Learning to Love... Atlanta

When I moved to East Asia the enjoyable parts of the metropolis we lived in were, shall we say, "hidden". I mean that if you visited our city for a weekend you might leave thinking- ew, pollution, tons of people and gross food. Over time however, we learned to love our city. It took work. It took discovering a quiet tea shop. It took learning how to order what was on the menu that wasn't intestines or stomach. It took befriending cab drivers instead of cursing at them (although inevitably that would happen as they do try to rip off foreigners especially coming from the airport). There would be lapses in culture shock, days when I couldn't handle it, but over time I thought of it as home and even began to love the city for what it was- pollution, people, food and all.

Now we've moved to Atlanta. I'm not sure we thought much about where we'd like to live- Atlanta surfaced quickly as the place where I could continue ministering with Campus Crusade for Christ and as good a job market as any for Ryan to search in. So after our honeymoon we moved to ATL, and then in December (hopefully for the last time for a while) we moved once more further in town.

Things have finally settled down from all the transplanting and the weather is starting to warm. We find ourselves once again, working to love where we live. The traffic can be terrible. The materialism can be overwhelming (especially coming from East Asia), but in 6 months here I have found a few things I do LOVE about life here- in no particular order:

1-Album 88 (88.5) is the Georgia State University student-run radio station. I have heard probably 5% of the music they play (that being sufjan stevens) and yet I love a good majority of it. Their tag line is "left on the dial. right on the music." Most of the time their disc jockeys don't sound like they know how to read- which I find quite charming.

2- fresh roasted coffee! In his days on the job hunt, R took up roasting his own coffee beans which means we get INCREDIBLE coffee to drink every day! Coming from the land of instant nescafe this is a welcome relief.

3- Power Yoga at the YMCA. Never would have guessed I would really practice yoga but after weeks of attending- I am hooked and I definitely look forward to it.

4- local, local, local- what's come over America (especially our generation) since we were gone? Everyone is obsessed with locally owned shops and restaurants. Our side of town (the westisde) boasts some of the best and so close. I feel like I'm discovering a new establishment every day.

5- Trees! In our city in East Asia, they began an initiative to "forest" the city, or at least that's what the English translation read. They were even requiring college students to plant 100 trees each before graduating. Atlanta does not lack trees and for that I am thankful.

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