From Greece to Maine Part 2

We arrived in Rockland about two weeks ago after the flight from Greece to DC and a short stayover in the Capitol. We'd never been to Rockland before so we were anxious to see what the town is like. Given all the uncertainty with travel these days, we don't know how long we'll be here. Is it months? Is it a year or longer? Our overall life plan is to return to Greece when it's safe to do so, but we don't anticipate we'll feel safe traveling anytime soon. So Maine is our landing spot for a while and we picked it because it offers: 1) proximity to our small amount of belongings at Sam's mom Serena's barn, 2) is lovely in the summer, and 3) it's doing reasonably well, as far as the States go, with the virus. But by way of comparison, Greece, which has about 8.5 times the population of Maine, has fewer cases than Maine. And Maine's one of the better States right now in terms of limiting virus spread!

So far Rockland seems like a pleasant place and since there aren't many residents (population just over 7,000) or tourists here, it's easy to stay away from people. We like the apartment we've rented and it's quite walkable to all sorts of recreational opportunities and shops. It's unbelievably quiet at night and we can stargaze right outside our door. Last night we saw a shooting star that was so bright it looked like an errant July 4th firework. We've done three socially distant(!) trips to Serena's place to pick up some of our belongings (Sam's sewing machines, some extra clothes, our bikes, and some kitchen stuff) to make our apartment feel more like a home. And Serena very generously loaned us her second car for the summer after we returned our rental car. We can't be much more set up for an extended stay. Whether we want to experience a Maine winter is the big question!

There's so much great food for us to cook with right now, too. Our landlord brought us some live lobsters (four lobsters for $18!) that we cooked at home during our quarantine, we've got rhubarb growing right outside our place (and our landlord brought us even more), and there's all sorts of local treats to eat. We cooked fiddlehead ferns that we bought from a farm market and the strawberries are great right now, too. We'll be eating lots of fruits of the sea.

Rockland is known as an art and food town, though it's a bit difficult to appreciate both of these things since the art museum is closed and restaurants aren't open or only do takeout for now. It's heartening to see how many Black Lives Matter posters we've seen in homes and shop windows here. Maine is about as pasty white as a State can get so it's great to see this movement embraced. But clearly we're not in a liberal bubble like we were in DC. That'll take some getting used to, but people overall seem more friendly than we expected even during these socially constrained times. Our stay is off to a good start and although it's not where we want to be, we're lucky to be able to have a comfortable landing spot in the States. (More Maine photos are here.)