Re-entry

It is morning and I am sitting in my house (HA! MY HOUSE!!). Even though the sky is gray, the air is clear and cool, and my windows are open (HA! My WINDOWS ARE OPEN).  It is so quiet here, I can hear the crickets singing, children playing and the occasional beep beep of a truck in reverse.  Today is our first full day in our house.  We've been in a hotel up to now, so even though we've been here a month, it's only now that we are really experiencing life as we will know it.  Some things are strange- (did I mention how quiet it is?) I made dinner last night without soaking veggies and I used water from the tap - weird.  Some things are the same, I made something familiar (barley capanota), in my trusty old pots and pans.  

This has been a different transition for us, this is the first time we've arrived at post and had to live in temporary quarters.  We don't have a social sponsor to show us the ropes, and I've had to do the make ready myself, there's no office to call to sort out the little kinks that every new place has.  But I did get to paint!  Our house has so many bright colors I'm sure people are going to walk in and think I am nuts, but I love each and every brightly colored wall (they are still bare, the majority of our household goods are still making their way from China).  

But in many ways this is like moving to a new country.  I'm still getting used to the prices, the unusual local customs (people stop for pedestrians that are not even at the crosswalks yet), and the rhythms of life in this new place.  I've already found the grocery store, the school, and figured out how DH was going to get to work, I'm now working on finding a community to join so that we can make some friends around here.  

ETA- hahaha I just realized that I forgot to say that we are back in the US in the DC metro area.  The whole post doesn't really needs that small piece of info to make it more understandable.