feelin' good here

This afternoon, Ben and I made a big round of errands. We walked down to a nearby shopping area and bought a printer at an electronics store. Then we went to Carrefour (yes, again) and picked up some groceries and other things we couldn't get at the local market.

Later, we walked over to the market we discovered the other morning, and bought some fruit and vegetables for dinner tonight (Sam and Zhou You are coming over for dinner, and then we're all going to try out some wines, to help them determine which wine they're going to serve at their wedding in a couple of weeks). As we were walking home after our visit to the market, the sun was shining, and a cool breeze was blowing through the narrow alleyway to our apartment building. I took a deep breath, and thought to myself, "I am really happy, right here, right now."

Today is the first day that I really feel like I'm getting a handle on life here. It's funny, because my sense of comfort is totally tied to my knowledge of where I can buy things. I have my supermarket figured out, and we've found the best place to buy normal-tasting milk (or least milk that tastes how I expect milk to taste). I have my local place for produce figured out. We've found a couple of nearby restaurants where we can go out for meals. It's all coming together.

Maybe it's a sad statement about American culture that the thing that makes me feel most at home is knowing where I can buy stuff. I may be rationalizing here, but all those things I'm buying are actually necessities for life. I prefer to think of my growing comfort as an indicator that my most basic needs are being met, not that I'm addicted to consumerism. Am I just kidding myself here?

Meh. Who cares. All I know for sure it's that I'm really starting to like it here.