Maine

Right now, I'm spending a week in Maine with my family, while Sam is working. It's sneaky of me, getting an extra holiday in after we already had one. We took our first family holiday back in late June, the three of us, for the first time, spurred on by my friend's wedding in Scotland. So now Sam is working, Oliver and I are spending time with my parents and siblings, and hoping that Maine is a bit cooler than Boston.

It has been so hot this last week that everything just feels like too much effort. You get hot and sweaty just stepping outside. The only escape is swimming, something that luckily Oliver has decided to love, as long as it isn't in an indoor pool. We've had so much fun visiting our local lake and playing in the water and sand. If tomorrow is hot, we're off to the beach, and I'm excited to show Oliver the Atlantic ocean again. I think he might be a bit more interested in it now.

We're renting this strange little house in the middle of the woods. It is pretty cool; tiny, but full of interesting arts-and-crafts details. My room leads on to the back porch that looks out into the woods and then off to the ocean. It's gorgeous. There's a fire pit outside and lots of sticks and room to run. Perfect for Oliver.

This afternoon we visited a local fair, and Oliver was in heaven. There were horses and sheep and cows and trucks and tractors. All his favorite things in one spot. We watched several hitching competitions, where people drive their horses hitched up in various ways (unicorn and four horses and other things) and he loved it. I grew up riding horses and I miss it. It made me want to start again. We even watched what they called the Redneck Truck Pull, which is when people have their trucks pull heavy things, or something. It got a bit boring, especially when the first competitor we saw was unable to hitch their truck up to the weights, and then kept failing to put the truck into four-wheel drive.

Back at the house, we've had delicious food, and lots of time for reading. I just started the Sea Lady by Margaret Drabble. I always find time to read, but it's even easier here, with Oliver surrounded by people who love nothing more than getting a chance to take him to look at the water, or play with his trains. The porch wraps around the house, and it's long and perfect for a toddler to run down, especially after three hours in the car. There's an outdoor fireplace on it, perfect for fires when it gets just slightly chilly at night (like it did last night; so far, tonight doesn't seem so cold, sadly). We're surrounded by trees and quiet and nature.

cape cod

Summer is drawing to a close.  My sister goes back to university soon, and my brother will follow a few weeks after her.  Then the days will get shorter and colder (hooray) and all this summertime stuff will just seem so far away.  I spent the week in the cape with my family, while Sam worked and visited his parents (since his dad just had surgery).  We missed him, but it was really fun to spend lots of time with my parents and siblings (and aunts and cousins, who came up for a day).  We visited the beach countless times, Oliver took his first wobbly steps one afternoon (not yet repeated), and nobody got sunburned.

Right now I'm listening to Sam play with Oliver in his crib and Oliver is giggling hysterically, the way he does when he is with his favorite people and they are giving him their full attention.  And so, the highlights of the last week:

- Taking Oliver to the beach and watching him play in the sand, stare at the waves, and laugh when we went swimming (in the warmer water on the bay side - he hated the freezing cold ocean at Nauset Beach).  

- Playing with cousins who adore Oliver when they came to visit on Thursday.  Oliver doesn't have any first cousins yet, but my little cousins love him and are so excited to play with him.  They are really sweet and spent the day trying to do everything for him, from holding his hands and helping him walk around to pushing his stroller as we walked to and from the beach.  Just another example of how lucky Oliver is, with so many people who dote on him

- Going to an arcade on Tuesday when we visited Hyannis.  It was really hot, we were sweaty and walking around was sort of tiring in the humid, damp weather, so we stopped briefly at this sort of depressing arcade to revisit our glory days of play ski ball.  I was still the best, Oliver watched in fascination, and we gave all the tickets we won away to a little boy who didn't seem to have very many.  

- Watching sunsets at various beaches almost every night.  Poor Oliver almost never got put to bed on time, because we'd go to the beach around 6, when you didn't have to pay for parking anymore, and then end up staying for several hours.  But the sky!  It was glorious.  One night we bought things like fish and chips and ate sitting on the soft sand, listening to the waves crash, watching the seals out in the water, and eventually ending up jumping in the waves ourselves.

- Visiting Provincetown, seeing the sights, eating dumplings on the beach as the sun set.

