Friday, December 7, 2018

House Hunting at Hanukkah Time

Phillip recently accepted a job offer in Massachusetts, so I've spent the past week house hunting up in the frigid north.  When Phillip used to travel to conferences as a PhD student, I thought traveling alone sounded like a delightful adventure.  Two days into my solo trip, I understood why Phillip was always eager to head home before his trip was half over.  I missed coming home to familiar faces in our familiar home.  There is nothing familiar for me in Massachusetts yet.


The good news is that I found a nice apartment for us to hang our hats in while we get to know the area and look for a house to buy.  It's in a little town called Littleton, which has great schools and a friendly, small-town feel.


During my week here, I stayed in an AirBnB room that I nicknamed "La Cueva" ("The Cave" in Spanish) because it was in the basement and was very dark in the mornings.  It also had almost no cell phone reception.


On the bright side, I had a very friendly host.  She's Israeli, and she invited me to join her family's Hanukkah celebration.  They had forgotten their menorah at a friend's house the night before, so they made do with some tea lights.  I really enjoyed seeing how one family observes Hanukkah, and we had a nice talk about religion afterward.  While the details of our religions are quite different, the core principles we value are very similar.

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