five-sense Friday

Suddenly, astonishingly, we reach the two-week mark of our time in this new place. We've been having a long string of cool, rainy days (the locals say this is absolutely atypical), so while some of our experiences feel called for by June, others are a little more bundle-up-cozy. Still, we take joy where we can find it. I've been...

seeing: rain on the windowpanes; the peonies outside our bedroom window slowly bursting open from promising green balls to fuchsia loveliness; glimpses through the blinds into the office that promises to be mine in two and a half weeks; The Hunger Games, a bit late in the game, and for cheap (!)

smelling: curry when we walked into a Vietnamese restaurant one night (was it from their kitchen or the Indian place next door?); lilacs, all over campus, all over the neighborhood; bread baking in the oven

feeling: the weight of a ten kilo bag of flour; heat from the bread-baking oven; thankful for Josh's hiking socks on my feet and three layers of shirts on my torso

hearing: eclectic music as Josh cleans his hard drive; the friendly voices of new colleagues' welcome; the stillness of library stacks, so familiar even in a wholly new place

tasting: lentil soup with onions, carrots, and cumin; biscuits with blueberry jam; frightful quantities of potato chips; tea and tea and tea