After four plane ridesv(and poor Jeremy having to carry way to many bags), we arrived in Columbia, South Carolina. Summer is in full swing here, and I'm loving it. We're staying in a hotel right now driving a rental car, which is an expensive way to live, so we're working hard to remedy that. I was quite worried that we didn't have much to go on as far as things lined up for a car and a house, but now I realize that Jeremy was right to just roll with things. It turns out we couldn't have found the options that we're now looking at, while still in Oregon. We just wouldn't have known about them until we reported to the base and went through their oreintation kind of stuff. Which is kind of frustrating that life is like that, but I'm definetly not disappointed in what the army is offering. That's the story of the army pretty much though... they have great things to offer but if you want them they come not on your terms or timing. Ah well, so we should be getting into a nice place to live pretty soon. In the meantime, not having to cook breakfast is a nice break.
The car situation on the other hand, is going to take a little mroe figuring out. We may have to hit the road a little bit to find something more in our price range.
Columbia itself, I think will be a lot of fun. It has a lot of the "southern beauty" going on I think. We drove to look at a house in the historic district. It was so fun to see these brick houses with tall coloumns in front, lots of rocking chairs on porches. The house was definetly a fixer-uper, so not what we're looking for right now. But would be a lot of fun, someday. The people here are very different and will take a little getting used to probably. I invisioned mostly black americans and caucasians, but I've seen a good melting pot of people from all over, so that's pretty cool. I feel like we're right in the middle of everything too. The coast is not too far. There's lots of nature trails and boating/lakes around. It will be really fun to explore.
Well, better get back to searching the web....