Moving to a New City

Transcript

1. The apartment looked much larger in the photographs than in life.
2. For the first week we lived among boxes and borrowed chairs.
3. Finding the nearest supermarket took two wrong turns and one long walk.
4. A city becomes smaller as soon as you learn three streets well.
5. The neighbors were polite but careful, which is normal anywhere.
6. That changed the night our water heater failed loudly at midnight.
7. The man downstairs knew a plumber and called him without being asked.
8. After that we said more than good morning in the hallway.
9. Work was easier, because a new job hands you people automatically.
10. Weekends were harder, and the first ones were very quiet.
11. I joined a running group mostly to have somewhere to be.
12. Half of them had also arrived that year.
13. By the third month the city stopped feeling borrowed.
14. I had a regular cafe, a barber, and a favorite bus route.
15. None of that was planned, and all of it took time.