Friendly!

One thing that has continued to impress us so far is how complete and utter strangers are being so friendly to us. OK, it isn't entirely unexpected but the generosity of some folks is amazing.

Yesterday we went to check out a condo/townhome near Old Town. A builder there was working on installing a new kitchen. He found out (pretty easily really - just listen to our accents!) that we are new in town and don't have a whole lot yet, so he offered to put aside stuff from his church's jumble sale and also pick up any large items in his trailer.

We've randomly met two realtors. They do a LOT more work here than realtors at home. Realtors at home will ignore you unless they are going to get a Very Large Commission out of it. Of course they have a vested interest but from an Australian point of view, the first one we made contact with has really gone above and beyond.

People in the shops all want to know where we are from (except the one that charged me $5 more than the sign said and I decided that I didn't want it). Some say, "I know of a place," or, "I have some stuff I am selling," or "You should check out XYZ," etc. Lots of people are very happy to chat. I think it is partly that the Fort Collins lifestyle is still that of a large country town, not a metropolis. It is pretty laid back. Very little honking of horns on the road, unless someone is being a complete idiot (eg sitting through the green light cycle, wondering why all the cars in the other lane are zipping by). The business people we've met so far have been in (at best) smart casual. Nothing like the bloke who was our Oz end moving consultant - he would've been in a three piece suit I reckon if he could've been, instead of a starched shirt, crisp two piece suit and a LOT of aftershave! We've had an invite to go for a bike ride with the head fo a company, all sorts of weird stuff!

Time to go see what today holds!
(and pics soon, once we've worked out how to make a windoze box upload pics to a linux server)