Labour Day in the Air

Just like summer started (and really every year starts) long before the official solstice on June 21, it ends long before September 22, the first official day of fall. When I went to school in both Berkeley and Austin, the beginning of classes at the end of August marked the end of summer. This year, the last day of summer is today... Labour Day. And while it's been great that thanks to Labour Day being the latest possible date it could be this year we got an extra week of summer, I actually feel ready for today, and ready to put this summer behind me. Ever since J. and I took that trip to the Texas Gulf coast in mid-May I've felt in summer mode. And even though I've been steadily fairly busy since then, I am craving a more regular routine. That to me - more than changes in weather - is the real difference between summer and fall. Falls are beginnings-- time to start new activities or jobs or plans or ideas. Something about summer makes me feel entitled to taking it easy, while something about fall always urges me onwards and upwards and to do this and to do that. Fall, come to think of it, is actually a pretty exciting season.

Plus, yesterday morning walking up the stairs I caught sight of the faded sandal tan on my feet. And sure enough my tan on the rest of my body has faded too-- what was a deep brown in May and June has become a pale beige now. To me, that's the surest sign summer is over. Tans go with summer like snow goes with Christmas. Tans and Fall, well they may get along for a bit, but they never really get to know each other.

I like Labour Day because it's a bridge between the two seasons. It's the last day that it's acceptable (preferable really) to take it easy, to be mellow, to say goodbye to summer before tomorrow morning arrives and fall gets started.

Thoughts on South Africa...

It occurred to me when I was in South Africa earlier this month that I actually had a lot of generalizations in my head about 'Africa' - as a continent, as a place, as an idea - that didn't become apparent until I was actually in Africa. The images in my head were primarily rural - sun drenched and sun baked landscapes, wide-eyed children, and women carrying baskets on their heads. So it was a bit of a (much-needed) shock to realize after being in Cape Town for a few days that there are cities in (South) Africa too. I suddenly wished I knew much more about urbanization on the continent in general. It's not all just bush and sun there. South Africa has big cities with tall buildings and lots of people and shops and noise and streets and things that I always associate with cities. And I wonder what urban areas in other African countries - like Mozambique or Kenya or Senegal - are like.

The rural image of Africa exists in Cape Town too though- or at least in tourist shops. A few days after getting there I found myself in a gift shop and drawn to this magnet of a woman balancing a baby on her back and some wood on her head, with a sun setting in the background. I instantly wanted to buy it, and then I thought, "Wait. That isn't the South Africa I've seen at all!"

However, when we left urban areas and went up to the Kruger National Park in the north-east part of the country, I did end up seeing parts of that idealized Africa I'd had in my head-- women with their babies strapped to their backs with cloth, brush and bush stretching for miles in every direction, and a bright red sun slowly dipping below the horizon. I realized, then, that in South Africa - like everywhere else - rural and urban both exist. And now, back in Toronto, I am left wondering (and will hopefully one day be able to investigate this more) about the millions of ways the two interact with, and compliment (or not) each other.

I did end up buying the magnet (currently and happily now stuck to my fridge) and while it may not be the best representation of the South Africa I saw, it reminds me that things aren't always as simple or straightforward as I sometimes think they are. For me, it's enough to know that yes, that Africa exists somewhere and I saw a little glimpse of it near Kruger. And just for good measure, I also bought a magnet that says 'Cape Town' to remind me of what I actually did see :)

