Back in the U.S. – Where Are All the People?
Cypress, Texas
I’ve been back in Texas for three weeks now, and I think I’m having delayed reentry issues. I was really busy for the first couple of weeks – a couple of days with my sister, car inspection and registration renewal, haircut, babysitting grandchildren, and transitioning to a new VRBO in the Houston area. Now that I’m settled, I’m having flashbacks of France and missing it. This may support my point that you get used to where you are and it loses its novelty. I was looking forward to coming home and now I’m thinking ahead to another 30-day stay somewhere. Maybe I’m just doomed to never be content.
Another short-term rental, but this time I have a full apartment with a bedroom instead of a studio apartment.
I should have expected I’d need a readjustment to food. I’m disappointed with the quality of the fresh fruits and vegetables. I look for organics. I searched for “health food stores” with disappointing results. I’m avoiding processed and packaged foods. I am piggybacking on my daughter-in-law’s Lifetime Fitness membership. It takes a LOT of work to have a healthy lifestyle here, and I still don’t feel as energetic and well as I did in France.
I’m paying a lot more for groceries, something I didn’t think too much about before I went to France. I guess I was the frog in boiling water and didn’t notice the rising prices, even though everyone was complaining. Now I see it.
But I was most surprised when I got out and walked around the neighborhoods here in the Houston suburbs. I can walk for an hour and never see another person. Well, maybe a random Amazon delivery driver here and there. Granted, I’m walking during the day when people are at work and kids are at school, but that never mattered in Nice. At all hours of the day and into the evening, people were walking.
Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S. I went with my son to take his little ones to the natural history museum downtown. The museum was crowded on a Saturday and the downtown park we went to had some people around, but I didn’t see people walking in the streets. Getting around Houston, I can do “car watching” not “people watching.”
Anytime I walked to Place Garibaldi in Nice, the square was filled with people – old men sitting together on benches, young men tossing balls to their dogs, mothers with strollers, all ages walking through the square to get to the tram, couples eating at outdoor tables.
Any given evening in Nice, France
I know it’s not news that the U.S. is lacking vibrant cities. When you spend a longer time in a European city, you really feel the difference. I’ve read plenty of complaints that kids don’t go outside to play anymore, even in suburbs filled with big yards and playgrounds. It’s a complex consequence of geography, architecture, entertainment culture, and family dynamics. Smarter people than I have examined all of that. I’m just saying that I really felt it in my bones when I got back to the U.S. after a month in France.
Oh, well. In three weeks, I’ll be in Japan and, after a couple of weeks there, I’m sure I’ll be missing the U.S. again. C’est la vie!
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In June 2024, I sold my house, put my belongings in storage, and became a temporary nomad. So far, I’ve had stays in West Virginia, Maine, New Orleans, and Nice, France.