abaya

I was a huge neighbor person as a kid... knew them all by name, even the old people, and had friends wherever I could find them nearby. And we're talking about a rural corner, here... end of a dirt road, everyone had at least 2 acres of land, etc. You wouldn't think that we'd have a strong sense of community, but we did.

Flash forward to all my experiences of apartment living after dorm life in college... no sense of community in any of them. The place I lived the longest, in grad school, I never knew any of my neighbors, and only spoke to them when their music got to be too loud (a lot of young men blasting stereos, for some reason). We were all insulated from each other.

In Iceland, we share a hallway with 3 other apartments. I know the guy across the hall pretty well, though he has limited skills and is pretty congenial with everyone. If he was a "normal" Icelander (like the two families upstairs), he would never speak to us... and they don't. The only neighbors we really got to know was the Polish family who used to live upstairs, and we got along really well. I felt comfortable giving them cupcakes, and they gave us all their booze when they moved out, and we would talk in the laundry room for a long time. They are probably the best neighbors I've had since I was a kid. Immigrant solidarity, I guess.

I miss the old "American" way of introducing yourself to your new neighbors, bringing 'round a pie or something, inviting them to the BBQ... I like that feeling, and I hope to have it again soon.

And yeah, there's that, too... especially in a college town. That's what I chalk up my grad school neighbor experience to, at least.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran