • They go by street names, not numbers.
  • There are lots of different religions and churches.
  • A LOT of people that we have ran into or who are in our ward are from Utah, have family in Utah or are super familiar with Utah.
  • A lot of people move here to work for Apple.
  • There are no lights in family rooms or bed rooms....because they like to save on everything! (you just have to buy lamps)
  • Speaking of save...they frown if you need bags to bag your stuff or groceries!!!! Yep, I found this out the hard way. You have to buy Reusable bags from them, or the dollar store or from where ever and take them with you every time. REDUCE REUSE AND RECYCLE!! I am proud to say that I am an owner of plenty of bags!
  • A lot of apartment people have pets as their children which is FINE, but they really get annoyed with REAL children. On our first night here we were complained about our Noise.... Wa Wa Wa.
  • People are pretty passionate about animals so they will call the pound or cops if kids are playing with pets cause the adults think the kids are harassing it. In Other words Beans got out and McCoy and Lavi plus some friends went chasing after him and the lady across the way said if she see's kids harassing him again she'll call the cops. Lame!
  • If your kids act up in the store or anywhere out in public, you get the hard core stares big time.
  • Cali has a lot of "hop on the freeway and hop right off" kind of routes to get to different cities or places U-Turns are super popular here, there are all sorts of legal or illegal signs saying where you can and cannot do them.
  • Cali has so many roads and none of them lead back to square one. If you miss your turn into target and think you can just go around the block...Nope...the roads wont lead you back! I've gotten lost because of this! The roads are crazy and that my friends is why there are so many U-turns!
  • The faucet water is hard and disgusting. I love bottled water and plan on getting a purifier.
  • The Groceries here are called LUCKY, SPROUTS, TRADER JOES AND SAFEWAY. I like most of them, but I go to the Discount Grocery store..its way cheaper and have some seriously amazing products!
  • Most all of the schools that i've noticed are CAMPUS' meaning, they have different buildings for different subjects or different grades or different teachers.
  • Bikes and the Cal train are the main mode of transportation. Thats all there is to it. The bikers arent allowed on the sidewalk, they have thier own lane on the road. Pretty sure thats one thing I hate the most. Nick is either going to get hit and killed or I'm going to be making a right turn and hit and kill someone in my blind spot. HATE this.
  • Just with in our living area there are 16 Indian Restraunts.
  • The Indians here are nicer than the ones in Utah, probably because there are so many here and they are super family oriented here.
  • You meet a lot of nice people, but at the same time, you meet a lot of RUDE people or people who dont have the best social manners or skills.


And thats what i've noticed so far. Just thought i'd jot it down :)

First day at church

Today was our first day at church. The kids were snazzy and we made it on time (5 minutes late is still on time)! It was great to meet our new ward family and for the most part they were all very very welcoming.

McCoy and Lavi did such a great job with meeting their new teachers and friends, Coy even had a friend from school that was in his Sunday school class!!

It's amazing, as we got ready to leave Utah, one of my bittest worries, was how the kids would adjust, and to be honest, they have done far better than I would've ever dreamed. Not only are they doing great, they are doing a great job at making friends!