My Newfound Love for Long Beach

As most of you know, Darren and I recently moved to Long Beach. It has officially been 1 week today.

When we began talking about Long Beach over a year ago, I was less than thrilled to think of leaving our place in Newport. But over the last year we have spent more time here and I found myself ready to take the plunge and move. So we counted down the days and relied on our friends recommendations on neighborhoods for apartment hunting. And here we are!

We have had a surprisingly peaceful transition and, besides having to give up our kitty, we LOVE our new apartment and the city. We spent our first morning wandering around a Walmart in downtown. It was actually a little bit overwhelming. More people were speaking Spanish than English and there were barefoot children running around everywhere climbing on my cart, pushing me and running into everything. And there was already Christmas music playing:P It took about and hour but we made it out safely. It really was my first taste of the diversity that is Long Beach.

My morning drives have been really neat. I work in Newport Beach two days a week, Darren and I commute together. And two days a week I work in Lakewood. I have been exploring different routes every morning so I can learn the streets and beat the 7th street traffic. I haven't found a quicker route, but I have been able to get a better feel for some different neighborhoods in the city. I have driven by lots of schools and sometimes I feel like I'm in a movie. I'm a suburban white girl driving in a foreign place. I am certainly a minority in these neighborhoods, most of the kids on their way to school are black or hispanic. There are dozens of people waiting for public transportation, many are walking. I have looked forward to the drive and am grateful for the exposure I am getting and the familiarity I am gaining.

Mickey came and stayed the night with us that first weekend. We went on a walk down the street to a park. There was a huge group of people gathered and we went over to check it out. It was a huge "No on Prop 8" rally. We stuck around for awhile to hear what they had to say and more so to observe the people that were there. There is a large homosexual population in Long Beach and they seem to be very active in the community. There is a huge Gay Pride parade here and I think a few Gay churches. While at this rally I just felt such a heavy heart for those who felt hated and discriminated against. It was a really emotional time and I just prayed for the people there as we walked.

Last night we went to dinner downtown at a place called Allegria, it was really good. There is so much diversity and culture in this city. We sat outside so we could watch people walk by. We just took it all in.

Today we went on a bike ride down to Ocean and over to downtown for the Farmer's Market. I guess I never realized that Long Beach is a big city, but found out today! I loved all of the tall buildings and the public transit. Darren and I marveled at all of the old brick buildings and the character that the city has. We were really excited when we rode by the filming of CSI Miami (apparently it's not really filmed in Miami). We rode by a couple of times to see the cast :)

So there's a little update. I feel like I am learning so much and finally beginning to feel comfortable in this new place. What started as fear and hesitation has turned in to excitement for this adventure. I want to meet people, experience the culture, get outside of my box. And I feel like all of the doubts I had about us planting a church in this place are slowly dissipating one by one. And God is so awesome that He eased me into it all. He is so good.

:) Alex