The difference a place makes

It's now been about five weeks since we moved to Soytown.  I have to say that it's like a different world here.  In Rubbertown, so many things of daily life were stressful.  For instance, the flies were incredible.  I could literally feel myself going insane as the buzz of flies became the background music of our house.  You didn't even have to move in order to kill them, they were so prevalent.

A strip of fly paper after one day.

I think our record was killing five flies with one swat.  

Secondly, living on a dirt road meant that our house was always dusty.

I would dust in the morning and by the afternoon I could write my name (or Emily's) in the dust.
 

Here in Soytown 95% of the roads are paved, almost eliminating both flies and dust.

One of the hardest things about living in Rubbertown was the feeling of isolation.  The town is located literally in the middle of nowhere.  Why you would found a town over 3 hours away from any other town by dirt I will never understand.  It's no wonder that only about a thousand people live there.  Let's just say there isn't a lot to do in a town that big.  We were definitely the oddity being the only foreigners.  It was somewhat disconcerting being stared at every time we left the house.  In Soytown we feel much more comfortable.  The town is much nicer and has about 15 times the number of people that we don't stand out so much.  Plus, there's enough other things to do that people don't take the time to ponder why in the world you would live there.

In Rubbertown we were the only people who spoke English but in Soytown, there are three other American couples.  When living in a foreign country, having someone to make tacos with and talk about things in the States and talk with in your mother tongue makes a big difference.  Plus, it's nice having "instant" friends who have similar interests.

Besides having more contact with our group and more language sessions here, there are so many things that make living here so much more peaceful -- having reliable internet and a landline phone system that works, having a pool in town to escape to on really hot weekends, places in town that accept credit cards so we don't have to carry so much cash, being able to travel to our town without worrying about breaking down on the dirt road in the middle of nowhere with no way to call anyone, having colleagues in town that try to help you succeed with your work, being able to go for a bike ride on asphalt rather than uneven dirt roads, having the option of eating at a restaurant, being able to get fresh vegetables at the market, etc, etc, etc.  As a friend of mine said after moving to a new town, "my heart doesn't feel heavy all the time now."  I agree!

-Kelli