I really appreciate the cinderblock walls.

Life has begun for us in the land of my ancestors. Oklahoma is very green, and we're currently experiencing a thunderstorm to keep it that way. Luckily, the sky wasn't that particular shade of green that means tornadoes.

We've been doing a combination of looking for work and collecting the things we need. And living in our first and second apartments.

We came into town on Thursday and got our apartment key and directions to it. When we walked in, it was pretty disappointing. It was dirty, it was small, and it was smelly. The fridge wasn't plugged in and mold was growing in the freezer. The stove was disconnected, there was hardly any cupboard space, and there were spider webs in the kitchen-sink drain. Dead bugs were in the corners of nearly every room and the bushes directly outside our front door were a bit overgrown. In addition to that, we had no bed. We bought an area rug and slept on that. We had a couple of blankets and some pillows, but it felt like we slept on the hard, hard ground.

We had been given a list to fill out to identify any damages in the apartment. When we filled it up, we went the next day to get a second list to continue on. We were told to add any additional problems on a plain piece of paper. Allison asked if it was normal to have this many problems. The woman in the office asked what kind of problems. We started explaining what was wrong, and she was very shocked. She and another office worker looked and found another apartment in the same price range that was available. It is a vast improvement. A lot more cupboard space in the kitchen, no mold, and all around just cleaner. Thank goodness! When we went back to the office to sign the paper work for the switch, one of the workers got on the phone to turn the A/C on in the new apartment. I stopped her and told her that we would go without (air conditioning costs an extra hundred dollars a month) and her jaw dropped. That was kind of funny.

In our new apartment, with our new bed is very much a relief. We don't need A/C since we have three fans and we keep the windows open at night.

It may not seem like it, but I think it was a blessing we spent that first day and a half in that first bad apartment because it helped us better appreciate our current apartment. We still don't have carpet, and we don't have A/C. Our kitchen is small with very little counter space and our bathroom is small enough that it's possible to wash your hands while sitting on the toilet (I assume, I haven't tried yet). However, it's fantastic. And it's ours.

Allison enrolled at the local community college and it turns out she only needs one more semester before transferring to OSU. Good, but Holy Crap-in-a-Hat school is expensive here. Even for locals, community college cost over a hundred and fifty dollars a unit. In California, it was twenty. We both looked at each other and were like, "How do people go to school here?" The answer is, they probably don't. Anybody who lives in California and doesn't take advantage of the higher education options available, has no idea what advantages they have that they're turning down.

Since this is a really long post, I'll throw in a picture. On our first day here, Allison cut her hair and now she has bangs. She did a great job, and she looks really cute. We have a picture of it, but the camera is in the car and as I mentioned at the beginning, it's raining. But here's another one (at the top).