Our last night there we visited Marconi beach, played in the sand, looked for rocks and once again marveled at all the seals.  They were everywhere in the water, playing in the waves and peering out at us while we watched them.  We all agreed that something about their faces seemed friendly and dog like, until you see them on land and realize how huge they really are.  On Saturday, we drove him, bemoaning the crazy traffic (one downside to the cape) and making a quick stop at IKEA for meatballs and a few small things.  Who can resist the joys of IKEA?  It was the perfect end to a holiday week. 

philadelphia

Since moving back, we've been surrounded by family.  It's a little surreal, actually, and sometimes it makes us want to put another ocean in between us again (just kidding).  Both of our families live within 30 minutes of us and Oliver gets to see his grandparents as often as they like.  So of course this was the summer for a family reunion in Philadelphia, because have do we see family enough?  Apparently not.  Maybe next summer there will be a reunion with Sam's family, but this time it was for my mother's mother's side of the family.  Going back several generations, in fact, with all sorts of strange offshoots and stranger relatives.  We stayed right in the center of the city, in order to be close to my grandmother's cousin who was hosting (I think I got the relationship right), and drove five hours each way with a 10 month old.  Crazy!  But Oliver was actually great on the car rides.  The only miserable part was trying to get him to sleep in the hotel room, but enough time has passed that I can now declare it a successful trip.  (But I was almost in tears one morning, hiding in a pitch dark hotel room as he sobbed for an hour and a half before napping for a measly thirty minutes. Why, why, why, Oliver, why?)

After that, I realized why people hate traveling with babies, and decided to throw his schedule out the window.  Which is a pretty big deal for me, because right now I might be just a tiny bit obsessed with his schedule.  Instead, I put him in his stroller, grabbed everything we needed for the day, lathered him in plenty of sunscreen (it was hot) and we spent the day exploring the city.  He did eventually take a second nap, in his stroller, so we're calling schedule-ignoring a success.  Oliver was also charming and happy all day, which was a relief, because a miserable baby means a miserable trip.

My grandmother's cousin lives in a gorgeous house in downtown Philadelphia.  It had this rooftop garden that was unreal.  There were gorgeous views, plants everywhere, and it made city living look incredibly appealing.  We spent the day visiting Reading Terminal Market and Independence Hall and viewing historical sites like the Liberty Bell and Constitutional Hall.  Saturday morning I woke up early with Oliver and went on a long walk around Rittenhouse Square; he loved seeing all the people out walking their dogs and enjoying the slightly cooler morning weather, and sat as upright as he could, staring out at the city.

We took a quick, free tour of the historical places on Sunday afternoon, and Oliver (who hadn't had a morning nap) was remarkably good.  We took turns letting him walk around and giving him random things (like our map) to play with, and at one point I found a quiet corner to nurse him in.

Our last morning there we had a little swim in the hotel pool, which Oliver took a few minutes to warm up to.  Once I started letting him float (holding him up just a little) he started to love it, and was giggling a lot.  The drive home was great, with Oliver sleeping for almost 3 hours.  When he woke up, we were somewhere in Connecticut, so we stopped at a diner for lunch and to give Oliver a short break from his car seat.  So life lessons from this trip?  It's OK to let go of his schedule from time to time, and all the uncertainties of traveling with a baby are usually worth it.

nyc

The best part about this week was that it ended with a trip to NYC on Friday to Saturday. We had delicious food and so much fun, despite the cold weather and the fact that a Saturday evening snowstorm meant it look us 6 hours to drive home instead of a little over 3.

It was a good week, though. Last weekend we had more snow (surprise) and so we were snowed in with Sam's parents. We played some games and enjoyed the snow from inside. We also had a fun little breakfast trip to a local diner one morning. We came home on Monday and my brother arrived that day, too, visiting on his week off from university in Toronto. He was suitably and gratifiyingly impressed by all our snow. It is really fun to see him with Oliver. We had a quiet week spending time with him. On Wednesday I went to my first ever yoga class and actually really enjoyed it. I felt all sore the next day but I think I'll go back because it makes a nice complement to all the running I do (or used to do and will hopefully start up again when the snow melts and the sidewalks are useable).

