Two weeks ago we were in the United States. It was our first trip home since moving to Berlin 6 months ago. And, surprising no one, I fretted over it quite a bit. My concerns included but were not limited to the following questions: Would it feel weird to be home? Would New England even still feel like home? Would I be sad to come back to Berlin? So as not to bury the lead, the answers to those questions are: A little Yes and no Nah Oh, you’re still reading? I suppose I can go into more detail. JK, you knew I was going to write about my feelings…
-
-
What makes a new city feel like home?
A couple of weeks ago, I said to E, “I don’t miss Boston, not exactly, but I do miss knowing a place well.” It was a weekend evening and we were trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. I ended up saying, “what I really want to do is go to Aeronaut.” Aeronaut is a brewery in Somerville, MA that was a 5-minute walk from our old apartment. Their beer is good, but that’s not what I was missing. What I was missing was knowing where to go. There are plenty of breweries in Berlin, but we don’t have “our place” yet. I had a level of familiarity…
-
I’m From Boston
I remember the first time someone introduced me as “from Boston.” It was the summer before E and I started our senior year at Tufts. We took a road trip down to Asheville, North Carolina to visit his sister, Far, and while hiking we struck up a conversation with some people on the trail. They asked where we were from and Far ended up answering, “they’re from Boston.” I made a note of it because it was also the first time we were introduced as a unit. I’m from Rhode Island and E is from New Hampshire, but we are from Boston. Our relationship is from Tufts University on the…
-
Tea Tuesday: Tealuxe
Tomorrow I will have been home from Europe for four weeks. I’ve mostly been spending the time with friends and family as well as sleeping in and organizing my closet. Today, however, I spent some time exploring my home state. I was meeting a friend in Providence (Rhode Island’s capital) this afternoon for coffee, but first I decided to stop by a local teahouse called Tealuxe. Yes, I got tea before going to my coffee date. What of it? Anyway, Tealuxe is a local chain with locations in Boston and Providence, and I always feel good supporting small(er) businesses. (Afterwards, my friend and I got coffee at Blue State Coffee–another…
-
On the move
This post is coming at you from my new apartment via stolen internet. Thank god for people who still don’t put passwords on their wireless networks. (Don’t worry, I have no intention of stealing my neighbors’ wifi forever–Verizon is just having trouble activating the internet in my apartment.) Lack of consistent internet aside, this has been a busy week. It started on Tuesday with packing up my apartment in Boston. Then I spent one day at home in Rhode Island getting coffee with friends, visiting the ocean, and packing my bags to move to DC for the summer. Because I took the train down to move into my apartment, and…
-
I’m a New Englander, btdubs
Tomorrow morning I’m heading to New Hampshire for a few days at a lakeside cabin with five of my friends from high school. Four years ago, before we all went away to college, we spent a weekend at this cabin talking about our hopes and fears for the future, reading aloud from terrible romance novels, and swimming in the lake. Now that we’ve graduated from college, we’re returning to the cabin to do it all over again. I was born and raised in Rhode Island (which is the smallest state in the US, and which I will surely talk more about later) and I’ve spent the last four years at…
