A Busier House

Pupe is in Houston

Lyneth's younger sister, Pupe, just arrived last week at the house.  She will be attending summer school classes and staying for six weeks.  Last weekend we went to IKEA (again) to buy her a bed, a desk and a chair.  Now the house has all four bedrooms occupied.  Pupe also brought her Nintendo Wii so we've been playing it a bit on the weekends.

Sad Brazilian fans watching their team lose

My job has been going well in the sense that I haven't been fired yet.  Most of my time is spent learning new things since I've only been there for a month.  Interestingly, a lot of my coworkers are soccer fans and many of them have been cheering for Brazil in the World Cup.  I think it's because we have an office in Brazil and several co-workers visit there often.  Unfortunately, Brazil has not had much success as of the last two matches.  We watched Brazil get destroyed by Germany 7-1 in the semifinal match and then lose to the Netherlands 3-0 in the 3rd place match.  

Today, we had a small party and watched the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina.  I'm not a big soccer fan, but watching the World Cup this summer has been a lot of fun.  I was mostly cheering for the U.S., but when they got knocked out I started watching some of the better teams.  The best match that I saw before today was Costa Rica vs the Netherlands.  Costa Rica was completely outmatched but they played a super packed defense and managed to survive to a 0-0 tie until losing in a shootout.  The game between Germany and Argentina was the best though.  The teams were pretty evenly matched, but Germany had more possession and attacking chances.  They finally broke through during the second extra time period for a dramatic 1-0 victory.  

My wife with a crawfish

One of the foods we served at the party was crawfish.  Today was the first time I've had crawfish and it is now my favorite food.  Lyneth got these from a place called LA Crawfish in Houston.  Lyneth also prepared some balut which was delicious.  She thought I shouldn't post a picture of it because looking at a little duck beak might gross out my mom.  

Other good news, Lyneth got a job offer on Friday and she accepted a position as a mobile application developer yesterday.  She doesn't want anyone to know what company, but it is a large, well known company in the airlines industry.  She's excited because she doesn't have to go through the grueling interview process for hopefully a few years.  

This time with more pictures

We've been busy in the past few weeks adjusting to the new schedule.  I started my job last week and so far everything has been great.  The company I work for has a strict social networking policy. I'm not allowed to mention the company name, my job position, the location of the company or who I work with on any blog, website or online social network.  I can only mention that I work for a computing company in the oil and gas industry.  A lot of the tech jobs in Houston are either in the oil/gas industry or in a medical field.

Lyneth is still in the process of finding a job, but she's been getting a lot of interviews lately. It's only a matter of time before she gets and offer.  

Lux at Oh My Gogi

We've been going out to eat a lot in Houston and one of our common activities is to visit late night food trucks.  Lyneth, Bo, Lux and I have been driving all over Houston in search of these elusive mobile restaurants.  One that we liked below is only open from 9pm to 3am.  It also has an erratic schedule, so the first time we tried to go it was in a different area.    

One that we went to recently was called "Oh my gogi" and they serve Korean/Mexican fusion food that was really good.  I liked the bulgogi tacos and Lyneth liked the kimchi quesadillas.  There are a lot of food trucks that serve fusion food like this in Houston.  I wasn't sure about this combination, but it turned out to be delicious.  Lux says that he wants to open a Cambodian/Hawaiian fusion food truck after he graduates from college.

Lux enjoying the OMG (oh my gogi) fries.  It has four kinds of cheeses, sriracha sauce, kim chee and more.

Another activity that has been taking up our time has been building a garden.  When we arrived, Bo decided that he wanted to redo his garden and add lots of new plants.  We planted peppers, flowers, lime trees, pineapples, mint, basil, and more.  The four of us did a lot of digging in the hot Texas sun.  It's in the low 90s Fahrenheit right now, so it only takes a few minutes to work up a good sweat in the garden.  We are working on adding some stepping stones to the backyard and we already planted 3 different kinds of lime trees there.  Hopefully they won't be killed by the intense heat.

Tending to the plants on the side of the house

Proof that I'm not just standing around

Dealing

I haven't updated in a while due to all the events that have been going on.  One piece of good news is that we finally found purchased a brand old car.  We got a good deal on a used 2011 Honda Accord from a dealership in Katy.  We drove to several dealerships all around Houston looking for an affordable used car and met several dead ends.

