Brilliant Corners

Right around the corner from the front door of our apartment is a tiny room with a trash chute. You pull open the small metal door labelled "RUBBISH" and drop in your trash. It falls four floors to the trash room. Every day is trash day.

Living in an apartment has taken some getting used to. There are definitely some pluses to apartment living: no more yard to water and mow; no worrying about a thief coming in through the alley; no fear of that old tree in the backyard falling onto our house, or even worse, onto the neighbor's house; and no squirrels and rats in the attic.

But then, the list of not-so-great things about apartment living could almost be the reverse of the pluses: we no longer have our own yard for the kids to play in; no trees; less contact with neighbors; less space; and the inability to call the place "your own."

The kids adjusted to living in an apartment rather quickly, which surprised me. I assumed they would miss all those things above, but they've found ways to find new ways to play inside the apartment. We're slowly decorating the place with plants and paintings and photos, but the walls are still almost completely bare. The good thing is that we're down to only two boxes left to unpack. It's been a stop and start process of making the apartment into our own temporary home.

There's a lot to love about our new city and our new neighborhood, and we've only just begun to explore.