Window to the World

I'm of the mind that windows can make or break a house or apartment. All the best houses or apartments that I've ever seen have always had one thing in common: large windows that let in lots of natural light. Rooms that don't get very much natural light usually seem somehow a bit gloomy. And while it can definitely be very cozy, especially in the wintertime, to be in a room warmly lit by lamps - in which case, who cares if the room has natural light or not? - naturally dark rooms seem preferable only in the winter. Big windows also have the added bonus that usually, if they let in lots of light, they also have great views.
Throughout the six months I spent living in my most favourite apt on rue des Batignolles, (the picture at the top of this post is the closest I could find to what the windows looked like in that apt) which was truly everything an apartment should be, I was convinced that street views were the ideal. The apt was a corner apt (the best possible type of apt I believe!) which meant (the reason for why I think they are the best) that the living room had windows on two different walls, affording two different (but equally) intriguing views. Rue des Batignolles was a very busy street and I used to stand in front of the window overlooking it for (what felt like) hours at a time, completely mesmerized by the goings on down below. I would watch the people disappear into the boulangerie only to reappear a few minutes later with one or two (or sometimes more!) baguettes tucked under their arms, I would watch people enter the pharmacy, the deli, talk on their cell phones, chat with their companions, walk their dogs, push their baby carriages, honk their car horns after their friends got married at the Mairie just down the street and on and on. From the second window - which I liked but not as much as the first, the second overlooked a sidestreet and so had a less interesting view - I would watch people in the small mysterious restaurant on the corner. I could never figure out when this restaurant was open - or the logic (there probably wasn't any) to its schedule. Some nights there would be people there until midnight and then for days at a time it would be closed. In any event, that living room, or more accurately those windows, were a highlight of my life for those six months, and thanks to them I became utterly devoted to windows and apts that overlook busy streets.
However, then C.'s apt in Montmartre came along and I am now torn as to what I think is the best type of set-up/window viewing. C.'s apt is long - it consists of three adjoining rooms (the first is the kitchen and then there are two more rooms) all in a row each with at least one (although I think both non-kitchen rooms have two) large windows that overlook this triangular shaped courtyard and look directly into other people's apts. I spent a good 15 minutes (and could have spent far longer, and if I lived there most undoubtedly would) staring out the window of C.'s bedroom into her neighbours' apts both to the left and straight across. I loved it -- even though I just caught minuscule fleeting glimpses of these people's lives I was totally captivated. C. hasn't lived there for long but I wonder if after she has, she'll develop any type of relationship with her across the courtyard neighbours? If I stared into someone's else window every day I'd want to at least be on waving terms - and possibly much more - with them. But how exactly do those types of relationships develop? Who makes the first move? The person who's braver? The one who stares more? Hopefully C. will find answers to all these questions and be able to tell me.
In closing, as much as I'd love to live in an apt like C.'s, I think, ultimately, that I'd still choose rue des Batignolles. There's something about observing busy city streets from the comfort of your own living room that I can't get enough of.

Princess Power

So I've been meaning to write about the Disney Princesses for a while now but this post was especially spurred by A. who visited me last weekend with his Ariel - The Little Mermaid - Visa card in tow. Everywhere we went - the sushi restaurant, the bar, the movie theater - people always cheerfully commented on his Visa card featuring Ariel's bright smiling face. The positive reactions A. received everywhere solidified my belief that the Disney Princesses are liked by many, never fail to bring a smile to someone's face (at least as I've seen), and as A. said 'are a good conversation starter.'

I rediscovered (my first two Disney phases being from ages 4-9 and 13-14) my love of the Disney Princesses soon after moving to Austin when H. and I went to Hobby Lobby. While perusing the aisles I found these fabulous napkins featuring Snow White, Ariel, and Jasmine which I, of course, just had to buy. Not long after I discovered that Target sells napkins too (featuring Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel) and also these amazing Disney Princess stickers. And a little bit after that, I happily found out that whenever I sent people envelopes decorated with one of the Princess stickers or whenever I had people for dinner and gave them a Princess napkin they would get really excited.

I think it's both fabulous and super cool that the Princesses are not just for little girls. I know so many people - old & young, women & men - who are into them. They're not hard to like! They are all so pretty and smiley, and interesting too! I love Belle (Beauty and the Beast) the best because she loves reading and wants to get out of her little provincial town and find adventure in the great wide somewhere. But I have to say I like all of them. I think I look the most like Snow White, and she gets points for being the original Princess. Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) is very pretty, and the end of that movie when she was dancing with Prince Philip and the fairies kept making her dress either pink or blue is one of my favourite Disney scenes ever. Cinderella is very sweet and possibly the nicest one - as exemplified by her devoted mice friends (Gus!) in the movie. I like Ariel because she's a redhead, because she was a mermaid and because she knew, without a doubt, what she wanted in life. And Jasmine has a lot of spunk and character, is very pretty, and is very well-matched with Aladdin. Disney has a new movie (The Princess and the Frog) and a new Princess named Tiana coming out in the fall and I can't wait to meet her! I am sure she will be as cool and lovely as the others.

