Small town America

Indiana, PA map

Our apartment is on the top floor, far right

I've never lived somewhere like Indiana, PA, before. I kind of like it, but it certainly is different than Olympia, Holland, Langley, or Musoma. A few things I've noticed over the past few days:

• People seem very surprised to hear that we intentionally moved here from far away. They like their town, but nobody can fathom why we'd choose it. The only real claim to fame in Indiana, PA, is that it's Jimmy Stewart's hometown. Other places I've been have a greater self-image - residents like their town and imagine everyone else does, too. In Indiana, they are like, "Why here?!"
• It has the friendliest Social Security office I could imagine. When I was there today, everyone was making friends, catching up with old friends, and having a social time of it in the waiting room, and even back in the offices people were introducing themselves to each other very informally.
• There are Amish people around town. I know better than to stare, but honestly, I've never seen anyone Amish before, much less one pushing a shopping cart in front of me at the grocery story. Zarya probably categorizes the women as Muslims or Catholic nuns - women with big, dark clothes from head to foot.
• You can have a year's worth of weather in one week. In the past few days we've had snow, 77 degree sunshine, pouring rain, and 55 degree sun with a little breeze.
• The stores are all different (well, there is always Walmart). I've never been to NE USA before, and sure enough, just like they were different in the Midwest than in the West, and in Canada than in the US, they're different here, too. You'd think that eventually I could even live the same region twice to save myself some on the learning curve for shopping!