One week in

This time last week we had just arrived in California.
I have finally come out of that dream-like state I found myself in those first few days, and realized that this is where I live now. The fact that we are moving into our new home tomorrow helps to ground me, too.

The city we live in, Elk Grove, is beautiful and new and pretty and lively. The houses are all brand new, so are the shops and office buildings. There are no big malls, but 3 large main roads packed chock-full of shopping centres, similar to Key West and Princess Crossing. Wherever you live in Elk Grove, you are never more than 5 minutes away from the shopping district.

Two highways flank the city and run North-South, Interstate 5 and Highway 99. All highways are named by a number, and odd numbers run North-South, while even numbers run East-West. I can take either highway to Galt, which is the neighbouring city where I'll be working.

Things are BIG here: cars, houses, shops, serving sizes. We found 300g tubes of Colgate toothpaste, and marshmallows half the size of your palm. Jose Cuervo is available in 1.5 litre bottles.
Fuel prices change daily, and differ at individual filling stations, by as much as 15c a gallon.
And jelly is not jam! I always thought jelly was jam. Jam exists here, and is called jam or preserves. Jelly comes in squeeze bottles, but I have yet to taste it. Jell-o is a brand, and is either clear jelly or pudding, in flavours like banana custard.
And string cheese is not squeezy cheese - it's a stick of cheese that looks like a crab stick, and it's fibrous so you can peel off strings of cheese. Fascinating.
Things are sweet, too. I'd read that South African soft drinks and chocolates were sweeter than in other countries, but WOW! My teeth are still hurting from the candied papaya I tasted yesterday. And the soft drinks are sweeter too, as well as the yoghurt and hot chocolate and cookies. Yet it's impossible to find full cream yoghurt...

Other things you can't find are bar soaps, and bath sponges. Well, there's Dove bars, and 2 brands called Ivory and Dial. Ivory smells faintly like green Sunlight soap, but thankfully the smell doesn't linger. Everybody uses liquid soap and shower poufs.

I'm off to bed - it's 11:45pm, and we're moving tomorrow. We won't have interent access at home for the next couple of weeks... I suppose frequent trips to Starbucks are in our future - WiFi access for the price of a cup of coffee seems like a good deal.
The kids are going trick-or-treating on Sunday - I'll put up pics as soon as I find the camera cable.