water
diaryland entry 8:50 a.m. - 2005-12-16
Yesterday I figured out why Penicuik doesn't quite feel like home.
I grew up in Duluth. It is on Lake Superior. Anytime you go any distance in Duluth, there is The Lake. After college, I lived in Seattle. Seattle is right on Puget Sound. Whenever I left my apartment and looked down the hill, there was Puget Sound. Now here in Penicuik, I'm land-locked.
Don't get me wrong. Penicuik is lovely. We're surrounded by rolling hills and fields full of fluffy white sheep. But to me, it feels foreign. And not just because it is a foreign country. I'd have the same feeling in central Illinois, Iowa, or Colorado. I am used to living next to large bodies of water. When I'm not, I feel disoriented. When you have an enourmous lake or bay or sea next to your town, you always know right where you are. When I'm land-locked, it just feels wrong.
I figured this out because yesterday Husband and I had to go to Musselburgh in order to apply for my national insurance number. Musselburgh and the nearby Edinburgh neighborhood of Portobello are both on the south shore of the mouth of the Forth River. It feels like home. The sea reminds me of Lake Superior.
For now, I am pretty much stuck in Penicuik. But maybe after I have a good job we will be able to afford a place in Musselburgh or Portobello. If I lived there, Scotland would feel a lot more like home to me.
Alana
www.girlalive.com
