Life in the Big City

Hi people! Sorry, we haven't written in a while. Shift work will really mess up your schedule, especially with sleep. When you and your wife both work nights and you don't know anybody or have any other responsibilities, sleeping in until 6pm is really not a big deal. Neither is staying up until 4am watching movies on TBS. At first, we felt really lazy for sleeping in so late, but that's when we realized that we're really just still on Tucson time . . . and still a little lazy, but MUCH LESS than if we were on Baltimore time. Right?

We wanted to give you a quick idea of what life is like in Baltimore. We included the quintescential city night life picture with dim street lights and steam and everything. Funny enough, it was about 80 degrees outside when we took this picture and the sewers still steamed. Go figure. Anyway, there are a few weird customs, some quirks to the city, and a few just plain weird statues.

1) Parking - Parking in Baltimore is limited, especially downtown. We even have to pay to park in the garages where we work. It seems like there are no spots anywhere in downtown Baltimore, but that's where people get creative. For instance, why can't you just stop and park your car in the middle of traffic? There's asphalt and lines just like anywhere else. And that NO STOPPING EVER FOR ANY REASON sign has to be for someone else besides you. And all those cars behind you? They'll go around or wait for you to be done talking to the girl ignorning you on the corner. Overall the most creative parking spot ever was this guy who seemed to think he could just park in front of the garage since it was closed.

2) Alcohol - On our first day here, we went to Trader Joe's to get food. I tried to buy some wine or beer, but there wasn't any in that store. I didn't think much of it until we went to another grocery store and asked where the beer aisle was. The guy pointed me to this.

We're not heavy drinkers by any means, but that's not beer. I was wondering if we would have to find Otis, the town drunk, and ask where the local moonshiners were at just to get a beer. As it turns out we are not in a dry county, just a place where the local liquor store is the only one allowed to sell alcohol. Were were a little disappointed that the convenience factor was out until we saw that every coffee shop also doubles as a bar. When study time comes around, I may never leave the coffee shop down the street. We even found one place called XS which is the greatest place in Baltimore. It is a four story coffee shop/bar/sushi restaurant/omlette and pancake house. We may move out of our apartment early and just live there. There was even a live DJ spinning while we ate our meal. Crazy town.

3) Public art - We comes from Tucson which is home to . . . sorry, it's late and a little Baltimo' slipped out. We COME from Tucson which is home to all kinds of eyesores, but there are some real winners in Baltimore.

Our favorite is, of course, the carnivorous squirrel. I am a huge fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail but even think this a little inappropriate for a public median.
We are now HALF WAY through our trip! We're having a great time, but we get a little homesick from time to time. We only have four weeks left, but we sleep for half of the day, so it's really only like 2 weeks. And then you cut out vacations, travel time, and meals, and it's really only like 5 days. It'll be over like that! Seriously, God is really blessing us on this trip with quality time together, more reliance on Him, and a pretty relaxing time overall.

Love, Aaron and Charity

PS (Yes, Mom, I only have one orange striped shirt that I wear when going to DC. The rest were are not neutral gang colors. Just kidding. But not really :)