Precious things

The last time I went away from home for a significant amount of time, it was in 2013, and we spent six weeks in France, Spain, and Wales (with a very short stop in London right at the end.) We left in mid-May and returned in late June, and I remember being surprised at how many things had changed - mainly in my yard - since I had been gone. I was also surprised at how many things were the same, but I hadn't really remembered them - like traffic. Not that there isn't traffic in all the places we visited - there certainly was. But I had mainly been a pedestrian, not a driver, so I didn't interact with them the same way.

Now I look around my yard and think of how everything is in full bloom right now, and how it'll be winter when I get back. This is the first year in a while that I have been starting to feel like my yard is in pretty good shape. The peas and raspberries are ripe, the kale is tall, and the tomatoes and cucumbers are doing their best under my somewhat shady conditions. And by "shady" I just mean that I have a lot of big trees. Really.

This time of year one of our favorites things is to picnic. My husband and I have always picnicked. When we were in college sometimes we would go out even on cold and somewhat rainy days and have "gothic picnics" at Whatcom falls park. Nowadays although we love to picnic at parks, we often just picnic in our own backyard. Our backyard is very private, and has really lovely shade. Since we live near the top of a hill there's almost always a bit of a breeze to help cool us down if it's a warmer day. It's pretty idyllic. So while I'm really excited about getting to go to Hungary, I'm sad that my husband won't be able to come with us for the whole time.

Since I've been thinking about all these things that we will miss, I've been trying to take extra time to do more of them before we go: more picnics, more playing in the yard, more spending time with family and friends. One part of my brain frets because it says I "should" be spending time fixing the faucet, or finishing cleaning out the basement, or pulling the rest of the weeds behind the cottage. The other part revels in the relationships that I'm building and maintaining by spending time with people instead. So I'm telling that other part of my brain to chill out. I'll get done the things that really need to get done before we go, and I'll have acquired the few things that we need to acquire before we go. The bags will be packed in due time. Those things can wait a little longer. Today is here for soaking up a little more time with the people that I'll be missing soon.

Reawakening

I haven't used this blog in a long time.

The adventurers
South Beach, WA (8/2017)

I started it 8 years ago because I wanted to talk about food -- cooking, growing food crops -- stuff like that. I wrote a handful of posts over the next two years, but...I don't know that I had much of a direction beyond that, so it didn't go very far. Not at all surprising, right? I still want to talk about food, but I have a lot more ideas now, and I'm also a lot more comfortable with myself -- especially with thinking of myself as someone who writes.

See what I did there? I didn't call myself a writer; I just said that I was someone who writes. At some point in the future maybe I'll feel comfortable calling myself a writer. For now, I don't think I have that level of confidence in myself to use that label. But I can be someone who writes. 

I'm about to go on a pretty big adventure. If you're already my friend then you know that I'll be heading out to Hungary in two weeks for a Fulbright in Szeged. I'm starting with a four week intensive language program in Hungarian (and before you ask, I've been studying Hungarian on my own for the last year+. It's a pretty cool language, all things considered. Would I say that about every language I've studied? Yes, probably. Languages are exciting. If you don't know another one besides for English then you should consider trying to learn one. I won't sugarcoat it: it's tremendously hard mental work, but it's super cool to realize that your brain can do this kind of thing. And despite what you might have been told, you're never to old to learn another language. Or another new thing. Quite the opposite, in fact: there's a lot of research that shows that doing mentally challenging tasks helps prevent things like Alzheimer's. So get right to it!)

Now that I've convinced you to go to your library and check out some language CDs, or use their Mango subscription, or try the Duolingo app...I'll get back to my original point: the current adventure.

I'm excited about going to Hungary not only because it's a new country, a new language, a Fulbright, and it'll be my first experience living abroad (I don't count the couple of overseas holidays I've taken. I won't be there exclusively as a tourist, so it's going to be a significantly different vibe.) I'm also excited because I won't be relying on a car to get me around. We'll be living within walking distance of the University of Szeged, where I'll be teaching for fall semester. I'm expecting to get bicycles, and otherwise rely on public transportation or trains to get us where we want to be. I haven't worked with this kind of transportation model since college, so it's going to be fun remembering how this works, and sharing the experience with my children. I also expect that it's going to be amazing for my body.

Am I nervous about it? Of course! Anything new is also a little scary. But I've received nothing but amazing support and helpfulness from my wonderful hosts at the university, the Hungarian Fulbright commission, and from the others in the community that I've interacted with, so I am confident that if we need something there will be people to help us out. That helps to offset any nervousness I'm feeling with a warm glow of security.

Anyway, if you're interested in hearing what's going on with these adventures, then here's a good place for me to share. Welcome!