With just 15 days left before we drop off our apartment keys and catch a flight to Madrid, effectively severing our ties with this city, I’ve become strangely nostalgic for the place I’m about to leave. It’s the perfect time of year in Boston, the flowers are in full bloom, people have begun to embrace the summer, moving their lunches and dinners to outdoor patios and I’ve worn a summer dress every day this week. I feel very Carrie Bradshaw about Boston at the moment.
Tonight I noticed our calendar. It is a Edward Gory 12 month calendar, and when we bought it at the Museum of Fine Arts in January, I had planned our vacation time for the year. If I flip to July there is a week off around the 4th. Three and Four day weekends litter August and September. In October there is another week off. Around the holidays I had squeezed in planned personal days. It’s a little thing but it stopped me for a moment. We won’t need this calendar in two weeks. Our complete schedule and life plan had changed very drastically from when I marked the calendar in January. That started me thinking—what else had I noticed as we’ve prepared to leave…
Our neighbor Dave is a great guy. We met him at our yard sale and he hung out with us for four hours. He played my guitar and tried to convince people to buy more books. He struck up a conversation with Katalina from Russia and convinced her to play a song. He is a fellow traveler and lived in Guatemala, India and Costa Rica for years at a time. I wish we had met him earlier.
I’ve never been to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. I’ve grew up in Massachusetts and visited the Cape plenty of times. But I have never been to either island. It struck me as odd the other day when I realized it. I’m travelling across the Atlantic, but I can’t even manage a ferry ride to MV. I think I can fix this one before I go, even if it means taking the dogs with me next week.
There is more Spanish spoken in Boston than I realized. I’m sure it has something to do with my Spanish lessons and hours spent watching films in Spanish as we try to gain some fluency before we leave. It seems like everywhere we go, I hear someone speaking in Spanish. At the grocery store they don’t even make a pretense to hide the comments about customers as they gossip in Spanish. I must not look like someone who would understand it, or they just don’t care. It’s amazing to hear, and more amazing when I can pick out phrases that I know.
Most of the fruits and vegetables at the market are from far, far away. I don’t know what is wrong with apples from Massachusetts, but apparently someone thinks apples from Chile are much better. If we hadn’t decided to leave this year, I would have definitely signed up for a crop share program and gotten more local produce. It’s interesting (read: sad) that the economics work out that despite the long trip our food takes, it’s still cheaper than paying US Farmers to grow it.
This has all been way easier than I thought. I’m nearly done with my pre-trip tasks, I have two weeks to relax and things have gone very smoothly up to this point. I remember all the time I spent worrying about details, and I can’t even begin to put myself back in that place.
We’re actually going to do this. Just a little thing.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:37 am
It’s always the same. You never see all the sights where you live, because you always think, “I have time.” I live in DC and I still haven’t gone to all the Smithsonian museums, and I have only walked around the Mall once or twice in the 3 years I have been here.
Your comment on fruits and vegetables is one thing that may get remedied by the high price of oil. Soon it won’t be cheaper to ship stuff half-way across the world.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Chad, I work at the Smithsonian and still haven’t been to all the museums. Eek! How terrible is that.
Earlier Jeff and I made a list of things we wanted to do in DC before we left (we’re not planning to return here after our RTW trip). I don’t think we’ve accomplished much on the list, mainly because the hiking book took over. I’m quitting my job a bit before we leave so I’ll have some time for the last minute things, but Jeff will go straight from work to Sweden. I’ve told him we need to play hooky a few times mid-week to be sightseers in our own city.
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June 12th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Christine-
I felt similarly before we moved from Puerto Rico. Despite the aspects of the island that drove me nuts, I suddenly thought “Maybe we shouldn’t move because our neighbor Arturo is so nice” and “Why didn’t I ever interview so and so?”
Julies last blog post..Lost–and Then Found–in Translation
June 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I noticed this about people when I moved to a suburb of Chicago many years ago. Many of the people in the town had never been into the city, only an hour train’s ride away! As a newcomer to the town, my family and I went nearly every weekend… By the time we left 3 years later, we had been to the city far more times than most people in the town had been in their lives!
I think its a matter of getting accustomed to the proximity of these great places… until you see it through new eyes (like when moving in, as a tourist, or when leaving), it just seems like something you’ll get to eventually.
Ambers last blog post..Emotional ties
June 12th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
When I left San Francisco for Southern California, I had the same emotions. I still have not been to Alcatraz, and I started to take in all of the little things I would miss about the great city I called home. I think it’s a normal reaction to leaving a city you love.
You’ve also reminded me that I need to find a local crop-share program here. Been meaning to do it, and now am reminded!
Enjoy the next two weeks in Boston!
Loris last blog post..Losing A Passport… And Getting It Back (Replaced)!
June 12th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
The day I was packing up my things to put in storage in NYC in preparation for a move to London Woody Allen was filming on my block. It was Halloween and a very tall man in a batman costume (tights and all) walked through a scene being shot completely oblivious and they had to stop filming. Everyone broke out laughing. I remember thinking where else on earth will something like this happen on my doorstep? But if I hadn’t been packing my bags to leave I would have taken it all for granted–just another day in paradise :^)
All the best with your travels!
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June 12th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
It is interesting how we desire to see and do everything in a land that is foreign to us. Yet, back home, we have an abundance of unique things to do also that we blow off because of cost, distance and time. That is natural, though. We get use to hearing about the things to do close to us that we take it for granted because we believe they’ve always been there then they’ll always be there so one of these days we’ll go. It’s a good thing I already conquered Disney here at home. Off to Patagonia!
And I have to visit Boston one of these days… looks like fantastic city.
Fifteen days… LUCKY!
Anthonys last blog post..Soñar
June 18th, 2008 at 4:33 am
I spend five years living in London and managed to do surprisingly little in my time there. I don’t regret anything and I expect I’ll be back there at some point, but it’s easy to take your time in a place for granted.
I really love that city and miss it but there’s some much more out there to experience. Plus things that have been there fore hundreds of years aren’t likely to be going anywhere anytime soon so I can see them next time. I’ve always been more a fan of experiences than sights anyways.
I’m quite keen on check out Boston one of these days. As a massive Blue Jays and baseball fan in general, I have to go boo the Sox at Fenway.
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