I arrived in Claremont on 28 April, a Saturday. Many of you will already know by now how I found the home that we're living in right now, but for first-timers, here's a quick recap. The first evening I was in Claremont, I decided to take a long walk to stretch my legs after the flight. I walked around randomly, as Claremont's a pretty small town and hard to get lost in. On my peregrinations, I came across a small little house with a "For rent" sign. Now, I had been scouring the local ads in the papers, Craigslist and other housing rental referral services, but had not yet seen this particular house for rent. It was just nice - three bedrooms, within walking distance of campus and town and shops, and had a pretty back yard. The only downside was that it was fronting the main road in Claremont -- Indian Hill Boulevard. So the house tended to get a bit of noise from the road, especially at night and early in the morning. But as things have turned out, this is the house that we're living in, and Fiona had already provided a very nice photo of it in the previous post. I believe God was at work in leading my footsteps that first evening.
Setting up a home from scratch was pretty crazy. I moved in on Tuesday 1 May 2007, and between that day and the day the family arrived on 9 May, I went to Target and Ikea three or four times (each time carrying or pushing or lugging the maximum amount of stuff I could stuff into my tiny two-door rental car), Goodwill Industries (a second-hand used goods place) twice, Salvation Army shop twice, the local nursery (for plants, not children!) twice, Home Depot (I love that place!) once, and several other shops and department stores. Here's a partial list of things to get when your house has absolutely nothing in it:
- Mattresses - I got one queen and four single mattresses (Americans, for the weirdest reason, call single mattresses "twin", which, of course, you'd think would refer to a "double" mattress)
- Bed sheets - many variations
- Pillows - many variations
- Quilts - I actually spent an hour at Ikea going back and forth between the different types of quilts for the different beds in our house
- Dishes, crockery, plates and bowls -- whatever you call them
- Dining table with four chairs
- Tent (for the kids - admittedly a "nice-to-have")
- Various toys (for the kids, not me!)
- Toiletries and toilet paper
- Cleaning equipment and chemicals of all shapes, sizes and levels of danger to your health if swallowed
- A second-hand futon (which took Fiona's dad and me just 10 minutes to take apart but nearly an hour, and with the assistance of Fiona and her mom, and much cursing and swearing, to put back together)
- Rice (cannot resist my Asian genetics)
- Detergents and laundry stuff
- Rugs and floor mats for kitchen, bathrooms etc
- Shelves and storage stuff for the bedrooms (TGFI - Thank God for Ikea, 15 minutes away)
- Basic refrigerator stuff - which in my case means orange juice, milk and chocolates
- Cutlery
- Cookware
- Kitchenware
You get the idea.
I had fun with gardening as well. Two of the afternoons, I donned my sunglasses, stripped down to my shorts and raked, mowed and planted and planted and planted, and in the process worked up a good tan. Pretty fun, but I don't think I want a garden for life . . . Unless someone else does the gardening and maintenance for me.
Finally, some parting thoughts.
(1) I learned, in the 10 days before the family arrived, that I prefer boredom and tedium to loneliness. There were times I felt immensely lonely. I missed the family tremendously and would have given anything to experience the tedium of the daily routines of changing diapers, making milk, getting frustrated with Emma at mealtimes and telling Joshua the same stories and singing the same songs at nighttime. The nights when I was staying in the nice house were so quiet, and there were at least two days I went without a normal, solid conversation with someone else. (At that time, I had no internet connection in the house, so no Skype or MSN, no email etc etc.)
(2) Claremont is a pretty town - very much like Princeton. It's a snooty, tony part of greater Los Angeles that has a deep sense of civic consciousness and a sense of pride in its existence and difference from its surrounding cities. I wish it had more of a "college town" feel - not enough coffeeshops, bookshops and other shops with prices that would appeal to students. (Hey, that's like Princeton too!) But it is pretty, and I love the view of the San Gabriel Mountains, which loom, like silent sentinels, over the town.
(3) The Claremont colleges are so lovely. These are the colleges that I would have liked to have taught at if I had earned my PhD in English all those years ago. (Now, can anybody figure out the tense I used in the preceding sentence?) They are capacious, modern yet historic, with a sense of tradition but without being stuffy. There's a great sense of energy and momentum, and it's nice to be part of a college again.
I look forward to the year ahead. Now that we're slowly settling in, and I'm gearing up for the courses that will begin next Tuesday, I'm eagerly anticipating how we will grow together as a family. The next season of our Great Adventure has begun!
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