An Ode to Houston

I’ve been living in this city for a year now. It’s been an interesting ride.

Coming here, we almost moved into a house with severe molding issues. Instead, we opted to stay in A 1BD condo in an aging high rise, with a losing fight against the local roach population. We lost power multiple times in the last year, every car ride feels like a near death experience, and omg my body can’t sustain the combination of humid and hot, but damn did I enjoy the experience as a whole.

Living in Houston feels like what it must feel like living on one of those shanty asteroids in Sci-fi novels floating through space, where thousands of different alien species gather and somehow manage to live together. One patchwork addition after another. Be someone. It felt oddly liberating and enriching.

It's amazing being able to go see an opera or ballet, and have the most authentic Ramen/Hotpot/Pho/Fish'n Chips right afterwards. The melting of cultures is so amazing.

Ultimately, though, the long list of negatives outweigh the positives, and I don’t see myself staying long term / owning property here, but it was a fun ride while it lasted, and I’m incredibly grateful to have been part of it for a year.

It’s time to go home to Zurich though. Oddly enough, almost every person I met asked me something along the lines of "Why would you move here?! now?!"