Well, I'm here. I'm in Kentucky. It feels so weird. I'm used to living alone and that's not a problem. When my parents were getting ready to leave yesterday I was worried about that. I knew I would learn to find my way around. I knew that I would be fine turning my cute little apartment into a home. But the feeling of separation between myself and everyone I know back home is immense. When I log into facebook I hope that people have posted to me and stuff, because it just helps with that. I want to talk to people. I miss my parents already and they've only been gone for a little over 24 hours and we've spoken on the phone twice already. I miss my sister. Even though I probably wouldn't have seen her during this time, it's the fact that I KNOW that I wouldn't have been able to. It's the same with many of my friends too. I may not have seen them over the past few days if I had been home or in Kalamazoo, but it's just knowing that I can't now. And it's not that I'm dreading making new friends, it's just so much work. It's exhausting really. Honestly I probably deserve some kind of medal for the number of times I've had to make new friends as I've jumped from place to place haha. I'm just kidding, but it's a process and I respect the process. ANYWAYS onto my observations of Kentucky.
The People: They are incredibly friendly! I know that people say that kind of stuff, but they really are nice. People have helped me get places on campus. This older lady who lives in an apartment across my courtyard waves every time I take Wheezer out for a walk and she's looking out her patio door. The guy who lives in the apartment below me (who may or may not be attractive :P ) introduced himself within five minutes of my parents being in my apartment. I was actually at the office signing my lease, but then he came back and helped my dad unload my couch and loveseat. Many people in stores seem apologetic if you say excuse me to move around them. And I hate a busy grocery store, so that's a super plus.
The Apartment: I love my little pad. The building is cute. The apartment has just enough space, but not too much. There's nice new tile in the shower and on the bathroom and kitchen floors (not linoleum!). My kitchen has cute white cupboards and I have an adorable window over my sink. Behind my apartment I have a cute little courtyard and my balcony (which overlooks this courtyard) is big enough to enjoy sitting on it. I haven't done so yet, but I will. The place isn't perfect, but it's cute and I feel like it's me. It also has a good dose of character. Not just another apartment in a large building full of apartments, like my old one was. The help seems nice. When the maintenance guy came he even left a note saying what he did and that everything was fine! There's a community newsletter and some lady is trying to start a French conversation group which I should probably join. I dig it!
The Weather: It's atrocious! I hate heat. I hate humidity. I will not have a good hair day until winter! Actually today wasn't so bad, but that's because the humidity broke. I don't like summer clothes. I tried finding some today, but that excursion was a failure. Stores have sweaters and cardigans and normal back-to-school items, which I would normally be totally geeked about, but the thought of buying those today made me shudder. I couldn't believe these Kentuckians who actually were shopping for those things! I guess they are just used to it. I thought I was going to die walking across campus yesterday. And I don't even want to talk about the day I moved in. I just want fall to get here!
The Bugs: I have had a few bug run-ins so far. I was bracing myself for a land of more bugs, but it's still disgusting. There was some strange bug in my apartment a few days ago that I killed. There's this spider who keeps making a web in my door almost every morning. The first time I walk through the door at the crack of dawn to take Wheezer out and a spider gets on me I'm going to freak. Then today I was taking Wheezer for a little walk-about and there were these large, strange bug carcasses on the ground. I found like four. They were probably like an inch and a half long or a bit more, had fat bodies, and large wings. They must have all hatched for a night and died. I just googled that shit and I think they were cicadas. I've never risen in the morning to that, though. Back home I'm scared of the giant black pinching beetles. You find those carcases in the morning. These are ranking right up there. I'm feeling creepy just thinking about it.
The Traffic: Terrible. End of story. It's like 28th Street in Grand Rapids during December on a Saturday EVERY DAY! My route to school shouldn't be too bad as long as I time my drive around traffic, but I was in the shopping area today, in the middle of the afternoon, and it was traffic hell.
The Accent: It's kind of freaking me out. Some people have a strong accent and some people don't. And many of the people who don't are still from Kentucky. As I was walking through the mall and Target today I kept hearing small kids yell "Mawmay!" and other children were bickering with their drawl....it almost makes me laugh sometimes. The mild accent doesn't bother me but then out of nowhere you hear a really strong one and it's like WHOA! God, I'm even thinking in that crazy accent. The plus side to this, old people sound AWESOME! My parents and I went to Fort Boonesborough (as in Daniel Boone) and there was this older guy working as the Fort gunsmith and he had a very strong accent. I'm guessing he was from southern Kentucky. He sounded incredible. He said "bar hunting" and that they used "bar grease" when shaving out the barrel of the rifle." I could've listened to him tell me stories all day long. And he made a few beautiful rifles. It was a little hard to understand him at first, but once you got it...it was like butter. On the flip side, nobody has said anything about my accent. A few people have asked where I'm from or said "you folks aren't from around here are you," but nobody has said they could tell we were from Michigan or told me my accent was weird, or anything like that. It's probably just a matter of time.
Well, I think those are all of my Kentucky observations today. I'm sure I'll have more to say soon, but I was thinking about these things as I sat in traffic today :P
Wow! Sounds like lots of new and exciting stuff! Yes, the bug was probably a cicada. I've seen a few of them up here even, but not too many. It's a big cicada year though.
ReplyDeleteI hope you feel more and more at home each day! Good luck my new Southern friend.