brilliant

South Orange is an old village.
The Town Hall is titled "South Orange Village Hall", written on an old entrance of an old cute movie-setting-like building.

When driving, one can feel the oldness of the town: roads are going different curving directions. That means I got lost many times. It could be as horrible as driving in downtown Boston.

It was raining when I arrived. The supervisor of my near-near-future apartment suggested me to walk around in "the village", naming downtown, which is the area including the town hall and the train station.
I walked in. I was suddenly placed into a romantic aura. The buildings were in earth tone. No neon commercialized billboards. Trees here and there. People looked friendly and casual.

My stomach asked for food. My eyes found a movie theater, first.
Turning to the other side of the train station, I found a bakery right beside Starbucks.
Great! I know where to get my coffee and good pastry. This bakery looks like sincerely producing good pastry.


I walked in. Music was playing in the background.
"My life is brilliant." James Blunt's voice filled the space. It is the first song "You're Beautiful" in his album.
I looked into the display. They had various sweets. The non-sweet pastry was on paper boards, which required my imagination to convince me which one I wanted. I picked tomato mushroom mozzarella quiche.
This choice took me about 5 minutes, during which James Blunt started singing his next song in the album. This indicated that it was not radio playing in the background. It was Blunt's album.

Oh no. I shook my head in my head. I told myself:
Calm down. You gotta to be out of this store before "Goodbye My Lover."

I was not calm. Even the thinking of avoiding "Goodbye My Lover" when waiting for the cashier, my eyes were wet.
But I had told the cashier that I was eating here, meaning I had to eat fast.

At the time I sat myself down, music stopped.
Voice of chatting, ordering, and... wait a moment... the rain stopped too, I looked out the window.
It was like someone sensed my anxiety and poured silence and calmness into the space.

I enjoyed my lunch.


I am gonna miss State College, the little town in Happy Valley.
I am gonna like South Orange, the cozy town in a timeless village.

Even though most of my State College friends are moving away (Marc, Zabeth, Rose, Yang, Bryan, Andrei, Florian, Cheng, Mohamed, etc.) and State College will not be the same in two months, the memory of it remains dear to me. I will miss my time being a graduate student, learning yoga, salsa, and tango, partying with Europeans and anthropologists, and transforming from a strong old soul to a childlike young spirit -- everything is possible.
I am excited to say goodbye.
Tears will tell a mixed feeling.

Today I discovered what I can do in South Orange:
There was a Cold Stone! There was a Japanese restaurant! There was a brewery (oh, I'll miss Marc & Zabeth a lot). There was a salon. There was an outdoor pool and picnicking park.
The train could take me into Manhattan in 30 minutes.

"My life is brilliant. " Blunt's voice singing in my head.