my new kentucky home...

perhaps it's a result of being surrounded by tree- and plant-geeks, but i get the feeling that folks in kentucky know their natural environment much, much better than washingtonians/new yorkers/bostonites. or, perhaps it's a result of being surrounded by natural environments (well, sort of...), rather than urban playgrounds. in any case, it looks like i'm going to have to get to know my trees and shrubs and wildflowers, otherwise i'm going to spend my time here feeling like an idiot.

the previous paragraph is the direct result of a hike i went on last week - a wildflower hike at a nearby creek. the woman i was with pointed out and named every flash of color (and there were many) along the water. she named many of the trees, too. granted, she's a botanist, but still...my bona-fide city credentials aren't doing me too well in this place!

speaking of which - i have joined the ranks of the non-city dwellers, or rather, the ranks of those who cannot rely on public transporation. this isn't going to help me get to know my plants (well, not directly, anyway!), but it does make me feel a little more like i've 'arrived' in my new mid-western life. this is definitely a big step - aside from the financial plunge, it's a little intimidating to think about the responsibilities that come with owning my own half-ton piece of metal. eek. still, i'm looking forward to zipping about town and getting to know the region a bit better now that my radius of travel has increased (there's only so much you can get to on two feet...even my own well-traveled ones!)

from the mid-east to the mid-west

a few weeks ago N. and i were running some errands in lexington and stopped for lunch at a mediterranean restaurant. with some encouragement, i decided to test my arabic skills ordering my falafel sandwich. it didn't go too well - - somehow my linguistic abilities seem to have gone into hibernation. i guess that's what you get for using a language once a year - or less...

my pathetic attempts at conversation, however, made us stand out from the typical "two falafels and a diet coke" consumers, and after a while N. asked our cashier where he was from. "philistin," he responded - "palestine."

i took advantage of another opportunity to use my arabic (ok, maybe i don't remember how to say "two falafel sandwiches, please," but "i'm from israel" is not a phrase that's easily forgotten!). eyes brightening, our friend immediately responded in flawless hebrew, "hey, what's up?!?" and proceeded to shift the conversation entirely away from his native tongue to my own. i was thrilled to talk to him - it turns out, as he put it, that "we're neighbors!" (from nearby cities within israel's borders) - - but ready to crawl under a rock listening to him pit his hebrew skills against my arabic ones...

linguistic shame aside, i thought the whole event was fabulous. it showcased for N. the kind of cross-cultural communication i'm constantly promoting in my attempts to create world peace - particularly poignant in this south-eastern/mid-western city where us middle easterners are such an anomaly in the population. i think he was really touched.

and the falafel was delicious.

moved forward...to the bluegrass state

last week i took the plunge and moved from the cosmopolitan east coast to a town of 30,000 outside of lexington, KY. at the request of some friends, this blog is taking a slightly more personal turn as i chronicle life in the bluegrass...

call it cliche, but the biggest difference i've seen so far between here and DC/NY/other places i've been living recently is that people are just so nice. it's a little hard for my hustle-bustle-east-coast-mind to get used to: people smile and wave on the streets (even when i don't know them...and i definitely don't know them, i only know about 5 people in this whole town!), cashiers seem like they actually mean it when they say, "have a good day!," and everyone makes conversation (last week it was mostly about who would be hired as the new University of Kentucky basketball coach - one of the area's great passions...).

anyway, i've been trying to adjust to all of this niceness while unpacking and slowly learning my way around. a wrong turn the other day took me on a 5-mile (urban) hike out of my way, but it did show me where a couple of key things are in town (like the drive-through liquor store. ummm). oh, right, the other adjustment i have to make is to car culture: for the last decade i've been living in cities big enough (and with enough public transportation options) to make owning a car unnecessary. not so any longer. i must have been the only person on foot for most of that 5-mile loop. hey, maybe i can start a counter-culture movement! (maybe not. i still need to get to the grocery store...)

adjustments or not, so far this feels like a great move - the right one for now. keep tuned for descriptions of gorgeous scenery and the chance for me to dispel some of the stereotypes i know you all have about this place...