On Thursday, my aunt drove down from Vermont for a weekend visit. We got up early on Friday to drive down to NYC. Oliver was so well-behaved on the drive, so we only stopped once, at a fortuitously located IKEA in Conmecticut. I fed Oliver while everyone else looked around, and then we got $1 cinnamon buns just for fun. In NYC, we had a lot of fun. It was surreal to be somewhere with barely any snow, and I kept commenting on how easy it was to push the stroller along giant sidewalks totally devoid of snow. We had amazing Vietnamese food for lunch; I had a lemongrass pork banh mi that was absolutely perfect. Then we did lots of walking around in the freezing cold, eventually ending up on Wall St and then visiting the 9/11 memorial. It was sad and awful and real and pretty weird to leave and realize that 9/11 was so long ago (14 years!) and what a terrible thing it was. It was really late by then - around 9 - as we made our way back to my great-aunt's where we were staying, so we just stopped quickly at this awesome Japanese place for dinner. We shared a Kobe beef burger and two sushi rolls at this place that was sort of fast food/cafeteria esque, but delicious and beautiful. It reminded me a little of places I ate in London, especially this one Japanese place on Tottenham Court road, near UCL. We got some hot chocolate mix on the way home and then has that back at that apartment before going to bed.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at a bagel place near the apartment (on the Upper East Side) that were delicious and felt very New Yorky. It was a bit warmer so we took the subway down to Soho to walk around there. We ended up going to Union Square and visiting the farmer's market there, where we bought hot apple cider to drink. We wandered around and looked in some fun stores and eventually ended up in Chinatown. We were looking for a place to have dim sum, and ended up at a tiny restaurant that served amazing food (but not dim sum style). It was sort of starting to snow by then so wea made our way back to our car and then began the long, long six hour drive home on horrible roads. There were so many accidents on the way that it was really scary, and we stopped twice so I could feed Oliver, but we made it eventually. Then we had Indian food as my brother's last meal before be flew back to Toronto early this morning.

avignon and provence

So, OK, just a little bit more about my trip to France.  We spent the weekend in Avignon, and since my mother had rented a car for some of her meetings the following week, we got to go explore lots of gorgeous small towns.  The first one was Gordes, which is this amazing hill-top stone city.  We sort of missed out on the view, though, because it was pouring as we arrived.  The rain continued off and on all day, and at one point, as we ate our lunch looking out over the countryside, the sun suddenly came out and we actually see!  Everything looked even lovelier after that.  As we drove away, we got one terrible picture (through the car window) of how lovely Gordes looks from a distance. Afterwards we visited this old stone village (of Bories) which was completely bizarre.  It was still raining as we explored stone huts and wondered how they knew which ones were where people lived and which ones had animals.  We visited a couple more towns, including Roussillon which has amazing, vibrant red cliffs and lots of ochre.  The town itself also had really bright buildings and an old church with amazing views where you could look over the countryside.  (There were lots of great views in Provence.) 

That evening we went to a nice restaurant in Avignon, where we each had three courses.  The best part was probably my starter, mushroom soup that was incredibly delicious without being too rich or too much.  Dessert was also incredible.  Our hotel was right next to the Palais de Papes in Avignon, so it was really easy to get anywhere in the city.  The next day we visited more towns, and some old ruins... Greek then Roman.  Kind of unbelievable.  There was a hill next to it that we hiked up to look out over the old city (which no longer exists) and then towards Avignon.  It was a beautiful day, so you could actually see for miles.  We ate a picnic dinner while we hiked around the area (trying to find a specific hike and not realizing that we'd actually begun at the end of it... but oh well).  That evening we explored Avignon a little and drank hot chocolate in our hotel room. I had the next day to myself in Avignon, wandering around, visiting museums, and enjoying the views.  It was perfect weather, nice and sunny but not too hot.  I'd definitely recommend March as a lovely time to visit the south of France, because it was a little bit miserable there in August, but just perfect in the spring. 

