The Sunshine State

So, I packed up everything I own, put it in my car, and drove away. I was surprised that it all fit, with room to look out the back window, no less. It was a trip filled with mixed emotions. I am feeling buoyant from owning so little and enormously sad at leaving all my good friends. 

Two days and 1300 km later, I arrived just in time for the late-season hurricane Nicole. I hurried to buy groceries and get everything safely removed from the car, but the hurricane ended up changing course so it wasn´t a big deal. We ended up with about 24 hours of rain, but none of the super-damaging winds. I´d complain about the lack of drama, but I appreciate having reliable electricity too much to complain.

I am living in Gainesville, a small city in north central Florida, mostly known because it houses the University of Florida. This is the smallest city I have lived in since my 20s and there´s already a bit of culture shock. Everywhere I need to go always seems to be a 15-minute drive from where I currently am. There aren´t all the kinds of shop I´m used to having available, and it´s looking difficult to find groups and meetups where I can meet new people to make friends in such a small city. It´s also definitely the south, but I am pulling on my experience from Savannah to remember that it is okay to greet people when you see them in the halls of the condo and to talk to strangers for no apparent reason. 

Just for fun, the last time I did something like this I was aged twenty-four, and I drove my 1988 Pontiac Grand Am to Albuquerque to work in my uncle´s restaurant. My cat Sundae is next to me in the homemade cat carrier, an awesome brainwave of my father´s, which meant I also had a useful laundry basket when I arrived. I lived on $7k per year and lived in a semi-scary apartment filled with cockroaches. Gainesville is looking much better in comparison.