Still here, but at a different "here"
Explaining the summer silence
Yes, I’m still here, but the “here” changed. The writing here took a backseat – no, it was kicked out of the proverbial car – due to changes at home. After living in Europe for the past ten years, we completed our return to the US three days ago, Friday, 21 July. Well, sort of. A lot of our stuff is probably already at Antwerp, having been hauled by truck (perhaps if the Rhine weren’t low, it would have moved by barge) to Belgian port for the journey to Boston, my new home. (Including customs clearance, we should get our stuff at the end of August.)
If you’re wondering, the biggest “culture shock” of returning to the US is the need for and receipt of paper checks. Absolutely primitive and a waste of time, resources, and energy! When I share this reality with Europeans, they are aghast. And, no, Zelle or PayPal or whatever do not make for the equivalent of the ease with which you can pay bills (utility, credit card, etc.), friends, stores, street vendors, and so on as you can in Europe where electronic transfers are baked into the system with far greater security than in the US. Moving on…
As we go on vacation next week, I’ll likely be quiet for a while longer. I have a post I started to write in May that returns to the problematic mythology around Fulbright, something I wrote about before but requires a deeper and more focused discussion. Finishing this is at the top of my list.
Some pictures from my last days of riding and running in Switzerland, plus Paisley’s last moments there and first moments here…
Stay well. We’ll talk soon.