We started by looking online for used cars and Bo found three bargain deals, each on a different lot.  However, each time we went to get the car, a salesmen would check the inventory and say, "We just sold that car two hours ago, but how about I show you this other (insert overpriced car)."  The same thing happened for the next three used car lots we went to.  One even said that they just sold that car 10 minutes ago.  The worst part about shopping for a used car for me was the haggling over prices.  We had one manager tear up an offer in front of us and say he had never been so insulted in his life when we asked for a better deal.  There was also one dealership where the salesperson walked away from us mid-deal to talk to another customer.  She never came back to talk with us so we just left. 

2011 Black Honda Accord (Our Car)

I wasn't too optimistic about finding a car in the parking lot at Honda Cars at Katy, but was pleasantly surprised at the service.  The salesman was named Apollo and his father also gave him 11+ other names on his birth certificate (all Greek Gods like Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, etc...).  They were also very nice to us, unlike a lot of the other dealers.  We got a good car at a good price.  If you're in Houston I recommend buying a used car from Honda Cars at Katy.  No, they haven't paid anything to write this.  If someone from Honda Cars at Katy is reading this (you would be 1 out of 53 views, 30 of which are probably my mom) I would give my experience there 5 stars out of 5. 

So we now have a car, insurance and an EZ pass which lets us get through the tolls.  Houston has a lot of toll roads and each time you go through the toll you have to pay anywhere from $0.75 to $1.75 depending on the area.  I think it's a great system because then the people who drive a lot are the ones that pay for the repairs on the road.

Moody Gardens Aquarium in a Pyramid

Inside the Aquarium

On Memorial Day weekend (May 24th - May 26th) we went to Galveston, the four of us (me, Lyneth, Bo and Lux) along with Bo's co-worker, his wife and his co-worker's brother in law.  We visited Moody Gardens aquarium which was inside of a pyramid and had lots of neat sea creatures.  We also took a boat ride around the Galveston Area.  Overall it was fun, but also a bit pricey since Moody Garden is an amusement park. 

Steamboat Ride at Galveston

The next day we went to go-kart racing, played laser tag and played mini-golf all in once place.  For $25 a person we got a 10 minutes race, 10 minutes of free-for-all laser tag and 9 holes of mini-golf.  Bo's co-worker and co. are Indian and they took us to have some delicious Indian restaurants in Houston.  The food was great, but I had a hard time handling some of the spicy dishes.

The job search has been going better and I hope to be going to work sometime next month.  I don't want to jinx it, so I'll write again when I get an offer for sure. I have to get pictures from Lux's camera and I'll insert them into the post.  By the way, is anyone reading this?  Feel free to leave comments. 

Shelves, Tennis and Hot Dogs

A lot has gone on in the past week. We've become more comfortable in our surroundings as we've driven around different parts of Houston.  We went to Ikea and bought a wooden shelf for storage.  We're staying in the master bedroom at Bo's house, which is great except that it's an empty room.  We bought lots of hangers to hold our clothes and I put together the shelf to hold other items.

The finished product

Some assembly required

I've been noticing some other differences between Houston and Honolulu since we've been shopping.  There are very few people walking around outside.  I believe this is because there are many areas where there are no crosswalks which is related to the fact that the city is very spread out.  On the plus side this means that the streets are clean.  The negative is that it is difficult to get around without a car.

I was worried about getting sick in Houston since we don't have any health insurance, but so far we've managed fine.  I've been able to go running around the neighborhood every other day with Lux (my brother in law) and even do other physical activities.  For example, Lyneth, Bo and I played tennis yesterday at a local park.

Backhand in action

One more not so relevant, but interesting observation I've had.  We went to Costco last weekend to buy groceries and fill up gas.  In the Waipio Costco in Hawaii there are people always in line for gas and for the Costco food due to the low price.  Costco has the cheapest gas prices in Oahu and the pizza, hot dogs and other foods are some of the lowest on the island.  However, the Costco in Houston was the opposite.  The Costco gas station was empty (the gas station across from Costco had lower prices) and no one was ordering at the Costco food station.  This was on a Saturday at noon, so I expected to see long lines of people.  The hot dog and soda combo in Houston is $1.50 at Costco, the same price as the one in Hawaii.  So Costco in Hawaii is a bargain store while in Houston it's considered a little more expensive than average. 

