Before taking off for Latvia
Well, this is my first official entry for our new blog, “The Crooked Timber of Humanity.” I am a bit of a Neo-Luddite, so blogging should make for an interesting and surely an educational endeavor. But as Brittney and I are about to embark on what should prove to be a vastly interesting change in the exact geographical location of where we call “home” on a day-to-day basis, it seemed most logical that a blog might be the easiest way to share our experiences with loved ones, and perhaps even complete strangers, should someone stumble upon our blog and be bored enough to find our pictures and musings interesting or strange enough to follow. That being said, that is exactly what we intend to do with our blog — to share the sort of random experiences that one can only encounter while living in an adopted homeland, as one struggles to adopt a new language and different cultural practices in the hope that ultimately our new homeland will want to adopt us. Simply put, with this blog we intend to both document and share our story, that of a young couple trying to find the balance between love of home and family and our insatiable curiosity for exploring all that this amazing world has to offer.
Like every story, this one, too, has a beginning. In this case, our story begins with a sort of proverbial calm before the storm that is moving day, which is coming up in a short month. I absolutely detest moving, though it is a good remedy for the contagious ills of capitalistic materialism, as nothing makes you swear off accumulating more “stuff” than having to pack and load it all up when moving. So, before that terrible experience descends upon us, we decided to make the most of the relatively stress-free days that we have left. And thus over the last few weeks we have spent more time outdoors than we have in a long time, thanks in part to the fact that our schedules have not been
so crazy now that I am done with my PhD coursework and exams and Brittney has all but finished her nurse practitioner degree. So, by way of introducing our blog, we would like to share three of our more enjoyable recent experiences.
The top photo was from just a few weeks ago (notice Brittney’s beautiful, post-braces smile!), when we spent the afternoon reading at our favorite park here in Knoxville. The summers here are beyond brutal, what with the insane humidity and heat, but the fall season could not be more enjoyable. During the second half of September the humidity finally relents, and the temperature drops to the 70s with lows in the 50s and 40s, just cool enough to make my morning coffee even more enjoyable. There are many things about life in the South that are unsettling for Midwesterners like us, but I have to say that it is awfully tough to beat an October morning in Knoxville, when one can comfortably soak in the sun while drinking coffee, examining the vivid fall colors, and listening to the cacophony of bird songs, most notably that of the Mockingbird.
The second photo is of Ramsey Falls up in the Great Smoky Mountains. A few weeks ago we hiked the eight mile trek and were beyond pleasantly surprised at how breathtaking the falls are. However, the serenity of the landscape was pierced by Brittney yelling at me to stop being an idiot, as I was convinced that I was going to venture out to a boulder in the stream to snap a photo. Mission accomplished.
Finally, the image below is one my latest culinary masterpiece, some French cream puffs. And it is with pride that I can report that they tasted even better than they look (though I have to say that the food setting on our new Panasonic camera does take excellent photos). We paired them with homemade Hungarian goulash plated over Israeli couscous and homemade German spätzle alongside a helping of asparagus and a bottle of cabernet sauvignon from Chile. It was a fantastic meal.
crookedtimberofhumanity 