Such a strange place

[djedi]

Moving up north is a weird mix of familiar and unfamiliar, almost like visiting a different friendly western country. There are a few familiar restaurants and definitely a lot of the same brands of groceries and such, but there's also a lot of new stuff to get used to. We live mostly in suburbia here so there are LOTS of chain stores which helps

Comments

[gregstoll]

Agreed. Never having lived outside of Texas hurts...

[gregstoll]

Yeah. When you move around a lot, everywhere becomes home. There's Texas home, and Chicago home, and South Carolina home. And Disneyworld home! :)

[onefishclappin]

I totally know what you are talking about... It's almost, but not quite right.
Truthfully, I even felt that when I moved from Dallas to Houston, but not so much when I went to Austin (I was less set in my ways, and big cities were becoming more and more uniform.)

[cifarelli]

Yeah, I never adjusted to living in NC either. I think it was mostly the move from big cities (I'd lived in Austin and Houston) to Chapel Hill, which is near a big city but doesn't qualify itself. I didn't take to small-town life very well. But I also got really really sick of people complaining about how hot it was when it was 85 degrees out. ;)

[fairydust1]

I really am starting to believe Austin/Texas is unique unto itself. While it was difficult to move here, there has been such an influx from other states over the past twenty years, it is quite homogenized compared to other places I have lived. Louisville and Chicago were easy to "get used to" because I spent formative years living there. Austin was not too hard, because I knew several people when I moved here, and Jay had been here several years getting to know the place before me.

I'm sure you guys will adapt, and consider it a good learning experience about what you love about Austin, and what things you'd like to expand your horizons on. My dad's whole family is in the Baltimore area, so if you want any research on places, let me know and I'll do my best to ask around. :)

Speaking of research, the Maryland Renaissance Festival is going on through September. The site is located just outside of Annapolis, MD. If you go, we want to hear allll about it!

[gregstoll]

Oh, right! We picked up a brochure about it at the Maryland welcome center...I'm sure it's in a pile of stuff somewhere :-)

[wildrice13]

I'm thinking you misunderstood about Dr. Pepper. Or at least what I was trying to say about it. It's not hard to find in stores or whatever; it's a major brand and you'll find it there. But in restaurants I only found it about 20% of the time or less, whereas in Texas it's pretty much guaranteed to be an option. Or maybe it's just enough different in MD than in NJ!

[onefishclappin]

Being able to buy it "anywhere" has been a fairly recent (10 years) change. I remember as a kid (mid-80's) not being able to find it at grocery stores elsewhere in the country. I remember it being a *huge* deal when we found a dusty crate of it in Scotland in the mid-90's and bought it and it was a special treat (one of my cousins had gotten addicted during his visits to the states).

[gregstoll]

Yay progress!

[medryn]

There is no '.' in Dr Pepper; there hasn't been since the 50s. :-)