Part 10 - Onwards

At noon today we’ll have been here for three full weeks. Parts of our lives are in rhythm. Parts are screeching fingernails on the chalkboard. We’re certainly doing it, and there’s plenty more to be done. Our bank account is created (but not yet funded); our apartment contract has arrived (but hasn’t yet been finalized). A remodel back home is scheduled (but not done). I’m rocking a 5 day streak and am 27 lessons into, imagine a deep announcer voice here, Pimsleur’s French 1, (but still can’t speak a lick of French). My body hurts more than I can remember (but we’re walking a whole bunch around our current apartment).

There are two incredible parks in our neighborhood. The closer one is smaller, quieter. We call it Hogwarts Park because the playground is a playful looking castle with lopsided roofs. More of a crossover of The Burrow and Hogwarts itself, but that’s a mouthful. The further one is a seven minute walk instead of four, and it’s central to the district we’re currently staying in. The very nice, very pleasant, district that we’ll be moving away from quite soon (hopefully at the end of next week).

The playground at the district-center park is the best playground I’ve ever seen. I thought I was going to see Ewoks swinging from the trees onto the platforms the first time it came into view. ¹ And then more of it kept coming into view! There’s an arc of various swings spanning 60 yards. There are multi-tiered platforms and every form of moving between them you can imagine: rock-walls, rope nets, stairs, poles, hooks, monkey bars. There’s a zip line. And a mud pit fed by water from it’s own manual well system. The southern edge of the playground opens onto a lovely duck pond and a pristine garden. Nice sitting lawns are sprinkled throughout. Two of the four sides of the park are peaceful apartment and condo complexes. One side is bordered by a relatively busy street and a large school. And the fourth is hemmed in by the small bushes of restaurant balconies. Delightful dog walking country for Bubbas.

Addie and I were walking this morning and were approached by a young woman with a pitbull. She said “It’s okay for your dog?” Addie and I had the same conversation-by-glance we’d had at The Green Channel of customs and we introduced the pups. It took us three weeks, but we found Bubbas a new female dog friend! They had a great play session after the initial sniffs and he busted out his patented Derpy Deer romp.

Come to think of it, this was the second dog time we’d seen that move in two days. Last night, we met another dog at Hogwarts Park and Bubbas played there as well, albeit for a much shorter stint. And earlier this week, I met a guy in line at a store that happens to live in the neighborhood we’ll be moving to.

Two dog friends made, in two different parks. Two numbers collected from men about my age that have been living here for years. This is good momentum. And to think we had no idea this opportunity existed at the turn of the new year.

Onwards.