Move to Nashville pt. 2

So I know I said I’d update sooner, but things have gotten busy now that I have a job! Let me just do a quick catch up from where I left off before.

The first week was mostly spent getting our place in order and getting our life in order (banking, DMV, etc.), but one event was the Fourth of July. We’d heard that Nashville was supposed to have some of the best fireworks in the country so although I’m not a huge fireworks fan, we attempted to ride our bikes downtown to watch them. Funny thing was that people were actually camped out as far up as our apartment! All along our rode from downtown to us there were thousands of people from all walks of live sitting in lawn chairs and BBQing in the streets! We rode our bikes up a few blocks and found a place to sit in the grass. The fireworks were AMAZING! (see pictures) I’ve seen quite a few fireworks, but nothing like this! In Minneapolis, I think there are a lot of little displays, but here there is one HUGE one and people come in from all over middle Tennessee. They last for almost 45 minutes, had a live orchestra and were all around impressive. The best thing- very little mosquitoes! I think that’s one of the best things about Nashville! I can sit outside for a few hours in the grass and only have a few bites. They are here, but not like Minneapolis. We don’t even have screens on our windows!

Now just about the best thing that has happened since we moved here…I bought a scooter!! After trying my hardest to ride my bike up huge Nashville hills, I decided that there was no way I was going to be able to ride my bike the three miles up hill to work. I bought a beautiful green Kymco People 150 scooter. I absolutely love it! (see pictures)

Later that week Claire came down to visit, which was good because on Thursday Darren had a job interview and pretty much got hired on the spot!! He is working for a country music radio industry publication doing graphic design. It really worked out well since he is now actually making more money (a little) and working only about 35 hours a week! Anyway, so Claire came down and kept me entertained my last week before I started my job. We didn’t do anything too exciting but we did do a little touristy stuff like go to the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s home)- nothing too memorable and the Belle Meade Plantation – much more interesting. We also went to Nashville Shores, the local water park. Unfortunately, the day we decided to go was the one day that wasn’t really quite warm enough. All week it was in the 90s and that day it was in the low 80s. We went on a few slides and laid in the sun, but it was really too cold to go swimming. Claire also came with me to the DMV to get my motorcycle license. Since the scooter was 150cc, I had to get a motorcycle license. I can’t say I was head of the class as far as the test, but hey, I passed and that’s all that matters!!! So now I am legally scooting about town.

After Claire left, Darren and I got together with our new friends Tom and Joe. They just moved here from Chicago so we have some mid-western friends to relate too. We met them the week before when there was “Lappy Hour” at a nearby bar. This entailed basically drinking with your dog! It was a lot of fun and Olive met lots of dogs including Tom and Joe’s dog Grover, an adorable Labradoodle.

After the weekend, I was headed to work! Two and a half weeks off was great, but I was really ready to get started on my real life in Nashville. Work has been great so far, everyone is really nice here and I am learning so much! I’ve really just been doing training so far, but I start working the reference desk next week, which is very exciting. I’m also learning a ton about medicine. I am going to be auditing an Anatomy & Physiology nursing class starting in August and I am doing a lot of medical terminology training. It is really exciting to talk to the librarians here about their jobs. They all seem to love it here because they are constantly being challenged and always learning more- my kind of job!

A great perk of working for a university is that I get all sorts of benefits, one being a free gym membership. The gym is really nice and so far never busy. I’m committing to loosing 15 lbs and going four days a week. So far it is pretty easy to get myself to go since I’m just down the block from the place. Wish me luck!!

So all in all, life is great and we really have started to get into our own routine down here. Nashville is a really great city with really nice people. I feel like everyone is so welcoming, which I think is a change from cold Minnesota. Additionally, the city is so diverse and I really enjoy meeting all sorts of people. It is definitely a different culture in some ways, but as long as you know that when they call their ice tea, “sweet tea,” they really mean an undrinkable pound of sugar, a northerner will do just fine. In all reality, you can choose to go to traditional southern style places, or you can go to very cosmopolitan places that they wouldn’t even have in Minneapolis. Nashville is definitely a very hip place, they’ve got a little of everything.

So that’s it so far, I’ve uploaded more pictures of our apartment and the city if you’re interested. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittycar/

I’ll try to take more too. I am going to do my best to update this once a week, but it may end up being more like twice a month.

Miss you all!
Carissa