Make Your Move

So many things go into moves -- packing, organizing, remembering, goodbyes, excitement, dread, nerves the list could go on and on. But I realized that probably the hardest part of moves for me is watching one's apartment become slowly and increasingly diminished, piece by piece. When I left my Hilgard apt in Berkeley three years ago I felt literally sick to my stomach that whole last week of June as all my furniture (except my bed) was gone. Being inside my apt that last week was painful- both emotionally and physically- because this place that I had loved so much was now both empty, and worse still, held all the tell tale signs of moving like open suitcases and belongings strewn across the floor.
The sick feeling wasn't as strong with my apt in Austin - really just a faint echo of the Berkeley feeling - but it was there nonetheless. The Austin diminishment was more gradual because in Berkeley the majority of the furniture left in one day. In Austin though, it was slower with the dresser and armchair one day, the table the next, and so on and so forth until I was again just left with a bed, open suitcases and my belongings decorating the floor. Though it may have happened more gradually, it was actually harder because with each piece of furniture that left, my apt began to feel less and less like my own. The walls, windows, carpets and shelves were all the same but the things on the inside - the most important things - weren't there anymore. It was like watching all the tangible things of my life in Austin disappear. And though I was (and am) left with the intangible things, somehow watching the tangible things make their way out the door and on to their new lives left me with that slightly sick feeling.
In a way it really shouldn't have though, because the day after the last piece of furniture - my bed- left and began its new life, I did too. And that, I suppose, is the flipside of every move - you may be leaving somewhere but you're also starting somewhere too.

Born & Brewed in Texas

The thing I remember most clearly about my first day in Austin, Texas was the huge billboard along the side of the highway for Lone Star Beer with the slogan "Everything else is imported." Even in my nervous, dread-filled, 'what the hell have I gotten myself into?' state, I remember thinking that was pretty cool. One of the reasons my imminent move to Texas two summers ago didn't seem too terrible was that I like places with a strong sense of pride. I love how Texas was its own republic for a time, and I liked how it seemed so proud of its beers. Pride (in one's self, one's city, one's state/province/country) and beer go well together. When C. asked me the other day what I would miss most about Texas I didn't hesitate to answer "the beer." Though I wasn't when I came here (and most definitely am still not) super knowledgeable about beers, I very much appreciate(d) Texas beers. I like the local Austin ones like Live Oak and Fireman's #4, and I like the Texas ones like Shiner (esp Shiner Blonde!) and Lone Star.

Yesterday S. and I went to Shiner, Texas and took a brewery tour. It seemed a fitting way to end my time in Texas, as going for a beer here became the same as going for a kir in Paris - a perfect way to end a day. Cheesy as this may sound, drinking Texas beer in Texas never failed to make me happy. Though I did occasionally buy Mexican beers my first year here, my second year I made the full-switch to Texan beers and never looked back. I know I'll miss the Texas beers once I'm back in Toronto but I also am determined to try to seek out local beers there too. Though I again sound super cheesy, there's something very cool about drinking the local beers of the place you're in. And just in case I get some super strong cravings, I'm bringing packs of Lone Star, Fireman's, and Shiner Family Reunion back with me.

Equal Parts Sunshine & Fashion Zing

For me, without a doubt, the best part about Austin is the amount of sunshine it gets. When I first came here, I read in a tourist brochure that this city gets 300 days of sunshine a year! A Google search to confirm that just a minute ago, however, found some people who doubt that figure. Either way the past two months have been almost one long uninterrupted stretch of pure sunshine. There was a period at the beginning of May when it was so hot for so many days in a row that I actually could feel the heat radiating off my arms about 2 minutes after I stepped outside. The air also seemed thicker-- almost like being underwater or walking through a bowl of warm soup. I'm not sure if that extreme heat passed or I just got more used to it but I don't feel like that anymore. Instead, I happily bask in the sunshine as I walk down the street and try not to think about how soon I'll be back in Toronto - which obviously has its merits but plentiful and consistent sunshine year round is sadly not one of them. Although, summer there is usually pretty dependable, and I have to say that I'd be hard pressed to name something prettier than a bright sunshiney January day when the sun makes the snow positively sparkle and shine.

The second best thing about Austin is that it was in this city that I discovered the absolute coolness and fabulousness of shorts! Now that I love them, I can't figure out why I resisted for so long. I distinctly remember having a conversation with N. six years ago in which she told me she didn't like shorts. (I wonder if she still doesn't? I should ask her.) At the time I wholeheartedly agreed. But then at the beginning of last September I suddenly decided that shorts were a practical thing to own in Austin's climate, and could be really cool as well. I don't think I've quite reached the level of fashion zing as the women in the picture at the top (their shorts are pretty rad!) but I have started wearing shorts almost as much as I wear dresses, if not more. I like them so much because they have all the benefits of pants (like pockets) but hold an advantage in that one can get away with wearing different coloured or patterned shorts that one would never wear in pant form. They also just look good-- on pretty much everyone! They are very popular here - I constantly see both men and women wearing them- and I think most everyone can totally rock them. There's something about bare legs (particularly bare legs that are getting exposed to lots of sunshine) that I find very appealing.