Austin vs. Honolulu

When I moved from Illinois to Rhode Island, I knew I'd be in for a culture shock. I experienced it the first day when I called about apartment rentals and was given directions based on buildings that weren't there anymore. Since people born in Rhode Island are expected to live there all their lives, they all know where the grocery store that burned down 20 years ago used to be and still use it as a sort of ghost landmark.

In 2012, when we moved from Rhode Island to Austin, I knew I'd be in for culture shock. But soon, fedora-wearing hipsters with waxed mustaches riding unicycles hardly fazed me.

So when we moved from Austin to Honolulu, I braced for another shock. But, on the first day I was here I spotted a guy carefully framing photographs of manhole covers along the street. Then, I saw a young woman with full sleeve tattoos wearing a Ramones T-shirt pushing a baby stroller.

It's like I never left Austin.
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