there is no grass on the other side

thirteen regional differences (week #9) the first couple of visits i made out to nevada, i just didn't like it. everything looks different from home. i couldn't find the places i wanted to go. if it wasn't a casino, it all just blended in together. everything, houses, office buildings, strip malls, highway medians, i mean everything, is tan or light brown or sand or beige or khaki or another name for the same basic color as those other ones. everything in kentucky is colorful. everything is lush and green. there are trees everywhere and many of them bloom in the spring with white, pink, red, and lavender flowers. i think i didn't like NV at first simply because visually, it was just so stunningly different. its since really grown on me. i feel more comfortable there every trip but it will never be home in my heart. 1-2 casinos are different sorts of places in NV and those near KY but many in both incorporate water elements. i heard somewhere that some cultures think water elements like little ponds and waterfalls are lucky as well as comforting. 3-4 grocery stores are actually almost the same, on the inside. i was so surprised to walk into alberton's and discover that is was a krogers. a rose with any other name... 5-6 i'd made several trips to NV before i even spotted a church, they just look very different 7-8 houses are different. in NV, they are way more expensive, there are fewer two stories (donno why), they have different landscaping (because of watering restrictions), they tend to have less slope on roofs (which i can only guess is because they get less snow), they use a lot more tile and stucco, nothing is brick, and many more have more pools in the back. 9-10 trees are different, but i already talked about that in the introduction. 11-12 landscape. at first the mountains in NV really weirded me out. i just felt like they were so close and so big and that they were just going to fall and crush me at any moment. but now i rather like them...so strong, so mysterious. they seem to look different every day from every angle. horsefarms, on the other hand, all look the same, every one of them every day. there can be something very comforting about things staying the same. 13 me. well, i am not a different person when i'm travelling but wherever i am, the other place is lacking in me's.