CRZY

Overall, the culture shock of moving east hasn't been as intense as I thought it would be. I know, I know, it's not like I moved to India or something like that. I just moved a couple thousand miles within the same country. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that big of a deal. But I still figured there would be things that would be different and take some getting used to.
And even though I think I've adapted to life up here really quickly, there are definitely some differences. A brief list, then, of things that have made me go, "Hmmm, that's different," over the past couple of months
-The traffic. Sweet Jesus, the traffic. I swear I'm not some sort of backwoods hick, I have spent my life driving in cities with at least half a million residents. It's not like I came up here from a one-light town. But for the first two weeks that I lived here, I was convinced that I was going to get in a wreck every single time I pulled out of my parking lot. Frankly, I still think everyone here drives like a maniac, but I'm getting better at being a more aggressive driver and I actually know where I'm going half the time now, so that helps a lot.
-I don't know how to phrase this, exactly...I guess I'll just say that the racial make-up of my new community is very different than any other place I have ever lived. And at first, I was very attuned to this, not because it's bad in any way but just because it was different for me. It's kind of like when I was living in England and couldn't stop my brain from fixating on accents, to the point that sometimes I wasn't even comprehending what people were actually saying so much as just listening to their voices. But it's amazing how easily your mind adapts to create a new "normal," because I no longer find myself paying attention to the ethnicity of every person I see.
-Safety. I don't feel unsafe here at all. I hope that I'm not being lulled into a false sense of security, but I do feel safe here. Which just goes to show that you shouldn't believe 90% of what you read on the internet, because most sources would have you believe I'm living in like, the biggest hotbed of crime in the nation. Yes, we get more crime alerts from the campus police on a weekly basis than I got in the entire four years at my undergrad institution, but even knowing that I still don't feel unsafe here. With that said, things ARE different for me in this regard. I realize that I'm taking precautions here that I never have in the past. I purposely check my gas gauge each time I get in the car now to make sure that I'm not going to run out of gas and be stuck filling up after dark. I take the stereo out of my car every time I park it now, I never leave any sort of bag in my car anymore (I was very cavalier about this before), I lock the doors when I'm in the car in case someone decides they want to carjack me. I research neighborhoods as much as possible before deciding I want to go somewhere at night. I call for an escort if I'm leaving the building after dark. In short, I'm a bit more safety-conscious now, but I'm not paranoid. I'm of the opinion that yes, you need to use common sense, but if bad things are gonna happen to me, they're going to happen regardless what I do. I worry about a lot of things, but there are also some things that just aren't worth worrying about, you know?
-Seasons! So far, this has brought me nothing but happiness. Being able to actually wear a sweatshirt in October makes me incredibly happy. I'm not sure how I'll feel about winter, but in theory I'm excited about it. Kind of. I'll get back to you on that one in February.
-The fact that I could take easy weekend roadtrips to so many different states is blowing my mind. You can't do that in the southwest!*
-Personalized license plates. This is a really bizarre phenomenon that I've witnessed here in University Land. Back in Homestate, I came across a personalized license plate once in a while, but it was rare. Here, I see several every single day. I'm not sure why this would be. Either it's much cheaper to get personalized license plates here than it is to get them in Homestate, or it has something to do with a culture up here that leads people to care a lot about their cars. At any rate, I see personalized plates constantly. Today I discovered a new one here in my apartment complex: CRZYNLV. I'm assuming that means "Crazy in Love," which is pretty much the stupidest license plate ever. I hate to be bitter, but I'm pretty sure that "Crazy in Love," and "Real Love" are two different things, and my bet is that a couple of months after getting the license plate, CRZYNLV wasn't so crazy in love anymore. Unless maybe the license plate is supposed to imply that s/he is CRZYNLV with the car, and I don't even know what to say about that.

Anyway, I could think of other things to put on this list I'm sure, but that's enough. I should be reading anyway.

*Speaking of roadtrips, my birthday is in a few weeks and I have pretty much decided that I want to spend it in New York City. I'm turning 25 and that feels pretty huge to me, so I feel like I need to do something at least a little special. My aunt (who lives about 45 minutes from there) has agreed to watch my dog for the weekend, and Kiki said I can stay with her so I think this will actually happen. I have no real plans for what I want to do there, but I think forcing myself to take a weekend off for a trip will be good for me. I think I should be able to keep up with my workload even if I take a couple of days off, and I'm feeling a little of that mid-semester fatigue so a break might bump me out of it. We'll see!