the cape

When you live in Boston, you hear a lot about "the Cape", which seems to be the desired vacation spot for the Bostonians. A couple of weekends ago we finally made it to the long sandy beaches and the little New England villages, and I totally get the hype of Cape Cod. It was such a neat place, and we MUST go back next summer, although I can only imagine it is then jampacked with overheated city people.

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foliage and pumpkins

It seems like every other weather forecast at the moment brings the latest on the foliage situation around New England -- the region is famed for fall leaf viewing, and just about now is apparently the time to go on scenic drives around this corner of New England. We have slowly seen the transition from green to red, yellow and brown. There is still a lot of green, but still it's oh so pretty.

We spent the weekend walking through parts of downtown Boston and driving up to the Topsfield Fair to meet up with friends. The agricultural fair was very American with country music and fried food (including fried chocolate bars), but hot cider (much better than pumpkin spiced coffee!) lots of pumpkins plus a temperature drop of 10 degrees made it feel very fall'ish. Today I got the sore throat to prove my lack of appropriate fall clothing. 

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'happy yom kippur!'

I overheard the others saying it when leaving Silja's new daycare center yesterday and when the receptionist at the front desk answered the phone, and so we also left the place wishing the staff Happy Yom Kippur. Last week the daycare was closed two days for Rosh Hashanah -- the Jewish new year. Besides a lot of Boston College students our new neighborhood is influenced by a large Jewish community. The local supermarket has in addition to an extremely large selection of hummus and pickles, a section with Shabbat candles, gefilte fish, matzo bread, and so on. Some of it gives me flashback to the time I spent in Israel working in a kibbutz way back.

On Saturdays the streets are busy with families rushing to and from the many synagogues in the area.  Men in black suits and black hats, little boys in black suits, women in long skirts and girls in dresses.

The anthropologists in me can't help of taking mental notes of what I observe, and it really makes me want to understand the religion and the culture is encompasses it in much more detail. 

I had to go back to Cambridge tonight for a meeting, and when going back there I instantly miss it. It's just so nice, and I guess it still feels much like home compared to this place, but the Jewish trait that characterizes our new area, is a definitely on the plus side. I'm ready to learn more. 

Shalom and l'chaim (the kibbutz volunteer vocabulary...)

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fall weekend

The weekend started out with grey skies and alone time for me to get familiar with a new friend: a sewing machine. It was accompanied by a real fall treat: pumpkin spice latte, which unfortunately sounds much better than it actually is. Ew, I'm not a fan -- yet...  We took a walk around our neighborhood lake to visit Boston college, which old tower we can spot from our side of the lake. It ended with a lot of sunshine, apple picking and catching up with friends from both Los Angeles and Michigan. A good weekend indeed!

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catching up

At the moment one day is taking the other, and although I continue to think about blogging I lack the time to sit down and do so. So catching up from last post: From the basement in an upscale neighborhood in Cambridge we are readjusting to a 2nd floor apartment with lots of light and a new neighborhood in Brighton. It hasn't exactly been an easy move. I never shared the process of finding an apartment in Boston, but it was such a pain I didn't bother to go into the details here. In brief the availability of rental apartments in Boston/Cambridge have dropped from 10% to 1% this year resulting in a limited market and very high prices (although it is already expensive). We were looking on our own, through (recommended) real estate agents and via hints from friends and acquaintances. Everything we saw was in such poor condition and it was so discouraging see our requirements go lower and lower as we saw what was available. Because we were looking for something from September 1st, the biggest move-in date of the year in Boston, the market was extremely aggressive, and we were advised to be quick if we saw something we liked as it might otherwise be taken by others. So we came to this place in Brighton, and it look more decent than anything else we'd seen. There was a balcony, a good layout of the apartment and other little kids in the building. We were told another couple was going to look at the apartment in the afternoon. On our way home we decided to take it. Bjarni was biking down to Brighton to pay the deposit, while I went to see one last apartment in Somerville. Before he paid the security deposit he called me, who was inspecting another really crappy place, and I could tell him to just go ahead with the check.
We then got the place two weeks ago. It was so dirty and things which they promised would be fixed were still broken... Ugh! For a little while we were trying to figure out how to get out of our one year contract, because we were so disappointed with the place. Since then we have been scrubbing it all down thoroughly, complained to the landlord who have sent cleaners and carpet guys. And now it's slowly coming together. It's far from perfect, but it's our home now and man are we going to make the best of it!
I'll be back again soon. With updates about our new Jewish neighborhood, our American child care experience, pictures of this new home of ours and more. See you soon. :)

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packing again

Just as Cambridge and the Harvard area is filling up with students, who are either returning or arriving for the first time with proud parents and stuff to fill a dorm room, we are getting ready to leave our temporary, first home here in the Boston area. Ay, we are going to miss it here: Hanging out at Harvard Yard, the playground by Cambridge Common, the good coffee shop down at Mt Auburn, the library, the friends around the corner and so on, but we can't fit into this apartment anymore. Our boxes from Vienna have arrived waiting to be unpacked, all the knick knacks and pots and pans from Boston's only IKEA are standing around (unpacked) in the living room, and this afternoon a couch we bought 2nd hand from two Icelandic girls arrived and hardly fits in. Over the weekend we'll be moving, and I'm so excited to get to unpack everything properly and create a proper home for the three of us. Silja will for the first time have her own room. Hoorray. That extra room really has been long underway.

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summering

Summer has seeped into this space, and although there are many things to share, my time in front of a computer is currently minimal... Hence the silence. I don't remember when was the last time a summer seemed to last this long. Apart from the occasional downpour and thunderstorm it feels like it has been warm, sunny sandal-weather for three months straight. Even the locals comment on how great this summer apparently is. And since I'm mostly hanging out with a toddler, we are outside pretty much all the time. Pretty amazing when the weather is so good, although I must admit I am sort of ready for next season to come. Most weeks looks like each other this summer: While Bjarni is at work, the rest of us are out and about, hanging out with friends, going to different playgrounds, and when the humidity and heat gets too high stay inside. We've got the hang of renting a car on weekends, to get out of the city and explore. We went to New Hampshire in the area by Lake Winnipesaukee a couple of weekends back, which was so relaxing and different from our own little neighborhood we have come so accustomed to by now. Some pretty exciting things are brewing though: an upcoming move to our own place (double yay!), our last many boxes of stuff finally on their way from Iceland, Silja starting daycare and some projects I'm working on to balance out my current career as a homemaker.
Until September though we will continue this full on summer mode. So see you later, later...

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