Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Tale of Two Cities

We've been together in one city for about 36 hours now. It's great now that we are all under one roof together again.

The kiddos and I have been enjoying our summer vacation and exploring our new city.

There are definitely some HUGE differences between living in a community of 120,000 and a city of 1.6 million. Oh yes, there are!

Swimming Pools - In College Station, we had some wonderful city pools that we were able to buy swim passes for and go anytime we wanted. Here, the only city pools are in low-income areas of the city. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. We were encouraged not to go, but I took the kids and went anyway. The great part? The pools are free of charge. We had a very nice experience and N made friends with a little boy while L and I swam together. We were the only white people at the pool, which was fine, except everyone kept staring at us. I'm sure they were wondering why we were there. I'm guessing white middle-class folks don't often come to their pool, which is a shame really. Segregation definitely still exists and it's become very obvious to me in the last week here. :(
We tried to join the neighborhood pool, but the people who own our rent house haven't paid their HOA dues and so we weren't allowed to join. Bummer!

Stores - oh, man oh, man - I've fallen in love with my new grocery store! They have everything, it's huge and the prices are really good too - and it's less than 5 minutes from our house - yippee! They have all manner of shopping experiences here and they are close!! Now, I'm sure this could get me into trouble, but hey, I have 2 small children that I don't want to take shopping with me, so for now, my money is safely in the bank!

I'm beginning to figure out how to get around San Antonio or at least our small corner of it - everyday we discover something else new and exciting!

5 comments:

Becky said...

Glad you are getting settled. If you don't have one, a GPS is a great investment! Will help you find anything and learn your way around. I love mine for travel!
I miss lots of things about living in a big city. I liked living in the Dallas area. There was no lack of fun, exciting things to do as a family and I loved the shopping!!! Anything and everything you could want!
have fun!

Jenn said...

I'm glad you are making it home and enjoying it! Miss ya!

Ladybug Fanatic/Monkey Tales said...

...and you will continue to discover more things everyday. I'm glad you are getting settled. I haven't lived there in 12 years; I know the city has changed since then :) and I forget my way around easily. Have fun!

Emily said...

Glad you are enjoying the new discoveries. We miss you! Keep a list of all the fun places we should go when we come to visit you!

Tonya said...

Sure do miss you around here. Glad to hear you are settling in. Still praying for you guys! Have put a bid in on a house so pray that all will work out. Buying a house is a pain if you know what I mean.

Love and miss ya!!!