Domestication.

Moving into my off campus apartment near Tufts has been unduly stressful. When I arrived with my father this past Saturday, things were less desirable than I would have liked, especially given my tendency to be allergic to dust and mold and other gross things.
3 or 4 days of carrying boxes, cleaning, removing rugs, vaccuming, scrubbing floors, walls, oven, microwave, reorganizing cabinets, duct taping, contact papering, going on random adventures to Craigslist postings to find bubble wrap to insulate the windows, moving and removing and re-re-moving furniture, decorating,etc. etc. etc. have left me rather exhausted. Additionally, miscommunications with my friends who we are subletting from led to some rather emotional drama with my housemates. Everything is resolved now, but it just wasn't what I had envisioned for starting off.

But I'm trying to look on the positive, so here's some good news:
-I'm currently situated in a room with tons of natural light from 6 (!) windows.
-I got both of my old on campus jobs back, which is great. I'll be working in the pool as a lifeguard and also in the library.
-We've been eating deliciously, thanks to the food the former tenants left in the freezer. Sample meals cooked by my culinary genius housemate Rebecca include:
-mango tomato salsa
-quinoa/spicy black bean veggie burger wraps with guacamole
-french toast with berries drizzled with honey.

I'm back to being vegetarian, which I imagine I will get back to in another post. I've been doing some cooking contributions myself: I made a tortilla española yesterday and a delicious tomato chickpea pasta today.

I'm still finding America a bit depressing, not going to lie. There are some things that I love that I am readily reembracing like the amazing diversity of cultures that have managed to come together to make a nation, something that seems so amazing when you really stop to think about it or for instance stumble into the grocery store in Somerville and see people from every corner of the earth. But the horrible weather has really got me down for starters. I guess another thing that is driving me nuts now is the need to be everywhere on time and the stress that it causes. Once you've been exposed to a culture where this doesn't exist it seems rather unnecessary. All this is sort of inevitable: I just had the best 6 months of my life, free from worries about pretty much everything so I suppose it is hard for anything else to match up. What I'm finding scarier than the let down of reality though is the fact that everything seems so cyclical: I'm back in the same spot doing the same things, yet I am a totally different person. So what am I still doing here? I feel out of place, especially when I walk around campus and don't recognize or can't place people.

Classes start tomorrow which I certainly think will be a positive development.