Welcome to the Swamp!

It’s hard to know where to start! I woke up early this morning and was thinking of all I wanted to write, so perhaps I’ll be a bit disjointed for a few posts - but I’m here, and settling in, and exhilarated to be somewhere so different and have this year finally beginning after all the planning!

I’m staying in an Airbnb for the first month, which was my plan so that I could find my feet and suss out where I’d like to be longer term. Lee, the host, is in Czech Republic for the month so I may not meet him. I’m sharing with Lee’s housemate Luan, from Brazil, and Yi, from China - Yi leaves today and another woman is arriving, so it’s all change here! I had a few drinks with Luan and Yi last night - they are both students at UF (University of Florida) and had tips about getting settled into Gainesville as an international, and we talked about our respective countries. I went to bed wishing I’d done all this earlier, not to be younger (although bonus!), but because it’s so great. But I’m not going to let myself have that thought - I’m here now, and I’m appreciating it!

Porch swing - you better believe my bum's been on here a few times already!

Offensively over-rooted tree

Lee’s house is very American-feeling - wooden, two-storeyed, furnished with things found and resold, and with an actual swinging porch swing on an actual wooden porch. The street has been giving me To Kill a Mockingbird vibes - green everywhere, and these houses all built in different styles all on quite large plots of land. Lee’s garden is a riot of green overgrowth and boasts a car which looks to me to be going back to nature but is apparently perfectly drivable, and three sets of mannequin bottom halves.

Feral car and new friends

Yesterday I went for a walk around the neighbourhood to try and get my bearings a little. The rain since I arrived has been relentless - coming out of the airport was like stepping into a greenhouse (the Palm House, not the Princess Diana House, Kew Gardens fans!) It’s wildly humid here and everything feels wet. When the rain let up last night for an hour or so, the sound of dripping continued on. There’s so much leafy vegetation here I can’t imagine how it ever dries out.

It's the moss hanging off the trees! It's what I came for! 

In the afternoon I bought the world’s biggest umbrella from Target. I’m pretty thrilled with it - it would be unbelievably obnoxious to walk the streets of London with it, but here I can Gene Kelly my way down a street and won’t hit a thing. People don’t seem to do much walking or biking around when it’s raining. 

I got soaked through my small umbrella and my rain jacket until I had The Umbrella, and was remembering two rain stories I’ve read - “Rain” by Somerset Maugham and “The Long Rain” by Ray Bradbury. I remember them as being about rain that was so persistent and huge that it drove the characters mad - after only two days I can imagine it - I’ve been thinking maybe I can make a comic about it! But actually so far I’m kind of into this whole weather vibe - it’s hot, it’s weird, it’s green - and most importantly, it’s different!

Blending into the surroundings

IN SUMMARY:

‘Gator count: 0 

Other animal/insect count: one sweet lizard on the hood of the feral car.

Handlebar-moustachioed dudes: less than on my journey - perhaps they hide indoors/in their cars to protect their moustaches when the weather’s like this.

Hair report: obviously this humidity is making my hair massive! I’m harbouring hopes that the humidity is somehow cleaning it, and I’ll barely have to wash it while I’m here. *Check back for future progress reports on this plan.*