tandem

In preparation for the trip to Brazil, we're taking part in "tandem language learning"--Brazilian students learning English communicate with us in English for a set period of time and then we reciprocate while communicating in Portuguese.

A friend from Detroit visited today and we spent some time at the Kildare House, drove around to find a specific type of Hindu temple (which Windsor does not seem to have), and remarked on the desks that we've exchanged (she gave me an antique-ish one that will need some TLC (no, not T-Boz) and I gave her a relatively new one that is easily dismantled and moved).

I'm awaiting an offer of employment at a university on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean (or Pacific, I s'pose, depending which way you fly ;> ) and, today, I spoke with my 95-ish yr. old grandmother ("sit'ty" in Arabic) who lives 1.5 hrs. from that university.

After dropping a friend off at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday morning (around 4am), I came home along Riverside Dr. and witnessed perfect stillness on the Detroit River--perfect for rowing, that is. The water was like glass and the conditions were ideal even for a single sculling shell. The river that divides nations was calm and inviting as though it was awaiting someone to disturb the peace.

These seemingly disparate moments are linked by one thing: borders/divisions/contact zones. Regardless what side of that "line" you're living on, it seems that everyday life is similar. People go to work and to school. They shop, sleep, eat, live. They try to have relationships and experience broken hearts and wonderful adventures...

What's my point, you ask? I'm not really sure. I just find it interesting that we're all linked in some way but sometimes we forget that. We forget that we're all people just living our lives in the ways that we know how.

Maybe there's a moral here: When the grass seems greener on the other side, just remember that it's on the other side, yes, but it's still grass. Still green. And, quite likely, it's the exact same grass that you're unhappy with on your own side--it just looks a little different from over here.