The First Six Months

December first marked our sixth month anniversary here in New Orleans.

A year ago, if you would have asked me about living in New Orleans, I would have said "Hopefully someday soon." In March, that turned into, "We're moving in June!" There was a lot of excitement and heartache in the months leading up to the actual move, but now, six months later, I can confidently say: "This was the best decision we could have made."

One of the things we were a little worried about was finding a community of people we could hang out with. Our friends back home were an extension of our family, and we didn't know if anything could come close. Thanks to Twitter, and in particular, the very community-minded NOLA Twitter, we have a wonderful circle of friends here that I would love to introduce to our friends back in Nebraska.

Don't get me wrong: I miss our friends and family back in Nebraska like crazy. We don't keep in touch as much as I'd like (I will take the blame for some of that) because we're all going on with our lives, but they're never far from my heart. I'm excited to see them in a few weeks when we go back for Christmas. But...

I'm not so sure about going back to cold and snow. I am loving the fact that we're just now having our first real "cold" snap--highs in the 50s and lows in the 40s, knowing that this is about as cold as it's going to get this winter. And I really don't miss the constant wind in Nebraska.

Things here are a lot different than back home. The pace, for one, is much slower. People aren't in a huge rush, especially during the hot summer months, and while that can be aggravating if you think you are in a hurry, it's nice that people take their time. Unless you're driving--then all bets are off. People are scary on the roads. It's no wonder car insurance is so high here, as someone cuts across four lanes of traffic without turning on their blinker, or blocks three lanes of traffic so they can merge where they want.

I previously talked about the abundance of things to do in the Greater New Orleans area, including the festivals. If you are bored in this town, it's your own fault. In fact, it starts to become more of "maybe we should stay home tonight" instead of "there's nothing new to do." There's always something new--you could eat at a new restaurant every night and still only scratch the surface of amazing places here in town. This town has everything, in every price range, from traditional Creole and Cajun foods and New Orleans favorites--gumbo, jambalaya, seafood, po'boys, muffalettas, to name a few--to amazing greasy diner food, hot dogs shops, fabulous pizza places, and small mom and pop places. And you can pretty much find any type of "ethnic" food you want here as well: Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Israeli, Filipino, Ethiopian, Japanese, Vietnamese; the list goes on and on. It makes it really easy to try new things. That's not to say that some of this wasn't available in Nebraska; it just was much more difficult to find, and it wasn't all within a quick driving distance.

We are still exploring, and plan to be "tourists in our town" for quite a while. The best complement we've gotten is from people who think we've been here for years--all of the visits have paid off! I'm looking forward to continuing our adventure!

4th of July on the Mississippi River