On a very different scale, this is my impression of a lot of suburbia. There are no "in betweens". You get in your car here, stare at other cars, and get out there. When I was in Silicon Valley, I asked people, "What is the name for those big wooden things in the middle of the divided roadway? And the commonest answer was "huh? What are you talking about? I've never noticed any such thing."
yes But maybe there's a local, idiomatic name, and I've never seen quite that sort of decoration(?) before. When person after person has passed by ten feet away a thousand times AND NEVER EVEN NOTICED THEM (as tall and wide as a house), questions arise about attention and perception . . .
Agreed on restaurant recommendations -- there are favorite restaurants we have in places (Belgo's in London) but that's just as true of, say, where I went to college, and Peppercorn's was just down the block (in Worcester; it now has a brewery attached but sadly did not while I was in college).
What Andy & I find most memorable for a sense of "we live here" is twofold. We got the idea of getting an apartment for an extended stay from coraline's LJ posts, and that also made the Care & Feeding of Minks much easier. So, having a somewhat individualized living space. But going to the grocery in another country is our favorite thing. When we went to Norway with my parents, they wanted to stay in hotels -- and we did a lot of city hopping (4 cities in a week) so that mostly made sense. But Andy & I did not feel like we had BEEN there until we went grocery shopping.
We have a favorite tea shop in London. After we arrive, my first errand is to go to the tea shop and get us a supply of their house blend black tea for the week. Needing to buy
( ... )
oh right, and related to the tea house: We were visiting the Leftons for brunch with Jacob, and I was going through their tea drawer and recognizing all the brands (tazo, celestial seasonings) and suddenly realized that while *I* recognized Tea House tea, that was NOT actually a normal brand to show up in the US. Turns out, it is also weegoddess's favored tea shop, which made me feel all the more clever for having discovered it on my own (I got lost, but I could tell from their signage that they were not having any trouble staying in business, which seemed like the mark of a quality local shop to me).
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When I was in Silicon Valley, I asked people, "What is the name for those big wooden things in the middle of the divided roadway? And the commonest answer was "huh? What are you talking about? I've never noticed any such thing."
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But maybe there's a local, idiomatic name, and I've never seen quite that sort of decoration(?) before.
When person after person has passed by ten feet away a thousand times AND NEVER EVEN NOTICED THEM (as tall and wide as a house), questions arise about attention and perception . . .
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What Andy & I find most memorable for a sense of "we live here" is twofold.
We got the idea of getting an apartment for an extended stay from coraline's LJ posts, and that also made the Care & Feeding of Minks much easier. So, having a somewhat individualized living space.
But going to the grocery in another country is our favorite thing. When we went to Norway with my parents, they wanted to stay in hotels -- and we did a lot of city hopping (4 cities in a week) so that mostly made sense. But Andy & I did not feel like we had BEEN there until we went grocery shopping.
We have a favorite tea shop in London. After we arrive, my first errand is to go to the tea shop and get us a supply of their house blend black tea for the week. Needing to buy ( ... )
Reply
We were visiting the Leftons for brunch with Jacob, and I was going through their tea drawer and recognizing all the brands (tazo, celestial seasonings) and suddenly realized that while *I* recognized Tea House tea, that was NOT actually a normal brand to show up in the US. Turns out, it is also weegoddess's favored tea shop, which made me feel all the more clever for having discovered it on my own (I got lost, but I could tell from their signage that they were not having any trouble staying in business, which seemed like the mark of a quality local shop to me).
Reply
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