I wish I could find the words to describe all of the wonderment of this country.
It is beautiful.
It is new.
We LOVE it here.
I am only two weeks into being here and it already feels like home. It feels like we belong. It feels...perfect. Who knows, maybe it is all just being so deliriously happy about being reunited with Adam, but it feels like much more than that. It is just SO much.
Adam has done the MOST INCREDIBLE job here getting our lives established. I love our new home, our new way of life. We have already made some absolutely awesome new friends and have a whole social group that live in our building. There are fun nights out, there are awesome nights in. I can't lie, I am writing this post while sitting at the pool (in the shade and slathered in SPF 100+ of course), enjoying the sound of the wind blowing through the surrounding date trees, blessed with warm weather and a cloudless blue sky. Please come share this good fortune with us!
It has been a very long time, since Hawaii actually, that I have felt this...peace. This sense of...where we belong. Maryland was not it. So what is it about this place? Again, I struggle for the words.
The people.
The food.
The cultures.
Seriously, the people are incredible. So many people from SO many different places. They are all SO nice. There is a real sense of aloha here, though they would not understand the meaning of this term. Yes, there are many issues with the way people are treated here, we are living in a very class-based culture, with there being many ethical issues about how the working class (laborers) are treated. We are fortunate to be white and American. We are lucky to be here and close to the top of the hierarchy. But everyone, so willing to go out of their way to help you, to make sure things are okay. I missed this.
OH.DEAR.GOD.THE.FOOD.
I will definitely be working out more vigorously and routinely than I ever have...I have to, that or I will weigh a bajillion pounds. Cuisine from every nook and cranny on this earth, it is fresh, it is delicious. The other thing that I am LOVING is that you go into grocery stores, you look at ingredient lists on anything...you recognize every single word. Most products are free of preservatives, artificial flavors and coloring, fillers, chemicals, and focused on the natural. These are not organic markets or anything either...people just want the pure stuff. LOVE IT. You can taste the freshness in everything here, because everything tastes just a little different.
And the different cultures. I imagine this to be a lot like New York...the melting pot, but still Americans are the majority population. Not only are white people a minority here, Americans are an even smaller part of that minority. I LOVE THAT! This also coincides with the food. So many different people to talk to, cultures to learn about, and my bucket list for travel is infinite!
Before coming here, everyone was asking: "Are you nervous?" "Aren't you worried about XYZ?" And I wasn't. It is an incredible place. Yes, I live in the Middle East. No, I do not live in Iraq. No, I don't have to cover my head or wear an abaya. Yes, I feel completely safe here. The penalties are so steep here there is virtually no crime. I have passed Ferraris left running in the parking lot UNATTENDED, to keep the air conditioning on and the car cool (Yeah, there is a lot of wealth out here), and there is no worries that someone will take the car. Good luck with that happening in New York.
