On a more positive note...

After the initial culture shock (people speak loudly here; the pepperoni pizzas look funny; I seem to have skipped Spring entirely), here are a few positive points:

-The weather! I love how warm and humid it is. I guess I ain't notting but a Southern gal.
-Driving. I'd forgotten how nice driving is.
-The lushness. Everywhere I look, it's green.
-The culture. For example, tonight, I just saw the U.S. and British poetry laureats read at the Library of Congress. D.C. can be pretty cool sometimes!

Here's my favourite of the evening:

GOLD
Pale gold of the walls, gold
of the centers of daisies, yellow roses
pressing from a clear bowl. All day
we lay on the bed, my hand
stroking the deep
gold of your thighs and your back.
We slept and woke
entering the golden room together,
lay down in it breathing
quickly, then
slowly again,
caressing and dozing, your hand sleepily
touching my hair now.
We made in those days
tiny identical rooms inside our bodies
which the men who uncover our graves
will find in a thousand years,
shining and whole.

--Donald Hall