It's Not All Sunshine and Lollipops

As all of you know I recently moved to New Orleans.
I have had a great time here so far, and I think I've done a good job chronicling it.

From Mardi Gras...

To the Indians...

To oyster shucking...

Most of my experiences here have been good ones, but not all have been. 

I was inspired by my friend Kennedy to write about my living in New Orleans, and the transition I went/ am going through. It isn't all good. A lot of it is very stressful. The whole moving thing in general is stressful, and throw 1500 miles in there, and you become a big old ball of stress. Not to mention that I didn't have a place to live when I moved here. I was lucky enough to have good friends who put up with me for 7 weeks before I moved out. However, I'm the kind of person who HATES to inconvenience people. It was really hard to know that I was putting them out for that time. On top of these obvious stress inducers there were also the little things that I had to adjust to. The traffic/ commute time. In Virginia it took me 15 minutes to get anywhere I wanted to go. I rarely went into DC unless it was for work, and even then I either took the metro in, or timed it so I wasn't driving in traffic. My good friend Tamsin lived "far" and it took me 20 minutes to get to her house (which was still less that 10 miles away from my house). In NOLA a 20 minute commute anywhere is standard. Going along with the car troubles, is the fact that no one in NOLA walks. Sure, there are tons of runners, but people here run for exercise. In DC I walked as a way of commuting. Everything I wanted was a 1.5mile or less walk away; the move theater, the metro station, bars, restaurants, grocery stores, friend's houses, etc etc. It's weird to be so reliant on my car, and also a little scary knowing that should anything happen to my car I wouldn't be able to do anything until I got a new one. 

Another thing that was hard was changing food that I ate. I always thought I would LOVE moving back south and getting my fill of fried foods. What I didn't realize it that while living in DC/VA I changed my eating habits. I tried many more foods (yay Korean BBQ and Mongolian!) which I can't get in NOLA. Also, I ate a lot more fruits and vegetables, and fried foods became more of a treat than a staple in my diet. The first month I lived here everything tasted like it was over salted. 

I don't want ya'll to think I'm unhappy after this post. I'm still just working out the kinks of living here and changing everything about my life. I just want to be real, and maybe a source for anyone else looking to move. 

Love, 

Tina Marie