Life is good, but different.

Matt and I have come to the conclusion that life is very good here in New Orleans, it's just very different! For example:

*The food: Everything is hot & spicy or fried. They put Creole seasoning or hot peppers in every food you can imagine. For example, tonight we had cream corn with our chicken and rice and what was in it...HOT sausage! Matt & I are learning to eat (not necessarily like or enjoy) hot peppers, onions, and tomatoes because they are in everything!

*The dress: It's just a different culture. I took a girl to a court hearing last week and saw a mother bringing her teenage daughter to court and the daughter was wearing a tube top that showed everything and some short shorts. And that's pretty normal.

*The music: All we listen to is rap & R & B, well, in our household anyway. Ask us any songs by Ciara, Usher, Rhianna, R. Kelly, Shop Boyz, etc and we'll bust out in song. In the three weeks that we have been here we have seen Shop Boyz, Ciara, & Ludacris all in concert. You will be suprised when we come back to SC because we will be ballin'! haha

*The weather: First, let me say that it's H-O-T! South Carolina heat is nothing compared to Gulf Coast/Bayou heat! We walk outside and the sweat comes rolling down our faces. Matt & I went for a walk/jog yesterday and I have never sweat that much in my life! It also rains a lot here--but it's random thunderstorms. It will be sunny all day long and then we have a really bad thunderstorm for 30 minutes. The weird thing is that the sky is still light & kind of sunny when it rains.

*The driving: The roads are awful! Sooooo bumpy and uneven! Traffic is always bad--it takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere. Also, mapquest is not quite accurate in this city! Mapquest will tell you to turn where there is no street or tell you to turn on the wrong streets...we have about 5 New Orleans maps that we switch back and forth using depending on where we are going. A lot of the streets still do not have street signs up (since Katrina) so that makes things difficult as well. Another thing is that there are a million streets with the same name...Jefferson Avenue, Jefferson Highway, Jefferson Drive...and none of these roads are remotely near eachother! Even driving to the grocery store is an adventure here!

*The talk: People talk SO differently here. It's not just the accent, it's how fast they talk. Matt & I are constantly asking our girls to repeat themselves until we can understand what they are saying. They use a lot of different terms and phrases as well, such as "buku", "stay at", "neutral ground", "braketag", and the list goes on and on.

To sum it all up--we love living here but are adjusting to the culture!