new and wonderful culture shock

Generalizations that we've made/seen here in Seattle since Wednesday morning:
1. Everything is HUGE!  The buildings, roads, houses, stores, restuarants, everything.  This is a city and a life that is done on a grandiose scale that is kind of hard to imagine.
2. The roads are spectacular and non-threatening.
3. Fresh produce is beautiful but crazy expensive.
4. Relational conversation is not highly valued outside of those that you are in relationship with. (Eg. extra chatter with a waitress, cashier, person you pass on the sidewalk, someone trying to get through the too small aisle in a store, etc.)
5. Everybody lives in large and sturdy houses.  (Disclaimer: we definitely know that the condo/apartment life here is alive and well but have you seen how many houses line the streets around here?  And how big they all are?  And how much they look like houses?!)
6. There isn't a gomero or colmado, located in every 8th home that you pass, able to fix your tire or sell you the last minute item you need to make today's lunch.
7. Life happens very fast.
8. If you're in line, nobody tries to cut in front of you, even if you aren't white-knuckling the counter and oochied up all the way into the junk of the person in front of you.
9. While all things are expensive, the numbers on the reciept are very very small.  I mean, our lunch at the airport only cost us $15 US not $280 RD or something like that.
10. It is so incredibly quiet here.

Things we've done already that we hadn't done in a long time:
1. Drank out of a drinking fountain.
2. Ate an apple without washing it for 15 min. in bleach.
3. Purchased chicken, produce, and pancake syrup all in one store.
4. Left a half empty can of coke on the counter overnight and didn't wake up to a new colony of ants.
5. Ate Thai food.
6. Spent time with some very dear friends.
7. Passed 3 days without putting bug spray on or getting a single bite.
8. Put on lotion and chapstick because of dry skin and chapped lips.
9. Shivered contantly instead of sweating profusely.
10. Pushed a cross-walk sign to cross the street.

Things we've either done or had the urge to do that are completely unnecessary:
1. Put our toilet paper in the garabage can instead of in the toilet.
2. Grab a concho to the resturant.
3. Barter over the price of things.
4. Speak Spanish.
5. Look for our drinking cup and drinking water to brush our teeth with.
6. Wondered if I knew how to say what I wanted, before remembering that we're all speaking English here.

Life here is so wonderful, and at the heart of all things, we're finding that people's ambitions and loves, resonate with the same things around the world - but wow, the living out of all of that sure is different than what we've expereinced over the last 14 months!  We are definitely experiencing a stretching by the paradoxical feelings and paradigm shifts that we are feeling but are appreciating the time to process it with good friends.

Here in the (206)
M&K