paris

A few weeks ago, I got to go to Paris to see my mother.  It was a really nice visit, and the weather was gorgeous and spring-like and perfect.  There were leaves budding on the trees and sunny days just perfect for walking around parks and visiting museums.  My first day there, I went to the Luxembourg garden, wandered around Place des Vosges and visited my favorite free museum, the Carnavalet.  It houses one of my favorite paintings, and I like to go visit it, although this time the painting was off on exhibit somewhere else, which was disappointing.  It still is fun to look around the museum, which is all about Paris, and then spend some time wandering in Le Marais, with its ridiculous shops and crowded streets.  It was fun spending time with my mom, too, and in the evenings after she'd finished work, we'd ride the metro somewhere and go walk around some more. I think that night we tried to go to to Tuileries, but we got there about half an hour before it closed, and of course they weren't letting anyone in.  So instead we just wandered in various directions and eventually ended up on the Champs-Elysees.   The next day I spent almost entirely at the Louvre, which is ridiculously huge, and somehow exhausting.  I kept looking for places to sit down because for some reason I just couldn't handle standing up for hours on end.  Afterwards, I wandered through the Tuileries garden and then met my mom at the train station to catch the TGV down to Avignon.

top: Paris metro / the puppet theater in Luxembourg garden / trees in the garden
middle: beautiful day in Luxembourg garden / people enjoying the sun at Place des Vosges / at a cathedral
bottom: last one from Luxembourg garden / inside the Louvre / in Tuileries garden

The end of March is definitely a perfect time to visit Paris.  It wasn't too busy, the weather was perfect, and everything was really beautiful. My mom had rented an aparthotel in La Defense so we got to cook breakfast and dinner.  I also picked up some random desserts from a patisserie near Saint Germain and they were obviously delicious.  It might be one of the best things about visiting France: eating baguettes and going to patisseries and all the other delicious food.

travel and home

I've written before about feeling like I have many different homes.  The place I was born, the place I grew up, the places I went to university, the places I've lived with my husband.  Even though we'll be here for almost another year (but probably be gone before 2015), I'm already starting to feel sad about moving away.  This place isn't perfect.  Today the wind and rain were so strong that our bins flew across the road, and I saw several broken and abandoned umbrellas.  The public transport isn't great, and it takes my husband an hour to get somewhere on the bus that would be about a twenty minute drive.  But it's still a place I'll always be fond of, this town by the sea where we got better at being married and made all sorts of plans for the future.  I'll miss our friends, and the constant greenery, and the weird trees.  I'll miss the cliffs and running by the sea in the morning. 

It's exciting, though, to look forward to where we'll be next.  I can't even say what state or country we'll move to for sure yet, but we love talking about it.  (Well, I love talking about it.  My husband might get sick of these conversations after twenty times.)  We'll be moving together, though, which makes it a bit easier.  Really the hardest part about having lived so many different places is all the friends you leave behind.  It's so much easier now, though, when people can talk for free over email or Skype or a million other programs.  So right now, I'm doing my best to love every thing about where we live, including the constant rain and old flat.

life lately

So now that it's somehow ridiculously close to Christmas, I guess I should try to make some record of my time in Boston.  My Thanksgiving was almost perfect, even with all the extra people and crowded tables all over the house... it makes moving back to the US sometime next year seem not so bad, even if we do live close to my family.

top: making cookies with my sister; Boston skyline from the airplane; the only snow we had

bottom: the pier in December; cold winter morning by the sea; my sister played around with my hair

It was great spending time with my sister, too, and getting to help her with college applications (ha, so fun) and watching the new Hunger Games movie together.  The only unfortunate part was that my brother had some exams and revision sessions that he couldn't miss, so I didn't get to see him.  (I haven't seen him since August 2011).  But he might come here to visit sometime this spring, so I guess there's that to look forward to.  Our families sent us home with some presents, meaning I was right on the edge of my luggage weight limit on the flight home.  Now I'm just getting ready for Christmas... decorations, stockings, hot chocolate... all we need is lots of Christmas music playing as we make some cookies.  

utah

I am one of the worst travelers.  I don't know why, but I start to stress about any trip a few days before it happens, and then do my best to enjoy it while it's happening, but sometimes that's hard.  Then I get home and think, but that was really fun, why didn't I enjoy it more at the time?  But my trip to Utah ended up being really fun.  Even at the time.  I loved seeing my cousins (most of whom I hadn't seen in at least six years) and my dad's siblings.  My cousin's wedding was gorgeous, I had fun with my sister, and I even took her to a college tour.  (Then I flew to Boston with her and made her start her college applications.   They're due December 1 and she hadn't even started!  What?) 

