I’m starting to appreciate the cold, even if it means that I have to literally drag myself out of my warm bed in the morning, because the arrival of cold signifies the arrival of fall. (Witnessing the changing colors of leaves is one of those small things that might not mean much in retrospect, but that mean that much more in the present; the reds and oranges are beautiful and inspiring and renewing.) 

 

I enjoy drinking tea now. My friends and I have what I like to think of as "tea nights”: usually about once a week, when we are all feeling overwhelmed with work and maybe more than a little homesick, we end up in someone’s room. We talk, and drink tea. The warmth and the sense of family, even though I just met them a little while ago, makes it all a little better. 

 

(The warmth of the tea is not the same as the warmth of the cookies that Mom used to heat up for me on Saturday mornings, though. They represent different things, but I’m starting to realize that it’s fine to be happy with one of each at a time.)

 

I miss speaking Portuguese. I miss arguing with my brother about the most trivial and stupid things, and I miss watching movies with my parents on weekends. 

 

On the other hand, I now have things that I had missed before, without actively knowing that I even needed them in the first place.