Houston – Week 1

Contrary to my original plan I did not look for work right away. I mostly drove around and did shopping. Mostly I shopped for furniture, food, and items for the home since I didn’t bring any of these things with me. Houston is not so easy to get around compared to LA, especially if you are avoiding toll roads but that may be mainly because I am new. Most of the chains are here but I haven’t found any mom and pop shops like I like to frequent. Food, gas, and groceries are all a short car ride away. Nothing is really withing walking distance but it’s really too hot to walk for such things in my opinion though I do see the occasional jogger. I did get out to an event. I met some cool people and had a great time.

Here are a few things I’ve discovered so far:

• Streets don’t go in a straight line and they don’t go on for miles. They end where they end and may start up again somewhere else…or not.
• Tolls. I guess we do have some tollways of a sort in the LA area. You buy a transponder for your car and it ticks off prepaid money from your account. Here it’s really inconvenient if you don’t have one as there are no continuously parallel streets or freeways.
• Gas is under $2 a gallon but not everywhere. You have to watch where you buy it but I haven’t seen it over $2.09 and as low as $1.92.
• Many of the same food chains are here with others more exclusive to Texas and the South. Some large chains have only one location in Houston like IKEA.
• Most homes appear to be part of some kind of association like a condo development. These associations/neighborhoods have official names and homeowners pay association dues though it doesn’t appear to be very much.