Lunch for $0.50 at Ikea

Houston, we have landed

I wanted to write a post yesterday, but I was too tired after the long plane flight. We said goodbye to everyone on the weekend and then left on Monday (5/5) night on a 9:00 pm (HST) flight. We traveled from Honolulu to LA, LA to San Jose, San Jose to Phoenix and Phoenix to Houston.  The most fun was the scheduled 30 minute layover between LA and San Jose.  The LA flight was 25 minutes late so I arrived to hear a greeting, "Final call for passenger Claveria, please proceed to gate 11 as the plane is about to leave without you.  Luckily I'm a good sprinter and San Jose airport is very small. We finally arrived at 5:00 pm (CST) on Tuesday (5/6) feeling exhausted and got picked up by Bo.  He took us out to Thai food and we promptly feel asleep afterwards.

Me and Lyneth in Pearland

Today we woke up early and went out with Lux to Pearland. We bought some hangers, a hamper, shaving cream and a bunch of other little things. Lyneth took some pictures of us in the shopping center. We also bought groceries, ate delicious Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch and Lux got his iphone fixed at a store called, "You break it, we fix it." The most productive thing I did today was helping Lyneth clean the refrigerator by removing and washing all the shelves. We also through out all the old, smelly food.

We had some tasty sandwiches at Lee's

 Lyneth had a phone interview today with one company and she has an in person job interview tomorrow with another company. I hope she gets an offer, but I believe she will have many more opportunities for an in person interview as she gets multiple emails each day from different recruiters looking for a php/sql developer. On the other hand, I haven't gotten any acknowledgment of applications that I've been filling out. I believe it will take more time for me to get a job as my resume and work experience isn't as solid as hers. Hopefully, I will get a call back for an interview soon.

Lux and I in Bellaire Chinatown

 So far I haven't seen any of the "horrible" things I expected in Houston. The weather has been great and I haven't noticed any humidity at all. It's been nice, sunny weather around 70-80 degrees F.  I also haven't noticed anything about bad air quality or allergies. There is so much space in Houston, that I feel like I could take all the houses in Hawaii and fit them into a few parking lots here. We visited Chinatown in Bellaire and unlike some of the other Chinatowns I've visited in Hawaii, San Francisco, or Philadelphia there is actually room to spare between stores. Also, the food is so much cheaper. I saw a sign for 3 loaves of french bread for $1.00 (total). In Hawaii it would be 1 loaf of french bread for $3.00.

Good bread in Houston

Genesis: Into the Humidity

Greetings,

I started this blog to share updates with friends and family as my wife and I take the plunge and move to Houston. A week from now we are quitting our jobs and leaving Hawaii. We're bringing only a few bags of clothes and we plan to live with my brother in law until we can find work.

The decision to leave Hawaii wasn't easy. We tried to make a living here, but decided that the high cost of living wasn't worth it. Also, my wife and I are both in the tech field and we feel that the tech industry in Hawaii is rather limited.

Some of you might be thinking, "Why Houston?" I've never been to Houston and my only visit to Texas was when I transfered planes on my way to Florida. However, Houston is the only city that satisfied the four criteria we came up with when deciding on where to move. The four criteria are:

1) Affordable cost of living
Houston ranks fourth on forbes.com for most affordable city

2) Has tech jobs
Houston ranked third on ranking of most tech jobs created

3) Warm weather
We both like warm weather and don't have positive experiences in the cold. I went to college in Iowa and my wife lived in Philadelphia before moving to Hawaii. Houston is known for its humidity (although I've heard it can be unpleasant in the summer).

4) We have some connections there
Both of my wife's younger brothers live in Houston. The older of the two owns a large house and works as a developer in the oil and gas industry. The younger of the two is starting his freshman year at the University of Houston. Living with them for a while should make the transition easier for both me and my wife.

Although it fits our criteria, we aren't limiting our search for jobs to Houston. Austin and the Dallas/Ft. Worth area also have lots of tech jobs, warm weather and are much more affordable than Hawaii. They're also within a few hours driving distance of her family in Houston. If we were to get jobs in one of those cities, we'd be willing to rent a place there as well. I anticipate it will take us roughly 3-6 months to get a job, so the safest course of action is to stay with the family until we can afford to make it on our own.