Culture Shock 121

It's been quite awhile since I've written about a culture shock. I have recently thought of a couple things that are different here in Mississippi than California as we just got back from a recent trip.

I've been subbing here in Mississippi.  It feels great to be back in a classroom. I subbed for a couple years in my home town and even at my high school alma mater. 2 very different experiences!

This is a picture of where I have been subbing. A shelf has even been made for their backpacks! I was amazed at the trust the kids displayed as they placed their backpacks down.

Nope to the double nope in California! I had my bag stollen twice in elementary school. By the time I got to jr. high, my backpack never left my side!

I love the ease of trust and general lack of not thinking the worst as we raise our boys in Mississippi!

Culture Shock 120

5 minutes from touchdown at the Oakland, California airport, I decided I missed Mississippi.

The flight was mostly peaceful with a little bit of turbulence. With about 2 hours left,  someone behind me decided to put on headphones yet turn their device up so loud I could hear it anyway. This person was 3 rows behind me. This person was obviously from Oakland.

I started thinking about the noise and traffic that California is known for.  I stated thinking that my blood pressure and anxiety were about to go up.

It has been amazing to be "home" for the holidays.  My heart is definitely torn in two. I left my heart in San Fransisco, but it found a home in Mississippi.

Culture Shock 119

Realizing the different memories my boys will have of their first few years.

Nick:
☆didn't know what rain was until he was 4.
☆loves the sound of car motors zooming passed him.
☆has a hard time living without a pool near by.
☆didn't really know guns can have a good purpose, (hunting, protection.)

Andrew
♡ doesn't know what a sidewalk is at 3.
♡can't sleep unless it is pretty quiet.
♡doesn't even know what a pool is.
♡can't wait to be old enough to shoot a gun.

Trying to raise them to love and respect each other despite such different backgrounds. At least they have the same crazy parents! They have that going for them!

Culture Shock 118

My husband was told he needed to go back to elementary school! He didn't know the names of local heroes.  He didn't know a lot of details about the Civil War. He wasn't clear on dates and locations of history in the gulf.

But ask him anything about the California Gold Rush. Ask him about the San Andreas fault. 1906? Big earthquake. The Oregon Trail.  Lewis and Clark. Ansel Adams. John Muir. Sacagawea. 

It's interesting to find out that kids in Mississippi and Louisiana don't spend time in school learning about California history.  Seems like a "shoulda known," but we just never thought about it!

I want to make sure my sons learn about California history AND Mississippi history!

Culture Shock 117

Street Names.

I lived in Atlanta for awhile.  Most of the street names were Peachtree, ending in way, street, court, lane, avenue, boulevard,  and any other form or synonym for street. I lived on Mead Street, though.

My home town of Antioch has street names such as G Street, 18th Street, and everything in between.  A lot of Spanish names too or streets named after trees.  I grew up on Springwood Way around Dogwood Way and Mahogany Way.

McComb is easy.  There is the part of town with the state named streets. There are a lot of lanes named after who's farm used to be at the end if it. And some streets named for what they are: Street street. Broadway. Magnolia/Pisgah Road.  Homesville Road, because it takes you to... Homesville. Easy. I lived on W.A. Walker Rd, named for the man who probably carved a dirt road into the land many, many years ago. He owned a diary farm and most likely had slaves.

I like learning the history of a place.  Here in the south, history matters; history shapes the family ties that we see today. History is relevant,  much like the biblical/world history I have been learning. 

In California, history is fleeting.  Families come and go. It's harder to find connections out west. I hope my boys find connections here.

Just Because

I'm opening up shop! I'm so excited to be sewing and offering homemade gifts!

Check out my fb page and hit "Like!" I need 30 likes to be able to turn on fb features for tracking my business and such.

JUST BETH JUST BECAUSE

Here is a picture of a few things in my shop.  Thanks for looking!

Culture Shock 116

Things I'm looking forward to when I get home:

TSJ for dinner.

Willie's Bagels for breakfast.

Trader Joe's so close!

Oh yeah, family!

Going swimming.

Free babysitting.

Culture Shock 114

Have I done this one?

Tall brick buildings. Many of them. Even around each other.  Apartment buildings. Old shops. Two story homes. Brick everywhere in Mississippi.

I'm not sure when brick was stopped being used so frequently and plentiful. I know a few brick buildings in the downtown area where I grew up were not fit to enter until they were retro-fitted for earthquakes. There simply are not as many buildings made of brick in California.

I guess the big bad wolf can knock most of California down!

Culture Shock 115

The ponytail: Classic hair style. Not reserved for just the young. Up do.

SIMH: Summer In Mississippi Hair. Consisting of a ponytail, often with a hat.

Even when I do my hair all nice for church or going out, it's inevitable that it will end up off my neck, up into a ponytail.  A hat also helps hide the frizzies from humidity.
This is my perpetual style for summer in Mississippi. Can't cut my hair so short as it has gotta go up when that humidity hits. Which is every. day. of. the. summer.

Culture Shock 113

Almost done.  I might start repeating myself if I continue! There are some things that are easy to get used to, like the wonderful new friends we're making and southern hospitality and no traffic. 

Other things I find still don't feel like home.  For example: tornado warnings, humidity, RAIN!

I am still amazed at the sounds of birds.  We had a few in our neighborhood back home.  A couple very talented mocking birds who copied lawn mowers and car alarms.  The mocking birds near our new home copy kittens and my son's whistle!

