Since being back home in Frýdlant, where I spent 10 years of my life (age 11-21), I have felt like taking photos of everything. All of a sudden my hometown has become this fascinating visual experience that it never was when I lived here. It was just the place where I trudged up the hill every day after school and where I would ride my bike to get ice cream in town or go goof off by the river.
I did appreciate some aspects of it when I lived here--I was not immune to the beauty of our small, valley town, but I didn't find the same joy in the sight of strange socialist architecture or crumbling cement sidewalks. Our town has been working very hard to update its look and restore buildings which scream "Communism Was Here...Yesterday!" Apartment blocks are painted with cheery colours and we got a new bridge last year.
I think my newfound interest Frýdlant as a visual experience is a sign of the fact that I am drawing further and further away from its being my home. It is hard to admit, because my roots here feel very deep, but I feel like my home is more and more with Sheldon and less with Frýdlant.
Here are some photos I took on my run this evening. Be nice. I took them on my phone.
Love,
LR
Bonus: Here is a long lost photo of me as a twelve-year-old. This is the second year of our living in the Czech Republic. I got the fab skirt at the UK TK Maxx and my raincoat in England on holiday. Paul Hugh is about nine in this photo. He is wearing the sweatshirt our older brother brought back form his class trip to Washington DC the year before we moved from Illinois.
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