More on Greenville and idleness
Posted Wednesday, May 30, 2007 @ 01:19 PM
Some days are better than others in Greenville. I like to think of myself as pretty adventurous and independent, but after a week or so passes with your most social interaction taking place behind an espresso machine, things can go downhill pretty rapidly. Sometimes on my days off I watch three or four movies and listen to four or five episodes of "This American Life," alternating the two and breaking for snacks every few hours. With each cycle through the house from computer to television to refrigerator, the pattern becomes more dull and the time passes more fluidly. Sometimes, when Netflix is good to me, I don't even get out of bed; I prop myself up with pillows and watch DVDs on my laptop, then open iTunes for TAL, Firefox for email. I haven't read much yet, but I hope to plow through the box of books I brought home before I leave for China.
Some movies I've seen or revisited recently, which I highly recommend: Babel, Out of Africa, Sophie's Choice, Ladies in Lavender, The Good Shepard. The first four are old and recent all-time favorites. Babel really blew me away. I'm a sucker for subtitles, and I don't think I've ever seen a film with a deaf character so developed and engaging.
Even with great movies, so much idleness leaves me deflated and grumpy. Despite a beautiful park downtown and a few locations I've researched to photograph, it's hard to motivate myself to leave the house when there's no one to call to come with me. I look forward to vacations when I can bring people back with me to show them around; there are so many great places in Greenville that I find hard to enjoy by myself.
I've been fortunate thusfar to find a local event to attend each weekend. Last Saturday my parents and I drove an hour to Asheville, NC, to see the Biltmore Estate, which was grander that I'd imagined. Though it was modeled after a French chateau, I must confess that, having visited Chambord, Chenonceau, Loches, Clos Luce, and a handful of others, I found the Biltmore more accessible and engaging. Touring a fully furnished home constructed at the turn of the century by a railroad baron, it's easier to imagine what it might be like to live there. Everything is only slightly removed from modern day—the earliest form of washing machines and dryers, a primitive refrigerator, indoor plumbing and toilets which were brand new and luxurious at the time, a swimming pool in the basement with underwater lighting, the nation's first bowling alley. To picture myself as the daughter of a rich American man, a bride of the 1920s, comes more easily than imagining life as Catherine de Medici, second to her husband's mistress in the 1500s. Unfortunately photography inside the Biltmore is forbidden, and since (for once) I couldn't snap away and pretend to be a stupid American, oblivious to cries of "Arrête!", all I have are some photos of the outside. If you ever get the chance to go and tour the inside, I highly recommend it.
Later the same weekend, we ventured downtown on Sunday for Greenville's Greek food festival. Rarely, if ever, have I passed up an opportunity to devour the delicacy of a dozen Loukoumades—honey-drenched Greek donuts. This weekend the three of us woke before dawn to see hot air balloons at Simpsonville's annual Freedom Weekend Aloft. Though I snapped some great photos, I regret that the experience will ultimately cost me more than $200, as it exponentially increased my desire to ride a hot air balloon myself, which I hope to achieve later this summer somewhere over the Smokies. Looks like I won't be saving much from my summer job, just pouring my paychecks directly into travel—something that I suspect may become a life-time trend.
If you have a favorite Starbucks drink, know of any good movies, favorite TAL episodes, or cool places within reasonable driving distance, I'd love to hear about them. Currently these are my greatest allies in passing the time.
In Greenville for the summer
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 @ 06:34 PM
One quickly forgets the ease of slipping back into the rhythm of summer. This summer, as with nearly all of them, the process of remembering involves ice cream for breakfast, seldom venturing beyond the realm of pajamas, and feeling the hours pass slowly as I cycle through the house from computer to television to refrigerator. Normally the pattern gets broken up by phone calls and outings with friends—something I would expect my first summer home from college—but in Greenville I've yet to meet anyone, and it is enough of a drive from Birmingham (six hours or so) that I doubt many friends will make the trip to visit.
Part of me thinks it will be easy. After a year at school surrounded by people from the moment I left my room until, at times, three or four in the morning, it's refreshing to answer to no one, to forget that I own a cell phone, and to do nothing and everything alone without speaking. I suddenly have as much uninterrupted reading, thinking, and writing time as I did in high school, if not more. I don't know that I prefer one world over the other—company or solitude—but I imagine it's much like a sailor's return to sea. The excitement upon departure is unparalleled, save for the desire to return to land after a few months aboard ship. Nevertheless, a summer at sea will be good for me. After all, I've only a little more than two months in Greenville before I leave for China, and then school starts a day or so after my return.
Seeing a full refrigerator day-in and day-out has been a joy, as has the return to my father's kitchen, where at least once every two days we sit down as a family and eat together. We have many amenities in the new house that I've never experienced before: a gas stove, a central vac, a screened-in porch, a garage, more HBO than I can manage, and twice as many light switches for every room. Living in the new house doesn't feel strange the way I'd imagined it might—a testament, perhaps, to the nomadic lifestyle I've adopted. When we left Birmingham I thought I'd never get used to the impermanence of homes and cities, parading in and out every few months. There was Tuscaloosa first semester, then Georgia Christmas break, then Tuscaloosa, then trips to Memphis, Oxford, New Orleans, and Chicago, and now home in South Carolina before China and Tuscaloosa again. Next summer I may be studying in Paris for ten weeks (we'll see), then it will be Greenville briefly before heading back to school. Et cetera, so forth, and so on. Despite some of my posts here informing you of a plan for my major, I still don't have one, but every day I think more and more about making a place for travel in my studies. More on that as it develops.
At any rate, having barely unpacked for the summer, I'm fully aware that the boxes will come out of the closet before I know it. The process of moving is quickly becoming one of my least favorite things. I managed to whittle down the number of books I brought home to a single box (a large single box, containing about forty), and left the rest of them in storage.
I begin work for The Man on Monday at my local Starbucks, which will give me a way to spend time (the paycheck is secondary, of course). Until then I'm becoming acquainted with the city, which has a great downtown area filled with independent businesses, restaurants, and cool coffee shops, with a beautiful park to boot. I've already visited the Confederate Museum, and I hear there's an art museum somewhere as well. This weekend there's a Greek Food Festival, next weekend a hot air balloon festival, and Cirque du Soleil will be passing through in early June.
When I don't get out, I spy on the neighbors. One house over there are some French Canadians, and down the street there's a pack rat from Chicago with boxes stacked against his windows. He mows his tiny lawn with a riding mower, then pressure-washes his driveway when he's done.
Though I expect things will quickly become familiar, I look forward to any trips to Birmingham that I'll make in the coming weeks.
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