Day 7.107: Exile #2's Sunday Column #2

Exile #2 writes:

This week has been Spring Break, so no school for the kids. This has meant, of course, more of a two steps forward, one step back pattern of getting organised. Still, progress is still being made. We put some pictures up today and although flotsam keeps washing in, I can consistently see more than half of the kitchen island.

Highlights of the week:

• Having a park around the corner to which the kids can walk unaided!
• Walking to E5N1's school playground - all on sidewalks.
• Joining one of the local libraries.
• Getting the license plates changed on the van. It now sports a very handsome picture of a lobster plus the single word "lobster" in case you were in any doubt.
• Getting Maine drivers licenses without - thank heavens - having to take another road test.

On a side note, can I just give a moment of appreciation to the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles for:

1. Providing comfy chairs in the waiting room instead of the pew-like fixtures I have encountered elsewhere and
2. For making the whole process so darn pleasant. In the last few years, we have spent quite a bit of time in offices and embassies, fretting over whether we have the correct documentation to jump through the next of a series of hoops. In Maine, it all seems to happen without fuss and bother and with a nice dose of gentle good will.

• Volunteering at an earth day event at a local preserve. Well, I say volunteering. We arrived ready to roll up our sleeves and pick up trash on the beach, only to find that it was a largely pristine stretch of sand and we were a bit superfluous. That's a good thing, of course, and it was a nice walk. We got to see where they have fenced off a section of beach in the hopes that Piping Plovers, which are endangered, will nest there. We also got to argue animatedly amongst ourselves about whether it should be pronounced plover-rhymes-with-clover as the locals seem to say it or plover-rhymes-with-cover as the adult Exiles insist on saying it. Both are fine according to the Internet in Exile #1's pocket but the junior Exiles are having none of it.
• Final highlight of the week was getting to eat one of the curries that I have spent the last few months enviously watching Exile #1 enjoy via Skype. All that recent practice has definitely paid off. Yum!