This has been the weekend of perfect weather, and I couldn't be happier. With daytime highs in the low- to mid-80s, the nights became absolutely splendid and great for spending time outside. Friday night was an outdoor concert--One Republic and The Script--and last night,I topped it by doing absolutely NOTHING. As in, I threw a blanket on my grass in the backyard, turned off all the lights, and stared up at the sky and stars.
It was near-bliss. With a glass of wine in hand and my iHeartRadio playing peaceful, relaxing music, I may have briefly drifted off while a nice, temperate breeze blew across my yard. With the exception of my music, it was silent--I couldn't hear the cars on the streets, not even the main streets just a bit away. THIS is why I moved to the suburbs. You can't get this in a city.
Today, Sunday, is another one of those days. I think a long walk around town is in order, to take advantage of the low humidity before the real dog days of summer set in. So short post, but happy post. Blissful post. The doing nothing post. Love it.
It shouldn't be a secret to anyone that I secretly wish I was an urban planner. I'm obsessed with academic studies and real-life applications of urbanization, suburbanization, and mass transit planning. Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes not so much. Case in point: Bailey's Crossroads, a neighborhood that sits at the confluence of Arlington County, Fairfax County, Alexandria City, and Falls Church City. I often think when I drive through that neighborhood that it is where every bad urban planning went to be implemented unsuccessfully. OK, fine, perhaps it's not that bad, but it isn't great.
Metro Map With Silver Line (Courtesy: WMATA)
In any case, I LOVE urban planning,and today, my love grew exponentially when the DC Metro General Manager announced an opening date for Phase I of the long-awaited Silver Line. In 33 days (26 July 2014), the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority expects the first train to leave the Wiehle-Reston East Station (the closest one to me at this point) at 12 noon. Have I mentioned that I'm super excited for this?
There is one sad thing associated with this announced opening date. I have been telling people for years that my goal is to ride the Silver Line on the day it opens. The construction of it messed up my commute enough over the past few years that I wanted to experience it when it was completely done. So why the sadness? Well, I'm going to be out of town on 26 July. And away for a few days past that too. :( I won't be able to ride the Silver Line until a few days after it opens. That's OK, though, I guess, since I hope to ride it often in the next couple of years.
So there you have it. If you see me in person, I'll probably be super giddy for the next month anxiously anticipating the awesomeness of having a metro station very close to my house. And for something completely unrelated yet very funny....
There's something about sports that get me--and many people--riled up. I know I'm not on the field or the court, but when one of my teams is playing, it definitely feels that I am. Whether they be my Georgetown Hoyas or anyone wearing a US National Team jersey, I instantly want them to do well andI get caught up in their successes (or failures, such as they may be). I've mentioned in the past my fascination with the Duel in the Pool, and last year as I watched it I chewed my nails, covered my eyes, and stood on my tip-toes while the whole event got close. Thank goodness the US did well.
Sorry, Ghana. The US took this game!
I guess I'm grateful that the US is so good at so many sports and, even in the sports we're not the best at (hello, soccer), we're at least competitive enough to keep it interesting. Like so many Americans and other people around the world, I watched the latest game of the World Cup, the United States vs. Ghana. I'm usually all for the African teams in tournaments like this, but sorry Black Stars, I'm all for the Yanks here. I was thrilled when the US scored 36 seconds into the game, devastated when Jozy Altidore went down with an injury, and heartbroken when Ghana equalized in the 82nd minute. My heart, which had been beating fast all game, went to a new level at that point.
That's why I was ridiculously relieved when the US went back up 2-1, but I didn't rest easy. It's not easy to feel good about the US's chances when they exude tiredness and Ghana is so good at finding random holes to score. The final whistle couldn't come soon enough for me. After two hours of heart-pumping excitedness, it was nice to see the US win and to let my heart rate return to a normal pace. I know this is temporary, with Portugal and Germany coming up. But now I have hope, and hope is good at carrying me through these moments. Hope gets me through every Georgetown basketball season. And hope will get me through World Cup 2014.
One week back and I'm relearning how to do things in the US. And redomestcating myself. I'm watching the World Cup while eating my barbecue chicken and corn. When I left a few months ago, my grill was packed away neatly in my shed to protect it from the endless snowstorms and a week in January with excessively cold temperatures. I was very happy to bring it back out into this absolutely beautiful weather. I also managed to cut my grass today, and I don't know why it felt so good to push a lawn mower around, but it was an amazing feeling. I never thought that that would be something I'd miss.
My recently mowed lawn :)
In addition to cutting my grass again, I'm slowly letting Americanisms reenter my vocabulary. When I take food away from a restaurant, it is now "to go" or "take out," not "take away." It's not a big deal, I'm sure everyone understands take away, but I'm finding myself pausing before some of these words, although, thankfully, the American English phrases are finally creeping back in. I'm also seeing friends again, and I had forgotten how nice it is to be able to text or call people at any time. And see people. I went into DC for burgers and trivia with a couple of friends, and earlier in the week I spent a few hours after work with another friend. People are around, and I can see them almost any time. It feels GREAT.
One weird thing is that I don't completely feel like I'm back yet. It's usually after a jet-lagged induced sleep that I fully feel like I've returned (or arrived somewhere else), but the jet lag never set in. I think this week--two full weeks back--will fix that, but because of that, it's been a weird week of adjustments for me. One thing I'm REALLY enjoying is hearing all the new music on the radio, much of which I really like.
Perhaps this is bandwagon-ing, but A Great Big World is good, and this song is now on repeat for me. Oh, and fun video too.
First off, the video that makes me happy is coming right up at the front because a) I love Boyce Avenue and they shouldn't be put at the end of a post; and b) I listened to this song on repeat while writing this post. So here's the video:
The knowledge that I was coming home was a very powerful force for me. There were a few moments of pain and frustration, some real and some very first world-y. I get it. I was living in Zambia and interacting with Zambians, but I'm still American and perhaps I would've done better if things like the randomly changing shower pressure and water temperature (the hotel apologized for any convenience these problems caused me...yes, convenience, not inconvenience) were accompanied by other things like pleases and thank yous.
It is something I noticed within my first week in Lusaka: waiters/waitresses/cashiers almost seemed embarrassed when I said "thank you." But I got used to it because I had to, and I limited somewhat how often I said it. On the plane back, though, it was amazingly refreshing to hear the flight attendant respond "you're welcome." Or in the airport in Atlanta, the cashier at the Chick-fil-A said "sorry" with a smile when telling me that their location doesn't do milkshakes (crazy...no milkshakes at such a popular location?!?!). Americans have a bad reputation for being rude, but I'm starting to think it's not rudeness at all but really just a different way of doing things. We're "rude" because we don't spend a few minutes greeting the other person up front, but we acknowledge the humanity of the other person with small words and phrases sprinkled into the conversation. Neither is bad, they're just different. And because I grew up in the American system, it's more natural to me and even after three months, I couldn't get the Zambian way (really, much of the world's way) to naturally roll off my tongue. It always felt foreign.
So I realize this post took a bit of a detour, but that was a major point of what I've been thinking about over the last 36 hours. Could I live overseas for 2-3 years? Yes, I'm positive I could. The better question, however, is do I want to? I think in the future that answer is a yes, but now is not the right time for me. There are other things in my life I want to work on and sort out without having to worry every day about whether I'm saying please and thank you too much. Some of this would've been made easier if I wasn't living in a hotel and had my own transportation, but no matter how much those external aspects change, the fundamentals of the location in which you live really don't change. And so, no, I don't think I would've wanted to do more than 3 months at this point in my life, and that's really good to know.
Now I'm back in Virginia and adjusting to life back in the United States. Future posts will probably be less travelogue and more run-of-the-mill stuff, I think. Who knows. The weather's warm and the sun shines. More adventures await!
