More differences, part 2

There is a different sense of time here. People do not rush around like they do back in CA, and yet, they are early for everything. I came to a meeting in usual CA style: I was there at exactly the time the meeting was supposed to start. This ended up being 10 minutes later than everyone else who looked at me like I was late.

Back to sweets again - even the amount of sugar in each sweet is significantly more here. As many of you know, I like things with chocolate, but even the chocolate here tends to be too sweet for me. Cookies seem to have at least half again as much sugar in them as the same cookie in CA. The same is true of fudge, brownies and cakes. They actually have much more sugar in them.

Cost of living is obviously different. A house that one might buy in the Bay Area for about $650,000 costs about $175,000 here. Other products tend to be a little cheaper here as well. The exception is produce, which, since it is being shipped from CA tends to be quite a bit more expensive here.

Names: Children here are still expected to call grownups by their last names - Mr. or Mrs. ____________. Ms. is not used much. And we are the only married people in our congregation who have different last names. I've only met a couple other couples who do not share the same last name here - they were both Presbyterian Pastor couples who spent a significant time in CA and in particular in the SF Bay Area. People in my church are truly confused by this and we've had several people actually ask us if we are married.