Settled in to our boring, exciting new life

A bit over a month into our life here in Georgia, and we’ve figured out quite a few things. You might take these every day phenomena for granted, but figuring out where to get things, setting up a bank account, getting insurance and paying bills can seem quite daunting if you’re not sure how it works. We’ve mastered all these things before, of course - just not here. Now we are all set, though – I think. We have paid a round of electricity, gas, internet bills and rent. We’ve even managed to become members of Atlanta Zoo and Costco (although we have only managed to visit the zoo, so far), AND we’ve opened a Netflix account. We’ve made a friend of two (although it’s very hard here – more on that later), and the boys are making friends in the homeschooling coop that we joined. I no longer have to use my GPS to get to the grocery store or to pick up my husband (although we still use it extensively as a backup and for adventures), and we’re happily exploring our neighborhood in the early evenings during bike rides or jogging rounds.

“How boring,” you think, but this is all (or at least mostly) new to us, and still quite exciting. We still feel like strangers, and the whole situation – the fact that we are now living in the US (even though it’s only temporarily) – still seems almost too good to be true; like a dream or a mistake that is about to be discovered (the fact that I have to renew my US visitor VISA soon, doesn’t help either). I still have to get my GA driver’s license and our GA license plate, but this will have to wait until the government shutdown is over (a bizarre issue in itself).