cambridge, ma

We arrived to Cambridge yesterday afternoon. A city located next to Boston, home to Harvard and MIT, and where we'll stay until the end of August. This means we are finally unpacking our suitcases properly and opening boxes from Vienna. Silja has got her own bed again and has been reunited with her old toys from Vienna (happiness!). The owner upstairs has been by with a vase, so we can pick lilacs from the front yard. So all in all we're off to a good start.
I'm brewing on several posts, but there has been and still is so much to do. And probably things have to settle a little more, before I'm able to explain all the thoughts and new impressions I and we are currently bombarded with. I hope I can get to it soon though.
Pictures above are from our new place and from a quick stroll through one part of Harvard campus and Harvard Square, which is five minutes from us. (Bjarni's lab at School of Public Health is located in Boston and not Cambridge.)

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downtown

Parking was hilariously expensive, but a burger, a walk through the blooming park Boston Commons and Silja chasing squirrels made up for it. And look at that sign in the last picture. New York City is a four hour drive away. Woop woop!

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world's end and new beginnings

Sunday morning we went for a walk in the conservation park World's End near Hull Beach where we stayed. It was totally energizing with a spring stroll and to do what felt like a completely ordinary Sunday activity right now where everything is completely up in the air.
We left the beach behind yesterday, and traded off the smell of ocean and maids who come to make the bed, with a tiny apartment with a kitchen (yay!) in Allston, which is located across a Whole Foods market and a Babushka deli (whatever that is). We are going to stay here for the rest of April and then move on to the apartment in Cambridge, where we'll stay throughout the summer. Bjarni started work today, and I'm trying to get familiar with this new neighborhood of ours. If you happen to be in Allston/Brighton and see a woman frantically checking her phone for directions, while trying to keep an eye on a toddler insisting on walking up all stairs she comes by (and they are all over the place here) do say hi. It's likely us. We are currently out and about searching for flowers, scented candles, cleaning remedies to boost the niceness factor of this temporary home of ours. It really needs it!

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boston, baby!

Silja is sleeping, Bjarni is returning our rental SUV and I finally feel like blogging. We are here. We made it! And oh my god, it's quite amazing. We arrived Wednesday night, and are acclimating fairly smooth into a new time zone on a beach resort at Hull Beach. It was impossible to find reasonably priced hotels in Boston due to the Boston marathon, which takes place on Monday, so we got a good deal out here in Hull, a 40 minutes drive from the city center. This means we are enjoying the beach and the good weather in between the practical stuff that also needs to be taken care of these days, and consequently haven't seen much of Boston itself. However we got hooked up with phone subscriptions, we stopped by the place in Cambridge we will be subleasing over the summer (it seems to be in such a nice neighborhood, and I'm looking forward to exploring it soon), we also bought a car seat and a lot of other stuff we'll need. We'll have to wait for much of the other practical stuff until Bjarni starts work next week.
Silja has been dealing with the whole change surprisingly well thus far. Stopping over in Iceland on the way meant the time change happened gradually. First two hours, then four. She gets talked to a lot, though most refer to her as 'him'. I think we'll need to work on some ribbons or something into whatever hair there is...
All in all I feel very positive about this new area of ours, which looks so different from anywhere else I've lived. I feel incredibly privileged to get to try this out. At the same time I'm also slightly overwhelmed by the newness of it all, which I know I will have to deal with a lot by myself, as Bjarni soon will be busy with work. I know that is part of the deal and the moving-around package. We'll see whether or not previous experience makes a difference. Coming from Vienna though, Americans are just so incredibly friendly and welcoming and I know that is making it a lot easier.

I lost the lens cap for the camera in Iceland, and haven't used my camera much since, but I will be back soon with more pictures. For now Instagram will have to do.

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beautiful iceland

getting it right

When applying for the American visa you must submit a picture along with the online application. After a few tries and a demonstration by the doll Sisi we got a picture of Silja that was successfully submitted -- unlike Bjarni who had to bring a printed taken-by-a-real-photographer shot for the interview.

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