But there are so many birds! We have cardinals and wrens and mocking birds and robins and blue jays and buzzards and hawks and eagles. I get to watch a golden eagle perch and hunt for food every once in awhile. Amazing!

Culture Shock 112

The kids on the bus to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans were so fun!

As we passed the airport, the kids oohed and awed over the planes taking off. We were pretty close to the airport; the planes were huge compared to our bus. It was hard not to smile as some of the kids saw a plane "up close" for the first time.

Nick thought it was pretty silly that the majority of the kids jumped out of their seats to get a better look at the 10 to 15 story buildings we passed. They had never seen such tall buildings.

Coming from California, 10 stories is nothing! The San Francisco skyline, Oakland, Alameda; they all become common place backgrounds. We also lived near a small airport and the big planes flew over consistently.

We enjoyed others experiencing a bit of culture shock instead of us for once.

Culture Shock 111

California has many signs written in both English and Spanish.

I don't even blink at this anymore.

I did pause for this sign on a bus ride to Louisiana:

"I'm not in California anymore! "

Culture Shock 110

I was standing outside in Liberty, MS the other day minding my own business. I was near an intersection that happened to have a stop light. A full logging truck and some kind of tanker were idling here. When the light turned red and the two trucks pushed on the gas pedals hard to get up the hill from a stopped position, I just about lost it!

Remember that I used to live 50 feet from a busy highway.  That was only 2.5 years ago.

No wonder I was an emotional wreck.  No wonder I couldn't sleep well. No wonder I was frazzled half the time.
The 120 seconds I had to listen to those two trucks made me crazy! They were so loud, I couldn't hear myself think!

Thank you, Lord, for the peace and quiet I have here, where I am now.  Thank you that right now, as I write this, I can hear my boys playing nicely outside the back door!

Culture Shock 109

Just had a thought.  Don't be too shocked!

I have been paying attention to the new laws being passed in California.  Gun restrictions; vaccine schedules.  Scary things are happening all around the country.

If I lived in California still,  I honestly think I would simple live.  I would be (not completely) ignorant of politics and government antics.  When I was there, I didn't have time to dwell on these things, even the future of our country.

Now I have a freedom I never did before. Times are tough and if I could find a way to help bring income to my family, that would be good.  But I have a simplicity I never knew in California.

In Mississippi, I don't sit in traffic at all. In Mississippi, I'm not working 40 hours at work, commuting 10 hours a week or more, working from home 10 or more hours.  In Mississippi, work is left at work.  In Mississippi, we sit and talk together as a family in the evenings because we are all home.

I know that this has to do with circumstances and isn't a difference because of the actual place I'm in. It just happens that we are in Mississippi.

Culture Shock 108

I couldn't get a picture of this one. Too bad because it would've been good!

The Finger
California.
That is one of the most legally rude things you can do without actually saying something. I was beaten up in junior high over a mistaken finger gesture made by my best friend. (I don't recall how I became the protector.)

Mississippi.
Driving down a country road, passing a tractor, seeing someone at their mail box, you politely lift your pointer finger off of the steering wheel and gesture,  "Hello." Am I right?! Oh,  I think there is a slight nod of the head.

Another win for Mississippi, the hospitality state.

Culture Shock 107

Short and sweet.

One of THE WORST roads I have ever marched on for band was in my hometown of Antioch, CA.

Thank you, Mississippi, for keeping up with the roads. They are well taken care of.

Culture Shock 106

I'm still in shock as the summer heat picks up full force here.

Where, oh where, are the swimming pools!? No community pool. No college pool. No high school pool. No Grandma's house to go swimming.

My husband reminded me that even if we had a pool, the water would be 98 degrees.

California, here's we come! Oh, that's right.  You are having a drought and probably don't have many pools right now either.  But you have the cool Pacific Ocean. Enjoy!

Culture Shock 105

I caught myself starting to complain about the noise the other night. You know, the neighbors wouldn't keep it down, it kept getting louder and louder.

No! Wait!

That noise is cicadas and bull frogs and crickets.

Wow! They are really loud! There are not that many bugs in California! And one cicada can be heard up to a mile away.

Neighbors vs bugs. I'll take the bugs as long as they stay outside!

Culture Shock 104

Bridges. Overpasses.

There is the Antioch Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. Also quite a few bridges within the delta where I grew up. But for the most part, I personally only crossed these bridges for vacations, for fun. I drove over and under A LOT of overpasses though. If you've seen the movies with shots of LA traffic and all the freeways, I've lived there.  And the Bay Area, CA, has it's fair share of interchanges.

Here near McComb, I go over a lot of bridges, too.  Most of them are over water.  Little creeks, rivers, low spots where water collects after the rain.

It just hit me the other day that I don't have a lot of freeways to go over or under, but I still see a lot of bridges. Not to forget one of the longest bridges in the United States that stretches over the Louisiana bayou.

Culture Shock 103

I had to make a call to California to deal with some bank things.

...

For 2 years, TWO YEARS, I have not had to sit on the phone and get lost in a circle of recordings.

I cannot begin to tell you how fast and how high my blood pressure rose.  "Press 3 for payment; press 4 for adress." There might have been tears in my eyes as I sat in the church parking lot trying to get a hold of a real person.

It's been awhile since I've had that experience.  It used to be a daily, or at least weekly, existence thing.  Not here in the south.  Not anymore! Thank goodness for that.