 

Top: mountains, my cousin and her new husband (and her perfect bouquet...I loved the autumn colors), the temple where they were married.

Middle: my cousin's family, her wedding cake, my sister and aunt with the sparklers we used to send the newlyweds off on their honeymoon.

Bottom: my wedding hair, more mountains, and our first picture of the couple after they were married. 

our weekend & looking forward to christmas

  

 via

Last week was pretty great.  I finally got a new phone, some friends got great news, I planned out my upcoming trip to America (finally sorted out train tickets and rides from the airport, amongst other things) and our electricity providers (who have been overcharging us for a year) finally reduced our prices and are sending us a refund for the several hundred pounds they owe us.

Today I'm going to look for some little presents to bring my young cousins as Christmas presents when I visit.  It will be the first time I go into some of the tourist shops by the seafront, so I don't really know what they have, but if it's all really terrible, I'll just get some chocolate.  Everyone with taste buds prefers British/European chocolate, right? 

I also got sucked into a world of Christmas decorations and ideas on Pinterest.  It might be a little early, but I don't care.  I love savoring the lead-up to Christmas, so I'm absolutely going to.  We can't really afford a lot of decorations, but we got some as presents last year and I'm so excited to get them out again.  I'm forcing myself not to do it until I get back from my trip, though, so I'm really just living vicariously through Pinterest pictures. 

(almost) wordless wednesday: oxford

I can't help but want to share these pictures.  There is almost nothing I love more than an old university town.  I may not be a student anymore, but those were great years, and sometimes I miss them.  I mean, not everything, but learning new things and discussing literature and writing essays.... it was fun.  I still really want to take my husband to visit my old university town some day (maybe this year?), but for now, we'll both just love Oxford.

 There's just something about the energy in a student town that I find so appealing.  I know that for the students, tourists are so annoying (although I never really minded them back when I was a student... for some reason, I enjoy giving directions and didn't even mind the few times when they would take pictures of us).  I really do my best to convince Sam we need to visit Scotland and my old university, because nothing beats Scotland, but Oxford comes pretty close.  It has awesome history, fun stores, and so many gorgeous views.  It's been one of my favorite places to visit, although yes, I will say Cambridge is a close second.  (Or maybe even better, but only because I have friends there which makes the experience so much more fun.  In fact, I can't wait until next month when I get to go visit friends there again.)  In any case, easy access to places like this makes all the hassle of living here worth it.  (Except maybe visa hassle.  I'm not sure anything is worth that.  Oh, well.) 

home

via

I've been thinking a lot about home lately, especially as Sam and I sometimes discuss where we'll move next, where we'd like to live, where we feel most at home.  It seems fitting that I wanted to write about this right now, when it's the expat diaries link-up here today.  It used to be really hard... I'd miss London when we left, for example, but as soon as we returned to London, it didn't feel quite like home, either.  Probably everyone who moves around feels like this.  I've lived in the UK since I was 17, so even though I wasn't born here, in many ways, it feels like home.  I went to university here, learned how to navigate adult life with things like bills and phones and paying council tax.  I know more about finding somewhere to live, buying food, and working in the UK than I do in the US.  I began my marriage here.  I can't really imagine living anywhere else with my husband, but chances are, we'll be in another country this time next year. 

For now, we'll enjoy this place and time in our life.  We'll probably be back for visits from time to time, no matter where we go next.  And when I think about moving somewhere in America, like Boston or NYC, I get excited thinking about building a new home there.  Or maybe somewhere that feels really foreign, like California.  I know I'll miss the UK, and all our friends and memories, which is part of the reason why I try to write them down.  It's nice to have a record to look back on.  I just wish that I had started earlier.  Mostly, however, the best lesson of marriage has been that I really do have a partner now.  Wherever we move to next, we'll move together.  Nowhere can really be that foreign (which I argue as I try to persuade Sam we should move somewhere like Hong Kong or Vienna or Stockholm) when you're not alone. 

(almost) wordless wednesday: countryside

I know I will never, ever tire of seeing views like this.  England is so gorgeous year round.  I love the green, the trees, the meadows and farms and flowers. Something about seeing those fields makes me feel so happy and refreshed.  So, see, I can never really live too far away from this.