One year in Nashville

It was about a year ago when we had spent a month in California after coming back from living in the Philippines. We then packed up my car and headed east on one epic roadtrip. After about a week on the road, we ended up at our final destination: Nashville.

We've been living in this city for about a year now. So in celebration, I want to share some of my favorite things about "Music City":

- The size of the city. It's pretty perfect-- not too small and not too big.

- There is always something going on. On any given day of the week, you can always find something to do. There is also a lot of free things to do.

- Music is everywhere. It's not called "Music City" for nothin'. Whether there's a major act performing at the Bridgestone Arena or songwriters performing at open mics in small cafes, you can find live music with no trouble at all.

- Registering and titling your car is a breeze. And I'm only mentioning this because I had to go through it recently. It was pretty hassle-free (especially compared to California's DMV!). You just take your car through a drive-through smog place (which takes a few minutes), then take the paper they give you to the county clerk's office, pay the fee and just like that, they hand you over your new Tennessee license plate-- you don't even need a TN driver's license!

- The vibe. When we go out to places for a drink or whatnot (we're big fans of going out to east Nashville), the vibe is definitely a lot less "Hollywood". People are a lot friendlier, egos are not as big, etc.

- Speaking of friendlier people: for the most part, people are friendly. There has been countless times when I've been walking around and random strangers have said hello to me or struck up a conversation while waiting for a bus to arrive. Again, coming from California, that was new to me-- but I have gotten used to it and find it quite nice.

- Music City Bikeway. A 26-mile bike route that goes through Nashville. We've biked most of it and it's really nice.

- Radnor Lake. I really like this place. It's a great place for hiking and there are different trails you can do that are at different experience levels. Whenever someone visits us, we always take them here.

- And last, but definitely not least, the food: there is an abundance of restaurants in Nashville, ranging in all kinds of food. Some of my favorite restaurants in Nashville include Edley's Bar-B-Que, Mitchell's Deli, B&C Melrose BBQ, Pfunky Griddle, M.L. Rose, Gabby's Burgers, Calypso Cafe, Pupuseria Salvadorena, Thai Kitchen, Bombay Palace, Chicago Style Gyros... just to name a few. We're still trying to discover other places as well-- there's just so many places to choose from!
My only complaint though is that there isn't a good Mexican place. We've found one that was pretty good-- but our standards are set really high. J and I just decided to set the bar a little lower because let's be honest-- nothing beats Mexican food in Southern California. So far, our favorite Mexican restaurants have been Oscar's Taco Shop and Las Fiestas Cafe.

I can't believe it's already been a year since we've lived here! A lot has happened in this past year-- I guess time just flew on by. We don't know how much longer we'll be living here-- but then again, we don't even know what our plans are for next month, let alone the next year.

In any case, we are really enjoying Nashville!